f
GIFT OF
JANE Ko^ATHER
A HISTORY OF
THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE
i
3 J >^ » » » »
i J J\ » » » »
J J > %» » »»
a •••_• •>,
*!'*■'»•••• •
V \
•^■^^M^-'-\ ^-^^
, • • • ••
• • • •,•
• ••••• •
C^'
ur '^^
SHORT HISTORY
OF THE
EGYPTIAN PEOPLE
WITH CHAPTERS ON THEIR RELIGION
DAILY LIFE, Etc.
BY
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., Litt.D.
Sometime Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Tyrwhitt
Hebrew Scholar ; Keeper of the Department of Egyptian
and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum
"mi
1914
LONDON
J. M. DENT e? SONS LIMITED
Aldine House, Bedford Street, W.C.
New York : E. P. DUTTON Sf CO.
T)T?3
&^5
PREFACE
This little book, like its fellow on Egyptian Literature, has
been written by request, and with the view of providing
beginners with a handy introduction to the study of Egyptian
History. The first six chapters in it are devoted to a de-
scription of the country of Egypt and the Nile, and the
ancient Egyptians, and the principal facts of their history,
which covers a period of more than four thousand years.
The next three chapters describe briefly the main outlines
of the Religion and Daily Life of this wonderful people,
and of their worship of the dead. Without some idea of
the Religion of the Egyptians, and of the very large part
which the worship of the dead occupied in their daily life, it
is impossible to understand their History. Our knowledge
of it is derived almost entirely from the tombs, temples, and
other funerary monuments which the Egyptians built in
connection with the worship of their gods and their deified
dead. The Eg5rptians never wrote history in the modern
sense of the word. The reason why so few dates are given
in the earlier part of the book will be apparent when the
remarks on Egyptian chronology in Chapter X. have been
read. The limit laid down for this book precluded all
possibility of adding references or long footnotes and ex-
planations, but the curious or vmsatisfied reader can verify
the facts given herein by consulting the authorities whose
books are enumerated in the List of Egyptological Works
given on pp. 246-49.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
British Museum,
May 9, 1914.
330310
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
Preface v
I. The Country of Egypt and the Nile . . . i
II. The Ancient Egyptians 9
Old Stone Age. New Stone Age ... 9
III. The Beginnings of Egyptian History . . 20
Dynastic History 26
The Archaic Period 30
First Dynasty 31
Second and Third Dynasties .... 34
IV. The Ancient Empire :
The Fourth Dynasty 38
The Fifth Dynasty 43
The Sixth Dynasty 46
The Seventh and Eighth Dynasties ... 49
The Ninth and Tenth Dynasties . . .50
The Eleventh Dynasty 50
V. The Middle Empire :
The Twelfth Dynasty 53
The Thirteenth Dynasty 63
The Fourteenth Dynasty 65
The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties — the
Hyksos 66
The Seventeenth Dynasty 71
The Eighteenth Dynasty 72
The Nineteenth Dynasty 98
vii
viii A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
CHAP. PAGE
VI. The New Empire :
The Twentieth Dynasty ii6
The Twenty-first Dynasty. Kmgs of Thebes and
Tanis 123
The Twenty-second Dynasty . . . .127
The Twenty-third Dynasty. Piankhi's invasion
of Egypt 130
The Twenty-fourth Dynasty . . . .132
Twenty-fifth Djmasty — The Nubian kings of
Egypt 133
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty . . . .139
The Twenty-seventh Dynasty — Persians . .144
The Twenty-eighth Dynasty . . . .149
The Twenty-ninth Dynasty . . . .149
The Thirtieth Dynasty 149
The Macedonians and Ptolemies . . .150
The Romans in Egypt . . . . .158
The Arabs in Egypt . . . . . . i6o
The Turks in Egypt 160
VII. Egyptian Magic and Religion . . . .161
Gods of Egypt 165
Osiris and Isis 171
The Judgment 175
VIII. The Daily Life of the Egyptians . . . 192
The King 193
The Palace 196
The Aristocracy .197
The Army and Navy 198
The Priesthoods 199
The Temples ....... 200
The Home and Wife and Family . . . 203
Marriage ........ 204
Education, Schools, Colleges . . . .208
Dress . . . . . . . . . 209
Food ......... 212
Amusements 213
The House 214
Furniture 215
Writing 2i6
r
CONTENTS ix
CHAP. PAGE
IX. Embalming. Tombs. Funerary Ceremonies.
The Worship of the Dead . . . .221
X. Egyptian Chronology 242
I
List of Egyptological Works 246
List of the Principal Kings of Egypt . . . .250
Index 257
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fowling Scene ...... Frontispiece
PAGE
Map of Egypt To face 2
Palette of Narmer, a King of the First Dynasty . 28
Plaque of King Semti 32
Section of the Great Pyramid 39
Visit of a Company of Aamu to Egypt . . -57
Thothmes III, King of Egypt . . . To face 80
AmEN-HETEP IV. DISTRIBUTING GiFTS .... 92
Rameses II., King of Egypt . . . Tojace loo
Defeat of the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh . 103
The Camp of Rameses II at Kadesh .... 104
Rameses II in his Chariot attacking the Hittites . 105
Rameses II receiving Tribute from the Sudan To face 109
Netek-Amen, King of Merge, and Queen Amentarit . 145
RosETTA Stone To face 216
X)
1^^
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE
EGYPTIAN PEOPLE
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT AND THE NILE
In primitive times there was situated on the west bank of
the Nile, at a spot which is about twenty miles from the site
now occupied by Cairo, the capital of modem Egypt, a town
of considerable size, later known as " Memphis," in which
the god Ptah was worshipped, together with other gods.
The temple of Ptah occupied a prominent position in the
town, and was dedicated to the " Ka " (i.e. the ** double "
or the " vital strength," as some now render the word) of the
god Ptah ; this temple was called " Hekaptah " or " House
of the Ka of Ptah." As the power of the god was believed
to be greater than that of all the other gods in the town, the
fame of his temple increased, and little by little the name of
the temple began to include not only the temple estates of
the god, but also the entire district in their immediate neigh-
bourhood. As this town was to all intents and purposes the
frontier town on the north of the southern division of the
country, its geographical position gave it great importance,
and when the foreign traders who did business in the land
wanted to refer to the upper country they spoke of Hekaptah,
meaning thereby not only the capital, but the country that
lay to the south of it. This is easily understood if we remem-
ber that the town stood at the northern end of the Valley of
tJie Nile, not far from the place where the fiat open land of
- . A
2 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
the northern division of the country begins. By degrees the
use of the name Hekaptah for the whole country spread
far and wide, and the Greeks transformed the name into
" Aiguptos," and the Latins into "iEgyptus"; from these
classical forms our own form " Egypt " is derived. The
commonest name for the whole land of Egypt among the
ancient Egyptians themselves was " Kam," a word that
means ** black, dark- coloured," in allusion to the dark colour
of its muddy soil ; Egypt was, in fact, the " dark-clodded
country." This name was known to the Hebrews under the
form of " Kham," or " Ham," as it appears in the Bible, where
we read of " the tabernacles of Ham " (Psalm Ixxviii. 51) and
the "land of Ham" (Psalm cv. 23, 27; cvi. 22), and the
Egyptians were the sons of Ham, or the children of Ham.
The northern division of Egypt, or what is known to-day as
the *' Delta," appears to have been called *' Mizraim " by
the Hebrews, but what this name means has not yet been
satisfactorily explained.
The hieroglyphic inscriptions prove that, from the earliest
times, the Egyptians themselves always called their country
as a whole the " Two Lands," meaning the Land of the
' South and the Land of the North. The Land of the South
) included the portion of the Valley of the Nile that lay between
S the First Cataract and Memphis, or Gebel Silsilah and Mem-
/ phis, and the Land of the North was formed by the whole
) of the Delta. About 4400 B.C. the Two Lands were *' united "
/ by a king called Mena, the Menes of the Greeks, and in this
^ book the name " Egypt " always includes the two great
divisions of the country, the southern and the northern.
The extent of Egypt has varied considerably at different
periods. Under the sixth dynasty Egypt consisted of the
Delta and a portion of the Valley of the Nile as far south as
Abu, or the Island of Elephantine. Under the twelfth
dynasty Egypt included a fiuther portion of the Valley of
the Nile about 250 miles long, and Usertsen III fixed the
southern frontier of his country at a rock barrier in the Nile,
which is marked by two blocks of ancient Egyptian buildings
now known by the names of Semnab and Kummah. Strictly
Map of Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan.
EGYPT AND THE NILE 3
speaking, this portion of the Nile Valley forms a part of Nor-
thern Nubia, and the Egyptians called the most northern
part of this '' Kash " (the Cush of the Bible). Under the
eighteenth dynasty a further portion of Nubia was annexed
by Egypt, and Amenhetep III fixed the southern frontier
of his kingdom at Karai, or Napata, about 350 miles to the
soutlT of the frontier fixed by Usertsen III. Under the
twenty-sixth dynasty the southern frontier of Egypt was
withdrawn to the Island of Elephantine, where it remained
until the time of the Roman occupation of Egypt. For a
few centuries after the downfall of the Roman Power in
Egypt the position of the frontier varied considerably, but
under the vigorous rule of the Arabs, the southern frontier
was fixed at Old Dongola (a.d. 1275), which lies about 100
miles downstream of Napata. For about ten years (1873-
1884) the southern frontier town of Egypt was Gondokoro,
about 2830 miles (by river) from Cairo. The limits of Egypt
at the present time may be thus stated. On the north the
boundary is marked by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the
south by the twenty-second parallel of N. latitude, which
crosses the Nile at Gebel Sahabah, about 8 miles north of
the camp at Wadi Halfah, 960 miles from the Mediterranean
Sea. On the east the boundary is marked by a line drawn
from Ar-Rafah, on the coast of the Mediterranean, to the little
town of Tabah at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, and by the
eastern coast of the Peninsula of Sinai, and by the Red Sea.
The western boundary is marked by a line drawn from the
Gulf of Solum due south to a point a little to the south-west
of the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon (Siwah), and then proceeding
in a south-easterly direction to the twenty- second parallel
of N. latitude near Wadi Halfah. The area of Egypt is esti-
mated to be between 400,000 and 430,000 square miles.
The land of Egypt has been made by the mighty river
which flows through it from south to north, the river Nile,
and the old statement to the effect that " all Egypt is the
gift of the Nile *' is literally correct. In prehistoric times
the Delta did not exist, and an arm of the sea extended
through that portion of the north-east shoulder of Africa
4 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
in which Egypt now lies as far as Esna, or Asna, that is to
say, to a place in the Valley of the Nile that is nearly 600 miles
from the Mediterranean Sea. In those times were deposited
the thick layers of sand and gravel upon which the soil of
Egypt now rests ; these layers are upon a bed of sandstone,
which in turn lies upon igneous rocks.
We have now briefly to consider how it came to pass that
the Nile made Egypt. The true source of the Nile is Vic-
toria N'yanza, or Lake Victoria, the greatest Lake in Central
Africa, which is 250 miles long and 200 broad ; it was dis-
covered by Speke on August 3, 1858. This is the first reser-
voir of the Nile. The second and third reservoirs are Albert
N'yanza and Albert Edward N'yanza ; the former was dis-
covered by Sir Samuel Baker in 1864, and the latter by Sir
H. M. Stanley in 1875. The portion of the Nile between
the Ripon Falls on Victoria N'yanza and Albert N'yanza is
242 miles long, and is called the " Victoria Nile," or the
" Somerset River." The portion between Albert N'yanza
and Lake No is 580 miles long, and is called the " Bahr al-
Gebel " or *' Upper Nile," At Lake No the Gazelle River
flows into the Upper Nile on its west bank, and its waters
become filled with decaying vegetable matter. The portion
of the Nile between Lake N5 and Khartiim is about 700 miles
long, and is called the '* White Nile." About 60 miles north
of Lake No the Sobat River flows into the White Nile on its
east bank. At Khartum the " Blue Nile," which rises in the
mountains of Abyssinia and is 960 miles long, flows into the
White Nile ; the river between Khartum and the sea is called
the ** Nile," without any distinguishing epithet. About
200 miles north of Khartiim, the river Atbara flows into the
Nile on its east bank, and from this point to the sea the Nile
has no other tributary. The Atbara is about 800 miles long,
and when in flood is very broad, with a swiftly flowing stream.
Its waters are heavily charged with volcanic dust, and it
provides the greater part of the rich fertilising mud which
the Nile carries in flood. The total length of the Victoria,
Upper, and White Niles is about 1552 miles, and the length
of the Nile between Khartum and the sea 1913 miles ; thus
EGYPT AND THE NILE 5
the total length of the Nile from the Ripon Falls to the sea
is about 3465 miles. Some authorities state that the Nile
is over 4000 miles long, but this result is only obtained by
assuming that the Kagera River is the source of the Nile,
and by adding in the length of this river (375 miles) and the
length of Lake Tanganyika (250 miles) in which it rises.
Now the water that is brought down into Egypt by the
Nile is drawn from the great lakes that have already been
mentioned, and from the Gazelle River, the Sobat, the Blue
Nile, and the Atbara, and these in turn are fed by the heavy
rains that fall in the Sudan between January and November.
Once a year the Nile is in flood, and it overflows its banks,
and this overflowing forms what is generally called the " In-
undation," which is brought about in this way. In a normal
year the heavy rains in the region of the Central African
Lakes begin in April and, draining into the Nile, force down
the green water of the swampy region into Egypt, where,
during the month of June and a part of July the river be-
comes of a greenish colour. A little later the Sobat, or
" Yellow River," is in flood, and it pours a considerable
volume of water of a reddish colour into the White Nile.
Usually the water of the Sobat is whitish and milky in appear-
ance, but owing to the presence of reddish earth in its
waters at flood time its colour changes. Early in June the
Blue Nile begins to rise, and for six weeks or so it pours a
great volume of water heavily charged with vegetable refuse,
animal remains, and fertilising matters, into the Nile at
Khartum. Early in July the Atbara flood begins, and for
about two months the stream is a mighty river, which flows
into the Nile with such violence that it washes out a large
piece of the west bank. It brings into the Nile the whole
drainage of Abyssinia and the swollen streams of its tribu-
taries, and it carries into it more soil than any other of the
tributaries of the Nile. With it come masses of bamboo and
driftwood, and large trees, " and frequently the dead bodies
of elephants and buffaloes are hurled along its muddy waters
in wild confusion." The dark brown colour of its waters has
gained for it the name of the ' ' Black River. ' ' The Nile begins
6 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
to rise in Egypt at the end of June, and continues to rise until
the middle of September, when it remains stationary for
two or three weeks. In October it rises again and reaches
its highest level. From this time it begins to fall, and though
it may rise again temporarily, it continues to sink steadily
until the month of June when it reaches its lowest level.
Between the June of one year and the June of the next
the Nile brings down into Egypt an immense quantity
of mud and fertilising deposits of various kinds which it
spreads all over the land covered by its waters. The Nile
and its tributaries in fact bring down soil from Abyssinia
and from countries that are from 1500 to 2000 miles distant
from Cairo and manure Egypt with it. It is this deposit,
which comes down yearly from these remote countries, that
has formed the soil of Egypt. From calculations made
during the last twenty years it has been reckoned that the
bed of the Nile rises about four inches in a century. The
thickness of the mud deposit over Egypt varies considerably ;
thus at Cairo it is 58 feet, at Gizah, a few miles distant, 66
feet, and at Zakazik it is no feet. The ancient Egyptians
seem to have had no idea that the Nile flood was caused by the
heavy rains that fell in the Sudan and Abyssinia, and there
is no evidence that they understood the great part played
by the Central African Lakes in the watering of their country.
At one time they thought that the sources of the Nile were in
two caverns under two mighty rocks that were situated in
the First Cataract ^ to the north of the Island of Philae, but
at an earlier period they were content to assert that the Nile
was an " incomprehensible mystery,'' and that the Nile-god
could not be described or depicted, or imagined by men and
gods.
The scenery of Egypt is of two kinds. In the Delta the
land IS quite nat, and its surface is raised very little above
^ There are six great Cataracts on the Nile. The First is a little to the
south of Aswan and is 3 miles long. The Second begins a few miles to the
south of Wad! Halfah and is 125 miles long. The Third begins at Karmah
and is 45 miles long. The Fourth begins near Abu Hamad and is 66 miles
long. The Fifth is 32 miles north of Atbara and is about icx) miles long.
The Sixth is at Shablukah and is 56 miles north of Khartum.
EGYPT AND THE NILE 7
the level of the sea. Wherever the waters of the Nile can be
brought by canals the ground is exceedingly fertile, and the
crops are luxuriant and abundant. Palms and trees abound,
and add great picturesqueness to the landscape, and cattle,
sheep, and goats thrive everywhere in the Delta. The Nile
forks at a place about fourteen miles north of Cairo, and its
two great branches, the Rosetta arm and the Damietta arm,
the former flowing on the western side of the Delta and the
latter on the eastern side, carry its waters to the sea. In
classical times the Nile flowed into the sea through seven
mouths, but of these five have been choked. The length
of the Delta from south to north is no miles, and its breadth
from Port Said to Alexandria is 156 miles. In the north of
the Delta, near the sea, the scenery is bare and uninterest-
ing. This is due to the presence of large sand dunes, which
extend from the sea inland to, in some places, a considerable
distance, and several very large shallow lakes, which are
filled with fish, and the shores of which form the homes of
innumerable water-fowl of all kinds. The largest of these
lakes, Manzalah and Biirlus, together cover an area of about
1200 square miles ; some of the smaller lakes, e.g. Mareotis
and Abukir, are being drained and the land used for agricul-
tural purposes. The scenery of Upper E^ro^t is entirely
different from that of tne Jjeita. From Luxor to Cairo the
Nile flows between limestone hills in a comparatively narrow
valley, and the towns and villages are built on the strip of
mud bank that lies on each side of it. In some places the
hills on one side or the other come quite close to the river,
and then the strip of mud bank available for cultivation is
very narrow ; in others they may be a mile, or more, from the
river. About 60 miles from Cairo is the Fayyiim, with its
peculiarly interesting scenery, and its lake called Birket al-
Kurun, which, in spite of the denials of irrigation authorities,
some still consider to be the remains of Lake Moeris. In
middle Egypt, where the strip of mud bank is of considerable
width, trees and vegetation are abundant, and the farms
built among groves of date palms and other trees, with their
luxuriant crops and thriving flocks and herds, and pigeon-
8 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
houses, form delightful features of the landscape. At Luxor
the river lies at a considerable distance from the hills on the
east bank, and cultivation is abundant. At Esna the char-
acter of the scenery changes ; the strips of land available
for cultivation are very narrow, and here begins the layer of
sandstone that extends southward and covers nearly the whole
of Nubia. At Edfu and at Kom Ombos are " plains," which
are said to have been at one time Deltas formed by rivers
that flowed down from the high lands near the Red Sea. At
Aswan the hills on the west bank become bold and promi-
nent, and we approach the First Cataract and its characteristic
scenery. Here the formation of crystalline rocks invades
the Valley of the Nile, and here are the famous granite
quarries whence came most of the granite obelisks, statues,
and buildings made by the Pharaohs. The Cataract is
studded with small granite islands, and mighty granite boul-
ders, black and shining, are seen everywhere ; between these
the Nile flows in innumerable small streams, and every patch
of mud is cultivated by the natives. Great granite rocks,
the remains of a natural barrier in the Valley of the Nile, and
huge boulders are met with again at Kalabshah, 36 miles
south of Aswan. The characteristic scenery on the Nile from
Philae to Abu Simbel has entirely changed since the building
of the Great Dam across the First Cataract. Formerly
there were strips of cultivated land in places on both sides
of the Nile, and many palm trees, but now during the winter
season this portion of the Nile is made into a huge lake.
When we reach Wadi Halfah, which is a little to the south
of the southern boundary of Egypt, the scenery again changes,
and we once more find granite. Vast stretches of sandy
desert appear on both sides of the Nile, and a few miles up-
stream we enter the weird but picturesque reaches of the
Nile at the foot of the Second Cataract.
CHAPTER II
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
The flint tools and weapons that have been found on the
skirts of the desert at various places in Egypt, and that are
generally admitted to be older than those of the Neolithic
Period, i.e. the New Stone Age, render it extremely probable
that the country was inhabited by men in the Palaeolithic
Period, i.e. the Old Stone Age. The questions that naturally
arise in connection with them are : Who were they ? To
what race did they belong ? If they were immigrants, where
did they come from ? In the limited space afforded by a
single chapter it is impossible to enumerate even the most
important of the arguments of which these questions have
formed the subjects, or the principal theories, old and
new, of the origin of the Egyptians. Fortunately Egyptian
archaeology, even in its present imperfect state, suppHes a
number of facts, which will suggest answers to these questions
that are tolerably correct, and as time goes on, and the results
of further research are perfected, our knowledge of these
difficult questions may assume a decisive character. The
human remains that have been found in Neolithic graves in
Egypt prove that the Egyptians of the Neolithic Period in
Upper Egypt were Africans, and there is good reason for
thinking that they were akin to all the other inhabitants of
the Nile Valley at that time. When the great geological
change took place that turned into a river vsdley the arm of
the sea that extended as far as Esna, and the Nile deposits
had formed the soil of Egypt, their ancestors migrated from
the south to the north and occupied the land made by the
Nile. Whether these facts apply equally to the Delta cannot
be said, for no Neolithic graves in the Delta are known.
9
10 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic Period held that the
aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt, and though our
information about the boundaries of this land is of the vaguest
character, it is quite certain that a very large portion of it
was in Central Africa, and it probably was near the country
called in our times " Uganda." There was in all periods
frequent intercourse between Egypt and Punt, and caravans
must have journeyed from one country to the other at least
once a year. In the Dynastic Period several missions by sea
were despatched to the port of Punt to bring back myrrh
and other products of the country, which were so dear to
the heart of the kinsmen of the Puntites who were settled in
Egypt.
Now, if the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Valley
of the Nile were attracted to the good and fertile land of
Egypt, it follows as a matter of course that foreign peoples
who heard of this rich land would migrate thither in order
to partake of its products and to settle in it. The peoples
on the western bank (Libyans), and the dwellers in the Eastern
Desert would intermarry with the native Egyptians, and the
same would be the case with the negro and half-negro tribes in
the Sudan. At a very early period, and certainly in Neolithic
times, a considerable number of Semites must have made
their way into Egypt, and these came from the Arabian Penin-
sula on the other side of the Red Sea, either for trading pur-
poses or to settle in Egypt. Some of these crossed the Red
Sea in its narrowest part, probably near the Straits of Bab al-
Mandib at the southern end of it, and made their way into
the country where the comparatively modern town of Sennaar
now stands, just as their descendants did some three to five
thousand years later. Here they would find themselves not
only in fertile land, but they would also be in touch with the
tribes living in the region where, from time immemorial,
alluvial gold has been found in considerable quantities.
Others of the Semites must have made their way into the^
Delta by the Isthmus of Suez, and there is no doubt that
by intermarriage they modified the physical characteristics
of many of the natives. Others, again, must have entered
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS ii
Egypt by way of the very ancient caravan route through
the Wadi Hammamat, which left the Red Sea near the
modem town of Kuser and ended on the Nile near Kena in
Upper Egypt. It is impossible to think that the Semites in
Arabia had no sea-going boats in which to cross the Red Sea, ^
and that those who lived on the coast half-way down the
Red Sea would be obliged to go so far north as the Isthmus
of Suez, or so far south as Bab al-Mandib before they could
cross over into Africa.
In the case of the natives of the Delta foreign influences
of another kind would be at work. Here would flock traders
of all kinds from the land that is now called Palestine, and
from the Islands of the Mediterranean, and from the sea-
coast and the countries inland to the west of Egypt. Some
think that even in the Neolithic Period there were many
settlers who had come from the southern countries of Europe.
If the above remarks are only approximately true, we are
justified in assuming that the population of the Valley of
the Nile was even at this early period very much mixed.
It must, however, be noted that neither Libyans, nor Semites,
nor sea-faring folk of any kind, altered the fundamental
characteristics of the African dwellers on the Nile.
The Neolithic or Predynastic Eg3^tian was a man of nearly >j
average height, that is, his height was rather under than /
over 5 feet 6 inches. The colour of his skin appears to have C
been of a reddish brown, a fact suggested as much by the )
dark red colour of the figures of Egyptian men in early
dynastic tombs as by the colour of the skins of their remains
found in their tombs. His skull was long and narrow, and
he had a narrow, oval face, a small, broad nose, narrow fore-
head and cheeks, a weak jaw, a pointed chin, a small, pointed
beard, very little hair on his upper lip, and his eyes were
probably brown in colour. He wore his hair tolerably short ;
it was more often black than brown, and it was not " woolly "
like that of the negro. His teeth were of the average size.
He was slightly built and slim of body, and closely resembled
in his general appearance the small-bodied man of certain
parts of the Sudan and Abyssinia at the present day. His
r
12 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
hands and feet were long and thin, and well adapted for the
weaving of flax and reed baskets, and his bones were sur-
prisingly slender. The woman was about the average height,
but rather under than over 5 feet, her figure was slim, her
hips tolerably solid, and her feet of moderate size. The
small, green slate objects of the period in the British Museum
prove that the Neolithic man was circumcised.
Coming now to the latest part of the Neolithic Period, and
the beginning of the Dynastic Period, we find that there
existed in Lower Egypt and the Delta a population that
possessed physical characteristics very different from those
of the Egyptians of Upper Egypt, which have just been
described. These northern folk who offered such stubborn
resistance to the kings of Upper Egypt had features of a
distinctly Semitic type, and there seems to be little reason
for doubting that they came from some part of the Arabian
Peninsula. They must have existed in the Delta in con-
siderable numbers and, for a time at least, formed the ruling
class there. Whether they invaded the Delta in large num-
bers suddenly, or whether they had settled there gradually
cannot be said, but it is tolerably clear that they intermarried
freely with the people who were already established in the
country when they arrived there. Their principal inteifests
were in trade, and they do not seem to have made the civilisa-
^tJoiTDfEgi^^enerallyilgq^^
The men who next formed the ruling class in Lower Egypt
were very different in body and in mind from the Egyptian of
Upper Egypt and the Egyptian of Lower Egypt with Semitic
blood in his veins. In stature they were below the height
of the average Neolithic Egyptian, but their bodies were
solidly built, and were large and broad, and capable of doing
hard work of a continuous character. The shape of their
heads was different, and not only were they broader, squarer,
and flatter, kut_thgyL-C-ontained more brains than those of
their predecessors in Egypt These short, large-limbed, big-_
headed men, with wide faces, good foreheads, black eyes,
short noses, big mouths, and strong jaws w^er^^he men who
bujltjthe PyramMs and aU^^ mighty works in stoiie,
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 13
the remains of which testify to-day to the power of thought
and work of those who conceived them. There is no doubt
whatever about the physical aspect of these men, for they
have left behind them statues of themselves in stone and
wood, which illustrate it effectively. Whether they came
from Asia, as some think, or whether from the countries on
the northern shores of the Mediterranean, according to the
opinion of others, it is quite certain that many of their
physical characteristics were " European." Thei^ civilisa-
tion was of a high order, and they ruledthe^gyptjans whom
they'c^unqueied with p^eafsuccess so lar asTheir own interests
were concerned, and little by little they succeeded in makih£"
themselves masters of all the E^g)tian portion of the Valley
of tHeTfile. But though they~were great and powerful
cCnquerorsT and mighty builders, they never succeeded in
altering the fundamental beHefs and manners and.custonis
of the bulk-oi the native Egyptians, for these continued to
worship their^ African gods, and to bury their dead, and to live
in the^same way as their ancestors had lived for thousands of
years before them.
An attempt may now be made to describe the way in which
the Predynastic Egyptians lived on the banks of the Nile.
The man of the Old Stone Age probably lived on the skirts
of the desert, and passed most of his time in hunting wild
animals ; when he was fortunate enough to kill, he devoured
the meat raw, and drank the blood, and dried the hide,
which he then wore as clothing. The bulk of his fellows
had no clothing, and probably needed none in the daytime ;
at night they retreated to any shelter available, perhaps
behind the screens made of reeds torn up from the edges of
the Nile banks, which were then in process of formation, or
hid themselves in holes and caves in the hills. Their weapons
were rudely shaped flints, which in their hands became useful
objects for defence, and with them they crushed the heads
of their foes, both animal and human. Any " bush " or
cover that existed in the ravines of the deserts, and owed its
life to some water underground, or that grew up temporarily
after rains, was infested with deadly animals and reptiles
14 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of every kind, which must have taken heavy toll of the lives of
men in the Old Stone Age. Whether these men had any belief
in God, or in a future state, is difficult to say, but they pro-
bably possessed some dim idea that a Creator existed. As
for their dead, the greater number of them must have been
thrown out into the desert or " bush," and devoured by wild
animals.
From the graves of the men of the New Stone Age in Egypt
we may deduce much iQfoniiat«rTrTcs-4Qthe manners and cus-
toms^of_those who made them. The man of the early part
of this Age was not far removed from his ancestors of the Old
Stone Age, but before the close of it he had become master
of the land of Egypt, and had advanced many steps on the
road of civilisation. Men of this period lived in villages,
circular in shape, and surrounded by a wall ; each large
village possessed two roads, which ran through it from side
to side and crossed in the middle of it at right angles. Thus
a village had four entrances, and the main entrance was
probably protected from the attacks of foes by objects placed
near it which were supposed to afford magical protection.
The houses or huts were made of mud. Domestic animals
lived in the clearing round the village. In selecting the site
for a village advantage was taken of every bit of rising ground,
so that the houses might be above the level of the annual
flood of the Nile. Little by little the rank undergrowth
and " bush," which grew wherever the waters of the Nile
flowed, were cleared, and a kind of millet and barley was
grown on the land thus reclaimed. The wild animals that
infested the bush were driven farther and farther away,
but even under the new conditions innumerable holes in the
ground harboured scorpions and all kinds of small reptiles,
and the country was full of venomous snakes. The Nile
and its streams, and the large shallow lakes formed annually
as the Nile flood ran off the land, were filled with crocodiles,
and in Lower Egypt these monsters must have existed in
very large numbers. In the swamps, which closely resembled
those on the Upper Nile, lived herds of hippopotami, as well
as the noxious insects that make life a burden in tropical
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 15
climates. The Egyptian of this period hunted wild animals
as did his ancestors, and he must have been far more success-
ful than they, for he had learned to make spear-heads and
arrow-heads of flint, and when fowHng he used the boomer-
ang. The waters were filled with fish, which he speared or
caught with his hands, and he must have learned to make
fish-traps at a very early period. In fishing and fowHng
expeditions he used shallow boats made of reeds tied together
by reed ropes at each end, and in swimming across the Nile
he employed floats made of reeds, similar to those that are
found among the people in Nubia at the present day, and that
are called tof.
In the making of pottery he attained very great skill.
The potter used no wheel, but shaped his pots, and bowls,
and jars, many of them of very large size, with his hands and
feet, as the potter in West and Central Africa does to-day.
At first he used the mud of the Nile, but later on he discovered
that some kinds of earths found in the hills made better
pottery, and used it freely. Many of his shapes are very
graceful. As he gained experience his vessels assumed a
fineness of texture that is quite surprising. Then he began
to decorate his pottery, and he drew on the yellowish drab
kind figures of men, animals, birds, &c. ; the red and black
kind he left undecorated. As a potter he was unrivalled,
and none of the later Egyptians attained his skill in the
fictile art. Long before the Dynastic Period he learned to
plait mats, and to weave flax into linen. With him the mat
was the equivalent of the carpet among modern Eastern
nations, and he used it as a bed, as well as a covering for
parts of the floor of his hut, and the bodies of the dead were
sometimes wrapped in mats. Of the flaxen cloth he made"
clothing for himself and his wife, and he ceased to be depen-
dent on the skins of animals for garments. The predynastic '
women wore necklaces of beads made of hard stone, lime-
stone, and shell, and bracelets made of ivory, stone, and
sometimes of flint. The skill of the predynastic Egyptian
in the working of flints was equal to his skill in making
pottery, and in both arts he has never been equalled. The
i6 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
bone and ivory figures from the graves prove that he had
learned to carve, and the beads show that he possessed
means for driUing holes in hard stone. He had also dis-
covered how to make fire by means of the fire-drill.
Those of the Egyptians of the New Stone Age who were of
sufiicient importance socially to deserve burial were buried
in shallow graves dug on the edge of the desert. The grave
was often irregular in shape, but it was usually oval, and
there was very little space between it and the grave next
to it. Often the body is found lying on the bare ground,
on its left side, with its head usually towards the south.
The knees are bent up on a level with the top of the breast,
and the hands are placed before the face ; placed round about
the body are a number of pottery vessels, often filled with
offerings of food, flint knives and weapons, and other objects
that had been used by the deceased when he was alive.
Some bodies were wrapped in reed mats, and others in skins
of animals. In some graves bodies that seem to have been
partially burnt before burial are found, and in very many
the bones of the skeletons are found scattered about in such
confusion that it has been thought that the bodies were
dismembered before burial. A good deal of support for this
view is obtained from many passages in the Pyramid Texts
and the various Recensions of the Book of the Dead, in which
the deceased prays that his bones may be collected and his
flesh gathered together, and his head rejoined to his body.
But whatever may have been the cause for the scattering
of the bones, such prayers could never have been written
unless it was generally believed that such disturbance of
the limbs of the body took place after death. In some cases
bodies were buried in rough earthenware coffins of various
shapes and sizes. In connection with certain of the burials
in the New Stone Age one fact stands out clearly, namely,
/that the predynastic Egyptian believed in a future life.
njHe laid offerings of food in the graves of his kinsmen and
1/friends because he thought they would need it on their
^ journey from this world to the next, and he supplied them
with flint knives and instruments of various kinds because
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 17
he believed they would be useful to them when hunting or
warring with their foes. Of the gods and goddesses whom
he worshipped his graves tell us nothing, but a flint head
of a cow now in the British Museum proves that the cult of
Hathor was already established, and as we know that the
original home of her worship was in the South, this is not
to be wondered at. Shu and Tefnut, a Southern god and
goddess whose original home was the region of Bukem in
the south-east of the Sudan, were also known to him, and
to these we may add Net, or Neith, and certain other deities.
Models or figures of these gods were probably made of mud
or wood, and kept in shrines made of reeds and mud, and
parts of the figures or all of them may have been painted.
Many of the symbols, which we know from dynastic in-
scriptions represent gods, were well known to the predyn-
astic Egyptians, and were to them the recognised symbols
of divine beings.
The earliest weapons of the predynastic Eg5rptians were
made of flint, and the later ones of stone ; they, like
their descendants, found also the heavy stick, or cudgel
(the modern nahut), a very effective weapon. Battle-axes
were made by tying pieces of stone to the ends of sticks
with strips of leather, but the mace was perhaps the more
formidable weapon. The mace-head was usually made of
variegated breccia (or " plum-pudding stone ") or marble,
which was perforated and was thus fitted on to the top of
the handle. The mace-heads of Egypt are similar in shape
to those of Babylonia, a fact easily proved by comparing
the mace-head bearing in Babylonian characters the name
of Sargon I of Agade, with the mace-head from a predynastic
tomb, both in the British Museum (No. 91 146 and No. 32089)
This fact indicates either that there was communication
between Babylonia and Egypt at this period, and that the
people of one country borrowed the mace-head from the
other, or that Babylonians and Egyptians borrowed it from
a source available to both.
In a few graves of this period small copper instruments
have been found, and it is a reasonable question to ask
B
i8 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
where they came from. There is no copper in Egypt, and
so far as we know there never was any, but there is copper
in the Sudan, and in modern times the mines have been
more or less worked. The copper mines nearest to the
predynastic Egyptians were situated in the Peninsula of
Sinai, and though they were worked by the Egyptians them-
selves in the earliest dynasties, there is no evidence that the
predynastic Egyptians worked them. If the material of
the copper instruments from the tombs came from Sinai it
is clear that they were worked by the Semitic natives of
the country, and that Semitic traders brought the metal
to Egypt. If the copper came from some other country it
must have been brought to Egypt by the merchants of
that country who traded with Egypt. In either case the
presence of copper in Egypt in the Predynastic Period proves
that the Egyptians had trade relations with some foreign
country, that country being, presumably, Arabia.
In the later part of the Neolithic Period the Egyptians
used for sealing purposes little rollers made of wood or
stone, on which rude pictorial characters, probably repre-
senting the names of their owners, were cut, in fact, they
were acquainted with the cylinder seal. Now the cylinder
seal is one of the most characteristic products of Babylonian,
or perhaps, Sumerian, civilisation, and it is difficult not to
think that the Egyptians borrowed it, as they probably did
the mace-head, from the Babylonians, especially as the general
trend of the evidence supports this view. The cylinder seal was
much used in Egypt under the Ancient and Middle Empires,
and there is an example in the British Museum bearing the
name of Amenhetep I, a fact that shows it was used under
the eighteenth dynasty ; but after this period it fell into dis-
use. On the other hand, it was in general use in Babylonia,
Assyria, and Persia, down to the fifth century before Christ.
The rudely cut pictorial characters on the cylinder seals
found in the graves of the Neolithic Egyptians raise the
question whether at that time the people of Egypt were
acquainted with the art of writing, and if so whether the art
was of native growth, or borrowed from some foreign nation.
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 19
That the Egyptians could at that time draw figures of animals,
men, birds, &c., is proved by their decorated pottery, but
there is no evidence that they were able to arrange them
in a group in such a way that we can rightly describe it as
an inscription. Had they been able to form sentences with
their pictorial characters we should certainly have found
them cut in wood or stone in their graves. One thing quite
clear is that all the picture characters of this period were
copied from purely Egyptian objects, animate and in-
animate ; in later times they may have been helped in
developing their writing for royal and other business by
borrowing ideas from the system of writing that was in
use among the Sumerians and Babylonians, with whom,
for trading purposes at least, they were in communication.
They borrowed the pronouns from some Semitic people at a
very early date, and it is impossible not to think that they
adopted a great many ideas from the peoples possessing a
higher class of civilisation than their own, with whom they
had intercourse. Their debt to such peoples, Semites and
others, was undoubtedly very great.
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY
How long the general condition of things which has been
outlined in the last chapter continued in Egypt cannot be
stated, but in Upper Egypt at least civilisation progressed
slowly. Towards the end of the New Stone Age the Egyp-
tians acquired the knowledge of working in copper, and
with tools of this metal they found themselves able to do
many things that were before impossible to them. With
copper drills they perforated beads and hollowed out stone
jars and vessels, and with copper knives and chisels they
sculptured stone figures of men, animals, &c., with a skill that
is truly wonderful. They had long known how to produce
fire, and one of its principal uses among them was to smelt
copper. In many respects the state of Egypt at the close
of this period was not greatly unlike that in which we
know it to have been in the earliest part of the Dynastic
Period. It was divided roughly into districts, or as we
might say, counties, which at a later period were called
" nomes " by the Greeks. Each district had its own symbol,
which was generally that of its totem, and probably its own
god, or gods, who must have been served by some kind of
priest. The laws which men draw up for the protecting of
their wives, cattle, and possessions generally, as soon as
they settle down in towns and villages, were, no doubt, admin-
istered in the rough and ready way that has been common
among African communities from time immemorial. A
system of irrigation must have been in use at this time, but
it is improbable that there was any central controlling
authority. The men of each district protected the part of
the bank of the Nile that belonged to them, and made and
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 21
maintained their own canals, and the high, banked causeways,
which connected the towns and villages during the period
of the Nile flood, and served as roads. There must have
been a head man or governor in each district who possessed
a good deal of power, and each town was probably ruled by a
kind of mayor with due regard to the interests of the owners
of large properties of different kinds. In the villages the
largest landowners were probably supreme, but the " old
men " or " fathers " of each village must have enjoyed a
certain authority.
For a considerable time before the Dynastic Period there
must have been kings in Egypt, some ruling over Upper
Egypt, and some over Lower Egypt and the Delta. A
portion of a monument, now called the '* Palermo Stone "
because it is preserved in the Museum of Palermo in Sicily,
supplies the names of several kings of Lower Egypt, e.g.
Seka, Tau, Thesh, Neheb, Uatchnar and Mekha. It is quite
certain that the names of several kings of Upper Egypt were
given on the missing portion of the monument, and this fact
proves that at that time Southern and Northern Egypt
formed two separate and independent kingdoms. When
complete the Palermo stone contained a series of Annals,
which recorded the principal events in the reigns of the pre-
dynastic kings, and also of the dynastic kings down to the
middle of the fifth dynasty. There were also included the
names of the principal festivals that were celebrated in these
reigns, and also the height of the Nile flood yearly, given in
cubits, palms, fingers, and spans. How these heights were
ascertained is not clear, but it was probably by means of
lines cut into a rock on the river bank, or on a slab built into
a wall of a well at Memphis. The height of the Nile flood
then, as now, was valuable for determining the prosperity
of the country that was probable during the year.
We have already said that the native African element in
Upper Egypt was reinforced continually from the south,
and we may assume that the process of reinforcement usually
went on peacefully, and that the Egyptians in Upper Egypt
assimilated their newly-arrived kinsmen from the south
22 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
without difficulty. This, however, was fated not to go on
indefinitely, for on one occasion at least, probably a century
or two before the Dynastic Period began, a host of men from
the south or south-east swept down upon Egypt. This in-
vasion in many respects seems to have been similar to that
which took place under Piankhi, the king of Nubia, whose
capital was at Napt, or Napata, about 720 B.C. ; but whilst
Piankhi returned to Nubia, the southern folk and their leaders
who invaded Egypt towards the close of the Predynastic
Period did not do so. If we take into account the effect
of this predynastic invasion upon the civilisation of Egypt
we must assume that the invaders were more highly civilised
than the people they conquered. And if we assume this we
must further assume that the invaders came from the country
now called Abyssinia and the lands to the south of it. Their
route was the old trade route known to-day as the " Blue
Nile caravan route," which has been chosen from time im-
memorial by the captains of caravans because it makes it
unnecessary to traverse the first four Cataracts. Among
the invaders who came by this route were natives of the
Eastern Desert, the remote ancestors of the Blemmyes and
the modem Hadenduwa and cognate tribes, and Semites,
who had originally crossed the Red Sea from Asia to Africa.
We have no distinct record of this invasion, still less have we
any details of it, and we have no knowledge of the causes
that led up to it, but in an inscription of the Ptolemaic Period
cut on the walls of the temple of Edfu in Upper Egypt,
we certainly have a legendary account of it. In this inscrip-
tion the victorious leader is accompanied by men who are
called " Mesniu," or " Blacksmiths," who were armed with
spears having heads of copper, and who carried chains with
them to fetter their foes. Now there is copper in many parts
of the Sudan to the west of the Nile, and this fact seems to
suggest that the "Blacksmiths" came from the west of the
Nile, i.e. from a country to the south of Egypt, and not from
a country to the south-east. This view agrees quite well
with what is known of the history of the Dynastic Period,
for the Pharaohs often had to fight hordes of enemies from
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 23
countries so far south as the White Nile and the Gazelle and
Jur Rivers, and their descendants were probably to be found in
the Nobadae who terrified the Romans, and the " Baggarah "
who fought under the Mahdi in our own times. There may
have been a conquest of Egypt by the peoples to the west of
Egypt at one time, and another by the people on the east at
another time, or the enemies of Egypt on both banks of the
White and Blue Niles may have invaded the country together.
In any case the purport of the inscription, the contents of
which we will now describe, is to show that the king of the
South and his descendants first conquered Upper Egypt
and then Lower Egypt.
The Edfu text sets forth that Ra-Harmakhis was king
of Ta-sti, the *' Land of the Bow," i.e. the country of all
the peoples who fought with bows and arrows, or the
Eastern Sudan. In the 363rd year of his reign he despatched
a force into Egypt, and overcoming all opposition, this
god established himself and his followers at Edfii. Having
discovered that the enemy had collected in force to the
south-east of Thebes, * Horns and his followers, or the
Blacksmiths, armed with spears and chains, set out and
joined battle with them, and utterly defeated them at
a place called Tchetmet. For the first time probably the
natives armed with weapons made of flint found themselves
in mortal combat with foreign enemies armed with metal
weapons ; their defeat was unavoidable. Soon after this
battle the natives again collected in force to the north-east
of Denderah, about 50 miles north of Thebes, and they were
attacked and again defeated by Horns. Another battle took
place a little later on at Heben, about 150 miles south of
Memphis, and Horns cut up many of his defeated foes and
offered them to the gods. Horns then pursued the enemy
into the Delta, and wherever he did battle with them he de-
feated them. In one place the Arch-rebel Set appeared with
his followers and fought against Horus and his " Black-
smiths," but Horus drove his spear into his neck, and fettered
his limbs with his chain, and then cut off his head, and the
^ Edfu is 60 miles south of Thebes.
24 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
heads of all his followers. Horus then sailed over the streams
in the Delta, and slew the enemy in detail, and made himself
master of the whole of the Delta, from the swamps on the
west of the left main arm of the Nile to the desert in the east.
The text goes on to say that companies of the " Blacksmiths "
settled down on lands given to them by Horus on the right
and left banks of the Nile and in what is now called " Middle
Egypt " ; thus the followers of Horus from the south effec-
tively occupied the country. Horus returned to Edfu and
made an expedition against the people of Uauat (now North-
ern Nubia), and punished their rebellion. He then sailed
back to Edfii and established the worship of Horus of Edfu,
and ordered a symbol of this god to be placed in every temple
of Egypt. Now the symbol referred to is the winged solar
disk, with a serpent on each side of it, and the statement
suggests that Horus established the worship of a form of the
Sun-god in Egypt. If this be really so, Horus and his fol-
lowers must have come from the East, where sun-worship
was common, and must have found that the Egyptians were
not sun-worshippers. The Egyptians, like most of the
peoples in the Nile Valley, ancient and modern, only wor-
shipped the sun under compulsion. On the other hand, the
worship of the moon was universal, and the native gods of
the Egyptians were of a kind quite different from those
worshipped in the Eastern Desert and among the peoples
of Arabia, Syria, and the Northern Delta.
The inscription of Edfu makes it quite clear that in the
Ptolemaic Period the Egyptians believed that the victorious
southerners settled themselves at Edfii, and that this town
was to all intents and purposes their capital. How long it
remained so cannot be said, but it cannot have been for long.
As soon as King Horus had consolidated his power at Edfu,
he laid his hands on the very ancient town of Nekheb, about
12 miles to the north, on the east bank of the Nile, and on
Nekhen, a town on the west bank almost opposite to Nekheb.
At Nekheb a very ancient native Egyptian goddess called
Nekhebet was worshipped under the form of a vulture, and
from first to last in Egyptian history every king of Egypt
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 25
claimed that his rule was sanctioned by this goddess. In
settling the country Horns found the support of the priest-
hood of Nekheb and Nekhen all-important. Another ancient
town of importance at this period was that known to-day by
the name of Gebelen, which lies on the west bank about
16 miles south of Thebes. A natural barrier across the Nile
seems to have existed here in very early times, but the river
broke through it, forming a small Cataract. From Gebelen
the kingdom of Horus in Egypt, which had presumably by
this time passed into the hands of his successors, extended
northwards, and just before the beginning of the Dynastic
Period it included Abydos and all the country round about.
We have already alluded to the comparatively advanced
state of the civilisation of the people of Upper Egypt at this
period, and if proof be required we may point to the two
green slate objects in the British Museum, ^ to which the name
of " palettes " has been given. In the centre of the more
complete example is a circular hollow, in which some thick
paint was rubbed down with stone mullers for application
to the face of the figure of a god before the performance of
certain ceremonies. This view is based upon the fact that
palettes of somewhat similar shape were found at Abydos,
together with fragments of antimony and the pebbles that
were used in ancient days for powdering it. The scene
represented on this example is a hunt, and we see hares,
ostriches, jackals, antelopes, and lions being pursued by
huntsmen who are armed with double-headed stone axes,
maces, boomerangs, bows and arrows, the latter tipped
with flints spatular in shape, and spears, or javeHns. The
hunters wear feathers in their hair, and from the waist-belt of
their short tunics hang the bushy tails of jackals or wolves ;
each wears the short characteristic African beard. There
are two rows of huntsmen, and the leader of each holds a
staff with the figure of a hawk on the top of it. The second
green slate object is only a fragment, and on it, sculptured
in relief, are figures of a prisoner of war being cast into the
desert to be devoured by lions and vultures. His hands are
^ See the Table Case L in the Third Egyptian Room.
26 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
tied behind his back, and a weight is suspended from his
neck. Figures of other prisoners being devoured are lying
about. On the reverse is a part of a scene in which two
giraffes are eating the leaves of a palm tree. The work on
these objects is so good that they must represent long experi-
ence and great skill only acquired by practice on the part
of the workman who made them.
The successors of Horns continued to press more and more
northwards, and to occupy the more northern parts of the
Nile Valley, and the time soon arrived when they began to
fight with the robust dwellers in the Delta. These consisted
of men from Arabia and Syria with Semitic blood in their
veins, and Libyans from the Western Desert and North
Africa, and a considerable leavening of dwellers on the sea-
coast. How long the struggle for the possession of Lower
Egypt lasted is not known, but it is certain that the Northern
confederates were not easily conquered. They were strong
men, and better armed than the Southern folk whom Horus
had overthrown, and their civilisation stood at a higher level
than that of the successors of Horus. . They probably ex-
ported wheat, or exchanged it for the products of Syria and
the Islands of the Mediterranean, and they worshipped a
number of gods whose shrines even in those times were
ancient. In the double city of Pe-Tep (later Buto) a Serpent
goddess was adored, at Saut (later Sais) the cult of Net, or
Neth (Neith), a goddess of war and the chase, flourished,
and at Tet-t (later Busiris) there was worshipped a Nature-
god, whose symbol afterwards became a prominent feature
in the religion of Osiris. The districts or counties of the
Delta were not so well defined as those of Upper Egypt,
because of the frequent changes in the position of their
boundaries that were caused by the Nile-flood annually.
DYNASTIC HISTORY— ARCHAIC PERIOD
As the result, however, of one of the battles between the
forces of the South and North, which was fought probably
near Anu (later, Heliopolis), the King of the South gained
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 27
the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself " King
of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty '' Uniter
of the Two Lands " really was is not known, but the native
tradition, which was current at Abydos, and presumably
throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ,
stated that he was called Mena ; this tradition was also
accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all
agree in saying that the first King of Egypt was called Menes.
Now the monuments that have been found in the tombs of
the earliest dynastic kings of Egypt do not help us much in
this difficulty, for on none of them do we find the name Mena
as it is given in the famous King- List drawn up for Seti I,
and cut upon a wall in a temple built by him at Abydos, or in
the King- List of the Turin Papyrus. But on a small wooden
tablet found at Nakadah, a few miles north of Thebes, we
have the name of Aha, cut within the rectangular panel
called serekh,^ and surmounted by a hawk, and by the side of
this, written in an irregular oval, and under a hawk and a
serpent that form one of the king's titles, is a sign that has
been read men. Some authorities believe that this sign men
is the equivalent of the name Mena, and that it is the per-
sonal, as opposed to the official, name of Aha. Others,
however, basing their opinion on a reading found on a frag-
ment of the Stele of Palermo, think that the personal name
of Aha was Ateta, and, if this opinion be correct. Aha was
certainly not Mena, or Menes. If the hawk and the serpent
mentioned above really form a title of Aha, he must have had
great authority in Lower Egypt, for the title is royal. Of
Aha but little is known, and the few inscribed remains of
his reign are very difficult to understand. His tomb was
found at Nakadah, and a small funerary monument was built
for him at Abydos.
About the time of Aha, whether before or after is not
absolutely certain, reigned the king called Narmer ; he
must undoubtedly be placed among the kings of the first
dynasty, for his monimients prove that he was a " King of
^ The word means literally " to make to know " ; the serekh served the
purpose of the heraldic badge or cognizance among Western nations.
28
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
the South and King of the North." On one side of a large
green slate " palette " which was found among the ruins of
Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) in Upper Egypt, he is seen wearing
the crown of the South, accompanied by his sandal-bearer.
His right arm is upraised, and in his hand he grasps a mace
with which he is about to brain a prisoner who is kneeUng
Green slate " Palette" of Narmer, a King of the First Dynasty.
before him. In front of him is a representation of a hawk
holding in his left claw a cord or hook,i one end of which is
fastened to the nose of a barbarian prisoner ; behind are six
symbols, which are supposed to give the number 6000. This
scene has been thought to indicate that the Hawk, i.e. the
King, has captured 6000 prisoners. Below the feet of the
1 Compare Isaiah xxxvii. 29, "I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle
in thy lips."
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 29
king are two prostrate foes. On the other side of this object
are also heads of the Cow-goddess Hathor and the name of
Narmer. Below these is a figure of the king wearing the
crown of Lower Egypt, followed by his sandal-bearer, and
preceded by a victim who is to be sacrificed. Next come four
men holding each a standard, on which are carried the king's
after-birth, a figure of a jackal, and two hawk figures, and
beyond these are the decapitated bodies of ten enemies laid
out in two rows, with their heads between their feet. Below
these stand two lions, with greatly elongated and intertwined
necks, being lassoed by two attendants. The necks of the
lions form a circular hollow in which it is supposed that
antimony was ground. In the lowermost space is a bull,
symbolising the king, which has broken into a fortified village,
and having thrown down a foe is about to gore him. The
principal scene here is of very great interest, for it repre-
sents certain ceremonies which the king performed even in
that early period to effect the renewal of his life. The victim,
who is clad in the skin of the beast through which he is sup-
posed to pass, is to be offered up on behalf of the king, and the
ten decapitated bodies are the men who have been slain by
the king in order that their souls and their blood may renew
his life.
On the mace-head of Narmer we see the king enthroned
within a shrine in the character of Osiris, and he is assumed
to be dead temporarily, even as Osiris was dead for a certain
period. According to a very early legend, Osiris was restored
to life by making his body to pass through a bull's skin,
in other words, he was supposed to be reborn. A victim
was chosen to represent the king, and having " passed through
the bull's skin," he was reborn, and entered upon a new period
of life and strength, which was mystically transferred to the
king. By these means the king was prevented from becom-
ing old and weak, and he had these ceremonies performed,
and took part in them whenever he felt it necessary to show
his subjects that his powers were unimpaired. The per-
formance of these ceremonies was the sole reason for the cele-
bration of the Set Festival. The excellence of the rehefs
30 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
on the green slate objects which we have described above,
and on the mace-head is remarkable, and the ideas which
they express prove that the Egyptians in the reign of
Narmer had reached a high state of religious and moral
development. It may be argued that the god in the shrine
is not Osiris, but, even if he is not, he must have been
some god whose powers and attributes were identical with
those of Osiris. That he was a god the centre of whose
cult was at Abydos is quite clear, and whether he is called
Osiris or Khenti Amenti is of very little importance in com-
parison with the fact that at that time the Egyptians believed
j in a being, part god and part man, who had risen from the
dead.
Of the length and of the events of the reign of Narmer
nothing is known, but it is certain that he was one of the
earliest kings of the first dynasty, and that the centre of his
authority was at Abydos, the capital of the Thinite nome in
Upper Egypt. Many of his successors were buried here,
and Edfu, the centre of the power of the Horus kings, was
abandoned by them in favour of a more northern capital.
With the reigns of Aha and Narmer begins the first part of
the Dynastic Period of Egyptian History, to which the
name of Archaic Period has, for convenience' sake, been
given. The monuments of this period have revealed the
names of several kings, but whether the list of them thus
supplied is complete is uncertain. The King- Lists drawn up
by Egyptian scribes under the eighteenth and nineteenth
dynasties only give selections of royal names, and they con-
tain proofs that those who compiled them possessed less
knowledge of the kings of the Archaic Period than, thanks
to the discovery of the royal tombs at Abydos, is available
to-day. There is, fortunately, a source of information to
which we can apply for help, namely, the now famous King-
List which, tradition says, was compiled in the third century
before Christ for Ptolemy II Philadelphus, one of the greatest
benefactors and patrons of the great Library at Alexandria.
Ptolemy II, it seems, was most anxious to include in this
library a history of Egypt, and he commanded a priest of
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 31
Sebennytus ^ called Manetho to compile one. In this History
of Egypt Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which
he divided into three parts, each containing several groups
of kings which he called ** dynasties," but it is not quite clear
what he meant by the word " dynasty." His History
is lost, but four copies of his King- List are preserved in the
works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which
is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the
third century of our era, and is preserved in the Chronicle
of Eusebius, Bishop of Cassarea (born a.d. 264, and died
about 340). In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the
List of Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius
Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the
monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius.
The dynasties of Manetho's King-List that represent the
" Archaic Period " are the first three. According to this,
the kings of the First Dynasty were eight in number and
reigned 263 years ; those of the Second Dynasty were nine
in number and reigned 302 years ; and those of the Third
Dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The
First and Second Dynasties reigned at This (Abydos), and
the Third Dynasty at Memphis. The original Egyptian
forms of many of the royal names given by Manetho have
been identified without doubt ; the identifications of a few
others are nearly certain, and about the remainder there
exist many different opinions. Besides Aha and Narraer,
or Narmer and Aha, for the true order of these two kings is
uncertain, the other important kings of the First Dynasty
were :
Semti, the fifth king of the dynasty, who was the first
to use the title ^f^, i-e. " King of the South, King of the
North " {Nesu hati). His name as the successor of Horus
was Ten, or Den, and his personal name was Semti ; the
hieroglyphs that form the latter name were for many years
read " Hesepti," and some authorities now read them " Khas-
^ The capital of the Twelfth Nome of Lower Egypt, the modern town of
Samannud.
32 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
kheti." Nothing is known of the events of his reign, but
the objects found in his tomb at Abydos prove that the
Egyptians were no mean handicraftsmen in his day,
and that the funerary arts had developed greatly. For
example, the king's tomb was panelled with wood, two
stairways brought worshippers down into it, and its floor
was paved with blocks of granite. The presence of granite
proves that the granite quarries of Aswan were already
being worked, and that barges large and strong enough for
the transport of blocks of granite were in use on the river.
In his tomb were found several in-
scribed wooden tablets recording
various important events that took
place during his reign. On one of
these, now preserved in the British
Museum, is cut a scene representing
the performance of one of the cere-
monies of the Set Festival, to which
Plaque of King Semti. attention has already been caUed
in the paragraph dealing with the
mace-head of Narmer. The scene represents the king Semti,
who has the crowns of the South and North on his head,
and holds in one hand a whip and in the other a sceptre,
dancing before a god who is enthroned within a shrine set
on the top of a flight of steps. The god wears the crown
of the South, and is either Osiris or a figure of the king, who
is supposed to be dead and deified. The ceremonies con-
nected with the offering up of the victim who personified
the king are supposed to have been performed, and the king
is dancing before the god as a mark of his gratitude for his
rebirth and the renewal of his life. The Set Festival may
have been invented to prevent the slaughter of the king
when he became infirm, or old, or unpopular, but the fre-
quency with which it was celebrated in each reign suggests
that the Festival was celebrated whenever the king had
successfully completed some work, with the view of strength-
ening him and continuing his life so that he might be able
to repeat his victories and successes.
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 33
Elsewhere on the wooden tablet of Semti is a figure of the
Henu Boat, which, in later times at least, played such a
prominent part in the ceremonies connected v^ith the worship
of Seker, the Death-god of Memphis. A tradition of the
eighteenth dynasty couples Semti's name with the discovery
(literally " finding ") of the shorter version of the LXIVth
Chapter of the Book of the Dead under the foundations of
the shrine of the god Henu. A tradition of the twenty-sixth
dynasty attributes the discovery of the CXXXth Chapter
of the Book of the Dead also to his reign, and the contents
of these chapters suggest that elaborate ceremonies intended
to effect the resurrection of the dead were performed at this
period. In books of medicine the name of Semti also finds
honourable mention, for the great medical papyrus in Leipzig
contains a copy of a prescription for healing the ukhedu
disease, which was discovered in the temple of Anubis of
Sekhem (Letopolis) in his reign. The inscriptions of Semti
that we possess make it somewhat difficult to accept these
statements literally, but it is quite clear that the Egyptians
of the New Empire believed this king to have been a religious
man and a patron of learning.
Atchab, or Antchab, whose personal name was Merpeba.
Of this king very little is known, but he must be mentioned
because the Egyptian King- List that is commonly known as
the " Tablet of Sakkarah " begins with his name, and it is
somewhat remarkable to find the names of such important
kings as Narmer and Semti overlooked. He was buried at
Abydos in a tomb, which was entered after descending a flight
of stairs, and was surrounded by a wall nearly five feet thick.
Smerkha, whose personal name was Hu or Nekht. Dur-
ing this reign the Egyptians worked the copper mines at
Wadi Magharah in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and on a rock
at this place a scene is sculptured in which Hu is seen in the
act of braining a native. These mines were probably worked
by the Semites of Sinai long before this date, but from this
time onwards they were in the possession of the Egyptians.
c
34 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
With the reign of Qa, whose personal name was Sen (not
Qebh as the King-Lists have it), the first dynasty came to
an end.
SECOND AND THIRD DYNASTIES
Under the second and third dynasties the balance of power
in Egypt shifted to the North, and Memphis, the founding
of which was ascribed by Greek tradition to Mena, or Menes,
gradually came to be regarded as the capital of the whole
country. Some development in the worship of sacred
animals must have taken place under this dynasty, for
Manetho says that in the reign of Kaiechos (Egyptian
IKakau), a king of the second dynasty, the Bull Apis in
Memphis and the Bull Mnevis in Heliopolis and the Goat of
Mendes were appointed to be gods. Aelian, another writer,
states that the worship of Apis was founded by Menes, but
the monuments afford no proof of this. Passing over the
reigns of unimportant kings such as Betchau, Hetep-
Sekhemui, Nebra, Kakau, Enneter, Sekhemab, Perab-
SEN, and Sent, we come to Khasekhemui, the first of the
two great kings of this uncertain period.
Khasekhemui, whose personal name was Besh, made
Abydos the seat of his rule and built his tomb there. This
building was about 260 feet long, and contained at least
57 chambers. From a scene cut upon a granite vase found
in his tomb we learn that he was engaged in fierce war with
the people of the North, i.e. Lower Egypt, and that as a
result of his victory over them he was able to unite the Two
Lands, i.e. the South and the North. Here we see Nekhebet,
the great goddess of Nekheb and Nekhen, in the form of a
vulture, standing with one claw on a signet ring, within which
the name of Besh is written, and with the other grasping
the stem of two plants, the lotus and papyrus^ where they
are tied together to represent the union of Upper and Lower
Egypt. A hawk, wearing the crown of the South and stand-
ing on the serekh, on which the king's Horus name " Kha-
S^l^hem/' h^' " the Ppw^r appeareth," is written, faces the vul-
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 35
ture of Nekhebet. The king appears to have altered his name
from Khasekhem to Khasekhemui, i.e. "the Two Powers
rise," after his conquest of Lower Egypt. Among other very
important objects found in his tomb were a grey granite door-
jamb bearing his Horns name, and limestone and slate seated
statues of the king ; these are the earliest statues known.
Upon the bases, in front of the feet, is his Horus name, and
round them are cut figures of slain enemies in attitudes of
agony, while a statement on the front sets forth that the
number of enemies slain by Besh amounted to 47,209. His
queen was called Enmaat-Hap.
Besh was succeeded by Khetneter, whose personal name
was TcHESER. He was a mighty king, as his monuments
testify, and a tablet bearing his name cut on a rock at Wadi
Magharah in the Sinaitic Peninsula suggests that he worked
the copper mines there as had done one, or more, of his pre-
decessors. Of his wars nothing is known, but he seems to
have put down a rebellion in Northern Nubia. He followed
the example of his predecessors and built a fine tomb at Bet
Khallaf, a little to the north of Abydos ; when it was ex-
cavated it was found to contain bowls and dishes of diorite,
alabaster, and porphyry, copper implements, worked flints,
&c. Its stairway passed under an arch and led down to a
series of underground chambers at a depth of 90 feet from
the top of the tomb. This was his tomb as King of the South.
As King of the North he built a tomb in the form of an oblong
stone pyramid at Sakkarah, the necropolis of Memphis, and
he called it by his Horus name Khetneter. This pyramid
consists of six steps, hence the name " Step Pyramid," by
which it is commonly known, and is nearly 200 feet high. The
length of its sides at the base are : north and south 352 feet,
east and west 396 feet. Its internal arrangement is peculiar
to itself, and the remains of some of the walls of the chambers
prove that they must have been well decorated. In which
of these two tombs Tcheser was buried is unknown, but the
contents of the tomb at Bet Khallaf suggest that he was
laid to rest in the southern tomb, Manetho states that he
36 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
was called " Asclepios by the Egyptians because of his great
medical knowledge, and that he built a house of hewn stones,
and greatly patronised literature." The house of hewn
stones is, of course, the Step Pyramid. An inscription cut
upon a rock on the Island of Sahal in the First Cataract
states that a seven years* famine took place in the reign of
Tcheser, and describes the endowments made by this king
to the temple of Khnemu, including a large portion of
the territory of Northern Nubia. Hennekht, or Sanekht, a
brother of Tcheser, also built a tomb at Bet Khallaf, but it
is not certain that he was buried in it. His name is found
with his brother's at Wadi Magharah, but whether this fact
indicates that he superintended work there for Tcheser, or
was himself king of Egypt after his brother's death, is not
clear. Manetho includes three or four other kings after
Tcheser in the third dynasty, but none of them was in any
way important.
From what has been said above it is clear that, in the in-
terval that elapsed between the rise to power of Aha and
the death of Tcheser, the Egyptian civilisation developed
very greatly. At the end of the Archaic Period the Egyp-
tians possessed metal weapons and tools, they were able to
make really good though small bas-reliefs, they worked the
copper mines and could smelt ore, they quarried granite,
and used it in buildings, they were skilful workers in limestone,
wood, ivory, and gold, they made pots and other vessels in
very hard stones, e.g. porphyry and diorite, and the Step
Pyramid shows that their knowledge of architecture was
considerable. Between the beginning of the first dynasty
and the end of the third they also developed the art of writing
in the true sense of the word, and though the examples of
their earliest efforts that have come down to us are very
difficult to read, many parts of the inscriptions of Semti,
the fifth king of the first dynasty, are comparatively easy to
understand. As soon as the primitive Egyptians were able
to work stone and wood, and to cut notches and marks on
reeds and palm sticks, they must have begun to make figures
of men, animals, sun, moon, stars, and the objects about
THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 37
them. Masters of caravans must have needed signs and
marks of some kind to help them in their exchanges and
barter, and men began to reahse that ideas could be ex-
pressed by pictures. Soon there came into existence the
need for indicating the relationship of one picture repre-
senting an idea to another, and then it became necessary
to find out some way of showing how these pictures were to
be pronounced. Little by little the Egyptian scribe thought
out the means for supplying these needs, and in due course
he produced a set of pictorial characters, some of which were
used as pictures of ideas, and some merely as representations
of sounds. The latter class is of two kinds, syllabic and
alphabetic. Curiously enough the Egyptians never seem to
have attempted to get rid of their cumbrous system of writ-
ing, and they used it without a break from the Archaic Period
down to the end of the Roman Period. The inscriptions of
the Archaic Period afford most valuable material for illus-
trating the growth of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and
they show how quickly the scribes advanced in the knowledge
of their art as they gained practice, and as the demand for
inscriptions grew more and more. At first they devoted
their rare accomplishment exclusively to the service of the
king and to recording his triumphs, but they very quickly
realised its importance for business purposes.
In the burial of the dead a great change took place among
the Egyptians of the first three dynasties. In predynastic
times the dead were buried in shallow graves, as we have
already seen, on their left sides, with their knees bent up
near the chin. In the Archaic Period, at least among the
ruling classes, the dead were laid out in their tombs at full
length on their backs, and massive structures of brick and
stone stood over them.
CHAPTER IV
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE — DYNASTIES IV-XI
According to the King-List of Manetho the period of the
Ancient Empire included the reigns of the kings of the first
eleven dynasties, and as the first, second, and third dynasties
have already been treated of in the preceding chapter, we
may now consider the principal kings of dynasties four to
eleven. The first king of the fourth dynasty was Seneferu,
a mighty warrior, and a builder of pyramids. He worked
the copper mines of Sinai, both for the sake of the metal and
the turquoises found in them, and in a large relief cut on the
rocks at Wadi Magharah this king is represented in the act
of slaying a typical Semitic native of the country. A passage
on the Stele of Palermo states that he raided the Sudan, and
captured 7000 men, and 200,000 cattle, sheep, and goats,
and probably a large number of women and much gold;
he also sent a trading fleet to Syria. The object of the
raid was to obtain men to carry out the great works in stone
which he had already begun or contemplated beginning. As
King of the South and King of the North he built two pyra-
mid tombs, one at Dahshur and the other on the site now
called Medum. The latter is commonly called the " Pyramid
of Medum," and the " False Pyramid," and is over 120 feet
in height ; it consists of three stages, which are about 70, 20,
and 30 feet high respectively, but it was never finished.
Round about the pyramid, which was called " Kha," are the
tombs of several of Seneferu's officials, including those of
Rahetep and his wife Nefert, and of Nefermaat and his wife
Atet. Quite close to it were also found a number of tombs
in which the bodies had been buried in the contracted, or
predynastic, position, a fact that proves that the humble
38
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE
39
subjects of Senefeni preserved the funerary customs of their
ancestors. The Queen of Senefeni was called Mertitefes.
She survived her husband and married his great successor
Khufu, whom she also survived ; of her origin nothing is
known. Methen, a famous official who became the governor
of a district and master of the royal hunt, flourished and
died in the reign of Senefeni.
Khufu, the Souphis of Manetho and the Kheops of Hero-
dotus, was a greater builder than fighter, and it seems doubtful
Section of the Great Pyramid, showing the Positions of the Passages.
if any military expeditions were undertaken during his reign.
At Wadi Magharah in Sinai there are two reliefs that have
been commonly supposed to commemorate him ; in the one
the king is called Khufu, and in the other Khnem- Khufu.
These two names were thought to represent one and the
same person, but recently Khnem- Khufu has been held to
be the name of another king of the fourth dynasty. Khufu
built for his tomb the Great Pyramid at Gizah, and his name
will be remembered for ever as the builder of this mighty
40 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
monument. In its present state the Great Pyramid is about
I 451 feet high, and the length of each of its four sides at the
base is about 755 feet. Originally it was about 30 feet higher,
and its sides were about 20 feet longer, but in the course of
centuries several of its outer layers of stone have been re-
moved to Cairo and used as building material. The cubic ^
contents of the masonry are said to amount to 3,000,000
yards, and the pyramid covers an area of 12J acres. Khufu
called this pyramid " Khut," i.e. " Glory." In its original
state the pyramid was cased with smooth slabs of limestone,
some of which bore inscriptions in hieroglyphs. The king
was probably buried in a chamber in the body of the pyramid,
and not in the chamber beneath it. On the north side of it,
immediately in front of the entrance, there originally stood
a large funerary temple in which services for the benefit of
the soul of the king were performed daily ; in one chamber
of it were presented the offerings to the dead. The stone
used in the building of the pyramid and its temple was
quarried in the hills of Raau, or Troja, which lie nearly
opposite to the pyramid, about eight miles away. The blocks
of stone were brought down a causeway made of earth to
the river, and ferried in barges to the western bank, and then
dragged up another causeway, made of earth and several
miles long, to the rocky ledge on the skirts of the desert
where the pyramid is built. From 300,000 to 360,000 men
are said to have been occupied for twenty years in building
it. There is no evidence that elaborate mechanical appliances
were used in the construction of the pyramid, and it is most
unlikely that the Egyptians possessed any things of the kind.
Some simple means for raising the blocks from ledge to ledge,
or step to step, may have been in use, but the inclined plane
made of dry mud and sand, and sledges, wedges, and short
levers were the principal means used in moving and fixing
the stones. The imaginations of many have run riot over
this pyramid, and it has formed the subject of many theories.
It does not contain chambers filled with precious stones,
and never did ; it was never one of Joseph's granaries, it
being, in fact, wholly unsuitable for such a purpose ; it was
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 41
never used as an astronomical instrument, and it was not
built by or for any of the patriarchs mentioned in Holy
Scripture. It is a tomb, and nothing but a tomb. Khufu
married Mertitefes, the widow of Seneferu, who survived
him, and he appears to have been succeeded by his brother
Khafra; the length of Khufu' s reign is unknown, but it
cannot have been very much longer than the time which his
pyramid is said to have taken in building, namely, twenty
years.
If Ratetef was really the immediate successor of Khufu
his reign was short and unimportant, and we pass at once to
Khafra, the third of the great kings of the fourth dynasty.
The chief event of his reign, which must have been shorter
than has been thought, was the building of his tomb, i.e. the
second of the great pyramids at Gizah. His pyramid is
about 450 feet high, and the length of each side at the base
is about 700 feet ; like the pyramid of Khufu, it is entered
on the north side, where stood the funerary temple of the
king. Khafra called his pyramid " Ur," i.e. " Great." No
military expedition during his reign is recorded ; according
to the Turin Papyrus he reigned twenty- four years.
In an inscription of Thothmes IV, cut upon a slab of
granite between the paws of the Sphinx, mention is made
of Khaf[ra], and it has been thought that he was the maker,
or restorer, of this remarkable monument. Recently, how-
ever, the genuineness of this inscription has been doubted,
and some now think it to be a restoration of an ancient
inscription, made not earlier than the end of the twenty-first
dynasty (about 900 B.C.) by certain priests who wished to
magnify the importance of the god Ra-Harmakhis. Whether
the name of Khafra occurred in the original inscription or
not cannot be said, but if it did it shows that tradition in
the eighteenth dynasty associated this king with the Sphinx.
If it did not, and was only inserted by priests of the twenty-
first dynasty or later, it shows at least that they associated
the Sphinx with Khafra. If they only wanted to indicate
the great antiquity of their god they could quite well have
42 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
quoted the name of Khufu, or Seneferu, or of some other
earher king. As to the Sphinx itself some believe it to be
the work of Amenemhat III, a king of the twelfth dynasty,
but others disbelieve this. The Sphinx is a mighty man-
headed Hon, hewn out of the living rock, and it has often
been repaired. The paws are 50 feet long, and the body is
150 feet long ; the head is 30 feet long, the face 14 feet wide,
and its height, from the top of the head to the base, is 70 feet.
'' Its face was originally painted red. The Egyptians called
the Sphinx " Hu," and it symbolised Ra-Harmakhis, a form
i of the Sun-god ; when it was made, and when and how it
! came to typify this god, is unknown. We may note in passing
I that in the name of Khafra and in that of his unimportant
' predecessor Ratetef is included the name of " Ra," the Sun-
god of Heliopolis, a fact that seems to suggest that the power
of the priests of this foreign god was gradually increasing,
and that those who were responsible for naming the succes-
sors of Khufu were influenced by it.
Menkaura, better known by the classical form of his name
Mykerinos, or Mycerinus, is said by Herodotus and Diodorus
to have been a son of Khufu, but the monuments yield no
information on the subject. Like his two great predecessors
he was no warrior and is famous chiefly as the builder of his
tomb, the third pyramid at Gizah. This pyramid he called
" Her," i.e. '' High," but it is the smallest of these three
pyramids, for it was not completed. Its height to-day is
a little over 210 feet, and the length of each side at the base
is only 350 feet ; it was originally faced with granite slabs,
many of which are still visible, and it was entered on the north
side, where stood the funerary temple. Traditions current
in the eighteenth dynasty state that Chapters XXXB and
LXIV of the Book of the Dead were " found " during the
reign of Menkaura by Prince Herutataf, a son of Khufu,
cut in hieroglyphs on a block of alabaster, the characters
being inlaid in blue paste made of lapis-lazuli. Thus it seems
that some important work in connection with the Book of
the Dead was carried out with the knowledge and approval
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 43
of Menkaura. He was succeeded by Shepseskaf, who built
a pyramid tomb called " Qebh/' i.e. " Coolness " or " Refresh-
ing"; with the reign of this king the fourth dynasty practically
came to an end. The kings of this dynasty have been rightly
named " Pyramid Builders," and indeed they appear to have
done nothing except build these mighty piles of stone for their
tombs. Whatever may have been the population of the
country, and whatever may have been its resources, the
greatest possible strain must have been put on them to build
these extraordinary monuments of human vanity. Round
about them at Gizah are the tombs of many of the great
nobles and high officials who assisted these gods, as the kings
were called, in compelling the wretched Egyptian peasant
to pass the best years of his life in forced labour. Many
of them are decorated with bas-reliefs and painted scenes
of great beauty. Their fidelity to nature is surprising,
and the skill with which they are executed, and their delicacy
of detail, mark them for all time as masterpieces of art and
sculpture, which the Egyptians under the later dynasties
rarely equalled and never surpassed. The force and vigour
that are in them seem to have disappeared from Egypt with
the close of the fourth dynasty, for the later work of the kind,
though in many respects much prettier, is weaker. The
painted portrait statues are often very beautiful works, and,
when looking on some of their faces, one feels that they are
" speaking hkenesses " of great and able men.
The kings of the fifth dynasty, according to Manetho,
came from Elephantine, i.e. the region of the First Cataract,
but this statement is not supported by the testimony of the
monuments, which suggests that the kings of this dynasty
came from Lower Egypt. An interesting legend preserved
in a papyrus in Berlin throws some light on the origin of the
dynasty, and may be very briefly summarised thus : King
Khufu once ordered a magician at his court called Teta to
bring him certain writings from Anu, or Heliopolis, but he
refused to do so, saying that the eldest of three children, to
whom Rut-tetet would give birth, should bring them. The
44 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
king asked who Rut-tetet was, and the magician told him
that she was the wife of Userra, a priest of Ra of Sakhabu,
and that the three children were in fact the sons of Ra ;
and that the eldest of them was to be high priest of Ra. This
news made the king very sad. When the three children were
born the goddess I sis, who was present there with the god-
desses Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Heqet, and the god Khne-
mu, gave them the names of Userkaf , Sahura, and Kakaa, and it
was prophesied at the same time that they would all be kings,
and would all one day reign over Egypt, one after the other.
Looking now at the King- Lists we find that the names of the
first three kings of the fifth dynasty, according to Manetho,
were Userkaf, Sahura and Kakaa, and thus the prophecy
of the goddesses who attended the birth of the three sons of
Rut-tetet seems to have been fulfilled. Their father Userra
was a priest of the Heliopolitan Sun-god Ra, and the name
of Ra formed part of the name of each of his sons, either
directly or implied.
Sahura, the second king of the dynasty, is represented
on a bas-relief at Wadi Magharah clubbing a native of
Sinai, as also is Userenra, whose personal name as the
son of Ra was An. In the reign of the latter flourished
the high official Thi, who married Princess Neferhetepes,
and built a tomb which is still filled with the most beautiful
bas-reliefs. Among the priests of the Sun-temple of User-
enra was Ptah-shepses, a very old man, who was born in
the reign of Menkaura, and lived through eight reigns.
AssA, the last king but one of the dynasty, appears in a
bas-relief at Wadi Magharah, and his name is found on rocks
in the Valley of Rehenu, or, as it is called by the Arabs
to-day, Wadi Hammamat. These facts may indicate that
this king really did work the copper mines of Sinai, and that
the old trade-route between the Nile and the Red Sea was
used by his ofiicials for trading or mining purposes. An
inscription of the sixth dynasty at Aswan, at the foot of the
First Cataract, states that Assa sent one of his oflicers called
Baurtet to the land of Punt to obtain and to bring back to
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 45
him a pygmy, or dwarf ; the officer succeeded in his task,
and brought back the dwarf, and was handsomely rewarded
by the King.
Each of the kings of the fifth dynasty from Userkaf to
Assa built a tomb in the form of a pyramid at Abusir, to the
south of Memphis, but all these pyramids were far smaller
than those of the great kings of the fourth dynasty. Associ-
ated with each of them was a " Sun-temple," i.e. a building,
with courts, set apart for the worship and sacrifices of Ra,
the Sun-god of Hehopohs. At the western end of a large
square enclosure stood a blunted pyramid, and on top of
this stood an obeUsk. On the eastern side of this object
was an alabaster altar, on which the victims were sacrificed,
and on the north side of the altar was cut a series of channels
along which the blood of the victims flowed into bowls that
were placed to receive it. Details of the worship of this
Sun- symbol are wanting, but there seems to be little doubt
that it was a form of the " pillar-god," whose pillars have
been so common in Arabia, Palestine, and Syria from time
immemorial. All the kings of the fifth dynasty were wor-
shippers of Ra, a._ioreign god from the, East whose cult
obtained prominence in the Eastern Delta under the fourth
dynasty. Some of the kings of the fourth dynasty intro-
duced the name of Ra into their names, but it was some of
the kings of the fifth dynasty who adopted the words Sa Ra,
or " Son of Ra," as one of their great titles, and gave them-
selves special names as " sons of Ra." Thus the Horus name
of one king was " Ast-ab-taui," his Nebti name was " Ast-
ab," his Horus-of-gold name was ** Neter," his name as King
of the South and of the North was " Userenra," and his
Son-of-Ra name was " An." Ra worship became the official
cult of the country, and from~^ the fifth dynasty onwards
every king of Egypt called himself the " Son of Ra." This
subject is referred to again in the section of this book that
deals with the Egyptian Religion.
The last king of the fifth dynasty was Unas, who worked
the copper mines in Sinai and the quarries in the Wadi Ham-
46 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
mamat. The pyramid which he built for his tomb is unhke
that of any of his predecessors, for the walls of its chambers
and corridors are covered with a series of texts cut in hiero-
glyphs which are inlaid with green plaster. These texts
describe the triumphs of the dead king in the Other World
and his occupations, and are full of most valuable informa-
tion about the curious beliefs of the early dynastic Egyptians
in respect of the life of the soul after death. The subject
matter belongs to different periods in Egyptian history, and
many of the conceptions relating to the future life clearly
belong to the predynastic period. Side by side with magical
spells to be used against snakes, vipers, and reptiles of all
kinds are found expressions of spiritual ideas which closely
resemble some of those found among Western nations to-day.
Many of the texts are very old, but the forms in which they
are found in the pyramid of Unas are due to the priests of
HeliopoHs, who made Ra the god of the Other World whereto
Unas had departed.
The kings of the sixth dynasty are said by Manetho to be
of Memphite origin. The first of them, Teta, built a pyramid
similar to that of Unas, with inscriptions of the same class
as those selected for Unas ; the second, Userkara, also built
a pyramid, the stone for which was brought from the Wad!
Hammamat. The third king, Meri Ra Pepi I, was the
greatest king of this dynasty. His rule over Egypt was of
a very effective character, and his reign was a period of great
industrial progress. He worked the mines in Sinai and the
quarries of the Wadi Hammamat and Syene (the modern
Aswan), and copper was so plentiful in his reign that a metal-
worker, name unknown, made a life-size statue of the king
in copper, and another of his soul more than two feet high.
When the nomad tribes of the Sudan revolted Pepi deter-
mined to break their power, and he sent Una, his able ad-
ministrator, and, apparently, soldier, to subdue them. Una
collected troops, not only from Egypt, but also from many
parts of the Sudan and Libya, and he attacked the rebels,
who were called " Aamu " and lived in the Eastern Sudan,
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 47
and vanquished them completely. On five separate occasions
Una conducted punitive expeditions into the Eastern Sudan,
and on one of these, when the resistance offered to him was
peculiarly obstinate, he slew every rebel to the last man.
It was high time that a strong king sat on the throne of Egypt,
for the kings of the fourth dynasty had spent their energies
in building their own tombs, and those of the fifth dynasty
in building Sun-temples to the foreign god Ra. Pepi I built
his tomb in the form of a pyramid close to those of Unas and
Teta, and its chambers and corridors contain inscriptions
similar in character to the texts prepared for those kings.
There are in them, however, many passages that prove that
Osiris, a very ancient Egyptian god, was resuming his place
as the great god of the Other World, from which the priests
of Ra had succeeded in driving him temporarily.
Pepi I was succeeded by Merenra Mehtiemsaf, his son
by his wife Ankhnesmerira, whose reign was very short,
and who is only of importance as the builder of his pyramid
tomb, which contained rehgious inscriptions similar to those
prepared for his father. The works begun by Pepi I were
continued during the reign of his son, and the usual mining
operations went on undisturbed. The great official Una,
who did such splendid service for Pepi I, was employed by
Merenra to fetch granite doors and frames and altars from
the quarries at Elephantine, and he brought his flotilla down
to Memphis, escorted by one war-boat only. Subsequently
Una was sent by the king to the south to build seven large
wooden boats, which were to be loaded with blocks of granite
for the royal pyramid tomb. The boats were built with the
help of the chiefs of the tribes in the neighbourhood, and
loaded with granite, but then it was found to be impossible
to bring them through the First Cataract. Nothing daunted,
Una set his men to work, and they excavated five canals,
through which the boats passed easily. In the fifth year of
his reign Merenra visited Northern Nubia, and was hospitably
received by the Governors of Uauat, Matchai, and Arthet.
In this reign Herkhuf, the Shekh of the Caravans which
48 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
traded between Egypt and the countries on the Blue Nile
and White Nile, visited various parts of the Sudan three
times, and brought back ivory, ebony, boomerangs, grain,
panthers' skins, &c.
Merenra was succeeded by his half-brother Neferkara
Pepi II, when, according to Manetho, he was only six years
old, and he reigned until he had completed his hundredth
year. His long reign was singularly uneventful, and besides
the usual mining and building works there is very little to
chronicle. He built a pyramid tomb, the walls of the
chambers and corridors of which were covered with religious
texts similar to those found in the pyramid of his father
Pepi I. During the reign of Pepi II the Shekh of the Caravans
mentioned above made a fourth journey into the Sudan,
and brought back many products of that region, including a
dwarf who knew how to dance " the dance of the god." Hav-
ing reported the success of his expedition to Pepi II, the king
shortly afterwards sent a despatch telling him to bring the
dwarf to him at Memphis, and saying that if he did so he would
bestow upon him honours greater than those which King
Assa bestowed upon the official Baurtet, who brought a
dwarf to his court. Herkhuf, of course, obeyed the royal
command, and he was so pleased with the king's despatch
that he had it cut on the front of his tomb. It is nowhere
said in the texts why Assa and Pepi II were so anxious to
have dwarfs near them, but it was probably because they
shared, with many Oriental nations, the belief that a dwarf
could be used as a habitation or receptacle for the soul, or,
in the case of the Egyptians, the Ka or Double. When the
king died his dwarf was killed and buried with him in his
tomb, so that his spirit might go and carry the royal shadow
in the Other World as his body had carried the royal Ka in
this. It is unlikely that such great trouble was taken to
obtain dwarfs, unless they were able to be of material use to
the king. During the long reign of Pepi II several other
chiefs of Elephantine made expeditions into the Sudan,
namely Pepinekht, Saben, and Mekhu. The last-named
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 49
died on one of his journeys, and Saben his son set out with
men and one hundred asses to bring back his father's body
so that it might be mummified. He succeeded in his task,
and when he had buried his father in Elephantine he jour-
neyed to Memphis and gave to Pepi II the Sudani products
that his father had collected.
The last two or three kings of the sixth dynasty were kings
only in name, for even when Pepi II died the royal house had
lost its grip on the country. There now happened in Egypt
what has always happened there when the strong hand of a
vigorous king was wanting ; the central power at Memphis
having collapsed, disorder and confusion spread throughout
the land. The kings of the fourth and fifth dynasties kept
the great nobles of the country at their courts on one pretext
or another, and when these died they were buried in tombs
round about their lords' pyramids. The kings of the sixth
dynasty must have had quite different courts, for their
pyramids are not surrounded by the tombs of their nobles
and high officials. In other words, the great native chiefs
of the nomes of the South and North at this time appear to
have Hved on their own estates, and to have ruled their
districts without much regard to the wishes of their kings.
When Pepi II died, the hereditary chiefs in many parts of
the country asserted their independence, the small local
governors began to quarrel and to usurp each other's posses-
sions, and the people naturally flocked to the successful
men, whether their claims were just or unjust. The offer-
ings to the temples were diminished, their treasuries became
empty, the worship of the gods languished, and everyone did
what was right in his own eyes. Arts and crafts ceased to
be practised, for no one needed fine tombs, and poverty and
misery ruled the land. Of this period nothing is known, and
no facts are available by which we can estimate its length.
According to Manetho, the seventh dynasty consisted of 70
kings who reigned 70 days, and the eighth dynasty consisted
of 27 kings whose reigns lasted for 146 years, and both dynas-
ties were of Memphite origin. These statements may be cor-
rect, but they cannot be verified by the monuments.
D
50 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
This period of disorder was brought to an end, more or
less, by the chiefs of Hensu, or Hennsu, the Khanes of the
Bible (Isaiah xxx. 4), and the Herakleopolis ^ of the Greek
writers, who succeeded first in making themselves indepen-
dent, and then in making themselves kings of Egypt. As
they made Hensu their capital it seems as if kings were still
pretending to rule Egypt from Memphis, but there is no
doubt that the chiefs of Hensu became, as Manetho says,
the kings of the ninth and tenth dynasties. One of the
earliest of these was Khati, the Akhthoes of Manetho, whose
name is known from a bronze bowl and from an inscription
in a quarry at Aswan, and we may assume that for some time
after his accession the country had peace. When the peace
was broken is not known, but it is certain that the rule of
the Herakleopolitans did not remain unchallenged by the
descendants of the lawful kings of Egypt who were living
at Memphis. Now, whilst the Herakleopolitan kings were
imposing their authority on the nomes to the south of them,
the hereditary princes of Thebes were gradually becoming
powerful, and were imposing their authority upon the nomes
to the north of them. At the same time the hereditary
princes of Siut, the modern Asyut, about 250 miles south of
Cairo, had acquired considerable power, and their " kings "
who were called either " Khati " or " Tefaba," became inde-
pendent. The Theban princes extended their dominions north-
wards, and before long came into conflict with the princes of
Siut, whom they eventually conquered. They then advanced
on the Herakleopolitans, who, after apparently a stubborn
resistance, were also conquered, and thus the Theban princes
became the kings of Egypt of the eleventh dynasty.
The monuments seem to indicate that one of the important
ancestors of the kings of the eleventh dynasty was Antefa,
and that he was the first of the Theban princes who declared
himself independent and made Thebes the centre of his rule,
but he claimed no authority over the Kingdom of the North.
Of his reign nothing is known. An inscription in the British
Museum supplies the name of three kings of this period,
^ The ruins of the town lie about 65 miles to the south of Cairo,
THE ANCIENT EMPIRE 51
namely Antef the Great, whose Honis name was '* Uah-
ankh," another Antef, whose Honis name was " Nekhtneb-
tepnefer," and Menthuhetep, whose Horns name was
" Sankhabtaui." At least three other Menthuheteps are
known, namely, Nebtauira Menthuhetep, Nebhaptra
Menthuhetep, and Sankhkara Menthuhetep, but opinions
differ as to the order of their reigns. According to Manetho,
the kings of the eleventh dynasty were 16 in number, and the
duration of the dynasty was 43 years. There is some mis-
take here, for one king, Nebhaptra Menthuhetep, must have
reigned for about 46 years. The general trend of the evidence
of the monuments suggests that the kings of this dynasty
were not more than 8 in number, and that the dynasty
lasted for about 200 years. Such facts as are available are
interpreted in different ways by different authorities, and
at present no satisfactory account of the dynasty as a whole
can be written. The greatest of its kings was undoubtedly
Nebhaptra Menthuhetep, a mighty warrior who estab-
lished his authority from one end of Egypt to the other.
He marched into Nubia and crushed a revolt of the tribes
of the Eastern Desert and the Aamu, and presumably laid
them under tribute. He built a pyramid at Der al-Bahari,
close to his magnificent funerary temple, the remains of which
have been excavated in recent years. Judging by the frag-
ments of the coloured bas-reliefs that remain, this building
must have been beautifully decorated, and their style and
finish call to mind the characteristics of some of the best
work of the fifth dynasty. These bas-reliefs were probably
the work of Mertisen, a famous sculptor, who says on his
stele now in the Louvre, " I am a workman, skilled in his
craft, who by reason of his knowledge hath risen above [all
others]. I know the water-flood, and I understand the
rising of the scales in making reckoning by weighing, and how
to depict the motion of a limb when it is extended and with-
drawn to its place. I know [how to depict] the gait of a man,
and the way in which a woman beareth herself, and the two
arms of Horus, and the twelve abodes of the Monster, and how
to gaze with that unequalled eye that striketh terror into the
52 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
fiends, and how to balance the arm in such a way as to smite
down the hippopotamus, and [how to depict] the stride of
him that runneth. I know how to make the amulets that
will enable us to go unharmed through every fire whatsoever,
and that will keep us from being washed away by any water
whatsoever. No man hath gotten skill in these matters,
except myself and the eldest son of my body, unto whom God
hath decreed that he should advance in them. I have seen
the productions of his hands, and his beautiful work in precious
stones of every kind, and in gold, and in silver, and in ebony."
The last king of the eleventh dynasty was Sankhkara,
and the principal event of his reign was the despatch of an
expedition to Punt, under the command of a high official
called Hennu, in the eighth year of his reign. He set out
from the town of Coptos, taking with him soldiers from the
nome of Thebes, and workmen, in all about 3000 men. Water
for the entire force was carried in skins slung on poles, and
every man had to act as porter in turn. On the road to the
Red Sea three wells were dug and the skins refilled from them,
and when Hennu arrived on the coast of the Red Sea thank-
offerings were made to the gods. Hennu then built the boats
in which he and his men were to sail, and they embarked in
them and reached Punt safely. Here the chiefs loaded the
boats with myrrh and other valuable products of Punt, and
Hennu sailed back in peace. Being in the neighbourhood
of the famous diorite and porphyry quarries by the Red Sea,
he went to them and made his men quarry a number of blocks
of these valuable stones, which he took back with him to
Egypt to be made into statues of the gods and of the king.
Punt could be reached by land as well as by sea, but from very
early times the Egyptians preferred to despatch their expedi-
tions by sea, for, in the first place, it was much easier travelling,
and, in the second place, the pillage by the tribes on both banks
of the Nile of the goods brought back was obviated. On the
death of Sankhkara disorder and confusion again broke out
in Egypt, but it is not known how long anarchy lasted. With
the accession to the throne of Amenemhat, a new dynasty,
and, according to Manetho, a new Regnal Period began.
CHAPTER V
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE — DYNASTIES XII-XIX
With the twelfth dynasty we touch firm historical ground,
for the names of all its kings are known, and the order in
which they reigned, and the years of the reign of each ;
it is tolerably certain that there were only eight kings in the
dynasty, and that the total of the years of their reigns was
between 225 and 240 years. The seat of government was
transferred from Herakleopolis to Thebes by the Antefs
and Menthuheteps, although the home of the latter was
Anu-resu, or Hermonthis, the modern Armant. The kings
of the twelfth dynasty were closely related to those of the
eleventh, and it is probable that the first king, Amenemhat,
was a kinsman of Sankhkara, the last king of the eleventh
dynasty. For some reason the first king of the twelfth
dynasty built a fortress at Athitaui, a place which seems to
have been not far from Minyah ; this became the seat of his
power in the North. The kings of the twelfth dynasty
greatly developed the province of the Fayyum, and though
as Thebans they adored Amen, they also held the Crocodile-
god of the Fayyum, i.e. Sebek, in great veneration. They
enjoyed more power than any of their predecessors after the
fourth dynasty. They waged war successfully in the Sudan,
and in the Eastern Desert, and their influence in Syria, Sinai,
and Libya was very great ; and the tribute and the trade
from these countries made them rich. In the south Nubia,
as far as the Second Cataract, became a portion of Egypt.
The power of the hereditary princes was everywhere cur-
tailed, and their subjects were compelled to work on under-
takings of public utility, and especially on those that were
connected with improvements in the irrigation of the country.
53
54 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
The cult of the dead and the worship of ancestors were re-
vived, large selections of Chapters from an early Recension
of the Book of the Dead were copied on wooden sarcophagi
and coffins, and the kings of the dynasty built pyramids for
their tombs, only they were very much smaller than those
of the fourth and fifth dynasties. The temple of Amen at
Kamak, which must have been an insignificant building,
made probably of wood, was now rebuilt in stone, and im-
portant additions were made to the temple of Ra at Heliopolis
by Usertsen I, who set up in it a pair of red granite obelisks
of a height and size previously unknown. The art and
sculpture of the Middle Empire are developed directly from
those of the Ancient Empire, but have an increased tendency
towards realism.
Amenemhat I, the Ammenemes of Manetho, who reigned
about thirty years, ascended the throne after a period of
anarchy. From the " Instructions " which he compiled for his
son it seems that after he became king a conspiracy to kill him
was formed by certain of his officers or household. These
attacked him as he lay asleep, but the king managed to de-
fend himself, and beat them off. He restored or rebuilt the
temples of Abydos, Tanis, and Bubastis, and refounded the
temple of Amen, a very ancient god of Thebes. He made
regulations for the irrigation service, and is said to have had
a survey made of the country, and to have delimited the
frontiers of each nome. He invaded Nubia and conquered
.the four chief tribes there, and he added to Egypt the portion
of the country between Abu, or Elephantine, and the place
called to-day Korosko. In his " Instructions " he says that
his power reached from the sea to the First Cataract. He
adds, ** I was a farmer, and I loved the Harvest-god. The
Nile saluted me in every channel. During my years no man
suffered hunger or thirst, and men dwelt in peace through my
acts." He built a pyramid tomb at Lisht, 30 miles south of
Cairo. In connection with the death of Amenemhat I refer-
ence must be made to the now famous Story of Sanehat,
a son of Amenemhat I. This prince was, it seems, at the
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 55
time of his father's death, engaged in an expedition against
the Libyans, and one day whilst the fighting was going on
a messenger came to announce to Usertsen I, the heir to the
throne of Egypt, the death of his father. Sanehat overheard
the messenger's words, and for some reason or other was
seized with a fit of terror at the idea that Usertsen might
put him to death, and, taking the earUest opportunity that
offered itself, he deserted from the army and took to flight.
There is no need to describe here the incidents of his flight,
and his subsequent good fortune, for a translation of his
autobiography is given in the accompanying volume on
Egyptian Literature.
Usertsen I (or Senusert), the Sesonchosis of Manetho,
reigned at least 43 years. In the third year of his reign he
rebuilt and re- endowed the famous temple of the Sun-god
at Anu, the On of the Bible, and the Heliopolis of Greek
writers, which had fallen into ruin during the troubled times
between the sixth and twelfth dynasties. The new temple
was dedicated to the Sun-god in his three characters, which
bore the names of Horus, Ra, and Temu, the Sun-god in the
morning, at noon, and in the late afternoon. Before the
temple Usertsen set up a pair of granite obelisks, the tops
of which were covered with copper casings ; one of these
was thrown down by the Muslims in the thirteenth century
of our era, and the other, 65 feet high, is still standing. Be-
fore they were set up the king performed the ceremonies of
the Set Festival, the object of which was the renewal of his
life. The obelisk is a modified form of the symbol of the Sun-
god, which was worshipped in the Sun-temples built by the
kings of the fifth dynasty. The reign of Usertsen I was one
of great activity, and work was carried on diligently in the
quarries to supply stone for the temples that were being
built at Tanis, Bubastis, Abydos, Kamak, and elsewhere,
and as the old copper mines of Wadi Magharah seemed to be
failing, new ones were opened at Sarabit al-Khadim, also
in the Sinaitic Peninsula. At Abydos Usertsen I built a
temple to Osiris, the director of the works being the official
56 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Menthu-hetep. The cult of Osiris had become general in
Egypt before the close of the sixth dynasty, but nothing is
known of any of the temples which must have been built
in many parts of the country in his honour. At the same
time the king either repaired or rebuilt the casing of the
famous well at Abydos, which was supposed to be connected
with an underground conduit by which the offerings made to
the dead were conveyed to the kingdom of Osiris in the Other
World. Usertsen I continued the practice of his father in
sending expeditions into Nubia in quest of gold, but he made
no serious attempt to occupy the country. The inscription
of Ameni, a nobleman from the Oryx Nome, proves that
gold and gold only was the object of the raids that he himself
made into Nubia on behalf of his lord. At one time his force
consisted of 400 men, and at another of 600 men, and with
these troops he compelled the wretched natives in the gold-
producing districts to give him what he wanted. About this
time the king appointed a viceroy over Nubia, with the title
of " Prince of Kash " {i.e. Cush) and " Governor of the
South." Usertsen I built his pyramid tomb at Lisht.
Amenemhat II was the son of Usertsen I, and he reigned
at least 35 years. His reign was peaceful and uneventful,
and his attention was devoted to the development of the
country. He built a temple to Hathor at Sarabit al-Khadim
in Sinai, over which country the goddess presided. He sent
Sa-Hathor to the Eastern Sudan to work the gold mines, the
ore being washed by the chiefs of the country ; on his return
Sa-Hathor was despatched to the land of the Blacks, i.e. the
Southern Sudan, to collect tribute for his lord. In the 28th
year of his reign the king despatched an expedition to Punt
under the command of Khentkhatur, who returned in peace,
and anchored his boats at Sauu.
Usertsen II was the son of Amenemhat II, and his reign
was long and prosperous ; Manetho says that he reigned
48 years, but this statement lacks the support of the monu-
ments. In the first year of his reign, as we learn from the
I
57
58 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
stele of Khnemu-hetep now at Alnwick Castle in Northum-
berland, he ** established his monuments in the Land of the
God/' i.e. he set up memorial stelae, and perhaps even build-
ings of some kind on the shores of the southern end of the
Red Sea. On the same stele he is represented receiving
" life " from the god Sept, a deity of the Eastern Delta and
the neighbouring countries on the east. All this suggests
that the king paid special attention to the development of
the Red Sea trade, and encouraged traders from Punt and
Southern Arabia to do business in his country. Manetho
calls him ** Sesostris," and says that he " conquered all Asia
in nine years," but the records of his reign now available do
not bear out this statement. From a wall-painting in the
tomb of Khnemu-hetep, a nobleman of the Oryx Nome, we
learn that in the sixth year of the king's reign a company
of 37 Aamu, or Semites, visited Menat Khufu in Upper Egypt,
and were received by Khnemu-hetep, the Governor of the
Nome. The reason of their coming is unknown, but it was,
no doubt, to do business with the Egyptians, and, to make
dealing easier, they brought some mestchemet, or eye paint,
which they were ready either to give or sell to the Governor.
Usertsen II built his pyramid tomb at Al-Lahun (lUahun)
on a plan different from any other known. The base of it is
the living rock, which has been dressed to a height of 40 feet ;
on this is a portion of the pyramid core with cross-walls,
built partly of stone and partly of brick. The whole of the
filling between the walls is mud brick. The sarcophagus is
of red granite, and the chamber it stands in is of red granite.
Usertsen III succeeded his father Usertsen II, and he
reigned at least 33 years. The greatest event in his reign was
the conquest of the Sudan, which he occupied effectively as
far as the countries bordering on the Nile are concerned. He
made at least four expeditions into the Northern Sudan,
and gained much experience of the character of the people
as well as of the geography of the country. Egypt needed
gold in large quantities during his reign, and he realised that if
the supply from the South was to be maintained, the Egyp-
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 59
tians must be masters of Nubia, i.e. the " land of gold." One
of his first works was to re-make a canal in the First Cataract
through which his war-boats could pass freely up and down
the river, thus doing away with the necessity of the tranship-
ment of goods and men, and the consequent delay. In the
eighth year of his reign this canal needed repairs, and when
these had been carried out it was 250 cubits long, 20 wide,
and 15 deep. The canal here referred to is probably that
which was made by the official Una under the sixth dynasty.
Having repaired the canal, Usertsen III brought his troops
through it, and sailed up the river to the Second Cataract,
and built several forts in the district near the river to the
south of the modern town of Wadi Halfah. He occupied
several of the islands in the river, among them Jazirat al-
Malik, and fortified them, and at Semnah and Kummah,
on the top of the high, rocky river banks, he also built forts.
At the former place he set up a red granite boundary stone,
on which was cut a decree prohibiting the Blacks from
advancing further to the north than that stone, excepting
such as were actually traders and who had been in the habit
of travelling to Egypt on business. No Nubian boat of any
kind was permitted to pass that stone going northwards.
Very soon after the king had returned to Egypt the Blacks
refused to bring tribute to the Egyptian forts, and they
treated the decree cut in hieroglyphs, which they could not
read, with contempt. At length the king determined to
march against them, and in the sixteenth year of his reign he
and his army raided their country in all directions, killed
their cattle, carried off their women, and cut down and burnt
their crops of dhura (millet). When he had squeezed all the
gold he could possibly get out of the wretched natives, he
returned to Semnah and set up another slab of red granite
on which an account of his conquest of the country was cut.
In his inscriptions he describes himself as a king who thinks
and gives effect to his thoughts without delay. His attack
is quick, and is pressed home with all his might ; his wrath is
implacable, and to his enemies he is merciless. To show mercy
is a sign of weakness, which the enemy regards as cowardice.
6o A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and any man who allows himself to be beaten on his own
ground is a coward. He then goes on to describe the char-
acter of the Black : A word frightens him, and makes him
hesitate ; meet his attack boldly and he will run away ;
he has no courage, and is a miserable and feeble creature ;
he is nothing but a stupid animal without sense and without
intelligence. " I have seen the Blacks," says the king, " and
I swear by my father's life, and by my own life, that what
I am now saying is the truth, and it cannot be gainsaid."
This inscription is the only one known wherein a king of Egypt
describes the character of his foes with such arrogance and
contempt ; as the Nubians could not read it, and the Egyptian
officials did not need to, the exact object of the character-
sketch of the Nubians is not clear. Usertsen HI built a
chain of forts from Elephantine so far south as the rock on the
west bank of the Nile now called Gebel Doshah, and was
thus able to ensure the safe transport of gold from the Sudan
to Egypt. He built a small temple at Semnah, and he either
repaired or added to the great temples at Elephantine,
Thebes, Abydos, Herakleopolis, Tanis, Bubastis, &c. In
his reign the ceremonies connected with the Miracle Play
of the death and resurrection of Osiris were revived on a
very large scale, and a new figure of the god, made of lapis-
lazuli, gold, and turquoise, was established in a new boat
in his temple. The pyramid tomb in which the king was
buried is probably the more northerly of the two brick
pyramids at Dakshur ; round about this pyramid have been
found several tombs of royal ladies, who were the wives and
daughters of Usertsen III, and his tomb must have been near
these.
Amenemhat III, the son and successor of Usertsen III,
was the greatest of the kings of the twelfth dynasty ; he
reigned at least 44 years, and Egypt under his rule enjoyed
great peace and prosperity. Art, sculpture, architecture,
and trade of all kinds flourished, and the remains of his build-
ings and monuments proclaim the activity of all classes of
artificers during his reign. All the great quarries and mines
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 6i
of Egypt and Sinai were kept hard at work in producing the
metal and stone which the king required for all his building
operations. He devoted a great deal of thought and energy
to the improvement of the irrigation of the country. One
of his greatest and most useful works was the construction
of the great reservoir in the Fayyum, which is commonly
known as " Lake Moeris." This Lake stood in a natural
depression in the land, probably of no very great size, but by
means of dykes and regulators the king increased its waters
until their area was about 750 miles and their circumference
150 miles. Its level is said to have been about 80 feet above
the Mediterranean. Near Semnah, where his father had built
a fort, Amenemhat III caused a series of levels to be cut on
the rock to mark the height of the Nile-flood in certain years.
These levels are said to prove that at that time the level of
the river during the Inundation was about 26 feet higher
than it is at the present time. That they were cut in con-
nection with the working of Lake Moeris is said to be
probable.
In connection with the great Lake Herodotus mentions
two huge statues, which he says stand upon two pyramids
in the middle of the Lake. These statues must have
been two colossal statues of Amenemhat III, but they can
never have stood upon pyramids in the water ; they pro-
bably stood on massive stone bases or pedestals that were
built on some earthwork near the Lake. Diodorus Siculus
says that the king *' built a sepulchre and two pyramids,
one for himself and another for his queen, a furlong in height,"
in the ** middle of the lake '* ; he further says that the statues
were made of marble. Amenemhat III built his pyramid
tomb at Hawarah, on a spur of the limestone plateau in the
Fayyum ; the core was made of mud bricks laid in clean
yellow sand, and the pyramid was entered from the south.
The sarcophagus chamber is hewn out of a single block, and
is about 22 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet high. The
elaborate precautions taken by the king for the hiding of
his body were all in vain, for thieves managed to effect an
entrance and to plunder the tomb in ancient days. Quite
62 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
close to the pyramid, to the south of it, he built a magnificent
funerary temple, which Greek writers called the " Labyrinth."
The stone for this building was quarried in the Wadi Ham-
mamat by 2000 men, who were sent there for the purpose by
the king in the nineteenth year of his reign. It must have
been a very large building, and its area is calculated at
800,000 square feet. It must also have contained a very
large number of chambers and corridors, each small chamber
probably representing a town, and each large one a district
or a nome. The whole building was dedicated to the Croco-
dile-god Sebek, and, according to Herodotus, it contained
3000 chambers, 1500 being above and 1500 below ground.
In one part of it were large monolithic pillars, and, according
to Pliny, there were in it " figures of gods, statues of kings,
and effigies of hideous monsters," and the greater part of
it was in *' total darkness." Among other great works in
stone executed by Amenemhat III some would include the
Sphinx, the features of which have been thought to resemble
those of this king ; but the evidence adduced in support of
this theory is not conclusive. On the other hand, the faces
of the Tanis sphinxes (see the cast of one of them in the
British Museum) may well have been copied from the face of
the great king.
Among the monuments of this reign is one of pecuHar
interest, because it helps us to understand how the king
was regarded by so great an official as Sehetepabra, a
director of works at Abydos. After enumerating certain
works which he carried out, and describing his own excel-
lences, he gives his children some good advice. He says :
*' Worship the king, who liveth for ever, in your inmost hearts,
enshrine His Majesty in your hearts ; he is the lord of wisdom
in the heart. His eyes search the reins, he is the Sun-god
and seeth by his light, he sheddeth more light on Egypt than
the Sun-god, he maketh Egypt more fertile than a high Nile,
he fiUeth Egypt with strength and life. . . . Fight ye for
his name, sanctify yourselves by swearing in his name. . . .
He whom the king loveth is prosperous. The man who is
a foe of His Majesty shall not be buried, but his body shall
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 63
be cast into the water. Observe these things and your bodies
shall flourish, and ye shall be ever radiant."
Amenemhat IV, the last king of the twelfth dynasty,
reigned for about nine years. His reign was unimportant,
and though the copper mines in Sinai and the stone quarries
were worked, his buildings were few. His name is found at
Kummah in connection with Nile levels, but there is no
evidence that he occupied himself with irrigation works.
Sebek-neferut-Ra, the sister of Amenemhat, was associ-
ated with her brother in the government of Egypt, either as
co-regent or wife, and she is said to have reigned alone for
nearly four years. Her reign was unimportant. In con-
nection with the twelfth dynasty must be mentioned King
Her, who may have been a son of Usertsen III or of Amenem-
hat III, and a king called Usertsen, who is sometimes called
Usertsen IV.
With the end of the twelfth dynasty we reach another
period of difficulty, and, in spite of all the facts that have
been brought to light in recent years, no satisfactory, or even
approximately final, account of it can be written. The
monuments supply the names of a considerable number of
kings who ruled between the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties,
but several kings whose names are unknown must have lived
during that period. According to Manetho, the kings of the
THIRTEENTH DYNASTY wcrc 6o in number, they reigned 453
years, and their origin was Theban ; the kings of the four-
teenth DYNASTY were 76 in number, they reigned for 184 or
484 years, and they came from Aat-Sekhau in the Delta, the
Xois of the Greeks, and the Sakha of the Arabs. The same
authority goes on to say that there were 43 kings in the
fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynasties, who
reigned in all about 953 years ; to these kings he gives the
name of " Hyksos," or " Shepherds." Speaking generally,
the thirteenth dynasty represented the kings of Upper Egypt,
and the fourteenth dynasty the kings of Lower Egypt, and
many of these must have been contemporaries. In fact,
Egypt was once again split up into two kingdoms, and the
64 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
king of each kingdom strove continually for the possession
of the land of the other. Now the total of the years of the
five dynasties above-mentioned is 1590 according to the
shorter reckoning, and 1890 according to the longer reckon-
ing, but the known facts do not justify us in accepting either
reckoning. It is possible that the total of 1590 years or
1890 years represents the length of the reigns of the kings
at Thebes added to that of the reigns of those of the Delta.
It is tolerably clear that, except at rare intervals, between
the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties a king of the North
and a king of the South were always reigning at the same
time, and that during the greater part of the period neither
was sufficiently strong to make himself master of the whole
country. The general drift of the evidence derived from the
monuments seems to indicate that the power of the Theban
kings decHned steadily at the beginning of the period, and
that as it declined the power of the nomad Semites from the
east, who are known as " Hyksos " or *' Shepherds," increased
until the end of the period, when the Thebans became strong
enough to make themselves masters of the whole country.
We may now mention the principal kings of this difficult
period.
Passing Khutauira, Sekhemkara, Ameni-Antef-
Amenemhat, and several other kings, we come to Khu-
taui-sekhem-Ra Sebek-hetep, whose name is found on
monuments at Bubastis in the Delta, and on the rocks at
Semnah in connection with Nile levels. These facts suggest
that his power extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the
Second Cataract. Sebek was a favourite deity with the kings
of the thirteenth dynasty, and many of them dehghted to
include his name in their names. Opinions differ as to the
order of the succession of the Sebek-heteps, therefore the
name which each adopted as unifier of Egypt is given.
Nefer-hetep was the son of the priest Haankhef and under-
took the restoration of the temple of Osiris at Abydos. He
paid a visit to Heliopolis, and searched through the papyrus
rolls in the Library there for information about the form
of the statue of Osiris and the details of his worship. He
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 65
returned to Abydos, and superintended the performance of
the Miracle Play of Osiris, and took part in the sacred pro-
cession from the river bank to the temple of the god.
Khaneferra Sebek-hetep (III ?) seems to have carried
out some important works in connection with the temples
of Tanis and Abydos, but it is doubtful if he extended the
southern frontier of Egypt to a place a little to the south of
the head of the Third Cataract as the present writer and
others have asserted. The two statues in grey granite, about
24 feet long, which now lie on the Island of Argo, and which
have been adduced as proof that his territory extended above
the Third Cataract, were made, it is now said, at a much later
period. One of the last kings of the thirteenth dynasty was
probably Aaab, whose name is mentioned on a stele now in
the British Museum.
Among the kings of the fourteenth dynasty, from Xois
in the Delta, may be mentioned Sebekemsaf, who worked
the quarries in the Wadi Hammamat, where on two reliefs
he is represented paying adoration to the god Menu of Coptos.
There is in the British Museum a beautiful green basalt
scarab, set in a gold pHnth, inscribed with this king's name
and parts of Chapters XXXB and LXIV of the Book of the
Dead. This probably came from his tomb in Western
Thebes. Of Sebekemsauf, who may well have been the
successor of Sebekemsaf, very little is known. He built a
pyramid tomb for himself and another for his wife Nubkhas
in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes. In the
sixteenth year of the reign of Rameses IX the authorities
at Thebes extracted, by means of '' blows of the stick " and
" beatings upon their feet," a confession from eight thieves of
a gang who had broken into these pyramids and robbed them.
They tore off the gold from the mummies of the king and
queen, and stole the king's two swords and his amulets and
necklaces, and then they set fire to the funerary swathings.
They collected all the furniture in the tomb, including gold,
silver, and copper vases, and all the gold, &c., from the two
66 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
mummies, and they divided it into eight lots, each thief
receiving one-eighth of the spoil. The remaining kings of the
fourteenth dynasty are unimportant.
We have seen that at this time neither in Upper Egypt
nor in Lower Egypt was there a king sufficiently strong to
rule the whole country, or to defend it from the attack of
foes. To the nations around this fact was clear, and Egypt
was quickly invaded in the north, not by a single nation,
but by a confederacy of nomad Semitic tribes, namely, the
Aamu and their kinsfolk, who flocked to the Delta, by way
of the Isthmus of Suez, and settled down there. They came
from the Peninsula of Sinai and Arabia, and from Palestine
and Syria, and they entered Egypt without striking a blow,
the native Egyptians being powerless to resist the invasion.
When they arrived in the Delta they found many Semites
who had been settled there for some time, and before a great
many years had passed the newcomers were masters of Lower
Egypt. To these settlers Manetho gave the name of " Hyk-
sos," or " Shepherds," and their kings are now generally
known as " Shepherd Kings." The name *' Hyksos " repre-
sents the Egyptian words " Hequ Shasu," the former meaning
" chiefs," or " governors," and the latter " nomads " ; but
there is no proof that Shasu had this meaning before the
nineteenth dynasty, and Manetho probably only gives the
meaning which the word had in later times. His statement
is correct, however, for the Semites who overran Lower Egypt
towards the end of the fourteenth dynasty were nomads. The
epithet applied to them by the Egyptians was ** Aat-t," which
has been translated '' rebels," *' invaders," *' plague-bearers,"
and even *' pestilence " ; but its exact meaning to the mind of
the Egyptians is unknown. It was certainly intended to
express their hatred and contempt of the foreigner. The
monuments supply no account of the invasion of the Hyksos,
but, thanks to the famous Jewish historian Flavins Josephus,
we have a description of it, and this agrees substantially
with all the known facts. Josephus quotes this description
from the Second Book of the Egyptian History of Manetho^
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 67
who flourished in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and
says : *' I will set down his very words {i.e. Manetho's), as
if I were to bring the very man himself into court for a
witness." The quotation then follows thus : '* There was
a king of ours, whose name was Timaus. Under him it came
to pass, I know not how, that God was averse to us, and there
came, after a surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out
of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an
expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by
force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. So
when they had gotten those that governed us under their
power, they afterwards burnt down our cities, and demolished
the temples of the gods, and used all the inhabitants after a
most barbarous manner ; nay, some they slew, and led their
children and their wives into slavery. At length they made
one of themselves king, whose name was Salatis ; ^ he also
lived in Memphis, and made both the upper and lower
regions 2 pay tribute, and left garrisons in places that were
most proper for them. He chiefly aimed to secure the eastern
parts, as foreseeing that the Assyrians, who had then the
greatest power, would be desirous of that kingdom and invade
them ; and as he found in the Saite (read Sethroite) Nome a
city very proper for his purpose, and which lay upon the
Bubastite channel,^ but with regard to a certain theologic
notion was called * Avaris,' this he rebuilt, and made very
strong by the walls he built about it, and by a most numerous
garrison of 240,000 armed men whom he put into it to keep
it. Thither Salatis came in summer time, partly to gather
his corn and pay his soldiers their wages, and partly to
exercise his armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners.
When this man had reigned 13 years, after him reigned
another, whose name was Beon, for 44 years ; after him
reigned another, called Apachnas, 36 years and 7 months ;
after him Apophis reigned 61 years, and then Jonias 50 years
and I month ; after all these reigned Assis 49 years and 2
months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who
^ This is a form of the Semitic word " Shalit," t.g. " Governor,"
* i.e. Upper and Lower Egypt. ' i,€, the Daraietta arm of the Nile.
68 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
were all along making war with the Egyptians, and were very
\ desirous gradually to destroy them to the very roots. The
whole nation was styled ' Hycsos/ that is, * Shepherd Kings/
. . . These people kept possession of Egypt 511 years."
, Of the names of the Hyksos kings given by Manetho two
I may be identified from the monuments. * Thus Apophis is
clearly one of the kings whose personal name was Apep, or
Apepa, and Jonias, or lannas, is Khian ; the identifications
proposed for the others are unsatisfactory. The principal
Hyksos kings whose names are recorded on stone objects,
scarabs, and the like are : Aauserra Apepa, who carried on
building operations at Bubastis in the Delta ; his name has
been found at Gebelen in Upper Egypt. In the 33rd year
of his reign the famous papyrus in the British Museum
known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus was copied from
an older papyrus, which probably dated from the reign of
Amenemhat III, a king of the twelfth dynasty. Suserenra
Khian is known from several monuments, both small and
great. A portion of a colossal statue of this king was found
at Bubastis, and a small stone lion, which was purchased at
Baghdad and is now in the British Museum, bears two of his
names. The names of the following kings are found on scarabs ;
Semqen, Anther, Usermerra Iqebarh (?), Nubtauira,
Aahetepra, Khamura (?), Khauserra, Skhaenra, Maa-
ABRA Apepa, Aaneterra, Ipeqher, &c. One of the latest
of the Hyksos kings is Aaqenra Apepa, whose name is found
on two black granite statues of King Mermashau, and on a
table of offerings dedicated to the god Set. In his reign
fighting took place between the two kingdoms of the South
and North, and the Theban king Seqennra Tauaaqen
was killed. Another late Hyksos king, Aapehti-Set, with
the personal name of Nubti, is made known to us by the
" Stele of Four Hundred Years," which was discovered at
Tanis. In the text on this stele it is stated that Nubti
reigned 400 years before Rameses 11. The monuments of
the latest Hyksos kings prove that the Hyksos had adopted,
little by little, the manners and customs of the Egyptians,
and that their chiefs, or shgkhs, had at length adopted the
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 69
Egyptian language and religion, and had assumed the titles
of the old Pharaohs, and become to all intents and purposes
Egyptian kings. Though they worshipped Sutekh, and other
gods and goddesses chiefly from Syria, their kings were quite
content to call themselves " sons of Ra," as if they had been
true descendants of the sun-worshippers of Heliopolis.
Now whilst the Hyksos of the fifteenth and sixteenth
dynasties were in possession of the Delta, a considerable
number of petty kings reigned at Thebes. Of the greater
number of these nothing is known, but a few have left behind
them monuments of importance for the history of the period.
Among these may be mentioned Sesheshra-herhermaat
Antef, Sesheshra-upmaat Antef, whose coffins are preserved
in the Louvre, and Nubkheperra Antef, whose gilded coffin
is in the British Museum. An important inscription of the
last named Antef is found cut upon a doorway built by
Usertsen I in the temple of the god Menu at Coptos, and it
is almost unique of its kind in Egyptian literature. It is a
decree authorising the removal from his office of a high official
of Coptos called Teta, the son of Mentuhetep, for treason.
His rations were stopped and all his emoluments, his name
was erased from the temple registers, none of his posterity
was to minister in any capacity in the temple of Menu, and
his name was consigned to oblivion. Teta seems to have
had friends among certain local chiefs and governors, for the
king goes on to threaten to confiscate the property of any of
those who aid and abet him after the promulgation of this
decree, and to transfer it to Menu, the god of Coptos. An-
other king belonging to this difficult period is Maatenra-
Khaenra Khentcher, in whose reign the temple of Osiris
at Abydos, which was built by Usertsen I, was cleared out,
and its walls renewed and painted by Amenisenb. In return
for his services Amenisenb was given ten tehen weight of
metal, a mass of dates, and a part of an ox, and he was made
inspector of the temple for Hfe. He subsequently restored
all the shrines in the temple, and made repairs of the temple
furniture in cedar wood. &c.
70 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
How long the struggle for supremacy between the Hyksos
and Theban kings lasted cannot be said, but towards the
end of the Hyksos rule it is quite certain that, in the words
of Manetho as quoted by Josephus, '* the Kings of the Thebais
and of the other parts of Egypt made an insurrection against
the Shepherds, and there was a long and terrible war between
them." This war, he continues, was brought to an end
by a native Egyptian king called Misphragmuthosis, or
Alisphragmuthosis, who smote the Hyksos, and shut them
up in a place called Avaris, which had an area of 10,000 acres.
This place the Hyksos had fortified strongly by means of a
" vast and strong wall." Thummosis, the son of Alisphrag-
muthosis, besieged Avaris with 480,000 men, and at the very
moment when he despaired of reducing the city the people
inside it capitulated on the understanding that they were
to leave Egypt, and to be permitted to go whithersoever
they pleased. These terms were agreed to, and they departed
from Egypt with all " their families and effects, in number
not less than 240,000, and bent their way through the desert
towards Syria." Being afraid of the Assyrians, they built
in the country called Judea " a city of sufficient size to
contain this multitude of men, and they gave it the name
of Jerusalem." A great many of the statements made in
the extracts above rest upon facts. A little more light is
thrown upon the relations between the Hyksos kings and
their Theban vassals by the First Sallier Papyrus in the
British Museum. According to this, the " Filthy ones,"
i.e. the Hyksos, were masters of Egypt, and there was neither
king nor lord in the land. The Heq or King of the South
was called Seqennra, and the Hyksos King was called Ra-
Apepi ; the seat of the rule of the latter was Avaris, and the
entire country paid tribute to him, and acknowledged his
overlordship. He had built himself a temple to the god
Sutekh, and worshipped therein daily both morning and
evening with his nobles. One day he summoned his scribes
and magicians, and called upon them to assist him in fram-
ing a despatch to Seqennra, ordering him to worship the
Hyksos god Sutekh, and to destroy the hippopotami in
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 71
the marshy land about Thebes, because the noises they made
prevented him from sleeping at night in his palace at Avaris.
He promises also that if Seqennra will worship Sutekh he
will demand no further tribute from him, and will not bow
down before any god save Amen-Ra, the king of the gods,
of Thebes. What happened between the kings afterwards
is not known, for the last portion of the papyrus is broken off,
but sufficient of the text remains to show that the Hyksos
king was the overlord of Seqennra. The Hyksos king is
called Ra Apepi, and it is probable that he was either
Aaqennra Apepa or Aapehti-Set Nubti.
The fight between the Hyksos and the Thebans appears
to have taken a turn favourable to the latter under a small
group of kings who formed the seventeenth dynasty from
Thebes. These were : (i) Seqennra Tau-aa, who built
himself a tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. (2)
Seqennra Tau-aaaa, who also built himself a tomb in the
same place. Both these tombs are mentioned in the Abbott
Papyrus in the British Museum. (3) Seqennra Tau aa-qen.
Nothing is known of the reign of this last Seqennra, but he
was mummified, and buried, presumably in some tomb that
had been prepared for him. Subsequently his mummy was
taken from its tomb, and hidden with the mummies of many
of the great kings of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
dynasties at Der al-Bahari in Western Thebes. Here they
were discovered in 1871, and a few years later they were
removed to Cairo, where on June 9, 1886, the mummy of
Seqennra was unrolled. His head was turned round to the
left, the skull was split, the lower jawbone broken, the tongue
was bitten through, and there was the mark of a stab from a
dagger over the eye ; it was probably this last injury that
ended the brave king's life. All these wounds were no doubt
received by the king in a fight with the Hyksos, but whether
his troops were victorious or not is unknown. The struggle
for supremacy was carried on by Kames, the son of Seqennra,
and after his death by his brother Senekhtenra, but details
of their short reigns are wanting, and how they died is not
72 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
known. The successor of Senekhtenra was his younger
brother Aahmes, who became the first king of the eighteenth
DYNASTY. The mother of all three brothers was Aah-hetep,
the wife of Seqennra I, and, as the name of the Moon-god
" Aah " forms part of her name, it has been thought that
she must have been connected in some way with one of the
great families of the town of Khemenu, the Hermopolis of
the Greeks, where Thoth was worshipped both under the form
of an ibis and the Moon. In any case she was a moon-wor-
shipper, and it is noteworthy that her son Kames calls himself
on his spear-head " Son of the Moon, born of Thoth."
THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY
Aahmes I, the Amosis of Manetho, carried on the war
against the Hyksos with great vigour, and it is probable that
not more than fifteen or twenty years elapsed between the
death of his father on the field of battle and his conquest
of them. The Thebans drove their former masters before
them northwards, and having captured the Hyksos strong-
hold at Memphis, Aahmes marched on and attacked the chief
seat of their power at Avaris. No inscription of Aahmes
tells us anything about these successes, but one of his Gen-
erals of Marine, also called Aahmes, relates some important
facts in connection with them in the inscription upon the
walls of his tomb at Al-Kab in Upper Egypt. This officer
was captain of a ship called the Bull, and he served on another
called the North. He loved fighting, and he was appointed
to run after the king in his chariot. When the king was
besieging Avaris, his officer was serving in the ship called
" Khaem-Mennefer," and several times he slew foes and
brought back prisoners single-handed. After the fall of
Avaris, and the flight of the Hyksos into Syria, the king
pursued them in his fifth year as far as the city of Sharhana
(the Sharuhen of Joshua xix. 6), and he besieged this city
and took it. Meanwhile the Nubians had revolted, and
Aahmes, taking his able general with him, marched into their
country and defeated the rebels with great slaughter ; when
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 73
he returned he was truly King of Upper and King of Lower
Egypt. Shortly after this another revolt broke out in the
south ; its leader was Aata, whose name means something
like " Filthy one." This rebel advanced northwards with
his troops, and attacked and laid waste the shrines of some
of the Theban gods. His triumph was short-lived, for
Aahmes, with his two generals, Aahmes the son of Abana,
and Aahmes who was sumamed Pennekheb, captured him
and his followers at a place on the Nile called Tenttaa. This
Aata was probably one of the Hyksos. Yet another revolt,
headed by one Tetaan, broke out, but was quickly suppressed.
Later in his reign Aahmes again marched into Nubia to
extend the boundaries of Egypt, and on this occasion he
captured many prisoners, i.e. he seized a large number of
men and brought them to Egypt to perform forced labour.
In the 22nd year of his reign he reopened the quarries of
Turah opposite Memphis, and began to rebuild the temple
of Ptah at Memphis and the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes ;
the hewing of the stone was performed by the " Fenkhu,"
i.e. " foreigners," but at that time these were not the Phoe-^
nicians, as has been asserted. Aahmes reigned about twenty- v
five years, and he will be renowned for all time as the deliverer
of his country from the yoke of the Hyksos. His mummy j
is preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. ^'
TcHESERKARA Amen-hetep . (Amenophis I) succeeded
Aahmes I, and reigned about twenty-one years. From the
funerary inscriptions of his generals called* Aahmes, it is
clear that he marched into Nubia to extend the boundaries
of Egypt, and waged one or two wars against the Libyans,
but his military expeditions were short and unimportant.
To him belongs the credit of having realised that the Nubians
could not be made to pay their tribute, unless Egyptian
officials resided permanently in their country ; he therefore
appointed a governor over them with powers to collect and
forward the tribute annually. His building operations
were on a considerable scale, and he added to the temples
of Karnak and Der al-Bahari, and built shrines to the
74 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
native goddess Sati at various places in Nubia. Perhaps
the most important act of his reign was performed in con-
nection with the endowment of the priests of Amen-Ra at
Thebes. There is no doubt that he was a " princely bene-
factor " of their order, for on their coffins he appears as a
god, and his name is usually found on them in the most
prominent places. It was Amen-Ra who had given the
Thebans victory over the Hyksos, and it was therefore the
duty of the Theban kings to consolidate his worship, and to
provide for its continuance in a temple worthy of the great
god. The worship of Amen at Thebes was very ancient,
but in the earliest times he was one of a group of Nature-
gods, and for centuries he was only of local importance.
His priests early in the eighteenth dynasty, wishing to
increase his importance, affixed to his name that of Ra, the
Sun-god of Anu (Heliopolis), and bestowed upon him the
attributes of gods who were far older than himself. It
seems as if the priests of Amen tried to make their god
represent all the great gods of every great town of Egypt,
so that he might become a sort of universal god in the
country. Amen-hetep I must have been a religious man
and a generous giver to the religious institutions of his day,
otherwise he would not have been worshipped so persistently
for hundreds of years. His mummy is preserved in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
AAKHEPERKARa Tehutimes (Thothmcs I), was the son
of Amen-hetep I by his wife the lady Senseneb, who was
not of royal rank, and he reigned about twenty-two years.
He ascended the throne on the twenty-first day of the third
month ( = January 15-February 15) of the season Pert, and
he sent out a circular to all the nobles of the kingdom stating
this fact, and announcing the forms of the royal names
and titles which he intended to adopt and use. On the
death of his father the Nubians and other Sudani folk
again rebelled, and Thothmes was obliged to invade their
country, called Khent Hennefer. He took Aahmes the
General with him, and as he was sailing up the river his
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 75
boats encountered many boats of the rebels sailing down.
A fierce fight ensued, and many of the Nubian boats were
rammed, and they capsized and, drifted to the bank. The
king " growled at his foes like a leopard," and he hurled his
spear at their leader with such success that it pierced him
through and through,* and he fell down dead. Thereupon
a great slaughter took place and the enemy was defeated,
and many prisoners were taken. Before Thothmes returned
to Egypt he tied the dead body of the rebel chief to the
bows of his boat, so that as he sailed down the river every
one on the banks might see it and tremble before him.
Where this fight took place is not known. Subsequently,
perhaps in the third year of his reign, Thothmes seems to
have traversed the whole district of the Second and Third
Cataracts, for a long inscription of his is found on the Island
of Tombos, at the head of the Third Cataract, near the
modern village of Karmah. Near this place he built some
kind of strong building, the officer in charge of which
would be instructed to collect tribute from the people on
the river banks, who cultivated the richest tract of land in
all Nubia. This tract is now known as the ** Dongola
Province," and at the present time it yields a good revenue.
On his way back to Egypt Thothmes passed through the
canal in the First Cataract, which was made by Merenra
in the sixth dynasty, and repaired by Usertsen III in the
twelfth dynasty.
The next scene of the king's labours was Western Asia,
and he marched northwards through Palestine and Syria
to the region of Rethenu, which lies to the north-west of
Mesopotamia. He fought many fights with the various semi-
independent peoples of this country, and was victorious
everywhere ; he collected loot in abundance, and made
many prisoners. His old servant Aahmes was with him
in the land of Naharina, i.e. the ** land of the two rivers,"
or Mesopotamia, and captured a horse and chariot and cut
off twenty-one hands from the men he had slain. Whilst
Thothmes I was in this region he set up a stele to mark
the limit of his empire in that direction, and this stele was
76 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
seen in later days by Thothmes III. The building operations
of Thothmes I were important. With the tribute from Nubia
and Western Asia he built a pylon and set up two obelisks,
each about 76 feet high, at Karnak ; one is still standing.
He carried out many works in Western Thebes, built a temple
at Abydos, dedicated a chapel to Sati and Thoth at Primis
in Nubia, and added buildings to the forts at Semnah.
Aakheperenra Tehutimes (Thothmes II) was the
son and successor of Thothmes I, and he reigned about
twelve years ; his mother was the Princess Maat-Nefert.
According to the testimony of the General Aahmes Pen-
nekheb, Thothmes sent an army into Nubia to put down
a revolt among the Nubians, who had not only refused to
pay tribute, but had begun to raid the cattle of Egyptians
settled in the country. The tribes of Palestine and Syria
that had been forced to pay tribute by Thothmes I also
refused to pay, and General Aahmes accompanied Thoth-
mes II when he raided those countries and extorted
tribute from the tribes of the Shasu. Considering the short-
ness of his reign Thothmes II carried out many important
works on the temple at Karnak on the right bank of the Nile,
and on the temple of Madinat Habu on the left bank. His
names are found on the buildings that were begun in Nubia
by his father and completed in his own reign. The mummy
of Thothmes II is preserved in the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo, and was unrolled on July i, 1886, when it was found
to have been opened and remade in the reign of Painet-
chem (twenty-first dynasty). The experts who examined the
mummy stated that the king could not have been more than
thirty years of age. He had a low, narrow forehead, and
his nose was deformed, and the general appearance of his
remains suggests that his muscular development was im-
perfect, and that he suffered from some skin disease. He
left one son, who afterwards became Thothmes III ; the
mother of this son was the lady Aset, or Isis. Some think
that he married his half-sister Hatshepset.
What happened exactly on the death of Thothmes II is
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 77
not certain. According to the scribe Anen who Hved under
four reigns, namely, Amenhetep I, Thothmes I, Thothmes II,
and Thothmes III, the successor of Thothmes II was his
son by the lady Aset, who ascended the throne as Thothmes
III. He says, " When he {i.e. Thothmes II) went to heaven
and was united with the gods, his son (Thothmes III) stood
upon his throne as King of Egypt, and he ruled upon the
throne of him that begot him. And his sister Hatshepset
was made a ruler of the country, and Egypt was under her
jurisdiction, and Kamt {i.e. Egypt) performed for her works
of service with due submission." These statements agree
very well with the evidence of the monuments, but it must
be noted that Hatshepset was not the sister of the son of
Thothmes II, but the aunt. When his father died he was
quite a child, and certainly unable to rule. His aunt Hat-
shepset was of royal descent both on her father's side and
her mother's, whilst her nephew was royal only on one side.
There is no doubt that she took up the reins of government
at once on the death of her half-brother Thothmes II, and
it seems she felt that she would effectually consolidate her
power, and render her rule acceptable to the Egyptians if
she married her nephew, and she did so. When the scribe
Anen calls Hatshepset the " sister " of the successor of
Thothmes II, he follows a custom that was always common
in Egypt, i.e. to call a man's wife his *' sister " and a woman's
husband her " brother." The monuments prove that
Hatshepset was a shrewd, capable woman, and that although
her joint reign with her nephew was peaceful it was not
inglorious. Her will must have influenced the course of
affairs greatly during her half-brother's reign, and after his
death she carried out undertakings, some of which were
probably planned during the reign of her father Thothmes I.
Hatshepset began her joint reign towards the close of
the sixteenth century before Christ, and she reigned about
twenty- two years. She justified her claifti to the throne of
Eg3^t by asserting that she was a veritable daughter of
Amen-Ra, who had begotten her in his sanctuary, and that
78 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of her two parents only her mother was mortal. The belief
that every king of Egypt was a god who had become incar-
nate of a woman was very old, for the first king of Egypt
was begotten by Horus, and the first of the sun-worshipping
kings who formed the fifth dynasty was begotten by Ra, a
sun-god from Western Asia, and became incarnate of the
mortal woman Rut-tetet. Hatshepset was, so far as we
know, the first queen of Egypt to claim divine origin in this
way, and she herself seems to have seen the difficulty of apply-
ing to a woman the theory that from the very beginning
was supposed to concern the king of Egypt only. She called
herself " Khnemet Amen," a name which indicated that she
was of the very essence and being and bone and flesh of
the god. One of the most important events in her reign
was the despatch, in the ninth year, of an expedition to Punt
to fetch myrrh and the other products of this remote Sudani
land. Her fleet consisted of five ships, which reached Punt
safely, and, when the captain Nehsi had given to Parahu,
the Prince of Punt, the gifts which the queen had sent,
the natives loaded her ships with gold, boomerangs, myrrh,
ebony, ivory, precious woods and incense, dog-headed apes,
monkeys, skins of animals, &c. From a commercial point
of view this expedition was a great success. In the ninth
year of her reign Hatshepset made herself king of Egypt,
and in her bas-reliefs she appears in the form of a man, and
wears male attire, and wears the head-dress of a god and a
beard on her chin. As the builder of the beautiful temple
of Der al-Bahari she has earned lasting fame ; she called it
" Tcheser Tcheseru," i.e. " Holy of HoHes," and dedicated
it to Amen-Ra and Hathor. It had three stages, and
one of the walls she decorated with bas-reliefs illustrating
her expedition to Punt, and with sculptured scenes and texts
illustrating and describing her divine birth and enthrone-
ment. Her architect was called Senmut. Besides this
temple he carried out a great many works at Karnak, includ-
ing the setting up of a pair of granite obelisks, about 98 feet
high, in honour of her divine father Amen and her earthly
father Thothmes I. With the revenues which she derived
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 79
from the Sudan and Syria she carried out the restoration
throughout the country of many of the temples and shrines
that had been wrecked by the Semitic Aamu and by the
Hyksos and other foes. The monuments made during the
twenty-two years of the reign of Hatshepset make it quite
clear that her nephew, who was joint ruler with her, had very
little to do with the government of the country during her
reign, and that he was kept in the background. From the
career of conquest on which he embarked after her death it
is certain that his tastes and abilities were wholly different
from hers.
Menkheperra Tehutimes (Thothmes III), the son of
Thothmes II and the lady Aset, reigned 54 years, 22 years
as co-regent with Hatshepset, and 32 years as sole monarch
of all Egypt. Shortly after he ascended the throne he found
himself obliged to undertake wars on a scale that had never
been dreamed of in Egypt, for the people of Syria and Pales-
tine and Nubia on the great Queen's death promptly declared
themselves independent, and refused to pay tribute. They
had forgotten all about the conquests of Thothmes I, and
apparently they never had any cause to fear Thothmes II
or Hatshepset ; in fact, the twenty-two years of the reign
of the latter had enabled them to husband their resources,
to make plots against Egypt, and to prepare for war. She
was no warrior, and had no military instincts, and whilst
she was amusing herself with playing at " bringing Punt to
Egypt," and proclaiming her divine origin, the possessions
of Egypt in Western Asia and in the Sudan were slipping
away from her control. Thothmes III realised that there
was no time to be lost, and, with the skill, decision, and
bravery of a man who was naturally a great soldier, he col-
lected his forces and made ready for serious war. He knew
that the tactics which the Egyptians usually displayed
in dealing with savage Sudani tribes would be useless in
Syria, among well-armed men, who were better trained,
and who were in many respects more civilised than the Egyp-
tians. During his reign he made seventeen expeditions
8o A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
into Western Asia, Nubia, and other countries, and it is the
Annals of these campaigns, which he instructed his officer
Thaneni to prepare, that form our chief source of informa-
tion about his splendid conquests.
In his first campaign, which took place in the 22nd and
23rd years of his reign, he captured Megiddo, defeated all the
tribes round about it, and obtained immense quantities of
spoil. A diary of this war was kept, and the leather roll on
which it was written was preserved in the temple of Amen
at Thebes. In his 24th year he received tribute from the
governors of Assyria and Rethenu. In his 25th year he
received from Rethenu choice shrubs and plants, which he
sent to Egypt. In his 28th year he marched again into Syria,
and took possession of Methen (Mitani) and Thenpu (Tunep),
and obtained very rich spoil. On his way back to Egypt
he captured Arvad and with it immense spoil. In his 30th
year he captured the town of Kadesh on the Orontes, which
was the centre of rebelHon, and Simyra, and made a second
attack on Arvad. On this occasion he carried back to
Egypt several sons and brothers of the chiefs as hostages.
Another expedition to the same region took place in his
31st year, and when he came back to Egypt he found a
deputation from Nubia, who presented him with gum, cattle,
ivory, ebony, and slaves. The expedition to Syria in his
33rd year was very important, for he conquered the whole
region of Naharen (the Naharayim of the Bible), and re-
ceived tribute from all the important towns, as well as from
Sinjar and Babylon. Whilst he was in this region the
Hittites sent gifts to him, and, according to the information
supplied by the General Amenemheb, the king went to hunt
elephants, and slew one hundred and twenty of these animals.
On his return to Egypt he found awaiting him valuable
tribute from Punt and from Northern Nubia (Uauat). In
the 34th year of his reign he received tribute of copper, lead,
&c., from Cyprus, and tribute from Northern and Southern
Nubia.
Meanwhile the peoples of Naharen had made up their
minds to cast off the yoke of the Egyptians if possible,
l.u'-l.-iil-'.l
Head from a Colossal Statue of Thothmes
III, King of Egypt 1 5 50 B.C., now in the
British Museum.
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 8i
and they revolted, their revolt taking the form of refusing
to pay tribute. Thothmes III promptly marched against
them, and utterly routed the allied tribes, who had sent
cavalry and infantry to bar his progress. The rebels were
slain, and all their horses and chariots, and armour and
weapons, became the spoil of the Egyptians. The expedi-
tions of the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st years of his reign
produced vast quantities of spoil, and on his last expedition,
the seventeenth, which took place in the 42nd year of his
reign, he attacked Kadesh and laid waste the cities of Tunep,
Arkata, and the country around ; from these he obtained
an immense quantity of spoil of all kinds. The Annals of
Thothmes III end with the 42nd year of his reign, but there
is little doubt that his expeditions did not cease then. It
is possible that seventeen campaigns had convinced the
stubborn Nubians and peoples of Western Asia that it was
easier and cheaper to pay tribute than to fight Thothmes III.
On the other hand, the king may have sent his son to collect
the tribute. In the 50th year of his reign Thothmes III
made some kind of expedition into Nubia, for he had the old
canal in the First Cataract cleared out, and his fleet of boats
passed through it to the south. Four years later he died,
and was buried in a rock-hewn tomb in the Valley of the
Royal Tombs, His mummy was found at Der al-Bahari,
and was unrolled at Cairo in July 1881 ; it had been broken
in ancient days by tomb-robbers, and was wrapped in a
linen swathing on which was inscribed a remarkable text
from the Book of the Dead, now known as the CLIVth
Chapter.
The expeditions of Thothmes III filled the treasury of
Egypt to overflowing, and never before had the countries
of Punt, Nubia, and Western Asia poured their treasures into
Egypt so often or so abundantly. The king's liberality to
the temple of Amen was as great as his bravery, and the
remains of his works prove that every great temple of Egypt
profited by his munificence. His captives supplied the
labour, and the decorations of every temple testified, by
the materials of which they were made, to the vast extent
F
82 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of his conquests. At Heliopolis, Memphis, Abydos, Den-
derah, and Coptos he carried out extensive works and
additions, but his most splendid architectural works were
reserved for Thebes, the beloved city of Amen. Here he
added a colonnade with 40 granite columns and 32 pillars,
and a pylon, on the walls of which he had cut the names of
all the peoples and tribes whom he had conquered. On
the walls of a corridor leading to the shrine of Amen his
Annals were cut, and he built a small temple between two
of the pylons, and dug a sacred lake. At Elephantine he
built a temple to Khnemu, the god of the First Cataract,
and he founded the temple of Sulb (or Soleb) between the
Second and Third Cataracts. He set up at least four great
granite obelisks at Karnak, but not one of them now remains,
and two at Heliopolis, and of these one is in New York, and
the other, commonly called " Cleopatra's Needle," stands on
the north bank of the Thames, on the Thames Embankment.
Another of his obeUsks, which was unfinished when he died,
stands in the open space in front of St. John Lateran in
Rome. Another, but quite a small one, is preserved in the
Egyptian Museum of Alnwick Castle, Northumberland ;
it was given by Muhammad All, Pasha of Egypt, to Lord
Prudhoe, but what temple or town it came from is not
known.
As Hatshepset was fortunate in her choice of the architect
Senmut, so also was Thothmes IH fortunate in finding a
number of officials who were capable of understanding and
carrying out his great works. First and foremost was his
wazir, or prime minister, called Rekhmara, who ruled Egypt
during his king's absence, and administered the affairs of
the kingdom during the latter half of his reign. He was a
wise man, with sound, shrewd judgment as to men and things,
and a competent knowledge of everything that belonged to
his office ; he was just and honest, and the description of the
duties of a wazir, which he had inscribed upon the walls of
his tomb, proves that he was one of the ablest officials ever
known in ancient Egypt. Among the great building engineers
pf Thothmes IJI must be mentiojned Puam, who set up for
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 83
his lord a pair of obelisks, which are represented on one of
the walls of his tomb at Kumah in Western Thebes. The
best summary of the conquests of Thothmes III is given on
a stele found at Kamak. The text is cut upon it in hiero-
glyphs, and is supposed to be a speech of the god Amen-Ra,
who enumerates the countries that had been brought under
the sway of Egypt by the king, whom he calls his beloved
son. A translation of it will be found in the accompanying
volume on Egyptian Literature.
Aakheperura Amen-hetep (Amenophis II) was the son
of Thothmes III by Hatshepset Mertra, and he reigned
about ten years. He was associated in the rule of Egypt
with his father, with whose methods he was well acquainted.
As soon as Thothmes III was dead, the peoples of Western
Asia revolted. Amen-hetep II at once marched into Syria
with an army, and quickly reduced the rebels to subjection.
He crossed the Orontes and went on to Ni, where he set up
a memorial tablet, and was successful in all his fights with
the natives. The rebels had had no time to organise their
forces, so his engagements with them cannot be regarded as
battles. The centre of the rebellion was the country of
Takhisa, which lay to the north of Kadesh, and we owe our
knowledge of the details of his expedition to a stele which he
set up at Amadah in Nubia, after his return from Syria. He
was a mighty man of war, for in Shemshu-Atum he himself
captured eighteen prisoners alive and sixteen oxen (horses ?).
He carried away from Takhisa seven chiefs, and brought them
to Egypt, together with hundreds of other prisoners and a
very large quantity of copper and hundreds of horses and
chariots. He hung the chiefs head downwards from the bows
of his boat, and when he arrived at Thebes he sacrificed six
of them to Amen-Ra, and had their bodies exposed on the
walls of Thebes. During his absence in Syria the Nubians
revolted, and in the third year of his reign he sent an army
against them, and his officers took with them the remaining
chief of Takhisa. The Egyptians were victorious every-
where, and they penetrated so far south as Karai, or Napata
84 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
(the modern Merawi), at the foot of the Fourth Cataract.
Here the wretched chief of Takhisa was sacrificed to the
local god, and his body was hung upon the city wall, so that
all men might know how futile it was to rebel against the King
of Egypt. Neither Syrian nor Nubian rebelled during the
later years of the reign of Amen-hetep H, and he was free to
devote himself to the repair and restoration of temples. Few,
however, of his monuments remain. He was buried in a
tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings in Western
Thebes, and his mummy, lying in its sarcophagus, may be
seen there to-day. Close by lie the bodies of some of the royal
ladies, who either committed suicide or were killed when the
king died.
Menkheperura Tehutimes (Thothmes IV) is thought to
have been the son of Amen-hetep II, and he reigned for eight
or nine years. He made one or more expeditions into Western
Asia, apparently because the tribes had again revolted,
and, according to the inscriptions in the tombs of some of
his officers and officials, he advanced to Naharen, reduced
the rebels to subjection, and brought back the usual gifts of
gold and silver in the form of vases, and copper. In the
eighth year of his reign he learned that the Nubians of Uauat
were about to invade Egypt, and, after consulting his god, he
set out with an army to chastise the rebels and to collect the
all-important tribute. His soldiers were successful, and he
brought back a large number of prisoners and much spoil.
A relief on the Island of Konosso represents him in the act of
slaying two Nubians in the presence of the Nubian gods
Tetun and Ahu. He settled his prisoners, both Syrians and
Nubians, in Thebes, where they carried out forced labours
for the king. Though the name of Thothmes IV is found
in many places, his buildings were few, and the greatest of
his works was the erection of the fine granite obelisk which
Thothmes III had ordered to be set up at Karnak, but which
death prevented him from finishing and erecting. Thothmes
IV added by the side of the dedication of Thothmes III
inscriptions of his own, and he tells us that the obelisk had
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 85
been lying on its side at Karnak for thirty-five years, when he
had his father's dedication cut upon it, and set it up. Among
other facts it states that Thothmes IV brought back from
Rethenu (Syria) cedar wood wherewith to make the sacred
boat of Amen-Ra, called Userhat-Amen. The name of
Thothmes IV is imperishably connected with the Sphinx at
Gizah. According to an inscription on a stele set up between
the paws of the Sphinx, Thothmes IV was in the habit of
amusing himself by practising shooting with arrows at a target,
and in hunting lions and oryxes, and in chariot-driving with
very fleet horses. One day after hunting in the desert near
the Sphinx, he and his followers rested at midday under the
shadow of the Sphinx, and he fell asleep. During his sleep
Harmakhis-Kheper-Ra-Atem appeared to him, and pro-
mised to give him the double crown of Egypt if he would
clear away the sand from the Sphinx, his image, and protect
his sanctuary. When the king awoke he took steps to carry
out the god's desire and, presumably, became king in con-
sequence. The style of the language in which the inscription
is written has given rise to the theory that the narrative is
a priestly invention of a later date, but, even if this be so,
it is probable that the legend itself is as old as the time
of Thothmes IV. Hitherto the relations between the kings
of Egypt and the chiefs of Syria, or Rethenu, Naharen, or
Mitanni, had not been of a friendly character, for they had
consisted on the one side of demands for tribute, and on the
other of the payment of the same. Thothmes IV, however,
inaugurated a new policy. How the matter came about
is not clear, but certain it is that he demanded in marriage
the daughter of Artatama, the king of Mitanni, and we learn
from one of the Tell al-Amarnah tablets now in Berlin (No. 24)
that he made his demand seven times, and that Artatama
only gave his consent to her marriage with Thothmes IV at
the seventh time of asking. The kingdom of Mitanni was
ruled at that time by kings who were of Aryan descent, and
the documents written in the language which they intro-
duced into the country with their rule cannot at present be
deciphered. The native name of the Mitannian princess who
86 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
married Thothmes IV is unknown, but she is, no doubt, to
be identified with the queen of this king who is called " Mut-
emuaa."
Nebmaatra Amen-hetep (Amenophis III), the Memnon of
Greek writers, was the son of Thothmes IV and the Mitannian
princess Mutemuaa, and he reigned about thirty-six years.
In the latter years of his reign, at least, it was stated in his
inscriptions that he was a veritable son of the god Amen-Ra,
who had become incarnate in him by Queen Mutemuaa.
He ascended the throne probably before he was twenty years
of age, and during his reign he saw Egypt attain to a state
of greatness and prosperity almost beyond belief. He
enjoyed the fruits of the wars of his ancestors, and was free
to indulge in hunting expeditions, of which he was passion-
ately fond, to cultivate friendship with Asiatic kings, and to
gratify his taste in architecture and the fine arts. There is
no evidence that he possessed great abilities as a warrior;
but he had no need of them, for the only tributary people
who rebelled during his reign were the Nubians. Their
revolt must have taken the usual form, namely, refusal to
pay tribute to Egypt, and in the fifth year of his reign Amen-
hetep III sailed to the south at the head of a military expedi-
tion. The revolt in the country of Abhat was suppressed
by Merimes, the Egyptian general who was over Nubia, and
a stele in the British Museum states that he cut off 312 hands
of the rebels, and captured 740 prisoners. The king himself
marched much farther to the south than Abhat, and, though
the position of the countries which he reached cannot be
identified with certainty, it seems clear that he penetrated
the region to the south-east of Egypt through which the
Blue Nile flows. There is no evidence that he made any
attempt to annex this remote country, or to impose even
the most shadowy rule over it, and this part of the expedition
was probably undertaken by him solely for the gratification
of his love for exploring lands unknown to him, and perhaps
for hunting purposes. In his reign the rule of Egypt was not
effective south of Karai, or Napata, a large Nubian town
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE Sy
situated on the left bank of the Nile at the foot of the Fourth
Cataract.
With the tribute paid by the tributaries of Western Asia
and Nubia, and the profits that accrued to Egypt from
successful trading in all the neighbouring countries, Amen-
hetep carried out the series of magnificent building opera-
tions that have made his name famous throughout the world.
He reopened the quarries of Turah to obtain the stone with
which he built the Serapeum at Sakkarah, he worked the cop-
per mines of Sinai, and, in order to obtain stone for his mighty
buildings at Thebes, he worked the quarries of Gebel Silsilah
on a scale unprecedented in the history of Egypt. He built
a great pylon at Karnak, and made in connection with it an
avenue that came from the river to the temple and was
ornamented with two obelisks and a colossal statue of him-
self. He also completed many buildings at Karnak, but for
some reason he felt that another great temple was necessary
for the beautifying of his capital, and so he began to build the
great temple of the Southern Apt, now commonly known
as the ** Temple of Luxor." This temple was dedicated
to Amen-Ra, Mut, and Khensu, and was about 500 feet long
and 180 broad ; it was connected with the temple of Karnak
by means of a paved way, on each side of which was a row of
ram-headed sphinxes facing each other. Between Karnak
and Luxor he built a temple to Menthu, and another to Mut ;
and from the latter come the black basalt statues of Sekhmet
now in the British Museum. In Western Thebes Amen-
hetep III built a magnificent funerary temple, every trace of
which has disappeared with the exception of two great sand-
stone statues of the king, each about 60 feet high, which stood
before it, and which are now known as the *' Colossi of Mem-
non." The northern statue is said to have emitted a sweet,
sad note daily just after sunrise, and for this reason was
called the " vocal statue of Memnon," but, after the damage
that was done to the statue by an earthquake (27 B.C.) was
repaired by Septimius Severus, the sound it had formerly
emitted at sunrise was no longer heard. Amen-hetep III
built a temple to Khnemu on the Island of Elephantine,
8H A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and a temple in honour of his wife, the great Queen Ti, at
Sadengah in Nubia. Some 30 miles to the south of this,
near the modem village of Sulb, he built a very large temple
of sandstone, with two pylons, two courts, and two pillared
halls, large portions of which still remain ; it was about 300
feet long, and was the largest Egyptian temple ever built
in Nubia. It is possible that the two fine red granite lions,
which were found at Gebel Barkal at the foot of the Fourth
Cataract, and are now in the British Museum, stood origi-
nally in the temple at Sulb ; both contain this king's names,
but one of them was made by the command of Tutankh-
Amen, a later king of the eighteenth dynasty, probably to
replace one of the originals which had been broken, or de-
stroyed by some means.
Among the small monuments of the reign of Amen-hetep III
must be mentioned a remarkable series of five scarabs, which
were issued by the royal command to commemorate five im-
portant personal events in the king's reign. These events
were : — i. His marriage with Ti, a foreign lady from the
country of Tchah. 2. His making of a lake on which Queen
Ti could sail in a pleasure boat on the left bank of the Nile
*in or near Western Thebes. 3. His marriage with Gilukhipa,
the daughter of Shutama, king of Mitanni, in the tenth year
of his reign. 4. A famous wild-cattle hunt at some place in
Lower Egypt, when the king slew about 75 beasts in two
days. 5. His lion-hunts, during which in the first ten years
of his reign he slew 102 " fierce lions " with his own hands.
These scarabs, many specimens of which are nearly four
inches in length, were made in large numbers, and were dis-
tributed by the king among his officials and friends in many
parts of Egypt. Several fine specimens are exhibited in the
British Museum.
Amen-hetep III continued and developed the friendship
that existed between Egypt and certain of the kings of
Western Asia, and he married several of their daughters.
These facts we learn from the Tell al-Amarnah Tablets, a
remarkable collection of documents written in the Babylonian
language and in cuneiform characters, which were found in
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 89
1887 by a native woman in a chamber in the small building
that lies to the east of the palace built by Amen-hetep IV
in his city of Khut-Aten, the ruins of which are known by the
Egyptians as " Tell al-Amamah." The exact number of the
tablets found is unknown, for several were broken into
pieces by the men who bought the woman's interest in the
"find," and several were lost on their way to Cairo, but the
total number of tablets found must have been between 300
and 320. The British Museum possesses 85 Tell al-Amamah
Tablets and a portion of a mythological text, the Royal
Museum in BerUn about 160 tablets and fragments, the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo 54, and a few are in private hands.
The greater number of the tablets contain letters and de-
spatches written to Amen-hetep III and his son Amen-hetep
IV by kings and governors of the countries and districts in
Western Asia, between 1450 B.C. and 1400. They throw
great Hght on the relations that existed between Egypt and
Babylonia, Mitanni, and Syria, and supply much information
concerning their treaties and alliances, and their marriage
customs, religion, intrigues, &c., which is to be obtained
nowhere else. They give us for the first time the names of
the Mitannian kings Artatama, Artashumara, and Tushratta.
According to these tablets Amen-hetep III married a sister
of Kadashman-Enlil, king of Karaduniyash (Babylonia),
and one, if not two, of his daughters. He also married Gilu-
khipa, the daughter of Shutama, king of Mitanni, sister of
Tushratta, who succeeded Shutarna on the throne of Mitanni ;
this lady arrived in Egypt in the tenth year of the reign of
Amen-hetep III, accompanied by a train of 317 of her prin-
cipal ladies. And he married Tatum-khipa, the daughter
of Tushratta, whose wedding gifts, i.e. dowry, are enumerated
on a tablet in Berlin. His chief wife, and mother of his heir
and successor to the throne of Egypt, was TT, the daughter
of luaa by his wife Thuaa ; her name appears side by side
with that of Amen-hetep III, and it is quite clear that her
power was far greater than that usually enjoyed by queens
of reigning monarchs in Egypt. Much has been written
about her origin, some holding the view that she was an
90 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Egyptian and that her parents were Egyptian, and others
that she was of foreign extraction. An inscription on a
small porcelain bowl in the possession of a private collector
in England states that her father was a chief of the country
of Tchah, a fact that shows at least that she was not wholly
of Egyptian origin. Opinions may differ as to the exact
position of Tchah and its boundaries, but it is quite certain
that this country was in Western Asia, and that it was a part
of the region commonly known as Syria, and thus, according
to the testimony of the bowl, Ti was the daughter of a man
of Asiatic origin.
The monumental remains of Amen-hetep III prove beyond
1 all doubt that many great architects, sculptors, metal
/J workers, artists, and literary men of all kinds flourished
L during his reign, and among these must be mentioned Amen-
\ hetep, the son of Hep, a man of great learning and abiUty.
He was " royal scribe " to the king, and he possessed a
thorough knowledge of Egyptian literature. He presided
over the taxation of the country, and managed the Inland
Revenue Department of Egypt with firmness and justice.
He rectified the boundaries of public and private estates,
and kept the claims of the desert tribes in check, and created
a service for the policing of the river Nile and its canals,
and the ports in the Delta. Finally he was appointed
Overseer of Works by the king, who also made him his chief
architect, and it was due to the genius of this great official
that Thebes became a great and beautiful city, full of digni-
fied and splendid buildings. One of his greatest works was
the building of the temple of Amen-hetep III, and it was
he who made for it the colossal statue of the king, which
was nearly 60 feet high. He also built a funerary temple,
which, by a special decree issued in the 31st year of his reign,
the king ordered to be maintained out of the revenues of the
temple of Amen-Ra, and in an inscription set up in it the king
solemnly cursed any of his successors who should allow this
temple to fall into ruin. A copy of this decree, cut in the
hieratic character, is preserved on a slab of sandstone now
in the British Museum (No. 432). Amen-hetep was the
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 91
author of certain religious texts which were believed to
possess great magical power, and he was said to be a skilled
diviner. His words of wisdom were treasured for many
centuries after his death, for the Egyptians thought that the
spirit of Thoth and all the other great gods was in him, and
they ranked him with Herutataf, the son of King Khufu,
and with Imhetep, the great magician-priest of Memphis,
two of the greatest of Egyptian sages. He was over eighty
years of age when he died.
Amen-hetep III caused his tomb to be made in the Western
Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, and had some of
its chambers decorated with scenes representing the king
holding converse with the gods, and with texts from the
Book Am Tuat. His mummy was found in 1889 in the
tomb of Amen-hetep II, whither it was removed after the
robbery of the Royal Tombs under the twentieth dynasty.
Nefer-kheperu-Ra Ua-en-Ra Amen-hetep (Amenophis
IV), the next king of Egypt, was the son of Amen-hetep III
by his wife Ti, and he reigned about 20 years. Whether he
ascended the throne immediately after his father's death is
not known, but whether he did or not matters little, for it
is quite certain that for some years at least his mother was
the actual ruler of Egypt, and that she ordered works to be
carried out as if she were its lawful sovereign. His wife
Nefertithi, who was probably of Asiatic origin like his mother,
also obtained a power and an authority in Egypt which were
not usually enjoyed by Egyptian queens. These facts are
proved by the monuments, in which both Ti and Nefertithi
are represented as equals in every respect of Amen-hetep IV,
and their names are accorded prominence similar to those of
the king. The pictures and sculptured representations of
Amen-hetep IV show that his physical characteristics were
wholly of a non-Egyptian character, and suggest that he was
of a highly nervous and sensitive disposition, lacking in pur-
pose, firmness, and decision, full of prejudices, self-will, and
obstinacy. His acts prove that he was unpractical in every
matter connected with the rule of Egypt and her Nubian
92
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and Asiatic provinces, which had been won for her by the
great Thothmes III, and the story of the break-up of the
great Egyptian Empire owing to his weakness and incapacity
is almost the saddest page of Egyptian history. His aUen
blood, derived from his mother and grandmother, caused to
develop in him a multitude of strange ideas about rehgion,
art, and government that were detestable to the Egyptians,
Amen-hetep IV, his Queen, and three Princesses distributing Gifts.
whose national characteristics he neither recognised nor
understood, and with whom he had no true sympathy.
When he ascended the throne he adopted a series of names
that proclaimed to all Egypt that he held religious views of
a different character from those held by the majority of the
Egyptians. Some of these resembled the doctrines of the
Sun-god as taught by the priests of Heliopolis, but others
were obnoxious to the Egyptians generally. His father and
grandfather probably held exactly the same religious views,
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 93
but if they did they took care not to allow them to disturb
the peace of the country, or to interrupt the business of the
state. Amen-hetep IV proclaimed a new form of worship
and, to all intents and purposes, a new god, whom he called
Aten. Now Aten was well known to the Egyptians as the
god of the solar disk, and they had been familiar with him
from the earliest period ; but Amen-hetep IV assigned to
him new attributes, which are very difficult to describe.
He taught that Aten was the unseen, almighty, and ever-
lasting power that made itself manifest in the form of the
solar disk in the sky, and was the source of all life in heaven
and earth and the underworld. He ascribed to Aten a
noonot heist ic character, or oneness, which he denied to every
other god, but when we readf the hymns to Aten of which
the king approved, it is extremely difficult to understand the
difference between the oneness of Aten and the oneness of
Amen-Ra, or Ra, or of any other great Egyptian god.
During the first four years of his reign Amen-hetep IV
lived at Thebes, but during the whole of this period he was
quarrelling actively with the priests of Amen-Ra, whose god
Amen was an abomination to him. As king he had great
resources at his command, and besides building a sanctuary
called Kem Aten at Thebes, he set up shrines to Aten at
various places in Egypt, and also in the Sudan. The most
important in the latter country was Kem Aten, which was
probably situated at or near Sadengah, where his father
had built a temple in honour of Queen Ti. Whilst this work
was going on Amen-hetep IV caused the name of Amen to
be hammered out from the inscriptions on existing monu-
ments, and he suppressed by every m.eans in his power the
cults of the other gods. Such an intolerant religious fanatic
was never before seen in Egypt, and the king hated Amen
and his name so thoroughly that he changed his own name
from Amen-hetep to " Khu-en-Aten," or " Aakh-en-Aten,*f '
a name meaning " spirit soul of Aten." Besides his fanati-
cism there was also a material reason for his hatred of Amen.
He saw the greater part of the revenues of the country being
absorbed slowly but surely by the greedy priesthood of this
94 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
god, and he felt that their wealth made their power to be
actually greater than that of the king.
Of the details of the fight between the priesthoods of the
old gods of Egypt and 'the king little is known, but it is clear
that the Egyptians found some effective way of showing their
resentment to the king, for in the fifth year of his reign he
forsook Thebes, and founded a new capital, wherein Aten
alone was to be worshipped. The site of the new capital,
which was called Khut-en-Aten, or " horizon of Aten," was
. on the east bank of the Nile, about 200 miles south of Mem-
I phis, and is marked to-day by the villages of Haggi Kandil,
\and Tell al-Amarnah. Here he built a large temple to Aten
iand two or three smaller sanctuaries for the private use of
the ladies of his family. Near the temple was the palace,
which was splendidly decorated and furnished with beauti-
ful objects of every kind, and the priests and high officials
and nobles who had followed the king were provided with
rock-hewn tombs in the mountain behind the new capital.
A considerable space of ground about this capital was set
apart as the property of Aten, and its confines were marked
with boundary stones, and the revenues of some of the old
sanctuaries were wrested from them by the king and applied
to the support of Aten. Amen-hetep IV and his followers
lived in Khut-en-Aten for some twelve or fifteen years in
comparative peace, and the king occupied himself in playing
the priest, and in superintending the building operations
and the laying out of large and beautiful gardens by the
court architect Bek. The high priest bore the title of the
high priest of Heliopolis, and the form of worship there
seems to have had much in common with the old solar cult
of Heliopolis. The king composed one or two hymns which
were sung in his temple, and copies of these were painted on
the walls of the tombs of his favourites.
Meanwhile what was happening to Egypt and her Asiatic
and Nubian provinces ? For a time the kings of Mitanni and
Babylonia sent despatches to Amen-hetep IV as they did to his
father, and some of the chiefs of the neighbouring countries
sent tribute to him as they did to his father. When, how-
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 95
ever, the envoys returned to their countries and reported that
Pharaoh, whose mere name had struck terror into the Asiatics,
was at enmity with all his people, and was devoting all his
time to theological matters, and to the founding of new canons
of art, and to the selfish enjoyment of a religion that was
detested by all the Egyptian priesthoods, with the exception
of the priesthood of HeliopoHs, the enemies of the Egyptian
power in Western Asia felt that the time of their deliverance
was at hand. With one accord they ceased to pay tribute,
and gathering together their forces, they attacked the Egyp-
tian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and one by one the
cities fell, and the Egyptian governors and their troops were
slain or scattered. The Kheta, or Hittites, swept down from
the north upon the possessions of Egypt, and being joined by
the Khabiri and by the vassal princes of Egypt, were irre-
sistible. They first attacked and took the inland cities,
and then advancing westwards they captured city after city
along the coast until Beyrut, Tyre, Ascalon, Gezer, and
Lachish were at their mercy. The Tell al-Amarnah Letters
contain piteous appeals to Amen-hetep IV for help from all
parts of Syria and Palestine, and every writer entreats the
king to protect his own possessions ; but the king had no
help to send, and even if he had had troops available for de-
spatch they would never have been sent, for he hated war in
all its forms. Thus Egypt lost her Asiatic possessions which
it had taken her kings nearly two hundred years to acquire.
Meanwhile discontent was growing everywhere in Egypt
itself, and conspiracies against the king were spreading in all
directions ; when these had reached formidable proportions
the king died, but whether his death was due to anxiety,
disease, or poison cannot be said. Amen-hetep IV had no
son, and his family consisted of six daughters, the eldest of
whom died before her father. He was buried in a tomb
hewn in the mountains behind his town, and his stone coffin,
or sarcophagus, was found there in 1893 by the native tomb
robbers, who cut out the cartouches from it and sold them to
travellers.
Amen-hetep IV was succeeded by Saakara, who had
96 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
married one of his daughters called Merit- Aten, and had pro-
bably assisted his father-in-law in his various religious under-
takings. Saakara ruled the town of Khut-en-Aten for two or
three years, and was succeeded by Tut- ankh- Amen, a son of
Amen-hetep IH, who married a daughter of Amen-hetep IV
called Ankhsenpaaten. Tut-ankh-Amen was undoubtedly sup-
ported by the priests of Amen, as the presence of the name
of the god in his name testifies, and his accession to the
throne marks the triumph of the priesthood of Amen over
Aten and his followers. He made -his wife change her name
to Ankhsen-Amen, and removed the court to Thebes, where
he at once set to work to repair portions of the great temples
of Amen at Karnak and Luxor. Wherever it was possible
to do so he restored the name and figure of the god Amen,
which his father-in-law had attempted to obliterate. He
carried out certain building operations in the Sudan and re-
ceived tribute from the chiefs of the country, but he under-
took no military expeditions into Syria, and made no attempt
to renew the sovereignty of Egypt in Western Asia. When
Tut-ankh-Amen removed his court to Thebes, he was quickly
followed by many of the nobles who had settled at Khut-
en-Aten, and the capital of Amen-hetep IV began at once
to decline. The services in the temple languished, and the
sculptors and artists who had designed their works in
accordance with the canons of art devised and approved by
Amen-hetep IV found themselves without employment ;
the working classes who had lived on the court left the town,
which in a very few years became forsaken. The Aten
temples were thrown down, and before many years had
passed the town became a he^ of ruins. Thus the triumph
of Amen, the god who had delivered the Egyptians from the
Hyksos, was complete.
The next king of Egypt was Ai, who succeeded to the throne
because he married Ti, the nurse of Amen-hetep IV. For
a time he continued to worship Aten, but at length the in-
fluence of the priests of Amen prevailed, and he abandoned
his former cult ; his reign was very short, and details con-
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 97
ceming it are lacking. Among the few really able men who
found a favourable reception at the court of Amen-hetep IV
was Heruemheb, the Harmais of Manetho, a native of Het-
suten, or Alabastronpolis, in Upper Egypt, whose forefathers
had fought in the wars of Thothmes III. This distinguished
man possessed considerable influence in the district in which
he lived, and was held in great honour by all the people
and by those who had served in the army. He entered
public service in the Delta probably before the death of
Amen-hetep III, and was promoted from one high position
to another until at length he became the " chief mouth "
and deputy governor of all Egypt. His rule was acceptable
to the priesthood of Amen, and when the death or abdication
of Ai gave them the opportunity, they invited him to Thebes,
so that Amen might make him king of Egypt. Heruemheb
straightway set out for Thebes, and his journey from his
town to the capital was one triumphal progress. Here he
married Mutnetchemet, a sister of Amen-hetep IV, and was
crowned king by Amen, and his official names and titles were
then and there decided.
His first act as king was to restore the worship of the
old gods of the country, and to rebuild the temples of Egypt
from the marsh-lands of the Delta to Nubia. He appointed
priests in every temple and endowed them, and set apart
estates for the upkeep of the temples in which they
ministered. He filled the shrines with new statues of the
gods, restored the festivals and religious processions, and
spared no pains in obliterating every trace of the worship of
Aten. In Thebes he pulled down the temple called Kem-
Aten, which Amen-hetep IV had built between Kamak and
Luxor, and used the stones thereof in repairing the temple
of Amen, and he put no check upon those who went to
Khut-en-Aten and wrecked the tombs of those who had been
associated with Amen-hetep IV in the cult of Aten. Having
done his duty to his gods Heruemheb attempted to form an
honest administration in his country. He issued a series
of just and humane laws, and curbed the powers of the
dishonest tax-gatherers who ground the faces of the poor.
G
98 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
On stated days he himself sat as judge in the courts and
tried cases ; slight offences he punished by beating, but some
criminals were not only banished to Tchar, a criminal settle-
ment on the north-eastern frontier of the Delta, but had
their noses slit, or perhaps entirely cut off. Many parts of
Egypt were visited by Heruemheb in person, and everywhere
he righted wrong, and as far as his power went he took care
that his officials did the same. Heruemheb added two
pylons to the temple of Kamak, and had a small temple
hewn in the rock at Gebel Silsilah to commemorate a victory
over the Nubians. He seems to have made some attempt
to revive the power of Egypt in Syria, but if he did it can
hardly have been very effective. Early in his career, and
when he was, to all intents and purposes. King of Lower
Egypt, he caused a tomb to be made for himself at Sakkarah,
but when he was reigning over all Egypt he had another
hewn for him in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings in
Western Thebes, and in this he was buried. The exact
length of his reign is unknown, but it probably exceeded
twenty years. With the death of Heruemheb the eighteenth
dynasty came to an end, and Egypt never again enjoyed the
greatness and glory that had been hers under the great kings
of this dynasty.
THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY
The first king of the nineteenth dynasty was Menpeh-
TiRA Ramessu (Rameses I). Nothing is known of his early
life or career, but it is probable that he held high office during
the period of the Aten heresy and also in the reign of Heruem-
heb. If this be so he must have been well past middle age
when he ascended the throne, and his reign must have been
very short. His name suggests that he was a native of Lower
Egypt, perhaps of Memphis or HeHopolis, but he must have
acknowledged the supremacy of Amen, or the priesthood
of the god would never have consented to his succession to
the throne. Rameses seems to have suppressed a revolt in
Nubia, and he built a pylon at Karnak, but when he becamq
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 99
king he was too old to inaugurate any great civil or military
undertaking. He made his son Seti co-regent, and probably
planned with him the great Asiatic campaign which Seti
carried out after the death of his father. Rameses was buried
in a rock-hewn tomb in Western Thebes, but his mummy was
removed to the tomb of Queen Anhep in the sixteenth year
of Sa-Amen, and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Men-Maat-Ra Seti, beloved of Ptah (Seti I), began
his reign with a campaign in Syria and Palestine. He set
out from the frontier town of Tchar, near the modern town
of Al-Arish, and defeated without difficulty the Shasu, or
nomad tribes of the desert, who had begun to raid th^ towns.
He marched into Northern Syria and conquered all who
opposed him, and everywhere received tribute. The towns
on the sea-coast, including Tyre, submitted to him, and thus
Palestine and Syria became once again possessions of Egypt.
A year or so later Seti fought a battle with the Kheta, or
Hittites, whose king at that time was Merasar, the son of
Saparuru, but with exactly what result is not known. It
is probable that the Egyptians managed to hold their ground,
but, judging from the fact that Seti made no further expedi-
tions against the Hittites, it may be assumed that he felt
that their power was too great to be crushed by Egypt.
When his wars were over Seti began the restoration of the
great temples throughout the country, and the development
of the gold-mining industry, and the existing mines and
quarries were worked diligently. At Karnak he added seventy-
nine columns to the great " Hall of Columns," and completed
the great north waU, which he decorated with sculptured
reliefs illustrating his battles. At Kurnah in Western Thebes
he finished the funerary temple begun by his father, intend-
ing it to be used for conamemorative services in connection
with his tomb. He caused a splendid tomb, nearly 350 feet
long, to be hewn for him in the Valley of the Tombs of the
Kings, and the walls of its chambers and corridors were
covered with religious texts dealing with the Other World,
and with mythological legends. From this tomb came his
100 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
wonderful white alabaster sarcophagus, which is now pre-
served in Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields,
London. This magnificent specimen of the work of the
funerary mason is covered with texts cut in hieroglyphs,
and with scenes illustrating them, inlaid in blue lapis-lazuli
paste, and every one should see it. At Abydos he built the
splendid white limestone funerary temple which Strabo calls
the Memnonium. Its walls are covered with bas-rehefs,
which for delicacy of work and excellence of finish remain
unequalled. This temple contained seven shrines dedicated
to the gods Horns, Isis, Osiris, Amen, Harmakhis, Ptah, and
Seti I. The most remarkable feature of this temple is the
great King-List of Abydos, which is cut on the main wall of
a corridor at the side of the main building. Here, within car-
touches, are cut the names of seventy-six predecessors of Seti,
the first name being that of Mena, or Menes, in whose honour
the king held commemorative services, and for whose wel-
fare in the Other World he prayed. In spite of the omissions
this King- List is of the highest importance for the chrono-
logy and history of Egypt.
Seti also built a temple at Radasiyah, a station on the
old desert road that ran from a point on the Nile opposite
to Edfu, or Utfu, to the emerald mines of Gebel Zabara,
near the later town of Berenice on the west coast of the
Red Sea. Close to the temple was a well, and it seems
to have been one of a chain of wells that were used by
caravans going to and from the Red Sea. Under Seti an
attempt was made to work the gold mines in the desert
to the east of Kubban, in Nubia, which were probably
situated in the district now called Wadi Ulaki. An inscrip-
tion of Rameses II states that Seti I dug a well here, but
failed to reach water. The trade in gold from the Sudan was
protected by Seti, and remains of temples built by him have
been found near Karmah, at the head of the Third Cataract,
and at Sesebi, or Dulgo, about 60 miles further down the Nile.
Of the last years of the reign of Seti nothing is known, and
the length of it is uncertain ; some think he reigned fifteen
and others twenty years. He was buried in his magnificent
Rameses II, King of Egypt about 1330 B.C.,
holding a Whip and a Sceptre, Emblems of
Sovereignty and Rule.
In the British Museum.
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE loi
white alabaster sarcophagus in his tomb in Western Thebes,
but his body was twice removed from its resting-place, and
was finally deposited in the hiding-place for royal mummies
at Der al-Bahari. After the discovery of this hiding-place
by the authorities, in 1880, it was removed to the Egyptian
Museum in Cairo, where it was unrolled on June 9, 1886.
UsERMAATRA Setepenra Ramessu, bcloved of Amen
(Rameses II), was a younger son of Seti by his Queen Tuaa.
He seems to have been chosen co-regent by Seti during the
last years of his reign, and this position justified the priest-
hood of Amen in permitting him to ascend the throne of
Egypt in the place of his elder brother, the lawful heir.
Rameses II must have been about twenty-five years of age
when he succeeded to the throne, and he reigned sixty- seven
years ; when he died he was probably over ninety years of
age. During the first four years of his reign he continued
the series of raids on the Libyans and Nubians which he
began during the reign of Seti I, and he compelled the tribes
of the Sudan to bring him gold in large quantities, and slaves
to carry on his building operations. He took a personal
interest in the development of the gold mines in the Eastern
Desert, and a text, cut upon a stele found at Kubban in
Nubia, describes the completion of the boring of a well in
the gold-producing quartz which had been begun by Seti I,
and the finding of water there in large quantities. In the
fourth year of his reign he began his great campaign against
the Kheta, or Hittites, whose power in Western Asia had
grown so greatly since the time when Seti I came to an under-
standing with them, that it became doubtful whether Egypt
could retain her hold upon Palestine and Syria. When
Rameses became king they were in possession of Kadesh,
on the Orontes, and were masters of Northern Syria, and their
king Muthenra was preparing to extend the borders of his
kingdom further towards the south. Muthenra was sup-
ported by the princes of Aleppo, Karkemish, Aradus (Arvad),
Keti, and by the governors of all the great towns, and each
ally sent to him contingents of soldiers, and, if possible,
102 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
horses and chariots. Besides these the princes of many
outlying countries sent soldiers, and the Hittite king found
himself at the head of a very large army. Rameses had
also gathered together a very large army, among which were
Sijdani warriors, and dwellers on the sea-coast, and miscel-
laneous auxiliaries of all kinds. It is doubtful if even
Thothmes III had ever commanded so many soldiers, and
the Hittites and their aUies had never before put so many
troops in the field at one time. The Egyptian army contained
four divisions, viz. the division of Amen, the division of Ra,
the division of Ptah, and the division of Sutekh.
For the account of the great battle between the Hittites
and the Egyptians we must have recourse to the official
account of it, which is found on a stele at Abu Simbel in Nubia,
and the description of it copied upon papyrus by Pentaurt,
the Court Scribe and Remembrancer of Rameses II. Accord-
ing to these documents Rameses set out with his army from
the frontier city of Tchar in the fifth year of his reign, and
marched northwards into Syria. When he and his advanced
troops came near Kadesh on the Orontes he was surprised
not to have found the enemy. At this time two natives who
had been sent to his camp by Muthenra, and ordered to supply
Rameses with false information, allowed themselves to be
captured and brought into the Egyptian camp. When they
were brought into the presence of Rameses, they gave him to
understand that they had escaped from Muthenra' s army
and that the Hittite king had retreated before the advance
of the Egyptian army, and that he was at that moment near
Aleppo. Thinking this information true Rameses marched
at once on Kadesh and encamped his troops to the north-
west of the city. Whilst he was doing this Muthenra moved
his troops southwards, marching on the east bank of the
Orontes on the east side of Kadesh, but the Egyptians knew
nothing of this. Whilst this movement was being carried
out by the Hittites two of their spies were captured in the
Egyptian camp, and when they had been beaten, and pro-
bably tortured, they confessed that the enemy at that moment
were on the eastern side of Kadesh, and quite close to the
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE
103
Egyptians. Rameses promptly held a council of war, and
began to discuss plans with his officers. He was in a difficult
The Defeat of the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh.
position, for only two of his divisions were with him, and he
knew not exactly how far to the south the other two were.
104
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Whilst he was discussing the situation with his officers, the
whole of his camp was suddenly thrown into a state of panic,
for large numbers of soldiers belonging to one of the two
The Camp of Rameses II before the City of Kadesh.
divisions which were marching to join him at Kadesh were
seen coming in full flight towards his camp, hotly pursued
by the chariots and horsemen of the Hittites. The Hittites,
who were watching on the bank of the Orontes, had seen the
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 105
Rameses II in his Chariot attacking the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh.
io6 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Egyptian troops of the third division marching in easy order
and quite unprepared to resist an attack, and they had crossed
the Orontes and fallen with sudden and terrific force upon
them. The Egyptians scattered in all directions and large
numbers of them were killed, but a considerable number man-
aged to reach the camp of Rameses, and these brought to
him the first tidings of the disaster which had fallen upon
the Egyptians. Before he could prevent them, many of the
troops in his own camp betook themselves to flight, and the
pursuing Hittites occupied the portion of it which the terror-
stricken Egyptians had vacated.
This was a critical moment for Rameses, for two of his
divisions were thus separated from the other two, but the
young king kept his presence of mind, and hastily collecting
his bodyguard and its officers, he mounted his chariot, and
charging the oncoming Hittites again and again, he succeeded
in staying their onset. One of his charges was driven home
with such irresistible force that a large number of the Hittite
troops were thrust into the river, where they were drowned.
When the Egyptians who had fled saw what their king had
done they rallied, and, returning to their camp, they attacked
the Hittites, who were occupied in pillage, and slew them all.
Heartened by this further success, the Egyptians attacked the
main body of the Hittites, and, led by Rameses and his officers,
they inflicted such serious losses on the enemy that they were
driven back up to the very walls of Kadesh, and nightfall
put an end to the battle. Though the power of the Hittites
was not broken, they made no attempt to continue the fight,
for both they and the Egyptians sorely needed time to recover
from the serious losses which they had suffered. Rameses
returned to Egypt, disheartened no doubt by the fact that
he had neither added new territory to his empire, nor even
recovered the lands which his predecessors had held ; and he
had no tribute or gifts to show to his subjects.
The natives of Palestine and Syria realised more quickly
than the Egyptians that Rameses had suffered a moral defeat
at the hands of the Hittites and their allies, and as soon as
Rameses was in Egypt they rebelled against the rule of
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 107
Egypt. In the eighth year of his reign Rameses again
marched into Syria, and for three full years he was engaged
in reducing the tribes to submission. Ultimately he sup-
pressed all the revolts in Palestine, and he claims to have
reconquered the city of Tunep, the region of Nahren, and all
the neighbouring districts, but there is reason to beheve
that as soon as he turned his back revolts again broke out in
all these lands. The struggle between the Hittites and Egyp-
tians lasted for at least eight years longer, probably as long
as the Hittite King Muthenra lived, but no decisive battle
took place. Both peoples were weary of fighting, and soon
after Khetasar, the new king of the Hittites, had ascended
the throne, he and Rameses determined to make a treaty
and to come to an arrangement as to the frontiers of their
respective kingdoms. The terms of this treaty were dis-
cussed, and when they were done into writing, a copy of the
Hittite text was cut upon a tablet of silver, which was brought
to Rameses at Tanis in the twenty-first year of his reign
by Taratisebu, the Hittite ambassador. Two copies of the
Egyptian translation of the treaty are extant (they are cut
on the walls of the temple of Kamak and the Ramesseum),
and a copy of the original form of the treaty written in cunei-
form characters was found at Boghaz-koi in 1907. The treaty
first mentioned the friendly relations that had existed be-
tween the two countries in ancient times, and declared that
these were now re-established, and that peace should exist
between the two countries for ever. Neither king was to
attempt the conquest of the territory belonging to the other,
and each king was to abide by the old treaty between Sapa-
ruru and Amen-hetep III. Each king was bound to assist
the other in repelling the attacks of enemies in Syria ; each
was to assist the other in maintaining peace and order in
that country ; and each was to assist needy subjects of the
other, and to help to bring criminals to justice. Then follow
the names of the gods and goddesses who are witnesses to
the treaty, and a curse on him that shall break the treaty,
and a blessing on him that shall observe it. On the silver
tablet were impressed seals, i.e. figures, of the gods Sutekh
io8 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and Ra, and the seals of Khetasar, king of the Hittites, and
Pukhipa, the Queen of the Hittites. Rameses added to the
treaty a clause providing for the safety of the persons and
property of Egyptians, probably malefactors, whose return
to Egypt was demanded by the Law of Egypt. It is note-
worthy that the treaty does not define the boundaries of either
king's territories in Syria, and its clauses prove that the king
of the Hittites regarded himself as the equal in every respect
of the king of Egypt. Thirteen years after the conclusion of
the treaty, i.e. in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, Ram-
eses married a Hittite princess called Urmaaneferura, and the
king her father, accompanied by the king of Keti in Syria,
visited Egypt and assisted at her marriage. On a stele at
Abu Simbel she is depicted in Egyptian attire, whilst her
father wears the characteristic Hittite coat-like garment and
the conical hat. This marriage is referred to in the story
of the Possessed Princess of Bekhten (see the accompanying
volume, pp. 92-97), whose father is said to have despatched an
embassy to Rameses asking him to send a physician to expel
a devil that had taken possession of Bentresht his daughter.
The physician was sent, but failed to heal the princess ; in
answer to a second request a statue of the god Khensu was
sent to Bekhten, and the power of this god cast out the devil,
and the princess was healed.
After the conclusion of the treaty of peace with the Hit-
tites Rameses devoted himself to the completion of the
buildings which his father had begun, and when these were
finished he began a series of buildings on his own account.
He was indeed a mighty builder, but his name is found on
buildings and monuments of every kind from one end of
Egypt to the other, to the making of which he contributed
very little. On many of the buildings which he repaired he
caused his names to be cut on the walls, door posts, lintels,
&c., in such a way that it appeared as if these edifices, from
foundation to roof, had been built by him. He added
columns of texts laudatory of himself and his actions to the
obelisks of his predecessors at Thebes, and ordered his names
to be cut upon the statues, sphinxes, &c., of earlier kings.
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 109
In some cases he caused existing monuments to be re- worked,
and, the names of their makers disappearing in the process,
he made them his own by cutting his names on them. As
he advanced in years his vanity increased, and before his
death he seems to have beheved that he alone was the creator
of Egypt.
The greatest of his works is undoubtedly the famous rock-
hewn temple at Abu Simbel in Nubia, which he dedicated to
Amen of Thebes, Ra-Harmakhis of Heliopolis, and Ptah of
Memphis. This temple is nearly 200 feet long, and the front
of it is 100 feet wide and 90 high, and on each side of the
entrance are two seated colossal statues of Rameses, each
60 feet high. Close by it is the temple of Hathor with six
statues, each 30 feet high ; four are statues of himself and
two of his wife Nefert-ari. The temple of Abu Simbel was
made to commemorate his wars against the Hittites, and the
inscriptions in and near it prove that he claimed the victory
over them. As a matter of fact he and his army narrowly
escaped annihilation at the battle of Kadesh, but the easy
optimism of Rameses and his natural conceit enabled him
to banish the recollection of this unpleasing incident from
his mind, and to believe that he was a great warrior and con-
queror, as his courtiers declared he was. At Bet al-Wali
near Kalabshah, about 30 miles south of Philae, he made a
little rock-hewn temple to commemorate his victories in the
Libyan war in the early years of his reign. At Thebes he
carried out many great works. He finished the Hall of
Columns at Karnak, adding to it fifty- four columns ; he built
a pylon there, and a small temple and a colonnade, and en-
closed the temple of Amen with a wall. He added to the
walls at Karnak reliefs illustrating his wars, and a list of the
countries and towns that he claimed to have conquered,
and the text of the account of the battle of Kadesh. He
added two courts, one with a colonnade and one with a
portico, and a pylon to the temple of Amen-hetep III, and he
set up there two large red granite obelisks and six colossal
statues of himself, two seated and four standing. He finished
the temple of Seti I in Western Thebes, repaired several of
no A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
the temples there, and built the temple called the " Rames-
seum," which he dedicated to Amen-Ra. Here he set up a
colossal statue of himself in granite, which was at least 60
feet high, and cannot have weighed less than 885 tons. At
Abydos he finished his father's temple and built one to Osiris,
and in it he set up rehefs illustrating his wars, and a King-
List, a large portion of which is now in the British Museum.
He also carried out repairs of temples at Silsilah, Kom Ombos,
and Elephantine in Upper Egypt, chiefly because these towns
were the places of arrival and departure for the caravans that
traded between Egypt and the Siidan. Rameses developed
the gold-mining industry in the Eastern Desert, and sank
at least one well there, and it is probable that the gold was
shipped on the Nile at one of the three above-mentioned
places.
The chief interest of Rameses as the descendant of a family
whose place of origin was Lower Egypt was in the Delta,
and here he carried out many great works. He allowed no
building in Memphis, the oldest capital of the country, to
fall into ruin, and he repaired some of the temples of Helio-
polis, but the town which he loved of all others was Tanis
(the Zoan of the Bible, the site of which is marked by the
modem village of San), which he rebuilt and turned into a
great and beautiful city, with splendid temples, lofty obelisks,
and spacious gardens with lakes and streams of water running
through them, and groves of trees and flowering shrubs.
The importance of Tanis at this time was very great, for from
it Rameses watched the progress of events in Palestine and
Syria. Though the Hittites loyally observed the treaty
which they had made with him, he was never certain when
the tribes living to the north and north-east of the Egyptian
frontier would revolt. On or quite near to the old caravan
road that ran from Syria to Egypt he built the towns of Per
Atem, or Pithom, and Per-Ramessu, or " Raamses," which
served at once for provision centres and for fortresses that
guarded the road into Egypt. This road passed near the
modern stations of Al-Kantarah and IsmaiHyah on the Suez
Canal, and ran into Bubastis (the modem Tell Bastah) in
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE iii
much the same direction as that taken by the railway through
the Wadi Tumilat, or the BibHcal " land of Goshen," in
our days. Rameses protected this road very carefully, and
there must have existed a whole chain of forts between Helio-
polis and the frontier ; of most of these, however, no traces
remain. He is also said to have cleared out or deepened an
ancient canal that connected the Bitter Lakes with Bubastis,
but details of the work are wanting.
Rameses married a very large number of wives, and in
a temple which he built at Wadi Sabua in Nubia the names of
III of his sons and 51 of his daughters are given. His son
Khamuast, a very learned and able man, acted as viceroy
of Egypt from the thirtieth to the fifty-fifth year of the reign
of Rameses, and when he died another son, Merenptah, suc-
ceeded him and governed Egypt until Rameses died in the
sixty- seventh year of his reign. Rameses was buried in the
tomb which he had made in the Valley of the Tombs of
the Kings, but before many years had passed it was robbed
of all that was valuable. The priests of Amen removed his
mummy from one place to another for safety, and eventually
hid it at Der al-Bahari, where it was found in 1880 ; it was
then taken to Cairo, and was unrolled on June i, 1886. The
long reign of Rameses II was one of the greatest calamities
that fell upon Egypt. As a young man he fought his battles
bravely, but he was in no sense a skilled warrior or military
tactician. His personal bravery was over-estimated, and
the victory which he claimed over the Hittites was in sober
truth merely a lucky escape from annihilation by them.
His reign marked the steady dechne of the power of Egypt
in Asia and the decay of religion, literature, sculpture, paint-
ing, and art of all kinds. The influence of the foreigners who
filled Egypt with foreign wares, foreign ideas, and foreign
customs, destroyed the characteristics of every class of society,
and wealth and luxury became the things most desired by
the Egyptians. The king was vain, boastful, fond of pleasure
and good living, easy-going, tolerant, and good-natured ;
his reputation for bravery won him the admiration of many,
and he was probably very popular everywhere. His worship
112 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of Sutekh and Baal and other Syrian gods and goddesses,
whether personal or official, won him many friends and sup-
porters among the Semites settled in the Delta and their
kinsmen in Palestine and Syria, but it destroyed the prestige
of the ancient gods of Egypt, and the old religion died, its
place being taken by magical cults and superstitions of all
kinds. The Egyptians became corrupted by Asiatic luxury,
and were content to serve Asiatic foreigners, many of whom
held high office in Egypt.
Rameses II was succeeded by his thirteenth son called
Merenra Hetephermaat (Menephthah), who had been
co-regent with his father for twelve years, and he reigned
from eight to twelve years ; when he succeeded Rameses he
must have been well past middle age. Hardly had he as-
cended the throne when widespread revolt broke out in
Palestine and Syria, and he was obliged to lead an army
into those countries to reduce the rebels to submission. This
done he returned to Egypt, presumably with a certain amount
of spoil, and then he discovered that the whole of the western
side of the Delta was in revolt. This portion of the Delta
was filled with dwellers who were kinsmen of the tribes
in the western desert and the northern coast of Africa, and
taking advantage of the king's absence in Syria, the Thehenu
and the Libyans, with their allies from the northern coast of
the Mediterranean, namely, the Mashuashau, or Maxyes, the
Sharatenu, or Sardinians, the Shakalshu, the Akuashu, or
Achaeans, the Leku, or Lycians, and the Turshau, or Tyr-
senians, invaded Egypt and advanced nearly as far as Helio-
poUs. The leader of the enemy was Meraiai, the son of Tit,
the king of the Libyans, and his army was very large, and
contained thousands of well-armed men. Menephthah began
to fortify Memphis and Heliopolis, but before he had finished
the work, it was reported to him that Meraiai and his troops
had already occupied the town of Per- art. Menephthah
collected his troops, and, heartened by a dream in which the
god Ptah appeared to him and spoke words of encourage-
ment to him, attacked the enemy in the fifth year of his reign
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 113
with such fury and vigour that large numbers of the allies
were slaughtered and the rest utterly routed. The battle
raged for six hours, and when Meraiai saw that the day was
lost he cast away his weapons and fled, and seeing that he
was being pursued he stripped off his clothes and escaped
naked. About 6359 Libyans were slain and mutilated, 9376
prisoners and 126 horses were captured, and about 130,000
swords and other weapons were collected by the Egyptians
on the battlefield. Menephthah and the Egyptians rejoiced
greatly at their victory, and the king commanded a " hymn
of triumph " to be cut on the back of a huge granite stele of
Amen-hetep III, which was found in the Ramesseum at
Thebes in 1896. The descriptions of Menephthah' s con-
quests of the Syrians and Libyans are treated in a highly
poetical manner, but the general accuracy of the historical
facts described is beyond question. The following passage,
which sums up these facts, reads, " The princes are cast down
and cry for peace. None of the Nubians can lift up his head,
Thehenu is laid waste, Kheta hath been pacified, Canaan is
ruined by every kind of calamity, Ascalon hath been carried
away {i.e. its people deported), Gezer hath been captured,
Inuamam hath been reduced to a state of not being, the
Israelites have been ravaged and their seed destroyed, Syria
hath become a widow of Egypt, all lands together are at
peace." Here then is a distinct mention of the Israelites,
who in the reign of Menephthah must have had sufficient
territory and power to justify their mention with the Hittites,
Canaanites, Syrians, and others.
Menephthah repaired the fortresses along the old caravan
route from Syria to Egypt, and added one or more to them.
He carried on building operations at Tanis, where, copying
his father's example, he had his name cut upon statues and
sphinxes that had been made by earlier kings. At Thebes
he destroyed many buildings and colossal statues of his pre-
decessors to obtain stone for his temple, for he was too old to
undertake works in the quarries on a large scale. He had
a tomb prepared in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings,
the walls of which were covered with religious texts. His
H
114 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
mummy was found in the hiding-place of the royal mummies
at Der al-Bahari in 1880, and is now in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo. Owing to a misreading of the name on one of the
bandages it was at first thought to be that of the " heretic
king," Amen-hetep IV. Some authorities hold that the
Exodus described in the Bible took place in the reign of
Menephthah, and it is very probable that the Semites in the
eastern Delta, who had been reduced to a state bordering on
slavery, took the opportunity to rejoin their kinsmen in
Palestine during the disturbed period in the latter part of
the reign of Menephthah.
On the death of Menephthah the peoples of Syria and the
Libyans again revolted, and a period of anarchy followed.
Menephthah appears to have made no choice of a successor,
and we find two claimants of the throne, namely, Amen-
MESES, who called himself " Governor of Thebes," and
Meren-Ptah Sa-Ptah. Whether these reigned in succession
or simultaneously is not known, but each seems to have ruled
some part of the country, after a fashion, for a few years.
Either before or after them reigned Seti (II) Merenptah,
who appears to have lived at Tanis, and to have attempted
to keep in an effective state the fortresses on the high road
from Egypt to Syria. His buildings were unimportant,
and he added his name to monuments that he never made,
as did Menephthah and Rameses II. He built a tomb in
the Valley of the Royal Tombs, but his mummy was found
in the tomb of Amen-hetep II in 1898, and is now in the Egyp-
tian Museum in Cairo. The transcript on papyrus of the
famous Tale of the Two Brothers, now in the British Museum,
was made during his reign by the scribe Annana.
The length of the reigns of the three kings mentioned
above is unknown. After their deaths disorder and con-
fusion became general in the country, and every man did as
he pleased. The governors of the nomes claimed power to
which they had no right, and oppressed their people in char-
acteristic Oriental fashion, extorting taxes by beatings and
torturings. The nobles and descendants of ancient feudal
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE 115
families first quarrelled among themselves and then made
war upon each other, and the result of all this was dislocation
of the ordinary business of the country and widespread
misery and ruin. The peoples of Syria and Palestine took
advantage of these internal dissensions, and, according to
the statement of Rameses III, a certain Syrian called Arsu
succeeded in making himself prince over them. He levied
taxes everywhere as he pleased, and his tax-gatherers robbed
the people mercilessly in the execution of his orders. Not
content with this he stole the temple endowments, and the
worship of the gods ceased and the temples were forsaken.
How far the rule of Arsu extended is not known, but he must
have been master of a portion of Palestine and part of the
eastern Delta, at least. At length there arose in Egypt a
man called Setnekht, who succeeded in overthrowing Arsu,
and in making himself king of Egypt ; his name suggests
that he was a native of Lower Egypt, and he was probably
a kinsman of Rameses II. Setnekht established peace in
the country, restored the worship of the gods, rebuilt the
temples, and renewed their endowments. His reign was
short, probably two years at the most, so that he had not
time to have a tomb hewn for himself at Thebes. As soon
as he ascended the throne he elected his son Rameses co-
regent, and made arrangements for him to succeed him.
Setnekht was mummified and buried in the tomb of Queen
Tausert at Thebes, but his body was found in the tomb of
Amen-hetep II in 1898. With the death of Setnekht the
nineteenth dynasty came to an end.
CHAPTER VI
THE NEW EMPIRE — DYNASTIES XX-XXX
Strictly speaking, the kings Amenmeses, Sa-ptah, Seti II,
and Setnekht belong to the New Empire, for the nineteenth
dynasty ended, to all intents and purposes, with the death
of Rameses II, but, as Manetho makes his third division of
kings begin with Rameses III, he is here regarded as the first
king of the twentieth dynasty. Usermaatra meri Amen
Rameses, Governor of Anu (Heliopolis), the son of Setnekht,
was crowned king immediately after his father's death ; he
reigned a little over thirty- one years. Very soon after he
ascended the throne the Libyans and their allies from North
Africa and from the northern shores of the Mediterranean,
and from the Islands of Crete, Sicily, &c., namely, the Shar-
tana, the Qehau, the Tanunau (or Danaoi), the Thekru,
the Purestau, or PhiHstines, the Uasheshu of the sea, the
Mashuashau, and many other Libyan tribes, made a league
together, and under the leadership of Tit, Mashkan, Meraiai,
and Thamar, began to attack Egypt. The attack was
delivered simultaneously by sea and by land in the fifth year
of his reign, but Rameses was prepared, and as a result of
the fight that followed the allies lost over twelve thousand
killed, and a large number of them were made prisoners,
who were employed in forced labour for the king of Egypt.
Three years later Egypt was threatened by an invasion of
enemies from Northern Syria, who included among them
contingents from Cyprus and Crete, and from peoples in
Asia Minor, and they were supported by a well- equipped fleet
manned by sea-robbers and pirates from the shores and
islands of the eastern Mediterranean. As they marched
southwards by land their fleet co-operated with them by sea,
ii6
THE NEW EMPIRE 117
and in a very short time all the Syrian ports and the chief
inland towns would have been in their possession. Rameses,
however, collected his fleet, and having sent detachments
of ships to the Syrian seaports to await the enemy, he set
out from the frontier city of Tchar, and marched into Pales-
tine, his army, no doubt, keeping in touch with his fleet. In
due course he found the enemy, and fought and defeated them,
and then marched to some place on the coast, where a fight
was in progress between the hostile fleets. Victory favoured
the Egyptians, and in the bas-rehefs which Rameses had made
to illustrate this naval engagement we see the enemy trans-
fixed by the Egyptian archers, their ships being capsized or
sunk, and the fugitives from them being intercepted and slain.
Whilst Rameses was thus occupied the Libyan allies made
another attempt to invade the Delta, and this time they were
led by Kapur, the chief of the Mashuashau, and his son
Mashashara. They were defeated, for, in the words of the
Egyptian annalist, the king " fell upon their heads like a
granite mountain " ; 2175 of their men were slain, and 1205
men, 152 officers, 131 boys, and 558 women and girls were
made prisoners. The spoil consisted of 239 swords, 603 bows,
2310 quivers, 93 chariots, 93 spears, 183 horses and asses,
and a large number of cattle. Meanwhile the peoples in
Palestine and Syria became restless, and, though it is not
known in what form they showed their disaffection, Rameses
felt it to be necessary to march once more into these countries.
He advanced some distance to the north, laying waste towns
and villages, setting fire to the standing corn, and cutting
down fruit trees as he went. His march was a poor imita-
tion of the triumphal progress of Thothmes III, but many
of the tribes brought him gifts, and when these arrived with
the army returning to Egypt, the natives thought that the
glorious days of the eighteenth dynasty had come again.
This was far from being the case, for it is clear that in spite
of his victories by land and sea Rameses III only just suc-
ceeded in appearing as the conqueror of Palestine and Syria,
and that his power was taxed to the utmost to stave off an
invasion of the peoples of these countries.
ii8 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
When his wars were ended Rameses devoted himself in
a whole-hearted fashion to develop the commerce of the
country, and he was apparently the first Egyptian king to
realise the great importance of " sea-power " to Egypt. The
value of his navy had already made itself evident in his sea-
fights with hostile fleets, and he now built a fleet of large
boats, which were manned by foreign seamen and native
skilled bowmen, and which were actively engaged in commerce
on the Phoenician coast. He kept another fleet in the Red
Sea, and some of its ships were engaged in the transport of
copper from the mines of Sinai, and others brought the pro-
ducts of Punt and Southern Arabia to the port on the western
side of the Red Sea, now called Kuser, where they were dis-
embarked and transported on the backs of asses to Coptos on
the Nile. From this point the caravans that traded with
countries in the west and south obtained their supplies of
Oriental goods. The sea-carrying trade under Rameses HI
must have attained considerable proportions, and the king
spared no pains in rendering the trade routes of his country
safe. Every time goods were "handled" by his merchants profit
accrued to his treasury, and at that time Egypt was one of the
richest countries of the world. Curiously enough, the sailors
and soldiers were chiefly mercenaries, and the most success-
ful commercial men were Semites and foreigners. Rameses
says in his great papyrus in the British Museum, " I covered
the whole country with flowering trees, I made the people
to sit in their shade. I made it possible for a woman to walk
fearlessly wheresoever she pleased, with none to molest her.
I made the horsemen and bowmen of the Shartana and Qehaq
to dwell in their quarters ; they lay on their backs without
fear, for there was no fighting with Nubians or with Syrians.
Their bows and weapons were ' piled ' in their guard-houses,
they were filled with meat and drink, their wives and children
were with them, and they looked not behind them, for their
hearts were glad." Every man, rich or poor, was free, the
king pardoned the evil-doer, relieved the oppressed, and
did good to gods and men.
With the wealth produced by his commercial enterprises
THE NEW EMPIRE 119
Rameses built the great temple at Madinat Habu, the walls
of which he decorated with sculptured reliefs illustrating the
principal events of his battles ; at Kamak he built a temple
to Khensu ; at Tell al-Yahudiyyah, a little to the north of
Heliopolis, he built a small temple, a part of which was lined
with beautiful tiles, many of which are now in the British
Museum. On one of his frontiers he opened a large well,
which he protected with a stone building 20 cubits square ;
its walls were 30 cubits high. And in Pakanana in Palestine
he built a temple to the Syrian Sun-god, to which the people
tributary to Rameses III brought offerings. The bulk of
the wealth that flowed into the Egyptian treasury at that time
was appropriated by the various priesthoods of the country,
but chiefly by those of Amen-Ra of Thebes, Temu of Helio-
polis, and Ptah of Memphis. The richest was the priesthood
of Amen, and Rameses yielded to every demand made upon
him by them. Each temple possessed its estates, with slaves
to work them, vineyards, orchards, and ships on the sea,
which collected its share in every trading transaction, and
in the great papyrus of Rameses III the hsts of the gifts made
by him to the temples of Egypt fill dozens of columns. The
following figures illustrate the magnitude of his gifts : 113,433
men (slaves), 490,386 oxen and cattle of various kinds,
1,071,780 aruras of land, 514 vineyards and orchards, 160
towns in Egypt and 9 in Syria, 426,965 water fowl, 2,382,650
sacks of fruit, 6,272,431 loaves of bread, 490,000 fish,
19,130,032 bundles of vegetables, 1,933,766 jars of honey,
5,279,552 bushels of com, &c. Amen was a hard god, and
his priests were hard taskmasters.
In the last year but one of his reign Rameses discovered that
a plot had been hatched against his life, the wish of the con-
spirators being to kill him and to make one Pentaurt king in
his stead. The conspiracy was first formed in the harim, or
women's quarter of the palace, but one by one the steward, the
chancellor, the chief inspector, the royal scribes, and many
other high officials were drawn into it. The viceroy of Nubia
planned to stir up the troops to attack Egypt, and to make
the Egyptians revolt against the Government at the same
120 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
moment ; in the confusion that would result Rameses was to
be killed, and the successor chosen by the conspirators set upon
the throne. Not content with this plan a certain magician
called Hui was prevailed upon by them to attempt to bewitch
the king by spells and to produce in him sickness and death.
The plot was, however, discovered by the king, and he in-
sisted on the conspirators being tried for conspiracy and high
treason in the law courts of Thebes. All the ringleaders
were found guilty and condemned to death, and some of the
judges who were found to have been concerned in the plot
were degraded, tortured, and subsequently put to death.
Some highly placed personages were allowed to commit
suicide. During the last few years of his life Rameses was
assisted in ruling the country by one of his sons. He died
in the beginning of the thirty- second year of his reign, and was
buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings ;
his mummy, which was found with the other royal mummies
at Der al-Bahari, is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Rameses IH was succeeded by Usermaatra Setepen-
AMEN Rameses (Rameses IV) ; his reign was short, and did
not exceed five or six years. The chief event of his reign was
the despatch of 8368 men to the Wad! Hammamat to obtain
stone, probably for building operations at Thebes. He
worked the copper mines in Sinai, but with what success is
uncertain. He built a large tomb in the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings, and was buried in it ; his mummy is now in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The reign of Rameses V was
short and unimportant. In the reign of Rameses VI the
Egyptians still had authority in Nubia, and an official there
called Pennut dedicated the revenue derived from a parcel
of land near Ibrim to the maintenance of the worship of the
king's statue. The reigns of Rameses VII and Rameses
VIII were very short and unimportant. Rameses V, Rameses
VI, and Rameses VII built tombs in the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings. During the reigns of these kings the condition
of the poorer classes became lamentable, for all the revenues
available were handed over to the treasury of the priesthood
THE NEW EMPIRE 121
of Amen, who were slowly but surely becoming the masters
of the country. The kings their nominees were their pup-
pets, and the welfare of Upper Egypt, at least, was wholly
sacrificed to the glorification of Amen-Ra and his priesthood.
To help themselves out of their difficulties the poor people
began to plunder the tombs for the sake of the gold, jewellery,
and objects of value which they contained. The mummies
of many wealthy nobles, as well as those of royal persons,
were wrapped in shrouds of gold before they were laid in
their coffins, and the tomb robbers stripped these off the
mummies, and even broke the mummies in pieces in their
search for gold rings, chains, amulets, &c. In the fourteenth
year of his reign Rameses IX made his government prosecute
a number of the thieves who had been caught, and a commis-
sion was appointed to report upon the state in which the royal
tombs then were. Eight of the thieves were brought before
the court, and one of them turned " king's evidence," and
described in detail how he and his friends had robbed a tomb.
They broke open the coffin of Sebekemsaf, and found two
daggers lying by his mummy. They tore off his neck his
chains of gold and the amulets, and the gold covering off his
head. His inner coffin was lined with gold and silver and
decorated with precious stones, and the outside of it was
covered with gold. These coverings they tore off, they
stripped the king of every piece of gold they found on him,
and when they had torn the mummy of Queen Nubkhas to
pieces, and taken her ornaments and amulets, they burnt the
linen swathings in the tomb. They next collected all the
vessels of gold, silver, and bronze, and then they divided the
whole of the spoil into eight parts, each thief taking one part.
During the trial it became clear that the cemetery officials
had connived at robberies of this kind, and that many highly
placed officials had been bribed by the thieves. The result
of the trial is unknown, but it is quite certain that the robbery
of the royal tombs went on.
The high priest of Amen in the reign of Rameses IX was
one Amen-hetep, son of Rameses-nekht, high priest of Amen,
whose power over the king was absolute. In the inscription
122 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
describing the repair of certain buildings of Usertsen I the
work of restoration is attributed not to the king but to the
high priest. Not content with this Amen-hetep describes
the building of a new house for himself, and the setting up
of a statue to each of the high priests of Amen. Finally the
astute high priest obtained from the king the power to levy
taxes on the people for the support of Amen and his priest-
hood ; in short, the actual king of Egypt was Amen-hetep,
high priest of Amen. Rameses IX made a tomb in the Valley
of the Tombs of the Kings, and was buried in it. In the
sarcophagus chamber are some very interesting religious
texts ; the other chamber contains texts from the " Book
of praising Ra " and from the Theban Recension of the Book
of the Dead.
In the reign of Neferkaura Setepenra Rameses (Ra-
meses X), a prosecution of tomb robbers took place, and some
sixty people were charged with robbing the tombs of Seti I
and Rameses II, at the instance of the high priest of Amen.
Once again the complicity of many scribes and officials of
the Government was proved, and the robbery of the tombs
went on as before. The reign of Rameses XI was unimport-
ant, and during the reign of his successor, Rameses XII,
Her-Heru, high priest of Amen, who had succeeded Amen-
hetep, boldly proclaimed himself king. He appointed him-
self general of the army, and thus he was master of things
temporal as well as of things spiritual in Egypt. Now whilst
the weak and unworthy successors of Rameses III were
occupied with the building of their tombs, and neglecting
the business of their country, the old enemies of Egypt in
Palestine and Syria threw off the yoke of Egypt, declared
themselves independent, and began to threaten to invade
Egypt. After the death of Rameses IV they ceased to pay
tribute to Egypt, and it was this fact that accounted for the
emptiness of the treasury of Amen, and for the action of the
high priest of Amen, who forced Rameses IX to give him
authority to levy taxes. Meanwhile the people of Northern
Egypt viewed with alarm the growing power of the Syrian
THE NEW EMPIRE 123
peoples who had formerly been tributaries of Egypt, and
seeing that the kings reigning in Thebes were powerless to
help them to keep the Syrians out of Egypt, they took steps
to protect themselves. With the decline of the power of
the Theban kings the influence of the priests of Amen in
Lower Egypt had also lessened, and the priesthoods of Mem-
phis, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Tanis were free to support
the claims of a local candidate for the supreme power in
Lower Egypt. Thus it happened that one Nesubanebtet,
a native of the Delta, took possession of Tanis during the
absence of Rameses XII in Thebes, and declared himself
king, and so there were two kings reigning in Egypt at the
same time, one at Thebes, and one at Tanis, and Egypt was
once again divided into two kingdoms. Rameses XII con-
tinued to live at Thebes for some years, and Her-Heru ruled
Upper Egypt and Nubia as if the lawful king were non-
existent.
THE TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY
The first king of the twenty-first dynasty in the King-
List of Manetho is Smendes, and this Smendes is no other than
Hetch-kheper-Ra Nesubanebtet, who established his rule
over Lower Egypt, with Tanis as his capital. During his
reign, owing to some unusual event, the temple built at Thebes
by Amen-hetep III became flooded, and as the water under-
mined some of the foundations the whole building was in
danger of collapsing. When Smendes heard of this, he sent
3000 men to hew stone in the quarries of Gebelen, and re-
paired the damage done by the water. The fact that it was
Smendes, and not the high priest of Amen, who carried out
the work proves that his rule was effective in the south as
well as in the north. The length of his reign is unknown.
Smendes was succeeded by Aakheperra Pasebkhanut
(Pasebkhanut I), who, according to Manetho, reigned forty-
one years ; he was a contemporary of Paiankh, the son of Her-
Heru, who succeeded his father as high priest of Amen. A
daughter of Pasebkhanut called Maatkara Mutemhat, and
124 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
described as the " divine wife of Amen, the daughter of the
king {i.e. princess), roj/al wife, eldest daughter of the Lord
of the Two Lands," married a son of Paiankh called Painet-
chem (I), and there was peace between the Tanite king and
the high priest of Amen. The three sons of this marriage,
Painetchem, Masahertu or Masaherth, and Menkheperra,
became, each in turn, high priest of Amen.
UsERMAATRA Amenemapt succccdcd Pascbkhauut at
Tanis, and during his reign Menkheperra, high priest of
Amen, began to assume the title of " King of the South and
of the North," and to enclose his name in a cartouche.
Neterkheperra Sa-Amen succeeded Amenemapt at Tanis,
and during his reign Menkheperra, high priest of Amen, was
succeeded in his office by a kinsman called Painetchen
(II). Hetchheqra Pasebhkanut (Pasebkhanut II) was
the last of the Tanite kings of the twenty-first dynasty. The
last of the high-priest kings at Thebes seems to have been
Taakheperura Pasebkhanut ; at all events he was the
last of them to write his name in a cartouche. The duration
of the twenty-first dynasty is given by Manetho at 114 or
130 years, and the latter figure is probably near the truth.
Of the history of Egypt during the rule of this dynasty hardly
anything is known, but it is quite certain that under its kings
Egypt lost once and for all the little authority in Palestine
and Syria that remained to her. The Tanite kings had no
army, no money, and no means of filling their coffers with
tribute from foreign nations. The occurrence of their names
on the buildings of Tanis or Memphis seems to indicate that
they carried out the repairs of the chief temples that were
absolutely necessary, but they built no large temple and in-
augurated no new works on a large scale. At Thebes the
priest kings were occupied chiefly with the cult of Amen,
and in proclaiming his glory and the power of his priests.
The successors of Amen-hetep, the first high priest of Amen
who assumed royal rank, followed his example, and increased
their pretensions. They invented for themselves great and
high sounding titles, or '* strong names," as if they had been
THE NEW EMPIRE 125
the descendants of the Pharaohs, and several of them enclosed
their names in cartouches. They assumed the generalship
of the soldiers and claimed the sovereignty of Nubia, with
the tribes of which country they managed to keep on friendly
terms. Their whole existence seemed to have become
merged in that of their god Amen, whose words they feigned
to beheve, or perhaps really did believe, ruled the whole
world. They paid no heed to the events that happened out-
side their small world of Thebes, and so long as the demands
of their god were satisfied nothing disturbed their arrogance
and self-complacency.
The narrative (see the accompanying volume) of a
journey undertaken by an official of Thebes called Unua-
men in the reign of Her-Heru illustrates the ignorance of the
high priest of Amen of the true state of affairs in Syria and
Palestine, and the contempt in which the Egyptian king
was held at that time in these countries. The high priest
wished to make a new barge for Amen, and sent Unuamen
to Byblos to obtain beams of cedar for the purpose. He pro-
vided him with a totally inadequate supply of money to
purchase this wood, and gave him a figure of Amen to bring
him luck on his journey. Unuamen arrived in Tanis, and
was well received by Nesubanebtet, and in due course set
out for Byblos. On his way thither he was robbed of his
money, but after robbing some one else of some silver, he
arrived at Byblos. Here he had to wait several days before
the Governor Zeker-Baal would receive him, and when he
did he flatly refused to supply the timber. Unuamen told
him that Lebanon and all the cedars on it belonged to Amen,
but in reply Zeker-Baal made it quite clear that he neither
acknowledged the claims of Amen, nor owed fealty to the
ruler of Egypt. Moreover, he treated Unuamen as an im-
postor, and the production of the image of Amen by him did
nothing towards helping him to get the timber. It was only
when the messengers whom Unuamen sent to Egypt returned
with vases of gold and silver, hides, linen, &c., together with
proofs that he was the duly accredited messenger of the ruler
of Egypt, that Zeker-Baal ordered the trunks of cedar to be
126 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
loaded on the ships in the harbour for transport to Egypt.
Unuamen, thanks to Zeker-Baal, succeeded in leaving Byblos
and in escaping from a hostile fleet that pursued him with
the view of seizing him because, as their captains alleged,
he had stolen silver from one of their number. He was
therefore more fortunate than the messengers who had been
sent to Byblos in the reign of Rameses IX, and who had been
kept in prison there by Zeker-Baal for seventeen years, and
had finally died there.
Mention has been made of the robbery of the royal tombs
at Thebes during the reigns of the kings of the twentieth
dynasty, and, judging by the action taken by the high priests
of Amen under the twenty-first dynasty, the prosecutions
of the thieves in the reigns of Rameses IX and Rameses X
did not abate this evil. Her-Heru decided that the only
certain way of preserving the royal mummies from desecra-
tion was to take them from their tombs. He removed the
mummies of Rameses I, Seti I, and Rameses II to the tomb
of Queen Anhep, and two of them he rebandaged. Painet-
chem repaired the mummies of Amen-hetep I, Thothmes II,
Rameses II, Rameses III, and carefully hid the mummies of
Amasis I and Sa-Amen. Masaherth rebandaged the mummy
of Amen-hetep I, the founder and great benefactor of the
priests of Amen. Menkheperra banished many of the tomb-
robbers to the Great Oasis (Khargah), but, owing to the out-
break of a serious riot in Thebes, he was obliged to allow the
banished to return. These facts suggest that the high priests
of Amen took other precautions to preserve the mummies of
their royal benefactors.
The power of the high priests of Amen and of the kings of
the twenty-first dynasty at Tanis collapsed about 950 B.C., and
soon after this date the Libyans, who had for many years been
steadily acquiring territory and power both in Upper and Lower
Egypt, seized the opportunity of making themselves masters
of the whole country. The rule of the Libyan kings who,
according to Manetho, formed the twenty-second dynasty,
lasted till about 750 B.C. or 740. The first of these was :
/
THE NEW EMPIRE 127
THE TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY
Hetchkheperra Shashanq (Shishak I ; see i Kings xiv.
25, 2 Chron. xii. 5, 7, 9). He was descended from a Libyan
chief called Buiuwawa, one descendant of whom married
Mehtenusekht, the high priestess of Amen. Shishak's father
Nemart married an Egyptian lady called Thentsepeh, and
through her Shishak probably possessed a claim to the
throne of Egypt ; he married Karamat, the daughter of
Pasebkhanut II, and this aUiance gave him a further claim.
He reigned about twenty-one years. As soon as Shishak had
established himself in Bubastis, which city he made his
capital, he despatched his son Auapet to Thebes, and made
him high priest of Amen and general of the army of the south.
When Solomon king of Israel was seeking to kill Jeroboam
Shishak gave him asylum in Egypt, and the conspirator lived
there until Solomon died, aged ninety- four years (Josephus,
Antiquities, viii. 7, 8, i Kings xi. 26-40). Jeroboam then
returned to Palestine and became king of the Ten Tribes,
whilst Rehoboam became king of two tribes ; the latter
built cities and fortified them, and so provoked Shishak to
invade Palestine. This he did in the fifth year of Rehoboam' s
reign (i Kings xiv. 25), taking with him 1200 chariots, 60,000
horsemen, and 400,000 footmen, including Libyans and
Ethiopians. Town after town fell before the advance of
Shishak, who besieged Rehoboam in Jerusalem. When the
city surrendered Shishak spoiled the Temple, and carried off
large quantities of gold and silver. Among his spoil were
the golden bucklers and shields made by Solomon, and the
golden quivers which David had taken from the king of Zobah
and had dedicated to God. Thus Palestine and the southern
portion of Syria again became possessions of Egypt. On his
return Shishak began to build at Kamak, and on one of the
towers of the second pylon he had cut a large relief in which
he is represented clubbing a number of Semitic prisoners in the
traditional fashion. He added to it also the names of 133
towns, districts, &c., conquered by him during his campaign.
His son Auapet superintended the working of the quarries
128 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of Gebel Silsilah whence the stone for his works at Kamak
was obtained. Shishak also carried on building operations
at several places in Lower Egypt. In his reign the robbery
of the royal tombs was continued, and it was found that the
thieves had discovered the hiding-place in the tomb of Amen-
hetep I, to which Pasebkhanut, high priest of Amen, had
transferred them. Auapet decided to find another hiding-
place for them, and he chose the tomb at Der al-Bahari
that had been made for Astemkhebit, wife of the high priest
Menkheperra, for this purpose. To the mummy chamber
of this tomb Auapet removed many of the royal mummies,
together with their papyri and funerary furniture, and then
he walled up the entrance of the corridor leading to it, and
filled up the shaft with stones ; there they remained in safety
until 1872, when they were discovered by the brothers Abd
Ar-rasul. These natives of Western Thebes took out of the
tomb on various occasions numbers of rolls of inscribed
papyri, and other valuable objects, and sold them to travel-
lers. After eight or nine years of successful robbery the
robbers were brought to justice, and as a result of the beatings
and torturings suffered by them, they revealed to the autho-
rities the source of their plunder. The Government then had
the tomb at Der al-Bahari cleared out, and all the royal
mummies, &c., brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,
where they now are.
Shishak I was succeeded by Kherpkheperra Usarken
(OsoRKON I), who reigned for about fifteen years. Accord-
ing to Champollion he is to be identified with Zerah (Heb.
Zerakh) the Ethiopian (see 2 Chron. xiv. 9) who invaded
Judaea " with an host of a thousand thousand and three
hundred chariots," and was defeated by Asa king of Judah.
Osorkon I was succeeded by Tekleth I who reigned twenty-
three years ; he was succeeded by Usermaatra Usarken
(Osorkon II), who reigned twenty-nine years, and is famous
as the builder of the Hall of the Set Festival (see above, p. 29)
at Bubastis. The texts on the walls describe him as the
conqueror of Nubia and Syria, but the revolts that broke out
THE NEW EMPIRE 129
in Upper Egypt during his reign, and the advance of Shal-
maneser II, King of Assyria, 860 B.C. to 825, into Syria prove
this statement to be incorrect. There is also no foundation
for the assertion that Osorkon II sent 1000 men to assist
Ahab, king of Israel, Irkhulini king of Hamath, and Ben-
hadad king of Damascus, who were fighting the king of
Assyria. Of the reign of Sesheshkheperra Shashanq
(Shishak II) nothing is known. His successor, Hetch-
KHEPERRA Thekleth (Tekleth II), reigned about fifteen
years, and married Karamama, a lady who was of royal
Theban descent. He lived for a time at Thebes, but this
policy did not please his subjects at Bubastis, and as he had
little to give to the priests of Amen the Thebans cannot have
welcomed his arrival, unless they hoped that he would sup-
press any revolt that might arise in Nubia, for the Nubians
were at that time threatening to become troublesome. Shi-
shak III, his successor, is said to have reigned over fifty years,
and he made large gifts to Amen in the eleventh, twenty-
second, and twenty-fifth years of his reign. Pamai, his
successor, reigned about two years and was succeeded by
Aakheperra Shashanq (Shishak IV), who is said to have
reigned nearly forty years. He was the last of the kings who
reigned at Bubastis. When the twenty-second dynasty
came to an end (about 750 B.C.) there was no central govern-
ment in Egypt, for in all parts of the country the local chiefs
had acquired much power, and each of them did much as he
pleased. The priests of Amen had been driven from Thebes,
and appear to have sought asylum at Napata, a town at the
foot of the Fourth Cataract, and in other parts of Nubia,
where Egyptian officials, both civil and military, had been
stationed for several centuries. They joined themselves to
the priesthood of Amen already established in Nubia, and
encouraged the rulers of the provinces to look forward to
and to prepare for the time when Amen would be able to
reassert his ownership of Egypt.
130 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
THE TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY AND THE INVASION
OF EGYPT BY PIANKHI. KING OF NUBIA
Among the local chiefs of Lower Egypt who succeeded in
establishing their claims to rule the country were Seherabra
Petabast, Auput, and Aakheperra Userkena (Osorkon
in) ; these form the twenty-third dynasty. The first of
them is said by Manetho to have reigned forty (or twenty-
five) years. During the reign of Osorkon III there reigned
at Thebes a Nubian king or prince, who seems to have
legalized his claim to the throne by marrying a princess from
the north. He had two sons, Piankhi and Shabaka ; and he
made the former king, or perhaps viceroy, of Nubia, pro-
bably between 750 B.C. and 740. It was to him that the
priests of Amen in Nubia looked for the restoration of the
supremacy of their god. When Piankhi had been reigning
about eighteen years at Napata news was brought to him
that Tafnekht, a powerful chief of Sais in the Western Delta,
had seized a number of towns near him, and had sailed
southwards with a large army to take possession of the whole
country. All the large cities as far south as Herakleopolis
had opened their gates and submitted to him in sheer fright,
and he was at that time besieging Herakleopolis, about 85
miles south of Memphis, which seems to have formed the
northern frontier city of Piankhi in Egypt. In answer to
this report Piankhi did nothing. Meanwhile other governors
of great towns submitted to Tafnekht, and when this fact
was reported to Piankhi, he ordered Puarma and Lasmer-
sekni, his generals in Egypt, to attack Hermopolis, and sent
soldiers to help them.
Soon after this Piankhi arrived in Egypt and found Her-
akleopolis besieged, and Tafnekht supported by Nemareth,
king of Hermopolis, Auapeth, the chief of the Mashuasha,
Shishak of Busiris, Tchetamenafankh of Mendes, and many
other chiefs. On his way down the Nile Piankhi met a fleet
of war-boats of Tafnekht. In the fight that followed he was
victorious, and his slaughter of th^ enemy was great. 4
THE NEW EMPIRE 131
little later he himself assisted at the siege of Hermopolis,
which surrendered after three days' resistance, and Piankhi
pardoned Nemareth, and accepted his offerings. He then
marched northwards, and having compelled all the towns he
passed to submit to him, he came to Memphis, the gates of
which were closed before him. He sent a messenger into
the city bidding the people to surrender, and promising to
do them no harm if they submitted. He reminded them that
he had only killed those whom he had found offering active
resistance to him. The Memphites refused to surrender,
and added to their foolish provocation of Piankhi by treach-
erously falling upon a number of his men who happened to
be near the city and killing them. At this time Tafnekht
arrived in Memphis, and having encouraged the Memphites
to continue their resistance, he mounted a horse and rode
away. Meanwhile Piankhi came to the north side of Mem-
phis, and saw that the waters of the Nile were close up to
the wall, and that boats were moored there. He promptly
ordered his war-boats to seize these boats, and then, having
made his soldiers set every available boat in a line close to the
city wall, with their bows pointing towards it, he ordered an
attack to be made. The Nubians quickly filled the row of
boats in front of the city wall, and then rushing on to their
bows leaped on to the wall, and forced their way into the
houses that were built close up to it, and so went down into
the city. Before the Memphites could make any effective
resistance Piankhi' s soldiers filled the city, and they killed
all who opposed them and took many prisoners. Piankhi,
like a great and generous conqueror, saved the great temple
of Ptah from being looted, made offerings to the gods, and
confirmed the priests in their appointments. The result
of this victory was that many local chiefs came to Memphis
and tendered their submission. • Piankhi then crossed the
Nile and went to Kheraha, a very ancient town, and so on to
Heliopolis, where the priesthood acknowledged him to be
King of Egypt. While he was here Osorkon HI arrived
from Bubastis, and also acknowledged him as king.
A little later Piankhi moved northwards and pitched his
132 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
camp at Kaheni in the nome of Athribis, and hither came
at least fifteen local princes to tender their submission to
him. They brought rich gifts, and Petaast, prince of Athri-
bis, begged him to come to his stables and stud farm and take
from them any and every horse he wished for. Piankhi was,
like all Siidani men, a great lover of horses, and this Petaast
knew well. Meanwhile Tafnekht did his utmost to make the
people in the west revolt, and when all his efforts had failed
he sent an envoy to Piankhi and begged for pardon. He
described his wretched state, saying that he was sick and
miserable, and that his anxieties had made him bald. He
was in rags, and he had taken no pleasure in his food, or in
music, and the beer-hall, because of his terror of Piankhi,
and he said, " Take everything I have, only forgive me, and
send me a messenger with forgiveness. I will go into the
temple of Neith in Sais, and swear allegiance to thee." In
answer to his petition Piankhi sent his general Puarma to
receive the gifts of Tafnekht, and a priest to hear him take his
solemn oath of allegiance in the temple of Neith. One by
one all the chiefs and princes who had been allies of Tafnekht
came and swore fealty to Piankhi, and among them was
Nemareth. Having loaded his fleet with rich gifts of all
kinds Piankhi sailed up the river to Thebes, and finally re-
turned to Napata, his capital, where, with the spoil obtained
in Egypt, he enriched the temple of Amen-Ra.
After the return of Piankhi to Nubia Tafnekht asserted
his former pretensions to the sovereignty of the Delta, and
reigned at Sais for several years. He must have enjoyed con-
siderable power, for it was his son Uahkara Bakenrenef
who became the first king of the twenty-fourth dynasty,
and not a son or member of the family of Osorkon III of
Bubastis. This son of Tafnekht, whose name the Greeks
give as Bocchoris, is said by Diodorus the Sicilian to have
been one of the six great lawgivers of Egypt, and to have
been a wise and prudent man, many of whose sayings were
remembered for centuries after his death. The same writer
states that in his reign a lamb was born with eight legs, two
THE NEW EMPIRE 133
heads, two tails, and four horns, and the faculty of human
speech. According to a legend preserved in demotic this
animal portended danger to Egypt from Assyria, and that
the period of calamity through which Egypt was to pass would
last for 900 years. There are no monuments of Bocchoris
extant, and he appears to have been the only king of the
twenty- fourth dynasty.
THE NUBIAN KINGS OF EGYPT
The kings of the twenty-fifth dynasty were Nubians,
the first of them being Neferkara Shabaka, the son of
Kashta, the Nubian king of Thebes, and brother of Piankhi,
the conqueror of Egypt ; he reigned about twelve years,
but for several years before he became king he acted as
commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, and was king to
all intents and purposes. He is now generally regarded as
the So of the Bible (2 Kings xvii. 4). He is said to have
burned, or flayed, Bocchoris alive. When he obtained com-
mand of the army of Egypt the Assyrian king was the over-
lord of the kings and princes of Palestine and Syria, and
Shabaka detested the Assyrian rule as much as they did,
for it did away with any hope that he may have cherished
of one day regaining possession for Egypt of these countries
which had been in olden days tributary to her. ■ Shabaka
therefore stirred up the tribes on his north-eastern frontier
to revolt against the Assyrians, and he seems to have promised
help to Hoshea, the last king of Israel, to throw off the As-
syrian yoke. \ Relying on Shabaka and the army of Egypt
Hoshea neglected to send tribute to Shalmaneser IV, the king
of Assyria, who promptly marched against him, " and shut
him up, and bound him in prison," and ravaged his country.
Two years later, or in the ninth year of Hoshea (2 Kings
xviii. 10) (722 B.C. ?), Samaria was taken, and the Israelites
were carried away by Sargon from their native land to Assyria
and Media. Shabaka did not profit by this example of what
happened to those who rebelled against Assyria, but continued
to foment revolt in Palestine. About two years later he
134 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
joined his forces to those of Hanunu of Gaza, and the princes
of the PhiHstines, and the Israehtes, and assisted the king
of Damascus in his attempt to throw off the yoke of Sargon II,
who had succeeded Shalmaneser IV (721 B.C.). Sargon set
out for Palestine as soon as his war against his enemies in
the south permitted, and he was everywhere victorious. He
crushed the Syrian rebels in the battle of Karkar, and, march-
ing southwards, defeated Hanunu, the king of Gaza, and his
allies, among them being a contingent of Egyptians, at the
battle of Rapihu, or Raphia, about 720 B.C. The Egyptians,
from whom Hanunu had expected so much, were routed
with great slaughter, and Shabaka their leader fled back to
Thebes (?). For some reason Sargon did not invade Egypt,
but contented himself with the gifts which the Egyptian
king sent to him, and which he regarded as tribute. The
Pharaoh who sent gifts to Sargon may have been Bocchoris,
the son of Tafnekht, and it was probably for this reason that
Shabaka burnt or flayed him alive when he returned to the
north as king of all Egypt a few years after his flight. < Both
as commander-in-chief and king Shabaka fomented revolt
in Palestine, but he was too weak to defy Assyria indepen-
dently. •
Sargon was succeeded by hie son Sennacherib (705 B.C.),
and four years after his laccession Shabaka joined with
Luli, king of Tyre, Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all the
local princes in a revolt against Sennacherib, who marched
against them and, after a victorious progress, gave battle to
the allies at^Altaqu, or Eltekeh, and defeated them utterly ;
and the town of Ekron feU into his hands. The w,eakness of
the Egyptians was again shown, and even the support of
Shabaka' s Nubian troops was not sufficient to enable them to
stand against the Assyrians. Sennacherib besieged Jerusa-
lem, and he only raised the siege when Hezekiah its king sent
to him the gold which he had stripped off the temple. Sen-
nacherib thereupon returned to Nineveh, but two years later,
owing to a further refusal of Hezekiah to pay tribute, he again
marched into Palestine and besieged Lachish, which he took.
He then sent to Jerusalem from Lachish messengers, viz.
THE NEW EMPIRE 135
the Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, with a great host
(2 Kings xviii. 17), to demand the surrender of the city and
the submission of Hezekiah. They were received by Eha-
kim, Hezekiah' s steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah
the recorder, who were terrified at the threats and promises
of the Rabshakeh, which, being uttered in the ordinary dia-
lect of the people, were understood by every listener. They
reported his demands to Hezekiah, but he, encouraged by
Isaiah the prophet, who foretold the ruin of the Assyrian
host, refused to comply with them. Sennacherib did not
press an attack on Jerusalem at that moment, but marched
on to fight the Egyptian army, which lay near the eastern
frontier of Egypt. His object was to destroy the ally upon
whom Hezekiah leant, and he meant to reduce Jerusalem on
his return. The Egyptian army was led by Taharq, a son
of Piankhi and nephew of Shabaka, whom the Hebrew
Scriptures describe as " Tirhakah, king of Kush " (2 Kings
xix. 9 ; Isaiah xxxvii. 9), but whether Shabaka was with him
or not is not clear. The invasion of Egypt was near, but it
did not take place under Sennacherib, for a great disaster
overtook him, and 185,000 of his soldiers perished (2 Kings
xix. 35 ; Isaiah xxxvii. 36) ; so Sennacherib and the remnant
of his army returned to Nineveh. This disaster not only
saved Jerusalem, in which Hezekiah was besieged and shut
up like a ** bird in a cage," but Egypt also — for the time.
At some period of his reign Shabaka seems to have opened
negotiations with Sennacherib in writing, for two clay seals
bearing his name and titles were found among the tablets of
the Royal Library in Nineveh. They are now in the British
Museum. • Shabaka repaired several of the great temples at
Thebes, Memphis, HeliopoUs, and Tanis, and on a relief in
the temple of Karnak he is seen clubbing his enemies in tradi-
tional fashion.' His sister Mutkhaneferu Amenartas was
appointed by him high priestess of Amen, and Menkheperra
Piankhi, her official husband, assisted her in carrying out
several building operations, i Shabaka was succeeded by his
son (?) Shabataka, about 700 B.C.*
Of Tetkaura Shabataka very few monimients remain.
\
136 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and practically nothing is known about his reign. An
ancient tradition says that he reigned twelve years, and that
he was taken prisoner and put to death by Taharq, or Tirha-
kah (688 B.C.), who was in command of the Egyptian troops
701 B.C.
The opening years of the reign of Nefertemkhura
Taharqa were peaceful, and he had nothing to fear from
^'^Sennacherib who was occupied with wars on various frontiers.
He seems to have been made king of Napata in Nubia when he
was about twenty years of age, and up to that time he helped
his father to farm the family estate. Events, of which
nothing is known, made it necessary for him to go to Egypt,
and on his arrival there he became king. On a stele from
Tanis he tells us that he sent and fetched his mother Akaluka
from Napata to witness his coronation in Thebes and Tanis,
and that he heaped honours upon her as the mother of Amen's
son on earth, i.e. himself. ^ During the early part of his reign
he built a rock-hewn funerary temple, 120 feet long, at Gebel
Barkal (Napata), and ornamented the front of it with statues
of the Sudani god Bes ; he also repaired two temples near
his own, one of them being the temple of Piankhi. At Thebes
he repaired many of the temples and added to them, and at
Tanis various restorations of buildings were undertaken by
him. The two seats of the cult of Amen, Thebes, and Napata,
and his capital Tanis were the only cities of Egypt in which
s. he seems to have taken special interest.
j3Tirhakah enjoyed several years of peace, and it was not
until some years after the murder of Sennacherib (681 B.C.),
and the accession of his son Esarh^ddon that rumours of
wars in Syria and Palestine reached him. Esarhaddon attacked
Abdi-Milkutti, king of Sidon, in 676, and destroyed his city,
and about three years later he seems to have sent an army
into Palestine for some purpose, but he made no advance on
Egypt. ^ In 670 he besieged Baal, king of Tyre, who had
entered into a league with Tirhakah, and when he had reduced
that city he determined to punish Egypt.* He marched from
Aphek to Rapihu (Raphia) in fifteen days, and he chased
THE NEW EMPIRE I37
the Egyptians across the frontier, fought three or four battles
with them, and pursued them to Memphis, which he cap-
tured. This city was sacked by the Assyrians in a thorough
manner. Tirhakah fled to the south, and Esarhaddon ap-
pointed twenty governors to rule, each from his own city,
the various provinces of Egypt. As soon as Esarhaddon
had left Egypt for Nineveh, these governors entered into
negotiations with Tirhakah, who in a very short time had
returned, and who slew the Assyrian garrison in Memphis,
deposed Esarhaddon' s governors, and had himself declared
king of Egypt. On hearing of this E§arhaddpn set out for
Egypt to crush Tirhakah, but died on the road thither
(668 B.C.), and was succeeded by his son Ashurbanipal, who
at once took steps to carry out the campaign begun by his
father. On his way through Syria and Palestine Ashur-
banipal received the submission of twenty-two kings of the
sea-coast, among them being Manasseh of Judah. He fought
a battle with the Egyptians at Karbanit and defeated them,
and then marched into Egypt and occupied Memphis. Tir-
hakah fled to Thebes, and when he found that the Assyrians
were sailing up after him he fled to Napata. On his return
to the Delta Ashurbanipal reappointed the governors who
had been chosen by his father and deposed by Tirhakah, and
returned to Nineveh. He had hardly left the country when
Necho of Sais, Paqrer of Persept, and Sharruludari of Tanis,
began to write letters to Tirhakah inviting him to return
to Eg5^t, but the letters were intercepted by the Assyrians
in Egypt, and Necho and Sharruludari were sent in chains to
Nineveh. The former Ashurbanipal pardoned, and restored
to his governorship, and the latter was probably put to death.
After this Tirhakah lost all his influence in Egypt.
Tirhakah was succeeded by the Nubian Bakara Tanuta-
MEN, the Tandamanie of the Assyrian inscriptions, who had
already served his country as co-regent; he^was^a son of
Shabaka and probably began to reign in thVyear in which
Tirhakah died (665 or 663 B.C. ?). In the first year of his
reign, as the result of a dream in which he beheld himself king
138 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of "Egypt, Tanutamen set out from Napata for Egypt, with
1,100,000 soldiers(!) and having been well received at Elephan-
tine and Thebes he proceeded to Memphis, which, after a
fierce fight, he took. He again embarked in his boat, and set
out to attack the Princes of the North, but they hid in their
towns *' like rats in their holes " and refused to fight ; after
waiting several days for them to appear Tanutamen returned
to Memphis. A little later a body of the Princes of the North,
led by Paqrer, the governor of Persept, came to Memphis,
and prayed for pardon, and they were allowed to go and bring
gifts to Tanutamen. Meanwhile the news of these doings
had been carried to Nineveh, and Ashurbanipal set out at
once for Egypt. On his arrival the Princes of the North
submitted to him and kissed his feet, and Tanutamen fled
from Memphis to Thebes, where he was followed by the
Assyrians. He then fled to Qepqepa (Kipkip), and Ashur-
banipal captured Thebes. The Assyrians sacked the city
thoroughly, and stripped the temples and palace of every-
thing of value in them, including two pillars or obelisks that
were plated with gold. They seized all the costly clothing
and furniture and horses, and then apparently set fire to the
city. Not content with this, Ashurbanipal deported a large
number of men and women, after the usual Assyrian fashion.
This was the greatest calamity that had ever fallen upon
Egypt, and Thebes never recovered its former greatness and
splendour. Ashurbanipal returned to Nineveh with a " full
hand " and well satisfied with the conquest of Egypt. Tanut-
amen seems to have returned to Thebes, and to have lived
there for a few years, but he made no further attempt to defy
the power of Assyria. The city of Napata, which the Nubians
regarded as a second Thebes, began also to decline, for the
peoples who lived to the south of the Atbara River, on the
" Island of Meroe," little by little gained possession of the
country round about Napata, and finally of the city itself. As
the Nubians of Napata imitated the manners and customs
of the Theban Egyptians, so the founders of the Meroi'tic
Kingdom on the Island of Meroe imitated those of the Nubians
of Napata,
THE NEW EMPIRE 139
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY
The TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY was founded by Uahabra
PsEMTHEK (PsAMMETiCHUS I), the son of Nekau (Necho),
the governor of Sais, who had been carried in chains to
Nineveh, but had been treated with great honour by Ashur-
banipal, and restored to his governorship. Necho died or
was killed soon after the arrival of Tanutamen in the Delta,
and his son fled for protection to Assyria. Ashurbanipal
received him graciously, and ordered his officers in Egypt
to make him ruler of Sais in his father's stead (660 B.C. ?).
He was thus a vassal of Assyria, but after the death of Tanut-
amen, which took place a few years later, he took posses-
sion [of Thebes (654 B.C. ?), and made Shepenapt, the sister
of Tirhakah and high priestess of Amen, adopt his daughter
Netaqert (Nitocris). Thus he obtained great power in Upper
Egypt. For nearly twenty years he continued to combat
the power of the Assyrian vassal-governors in the Delta, and
at length, by the help of the Carian and Ionian mercenaries
whom he employed, he was able to proclaim himself king of
Egypt. About 640 he ventured to invade Palestine, of which
the king of Assyria was still the overlord, but Ashurbanipal
ignored the incident, and the glory of Psammetichus was
increased. During his long reign of fifty-four years he kept
up a strong army of mercenaries, and established garrisons
at Pelusium and Daphnse in the Eastern Delta, at Marea in
the Western Delta, and at Elephantine in the First Cataract.
The protection of his land being thus assured, he was able
to devote himself to the development of the commerce and
industries of the country. He allowed the Greeks to trade
freely, he opened up all the old trade routes, he established
markets everywhere, and did all he could to develop the
sea trade of Egypt. In a very few years under such condi-
tions the people became prosperous, and having money to
spare the king repaired the great temples and restored the
worship of all the old gods. Under his patronage the priests
began to study the ancient religious texts, the old ceremonies
140 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and rites were revived, and a new Recension of the Book of
the Dead was made. The texts of the Ancient Empire were
copied on coffins and tombs, the old funerary paintings were
copied, and the rich were buried with all the pomp and cere-
mony of the nobles of the earher dynasties. The art of this
period possesses characteristics peculiar to itself, a result
due to foreign influence. In this reign there came into
general use the modified form of hieratic writing, which is
now commonly called " demotic." Psammetichus died about
612 B.C. (?) and was buried in a chapel that he built near the
temple of Neith in Sais.
Uhemabra nekau (Necho), the son of Psammetichus I,
reigned about fifteen years. On his accession he built a fleet
for use in the Mediterranean and another for use in the Red
Sea, and he attempted to join the Nile and the Gulf of Suez
by means of a canal ; though he employed 120,000 men in
this work, the canal was not finished. Necho is said to have
sent some Phoenician sailors to circumnavigate Africa, who
returned after three years, thus proving that Libya, or
Africa, was surrounded by water. He invaded Palestine
and Syria with a large army of mercenaries, and Josiah,
king of Judah, attempted to stop his advance, but
was mortally wounded in the Valley of Megiddo (2 Kings
xxiii. 29 ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 21 ff.). Necho continued his
march, but when he arrived at the Euphrates he found no
Assyrian army to do battle with, and he set out for Egypt.
On his way back he found that Jehoahaz had been made
king of Judah, and he put him in chains in Riblah, and
fined his people 100 talents of silver and i talent of gold. He
then appointed EHakim, another son of Josiah, whose name
he changed to Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and he took Jehoa-
haz to Egypt, where he died (2 Kings xxiii. 31 ff.). In the
year 607 or 606 Nineveh was taken and destroyed by Cyax-
ares, king of the Medes, and Nabupalusur, king of Babylon ;
the latter, in order to assert his supremacy over Syria and
Palestine, sent an army against Necho. This army was led
by Nabukudurusur, or Nebuchadnezzar II, the son of Nabu-
THE NEW EMPIRE 141
palusur. The Babylonians met the Egyptians and^ their
aUies at Karkemish, and in the battle that followed (605-
604 B.C.) the forces of Necho were utterly defeated ; he himself
retreated with great rapidity to Egypt, pursued by Nebuchad-
nezzar, who received tribute from Jehoiakim on the way
(2 Kings xxiv. i). In 604 Nabupalusur died, and Nebuchad-
nezzar was obliged to return to Babylon, and defer the in-
vasion of Egypt for a few years. Jehoiachin succeeded his
father Jehoiakim in the opening years of the sixth century
B.C., and very soon after his accession provoked the wrath
of Nebuchadnezzar. In 596 Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem,
seized all the treasures in the Temple and in the king's house,
and carried them away, together with the king, and all his
family, and all the people, " save the poorest sort of the
land " (2 Kings xxiv. 14), to Babylon. Mattaniah, the uncle
of Jehoiachin, was appointed king of Judah by Nebuchad-
nezzar, who changed his name to Zedekiah. Thus Palestine
became a province of Babylon, and Necho laid no further
claim to any part of it. Necho was buried in Sais, and was
succeeded by Psammetichus II.
Neferabra Psemthek (Psammetichus II) reigned about
six years. He is said to have invaded Nubia with a host of
Greek mercenaries, and a record of an invasion is preserved
in the form of a Greek inscription, which is cut upon the
broken colossal statue of Rameses II in front of the temple
of Abu Simbel. The appearance of the name of Psammeti-
chus II in the quarries of Gebel Silsilah, the Wadi Hamma-
mat, and Turah suggests that he repaired some of the temples
at Karnak, Memphis, and Heliopolis, where his name is also
found.
Haaabra Uahabra, the Pharaoh Hophra of Jeremiah
xliv. 30, and the Apries of the Greeks, succeeded Psammeti-
chus II about 590 B.C. and reigned for about twenty-five
years. Soon after his accession to the throne the kings of
Tyre and Sidon, and Zedekiah, king of Judah, revolted, and
Hophra made a league with them against Nebuchadnezzar.
142 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
In the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah (2 Kings xxv. i)
a Babylonian force appeared before Jerusalem (587 B.C. ?),
but the greater part of Nebuchadnezzar's army camped at
Riblah. As Hophra was attacking Tyre and Sidon by sea,
Nebuchadnezzar seems to have expected him to land a force
somewhere on the Syrian coast, with the object of attacking
the Babylonians. This Hophra did not do, but he returned to
Egypt, and made an attempt to raise the siege of Jerusalem
by land. This was unsuccessful, for when the Babylonians
marched against him he retreated, leaving Jerusalem to its
fate. The Babylonians then prosecuted the siege with vigour,
and in a short time famine compelled the city to surrender.
Zedekiah tried to escape, but was caught in the plains of
Jericho and taken to the king's camp at Riblah. Nebuchad-
nezzar had the sons of Zedekiah slain before him, and had
his eyes put out, and bound him with fetters of brass, and
took him to Babylon (2 Kings xxv. 1-7). Hophra made no
further attempt to regain the lost possessions in Palestine
and Syria, but devoted himself to developing the commerce
of his country ; trade increased, and the Egyptians became
very wealthy. His reign was brought to an end in a curious
manner. He despatched a force of Egyptians against the
Cyrenians who were settled to the west of the Delta, because
they had been quarrelling with the Libyans. This force was
defeated with great loss by the Cyrenians, and the Egyp-
tians thought they had been specially sent by Hophra because
he wished them to be killed. They therefore rebelled, and
Hophra sent an officer called Aahmes, or Amasis, to quell
their revolt, with the result that they elected him to be their
king instead of Hophra. Amasis then ruled for two or three
years with Hophra, who lived at Sais and was treated with
all honour. At length Hophra managed to leave Sais, and
having collected an army, he led it against Amasis, who de-
feated him. According to an inscription of Amasis Hophra
was killed by some of his own men whilst he was sitting in
a boat, but others say that he was slain by the emissaries of
Amasis (about 560 B.C.), who was looking on from the river
bank. However this may have been, Ama§i^ states that he
THE NEW EMPIRE 143
buried Hophra in the tomb of his father at Sais, and that he
endowed his tomb and provided for the continuance of com-
memorative services and offerings.
Khnemabra Aahmes (Amasis II) reigned for about forty-
four years. He was of humble origin, and is said to have
been born at Sais. The Greek writers describe him as a good-
natured man, who loved conviviality and was popular with his
comrades, and was a good soldier. With the wealth that
flowed into his treasury he repaired many of the old temples,
and built new ones, and restored the worship of the native
gods. He added chambers to the temple of Kamak, and his
works at Abydos were on a large scale. He restored and re-
endowed the sanctuary of Osiris there, cleared out the canals,
planted a vineyard, and renewed the worship of the god.
He added to the temple of Ptah at Memphis, and set up the
colossal granite statues mentioned by Herodotus ; and he
buried, with great pomp, an Apis Bull in the Serapeum in
the twenty-third year of his reign. He rebuilt a temple at
Bubastis, and dedicated a huge shrine to the temple of
Thmuis. He added a court with statues and sphinxes to the
temple of Neith at Sais, and he set up here the granite shrine
that struck wonder into Herodotus, for it was 30 feet high,
and it took 2000 men three years to bring from the quarries
at Syene (Aswan) to Sais. Whilst he was doing all these
good works for the Egyptians he did not forget to assist in
every way the Greeks who had settled in his country, for he
knew that the prosperity of his country rested ultimately
on their commercial enterprises and ability. Moreover, his
sympathies inclined far more to the Greeks than to the Egyp-
tians. He made a new grant of land to the Greeks who were
settled in Naucratis, and conferred upon the town many
valuable privileges. The over-sea trade of Egypt was now
very large, and the ships of Amasis could be seen in every
port of the Mediterranean ; his fleet was equally useful for
either commerce or war. He made no attempt to regain
Egypt's lost possessions in Syria, either when Nebuchad-
nezzar died (562 B.C. ?) or during the pacific reign of Naboni-
144 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
dus. Amasis died about 526 and was succeeded by his son
Psammetichus III.
Ankhkaenra Psemthek (Psammetichus III) reigned for
about six months, and the few monuments bearing his name
add nothing to the history of the period ; what is known of
it is derived from Greek sources. Amasis II had provoked
the wrath of Cyrus, king of Persia, by making alliances with
Croesus, king of Lydia, and other kings who were the enemies
of Persia, and when Cambyses succeeded Cyrus he deter-
mined to conquer Egypt. With the assistance of the desert
tribes who supplied his soldiers with water he marched on
Egypt, and met the army which Psammetichus had collected
at the frontier city of Pelusium ; the Egyptians were defeated
and the remnant of the army retreated to Memphis, which
they fortified. A little later Cambyses sent an ambassador
up the river to Memphis in a boat manned by 200 Greeks
to propose terms of surrender ; when the boat entered the
canal leading to the city the Egyptians attacked the crew
and slew them and broke up the boat. Cambyses then went
on to Memphis, took the city, and avenged the murder of
his ambassador. On the whole he treated Psammetichus
with consideration, for he took him to live with him in his
palace for a time, and it was only when he discovered that
Psammetichus was plotting against him that he put him to
death. Thus perished the last king of the twenty-sixth
dynasty, and Egypt became a Persian province.
THE PERSIAN KINGS OF EGYPT
When Mesutra Kambathet (Cambyses) became king of
Egypt, the first king of the twenty-seventh dynasty, he
adopted the same policy of religious toleration which his
father Cyrus showed towards the Babylonians, Hebrews, and
others, and assumed a Horus-name (Smataui, " the uniter
of the Two Lands," i.e. Egypt) like a Pharaoh of old, and had
his other names written in cartouches. Regarding Sais as
the capital of Egypt he marched thither, and was received
THE NEW EMPIRE
145
by the nobleman Utchaheruentresu, who was probably a
kinsman of Amasis II. On the green basalt statue of this
official, now preserved in the Vatican, is an inscription that
Netek-Amen and his Queen Amentarit worshipping their god.
From the Temple of Nagaa in the Sudan.
mentions the adoption by Cambyses of the title " Mesut Ra "
and his visit to Sais. During the course of his conversation
with the king Utchaheruentresu described the antiquity of
146 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Sais and the power of its goddess Neith, and told him how
aliens had seized her revenues and taken possession of her
temple. Cambyses gave him authority to expel the aliens
and restored to the goddess her revenues. And when the
temple had been purified he went there and poured out a
libation to the goddess, and made gifts to her temple. Cam-
byses next planned the conquest of the Carthaginians, and
of the dwellers in the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon (the Siwah of
the Arabs), and of the Nubians, and then seems to have
departed into Upper Egypt. His plan for the conquest of
Carthage fell through, because the Phoenician sailors refused
to fight against their kinsmen in Carthage. When he arrived
at Thebes he despatched a force of 50,000 men to the Oasis
of Siwah. They arrived safely at the Oasis of Khargah or
the Oasis of Dakhlah, which was on the old caravan road to
Siwah, but after they started from this place they were never
more heard of, and it was said that they were all destroyed
by a sand storm. The probability is that they were over-
whelmed by one of the hills of sand, which to this day move
from south to north and north to south according to the time
of the year.
From Thebes or some place farther to the south Cambyses
despatched another force to conquer the Nubians and to
seize their capital Napata, where at that time reigned the
Meroitic king Nastasen, the son, probably, of Herusatef.
Before the Persians had gone very far they had eaten all their
provisions, and their transport animals also, and starvation
stared them in the face. Nastasen says in his inscription
that his men attacked " Kambasutent," and defeated him.
If this was so Cambyses must have been attacked at some
place in the region of the Second and Third Cataracts, the
northern part of which is so full of rocks and stone that it is
called " Batn al-Hagar," or " Stone-belly." In any case
Cambyses had to retreat to Memphis, and his loss of men
must have been appalling. The Greek writers say that when
he returned to Egypt he committed many sacrilegious acts,
that he smote the Apis Bull in the thigh, and gave the animal
a wound of which he died, that he had many mummies
THE NEW EMPIRE 147
dragged from their tombs, that he burned certain wooden
statues of the gods, &c. Having established a viceroy in
Egypt called Aryandes, Cambyses set out for Persia to put
down the revolt headed by Gaumata, a Magush, who declared
that he was Bardiya (Bardes or Smerdis), the brother of
Cambyses, whom Cambyses had murdered before he set out
for Egypt. The revolt was so successful that Gaumata was
able to declare himself king of Persia. Whilst Cambyses
was on the way to Persia he committed suicide, about 522 B.C.
Cambyses was succeeded by Setetu Antariush (Darius
I), who arrived in Egypt about 517 B.C., and adopted the
rank and style of the Pharaohs, and had his names written
within cartouches. He showed an interest in the old worship
of Egypt and ordered Utchaheruentresu, the old noble of
Sais who had induced Cambyses to restore the revenues of
the temple of Neith to the goddess, to found a college for
the education of the priests. He completed the digging of
the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, which had
been begun by Seti I and continued by Amasis II, and
set up stelae inscribed in hieroglyphs and in three kinds of
cuneiform characters (Persian, Susian, and Babylonian) to
commemorate this work. According to Diodorus, Darius
honoured the gods of Egypt, and often discussed theology
with the priests, and became acquainted with their lore. He
was kind to the people, and when he was dead they paid him
divine honours, and regarded him as the sixth Lawgiver of
Egypt. He built a temple to Amen in the town of Hebt,
the capital of the Oasis of Khargah, or the Great Oasis ; it
was about 144 feet long and nearly 60 feet wide, and had three
pylons. On one of the walls of the second chamber in the
temple is cut a hymn to Amen-Ra, who is described as the
One God, of whom all the other gods are but forms. The
hymn was supposed to be sung by the eight great primeval
gods of Khemenu (Hermopolis, the modem Eshmunen).
The sanctuary is decorated with well-executed figures of a
remarkable series of gods. Whilst Darius was absent from
Egypt, and engaged in conflicts with the Greeks, the Egyp-
148 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
tians in the Delta began to conspire against the rule of the
Persians. In 486 a serious revolt, headed by Khabbasha,
broke out, and in the following year Darius, when on his way
to Egypt to crush the rebels, died. He was succeeded by
his son Xerxes.
Xerxes the Great suppressed the revolt of Khabbasha,
who called himself '* beloved of Ra," and who seems actually
to have reigned for a short time and to have adopted a throne
name, which he wrote within a cartouche, like one of the
Pharaohs of old. Khabbasha carried out a kind of survey
of the Delta that was of public utility, and was a great bene-
factor of the temple of Buto (Pe-Tep) ; his conduct is con-
trasted, to his advantage, with that of Xerxes, who robbed
that temple of its possessions and revenues. Xerxes reigned
about twenty years, but, having no s)anpathy with the Egyp-
tians, he neither honoured their gods nor repaired their
temples.
He was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes, who reigned
for about forty years, and followed his father's example
in treating the religion of Egypt with contempt. In
the early years of his reign a revolt broke out, headed by
Inaros, a Libyan, who expelled the Persian tax-gatherers,
and then collected an army. IWith the help of the Athenians,
who sent 300 ships, he fought a battle at Papremis against
the Persians, in which they were defeated and their general,
Akhaemenes, was slain. >^ In 460 the Persians attacked the
Egyptians with myriads of men, and Inaros, seeing that
resistance was useless, gave himself up on the understanding
that his life should be spared. He was taken to Persia by
Megabyzus, where he hved for five years, but at the end of
that time, at the instigation of Amestris, the mother of
Akhaemenes, the dead general, Inaros was impaled, and
then, having been stretched on three crosses, flayed alive.
Thannyras his son was permitted to inherit his estates in
Libya and to rule as a vassal of Persia.
Artaxerxes was succeeded by Darius Il^urnamed Nothus,
who began to reign in 423, and reigned nineteen years.
THE NEW EMPIRE 149
His name is found in several places on the walls of the
temple of Darius I in the Great Oasis (Khargah) and at
Edfu ; he is the last of the Persian kings who left any
memorial of himself in Egypt. The last king of the dynasty
of Persians was Artaxerxes H ; in his reign the Egyptians
regained a measure of independence.
According to Manetho the twenty-eighth dynasty, from
Sais, contained only one king, whom he calls Amyrtaios ;
he is said to have reigned six years, but nothing is known
of his Hfe and acts. The kings of the twenty-ninth dynasty
were from the town of Mendes in the Delta ; their names
were Nefaarut, Haker, and Psamut. Their reigns were
unimportant, their total length being only about twenty-one
years. The kings of the thirtieth dynasty were from
Sebennytus. The first of them was Nekhtherheb, the
Nektanebes of Manetho, who began to reign about 378,
and reigned eighteen years. Under him Egypt enjoyed
peace and a temporary prosperity, and many of the
ancient temples were repaired by him ; his name is found
on the temple of Darius I at Khargah. His massive stone
sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphic texts, is in the
British Museum, and is one of the most important monuments
of his reign. He successfully defended his country against
the attacks of the Persians, and drove them from its shores.
He was succeeded by Tcheher, the Teos of Manetho and
Tachos of Diodorus, who reigned for two or three years.
He was succeeded by Kheperkara Nekhtnebef, the
Nektanebos of Manetho, who reigned for about seventeen
years. He repaired many of the old temples, some of
which he re- endowed, and his name is found in many places
in Egypt. To provide stone for his works he opened a new
quarry at Turah. The art of the period is interesting, but
in detail it is delicate, if not weak. In the reign of Nekht-
nebef the Persians, under Artaxerxes III Ochus, attacked
Egypt with an overwhelming force, and Pelusium having been
captured, all the other towns in the Delta opened their
gates, and the Egyptians, laying down their arms, sub-
150 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
mitted. From Memphis Nekhtnebef watched the progress
of the Persians, and when he saw their triumph he deter-
mined not to venture on a struggle with them. According
to Greek writers he quietly abdicated, and gathering together
much treasure, fled into Ethiopia. Artaxerxes advanced,
demolished the fortifications that had been raised against
him, and appointed a viceroy called Pherendates. He
collected a large quantity of gold and silver from the temples,
and, taking with him all the records and writings found in
them, returned to Babylon laden with spoil. Thus ended
the rule of the last native king of Egypt, about 340 B.C.
THE MACEDONIANS AND PTOLEMIES
The rule of the Persians over Egypt lasted for a few years
longer, but was brought to an end by Alexander the
Great (born 356 B.C., died 323), who defeated the Persians
at the Battle of Issus (332 B.C.). The result of his victory
was that Egypt, which had been a province of the Persian
Empire for nearly a hundred and fifty years, passed into the
possession of the Greeks (Macedonians). When Alexander
arrived at Pelusium the Egyptians welcomed him with
great enthusiasm, for they were weary of the cruelty and
extortion of the Persian governors and tax-collectors, and
they hated the Persians for the insults which some of their
kings had heaped upon the gods of Egypt and her religion.
Alexander marched direct to Memphis, where he received
the submission of the satrap, or governor, Mazakes, and
where he was crowned king of Egypt in the temple of Ptah.
He adopted the Egyptian titles " beloved of Ra," " chosen of
Amen," " lord of the Two Lands " {i.e. Egypt), *' lord of dia-
dems," like a Pharaoh of old, and had his name written within
a cartouche. The Persians had shown great wisdom in
assuming the titles of the Pharaohs, and in adopting Egyptian
customs, but Alexander went further than they, for he
determined to show the Egyptians that he was a veritable
son of Amen, and that the blood of the god ran in his veins.
To carry out this determination he marched, not to Thebes,
THE NEW EMPIRE 151
the ancient seat of the cult of Amen, but to the Oasis of
Siwah, several days' march to the west of Egypt, where
was a famous sanctuary of Amen. In it was a figure of
Amen, probably with movable head and arms, beautifully
decorated with emeralds and other precious stones. When
Alexander approached the shrine the priest told him that
Amen had called him his son, and the king replied that
he would accept sonship of the god if he would make him
king of the whole world. Thereupon the figure of the god,
either with head or hand, made a sign of assent. Alexander
then asked if he had killed all his father's murderers, and the
god replied, " No mortal could kill thy father, but all the
murderers of Philip have suffered just punishment," meaning
that Alexander's true father was an immortal god, namely
himself. Amen. All the god's further remarks greatly
pleased Alexander, for he promised him invincibility. Alex-
ander returned to Egypt, and founded Alexandria, close to
the old town of Rakote and opposite the Island of Pharos,
soon after 331 B.C. No other site in the Delta was so suit-
able for a seaport, and the immense importance of Alex-
andria to Egypt for the last twenty-two centuries has
justified the choice. Having appointed governors over
Memphis and Pelusium, Alexander departed to Syria to
begin the career of conquest that has made his name immortal.
He died in Babylon in June 323 B.C., and his body was em-
balmed and brought to Egypt, and was ultimately buried
in a splendid tomb in Alexandria by his faithful general,
Ptolemy.
When Alexander's kingdom was divided among his
generals, Egypt and Libya fell to the share of Ptolemy
Lagus, but he at first only administered these countries on
behalf of Philip III, Arrhidaeus, who thus became Philip I
of Egypt. Philip reigned six years and four months, and
was assassinated 317 B.C. In his name a small granite
temple was built at Karnak, and in one of the reliefs he is
seen kneeling before Amen-Ra, who is conferring upon
him the sovereignty of all Egypt. Thus was maintained
in Egypt the fiction that the Macedonian kings were the
152 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
sons of Amen-Ra. Philip was succeeded by Alexander IV
of Macedon, or Alexander II of Egypt, the son of Alex-
ander the Great by his wife Roxana ; he reigned about twelve
years, and was strangled by Glaukias, governor of Amphi-
polis, by the order of Cassander, 305 B.C. Works were
carried out at Kamak in his name, and a fine granite statue,
nine feet high, of the young king was set up in the temple
of Amen-Ra. A granite temple was also built in his name
at Elephantine. A stele dated in the seventh year of his
reign states that he restored to the temple of Buto certain
lands which had been given to it by Khabbasha and had
been stolen by Xerxes, and that Ptolemy had a copy of the
original title-deeds made, and took care that Horus of Buto
received his full rights.
On the death of Alexander II of Egypt Ptolemy ruled the
country in his own name, and he inaugurated the policy
under which Egypt became the richest country in the world.
This result was brought about, not by Nubian or Asiatic
wars, but by a steady development of the trade of the country.
Under the influence of the shrewd and business-like abilities
of the Ptolemies Egypt became a kind of central market and
clearing-house for all the commerce of East Africa, Southern
Arabia, the Red Sea, the Egyptian Sudan, Palestine and Syria,
Cyprus and the Islands and coasts of the eastern half of the
Mediterranean. The Jews were encouraged to settle in
Alexandria, and the merchants contributed largely to making
that port the most important in the world at that time. A
Jewish colony existed at Elephantine long before the rule
of the Ptolemies, and when the Macedonians established a
strong and settled government in Egypt Jewish merchants
were to be found in the markets of all the large towns in the
country. The Ptolemies employed a wise policy in respect
of the Egyptians. They adopted the rank and style of the
Pharaohs, assumed ancient Egyptian titles, made use of
hieroglyphic writing on certain occasions, and had their
names written in hieroglyphs and enclosed within cartouches.
They worshipped Egyptian gods and made offerings to them,
THE NEW EMPIRE 153
and they devoted no small share of the revenues of the country
to the maintenance and rebuilding of the Egyptian temples.
They, their court, and their army spoke Greek, but the lan-
guage of the priesthood and people continued to be purely
Egyptian. They administered the country on Greek lines,
and permitted no interference with this their fixed policy,
but they always took care to disguise their rule under Egyp-
tian forms. They imitated the Egyptians in marrying,
officially at least, their sisters, for among the Greeks such
marriages were detested. As time went on the influence of
the Greek in Egypt was felt more and more, and little by Httle
the knowledge of the Greek language became general in the
country. It is doubtful if even under the eighteenth dynasty
the bulk of the population could read the hieroglyphic in-
scriptions which the Thothmes and the Amen-heteps had
cut on the temple walls, but in Ptolemaic times it is quite
certain that only the priests and students could read the
Egyptian texts of the decrees that were issued.
Ptolemy I, Soter I, or Ptolemy Lagus, was bom about
367 B.C. and began to rule in 305 or 304. He founded the
town of Ptolemais in Upper Egypt, and another town in the
Delta, and he developed Alexandria greatly. He founded
the Museum and the famous Alexandrian Library, and his
liberal policy induced the Jews to settle in Alexandria and in
many other parts of the country. The worship of Hades,
the Greek god of the Other World, was introduced into Egypt
by Ptolemy, and as the attributes of Osiris and Apis were
transferred to him the new god was called Serapis, and
formed an important link between the Greek and Egyptian
Religions. Ptolemy was a brave soldier, a prudent general,
and a wise, sympathetic, and tolerant administrator ; he
was humane and generous, and his geniality made him
popular with all classes.
Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, the son of Ptolemy I by Bere-
nice, was born 308 B.C., and reigned from 286 to 247, when
he died. He pursued a peaceful policy, and took care to
maintain friendly relations with the Romans, who were be-
coming a powerful people. He added largely to the Alex-
154 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
andrian Library, which in his day was said to contain 400,000
or 700,000 volumes, and among the staff of the Library
and Museum were many grammarians, philosophers, and
mathematicians. In his reign the Pharos, or lighthouse of
Alexandria, was built by Sostratus ; it is said to have been
400 cubits high and was one of the Seven Wonders of the
world. The revenue which Ptolemy derived from trade
with the Sudan and Arabia and with Mediterranean peoples
was very large, and his gifts to the temples of Egypt were
on a royal scale. His buildings at Kamak, Philse, Mendes,
Pithom, &c., were of considerable importance, and he founded
the towns of Berenice and Arsinoe, the former on the Red
Sea, and the latter in the Fayyum. He dug new canals and
dredged old ones in connection with the waterway between
the Nile and the Red Sea, with the object of increasing the
trade between Egypt and the East. In his reign Manetho
of Sebennytus compiled his Egyptian History in Greek, of
which only the King-List is extant, and the Greek version
of the Hebrew Scriptures called the Septuagint was made.
Eleazar, the high priest of Jerusalem, is said to have lent
Ptolemy a Hebrew manuscript for the purpose, and to have
selected six learned elders from each tribe to translate it.
Ptolemy III, Euergetes I, son of Ptolemy II, was born
about 282 B.C., and reigned from 247 or 246 to 222. He was
a patron of the arts and literature, and a great benefactor of
the temples of Egypt. He built a sanctuary at Esna (Lato-
poHs) in Upper Egypt, and he began to build on the site of
an old Egyptian temple the temple of Edfu, 237 B.C. ; this
was finished by Ptolemy XIII, ^y B.C. He also made additions
to Kamak and Philse, and he added largely to the Library of
Alexandria, which at that time was under the direction of
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (bom 276 B.C., died 196). He is said
to have marched to Babylon and Susa (the Shushan of the
Bible, and the modem Shushter), and to have brought back
from the latter city 2500 images of Egyptian gods that had
been carried there by Cambyses. The great benefits which
he had conferred upon the priesthoods of Egypt induced them
to assemble at Canopus in the ninth year of the reign of
THE NEW EMPIRE 155
Ptolemy III, and to pass a decree conferring special honours
on the king and on his queen Berenice. Copies of the decree
in the Egyptian (hieroglyphic and demotic) and Greek lan-
guages were ordered to be cut on stelae, which were to be set
up in every temple of the first, second, and third class in
Egypt. This Decree also ordered that one day be added to
the calendar every fourth year, thus anticipating the leap-
year of our own times.
Ptolemy IV, Philopator I, began to reign 222 B.C., and
died in 205. He added a hall to the temple built by Erga-
menes king of Nubia at Dakkah, and he built the temple of
Hathor at Der al-Madinah at Thebes ; he also repaired the
temple of Isis at Philae, or added to it. He defeated Anti-
ochus at the battle of Raphia, on the north-east frontier of
Egypt, but made no attempt to regain any of Egypt's lost
possessions in Palestine and Syria. He is said to have lived
a luxurious life of pleasure.
Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, the son of Ptolemy IV, was bom
210 B.C. ; he ascended the throne in 205, and was poisoned
in 182. He conferred great benefits on the priesthoods of
Egypt, and in return for these they assembled at Memphis
in the ninth year of his reign, and passed a Decree ordering
that greatly increased honours be paid to the king and his
ancestors. Copies of this Decree in the Egyptian and Greek
languages were ordered to be cut upon stelae, which were to
be set up in every temple of the first, second, and third
class in Egypt. The stele that was set up at Rosetta was
discovered by Boussard, a French officer, in 1798, and is
now universally known as the Rosetta Stone. It was
from the Egyptian text on this Stone that Thomas Young
deduced the values of several letters of the Egyptian alpha-
bet, and succeeded in reading the name of Ptolemy. With
the help of this text and of another from Philae the French-
man Champollion read the name of Cleopatra, and formu-
lated a correct system of Egyptian decipherment. The
serious revolt which had broke out in Upper Egypt under
Ptolemy IV continued under Ptolemy V, and was not sup-
pressed until the nineteenth year of his reign. At this time
156 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
also the power of Eg5^t in Palestine and Syria declined,
and the weakness and vicious life of the king made him
generally unpopular. He was succeeded by his son Ptolemy
VI, EuPATOR, who reigned for less than one year.
Ptolemy VII, Philometor, succeeded to the kingdom
when a child, and the eariy years of his reign were troubled
by his brother Ptolemy Physcon, who disputed the throne
with him. Ultimately Ptolemy VII referred the matter
to Rome, and the Senate re-established him on the throne
of Egypt, and made his brother king of Cyrene. In his reign,
as a result of the persecution of Antiochus IV, Onias the Jew
settled in Egypt with a large number of his co-religionists,
and built the town of Onion in the Delta ; its ruins are called
Tell al-Yahudlyyah. Ptolemy VII repaired many of the
later temples at Karnak, Der al-Madinah, Esna, Kom Ombo,
and Philae, and at the last-named place he founded the
temple of Hathor. He also restored a part of the temple
that had been built at Parembole in Nubia by Arqmen,
the Ergamenes of the Greeks. Ptolemy VII died through
a fall from his horse 146 B.C.
Ptolemy VIII, Eupator, or Neos Philopator, was pre-
vented from reigning by the Romans, who gave the throne
to his uncle, Ptolemy IX ; he was murdered in the same
year in which his mother proclaimed him king.
Ptolemy IX, Euergetes II, began to reign 147 B.C., and
died in 117. He repaired some temples, and built small
additions to others at Karnak (the temple of Apet) and
Madinat Habu, and he finished the building of the temple of
Edfu (142 B.C.). During the next century the Ptolemies
made additions to it, and the last gift to it by a member
of their dynasty was a brass-mounted door, which was
dedicated to the temple by Cleopatra Tryphaena, 57 B.C.
Ptolemy IX rebuilt the hall of the temple of Kom Ombo,
and restored the temple of Isis at Philae ; he also made addi-
tions to some of the Nubian temples.
Ptolemy X, Lathyrus, began to reign 117 B.C. He con-
ferred great benefits on the priesthoods of Upper Egypt,
and he carried out repairs on the temples at Thebes,
THE NEW EMPIRE 157
Madinat Habu, Denderah, Philae, Kalabshah, and in the
Great Oasis.
Ptolemy XI, Alexander I, and Ptolemy XII, Alex-
ander II, were murdered in B>y B.C. and 81 respectively.
With the death of Ptolemy XII the legitimate line of the
Ptolemies came to an end. Some authorities state that
before his death he bequeathed Eg5^t and all his possessions
to the Senate of Rome, but whether this be so or not the
Romans made no attempt to occupy the country.
Ptolemy XIII, sumamed Auletes, or the " flute player,"
was a son of Ptolemy X ; he was bom about 95 B.C., and he
became king of Egypt about 80 B.C., and died in 51. The
excessive taxation which he imposed made the Egyptians
rise against him, and in 58 he fled to Rome and claimed
the protection of the Senate, saying that he had been ex-
pelled from Egypt. The Romans decided to restore to
him his kingdom, but took no steps to give effect to their
decision ; he then departed from Rome to Ephesus, where
he lived in the temple of Diana. Gabinius, governor of
Syria, was induced to favour his claims, and after defeating
the Egyptians in three battles he restored Ptolemy XIII to
the throne (55 B.C.). During the latter years of his reign
riots were frequent. He repaired several of the temples
at Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Kamak, but undertook no great
work. Ancient writers state that he was addicted to vice and
debauchery, and all agree in giving him a very bad character.
He was a skilled player on the flute, and competed with
professionals for the prize at public concerts. He left his
kingdom by will to his daughter Cleopatra and his son
Ptolemy XIV, surnamed Dionysos, who was to marry his
sister, and brother and sister were to reign together. In
48 Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIV quarrelled, and the former
left the country. Caesar sent troops to support Cleopatra's
claims, and they defeated Ptolemy's forces with great
slaughter ; Ptolemy himself was drowned in crossing a
river. In 47 Cleopatra married her second brother, aged
eleven, and he reigned with her as Ptolemy XV for two
years, when he was murdered by Cleopatra, who wished
158 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Ptolemy XVI or C/esarion, her son by Julius Caesar, to
be her co-regent.
Cleopatra was bom about 69 B.C., and after the death
of her father Ptolemy XIII, Auletes, became virtually
sole monarch of Egypt. She visited Rome with Caesar
and her son Caesarion and Ptolemy XV, and stayed there
until Caesar was murdered 44 B.C. In 41 Mark Antony
demanded from her an explanation of the part she had taken
in the recent war, but having been entertained by her at
a sumptuous banquet he fell entirely under her influence,
and obeyed all her commands. At length he proclaimed
publicly that Cleopatra was queen of Egypt, and then the
Romans declared war against her. The forces of Antony
and Cleopatra were utterly defeated, and, seeing this, Antony
stabbed himself with his sword, and died from the wound,
and Cleopatra caused herself to be bitten by an asp, and
died from the effects of its poison. Cleopatra is said to
have been able to speak eight languages, and her love for
literature and interest in learning are shown by the fact
that she made Antony give her the Library of Pergamum,
and then transferred the 200,000 rolls which it contained
to the Library of Alexandria. Cleopatra built a small
temple at Hermonthis (the modem Armant, a few miles to
the south of Thebes), and decorated the walls of the small
chamber attached to it with reliefs in which the birth and
rearing of her son Caesarion were represented. In these
Cleopatra, under the form of Isis, is visited by Amen-Ra,
who becomes the father of Caesarion, just as he was of
Amen-hetep III and of Hatshepset fourteen or fifteen centuries
earlier. The obj ect of these reliefs was to make the Egyptians
believe that Caesarion was a son of Amen-Ra, and therefore
the legal heir to the throne. On the death of Cleopatra
Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, and was
governed by Roman Prefects.
The first Prefect of Egypt was Cornelius Gallus (30-
26 B.C.), who quelled a serious rebellion in Upper Egypt and
Lower Nubia. He was succeeded by Gaius Petronius,
under whose mle the Nubians captured Philae, Elephantine,
THE NEW EMPIRE 159
and Syene, and invaded Upper Egypt. Petronius advanced
against them, and defeated them, and then went on to Napata,
which he captured and destroyed. The Nubians at that
time were ruled by a queen, whose official title was " Can-
dace," and she succeeded in making peace with the Romans.
The Emperor Nero (a.d. 54-68) contemplated the annexa-
tion of the Egyptian Sudan, but the two centurions whom
he sent to report upon the country brought back such an
unfavourable account that he gave up the idea. Between
A.D, 54 and 260 the Nubians gave the Romans Httle trouble,
and some of the emperors placated the people by building
new temples and restoring old ones.
In the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117) the canal between
the Nile and the Red Sea was re-opened, and the fortress of
Babylon (now Old Cairo) was built. Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138)
founded the town of Antinoopolis, and made a road from it
to Berenice on the Red Sea. Hadrian visited Egypt twice,
and Septimius Severus once, and Caracalla, his immediate
successor, once. Under Decius (a.d. 249) a series of persecu-
tions of the Christians began. About a.d. 268 the Blem-
MYES, a collection of tribes from the Eastern Desert and
Ethiopia (or Abyssinia) invaded Egypt, and Diocletian
(a.d. 284-305), about twenty years later, was obliged to hire
the Nobadae, or tribes of the Western Desert, to keep them
in check. The persecution of the Egyptian Christians by
Diocletian was so severe that the Copts date the Era of the
Martyrs from the day of his accession to the throne, August
29, 284. CoNSTANTiNE THE Great abandoned Alexandria
as his capital, and founded Constantinople at Byzantium
A.D. 324, which he dedicated in 330. Under Theodosius I
(a.d. 378-395) the pagan Egyptians were persecuted, and the
temple of Serapis at Alexandria was turned into a church.
Under Marcianus (a.d. 450-457) the Blemmyes and the
Nobadae agreed with the Romans to keep the peace for 100
years. In the reign of Anastasius (a.d. 491-518) the Per-
sians invaded Egypt. Justinian (a.d. 527-565) suppressed
the worship of Isis at Philae, and closed the temples, and his
envoy Narses brought the gold and silver statues of the gods
i6o A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
to Constantinople. About a.d. 550 Nubia adopted Christi-
anity as the national religion ; its first Christian king was
Silko, who made Dongola his capital.
Early in the seventh century the Persians took Egypt,
and occupied it for ten years ; they were expelled by Hera-
CLius (a.d. 610-640) in 629. In 639 the Arabs captured
Pelusium, and defeated the Romans at Heliopolis ; they
occupied Memphis and then laid siege to Babylon, which was
taken by the Arab general Amr ibn Al-asi on April 9, a.d.
641. Close to Babylon Amr founded the city of Fustat,
which after 664 became the capital of Egypt. Thus Egypt
became a province of the Empire of the Arabs. The year
following the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs the Nubians
invaded Egypt and laid waste the country, but in 652 the
Arabs drove them out of Egypt and advanced to Dongola,
which they destroyed. The Nubians sued for peace, and their
king Koleydozo agreed to pay the annual Bakt, or tribute, of
365 slaves ; this tribute was paid for about 600 years,
although the Nubians frequently tried to evade it. In 969
(August 5) Jawhar, the general of the Khalifah Muizz, founded
a new capital, and, because at the moment the planet Mars
was in the ascendant, called it " Al-Kahirah," i.e. " the
Victorious " ; from this title the name " Cairo " is derived.
Salah ad-Din or " Saladin " (a.d. 1169-1193) conquered Syria
and annexed Mesopotamia, and in 1275 the Mamluk Sultan
Bebars (1260-1277) annexed the Egyptian Sudan. In 1317
a mosque was dedicated at Dongola, and the bulk of the
population of Nubia was Mohammadan ; the Christian king-
dom founded by Silko had come to an end, and Christianity
was practically dead all over the Egyptian Sudan.
The rule of the Arab Khalifahs and the Mamluks, or
" Slave Sultans," came to an end on April 14, 15 17, when the
Turks under Salim occupied Cairo, and hanged the Sultan,
Al-Ashraf Tuman Bey. Thus Egypt became a province of
the Turkish Empire, which, it has remained ever since, for it
is now stated officially to be " a pashalik of Turkey in the
temporary occupation of the British."
CHAPTER VII
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION
About the spiritual ideas or religious beliefs of the Egyptians
of the Old Stone Age nothing is known. But because they
have left few records of themselves, and none of their religion,
we must not assume that they had none. For it is impossible
to think that even the first men on the earth were wholly
destitute of some kind of dim idea of the existence of some
being who possessed qualities and powers greater than their
own, and whom they feared and whose good will they sought
to obtain. In Egypt, as in many parts of Africa at the
present day, the origin of the worship of God must be sought
for in the cult of the ancestor, or " great father," of the tribe
or community. He was first adored whilst he was alive on
earth, and subsequently when he was dead and in the Other
World he became an object of worship. As the intellect
of the primitive Egyptian developed he grafted on this early
cult the idea of the ancestor in a spirit form, i.e. as a soul,
and so the beginnings of the later idea of immortality came
into being. As a man the father was regarded by his descen-
dants as the source of their life, and to him their adoration
was due ; as a spirit he was appealed to by them for helps
and guidance in the difficulties of life, and they expected him
to be their defender and protector. And ultimately they
ascribed to him the powers of a god. The idea of the father-
god persisted unchanged until a comparatively late period
in the history of Egypt, and under the eighteenth dynasty
the Egyptians addressed their prayers to " Father Osiris " and
to " Father Amen," as their ancestors in primitive times had
addressed theirs to their father-god and grandfather-god.
Religion, in the sense in which we use the word, did not\
i6i L
i62 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
exist among the primitive Egyptians, but the cult of the
ancestor was an integral part of their daily lives and of their
very existence, and round it grew up every belief which we
are accustomed to associate with religion.
The Egyptians of the New Stone Age, or the Neolithic
Period, preserved carefully all the essentials of the old cult
of the ancestor, and with it they combined many behefs
that grew up among them both as the result of their natural
development and of the changed surroundings in which they
lived. Of the details of the form of the cult of the ancestor
in use among them little is known, but some information
about their religious beliefs has been obtained from their
graves. We know that they buried some of their dead, and
as they put into their tombs weapons made of flint, and earth-
enware jars filled witHTood^ it is evident that they believed
fhattheir dead would live again in a form which needed food
for its sustenance, and that they would use the flint weapons
in slaying their enemies, or in killing animals to eat. They
knew from experience that the dead men never left their
graves, and they must therefore have been certain that they
:.had possessed when alive a something, which we call soul or
[spirit, that could, and did, live after their bodies were dead.
This something, they thought, lived after death in the form
of the body to which it belonged, and ate the soul, or spirit,
of the material food that had been placed in the grave, and
iised the souls, or spirits, of the flint weapons in war or the
chase. In order to ensure the continuity of the life of this
something men began to make offerings of food at the graves
of their dead, and out of this custom grew the elaborate
system of funerary offerings, which is the chief character-
istic of the worship of the dead as practised in the Dynastic
Period. The life of the spirit-ancestor had to be maintained
at all costs, for if he were allowed to die his descendants
would have no protector, no helper, and no guardian of their
interests. At a very early period a member of each family
of position, perhaps the eldest son, or a grandson, was set
apart to minister to the needs of the spirit- ancestor, and in
the Dynastic Period this ministrant is represented by the
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 163
" servant of the Ka," or " double," whose duties were to keep
clean the figure of his father or ancestor and its dwelling-
place, and to dress and decorate the figure itself, and to per-
form all the prescribed commemorative rites and ceremonies.
In one of the tombs of the New Stone Age was found a
flint instrument which, as we know from inscriptions of the
Dynastic Period, was used in performing the ceremony of
" opening the mouth " of the dead, a fact that proves that
even in the Old Stone Age a ceremony was performed on
the dead body with the purpose of assisting the soul, or
spirit, to acquire the faculties and powers needed by it in
the Other World. In this ceremony the flint instrument was
thrust between the teeth of the dead man, and when these
were separated his spirit form was believed to acquire the
power to eat and drink, to speak, to think, and to perform
» aU the natural functions of the body. In tombs of the New
(Stone Age a flint figure of a crocodile and a flint head of
a cow have been found ; these indicate that the crocodile
and the cow were even at that time venerated. How or
where or when this veneration of animals arose in Egypt
cannot be said, but in the Dynastic Period the number of
" sacred " animals, birds, and reptiles was very great, and
their cult formed a very important part of the Egyptian
Religion. According to some these " sacred " creatures
were symbols, or visible emblems, or incarnations, of certain
gods and goddesses who chose these material forms when they
wished to mingle with human beings in this world. Others
think that they represent the various powers of God, and
others give them a totemistic origin, and think they repre-
sent the totems or the animals, birds, reptiles, &c., which
certain clans or tribes regarded as their protectors and the
sources of their life and well-being, and which as time went
on became venerated as ancestors, and were finally deified.
As the Egyptian texts supply no information on the subject
no decision can be arrived at. Among the inanimate ob-
jects that were venerated by the primitive Egyptians may
be mentioned certain trees and stone pillars. Among the
former was the sycamore fig, which in the Dynastic Period
i64 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
was regarded as the dwelling-place of the goddess Hathor
or Nut, and the oldest form of the Tet, which was in later
times merged in the symbol of Osiris of Busiris in the Delta,
was a tree trunk, or a tree with unusually shaped branches.
The antiquity of stone-pillar worship is indicated by the
popularity of the obelisk among the Dynastic Egyptians,
and the stones venerated in the temples of Ra, after the
introduction of his cult from the East, were probably re-
presentatives of stones of a ruder shape that had been adored
from time immemorial.
When we come to the Dynastic Period, about 4000 B.C.,
we find that the Egyptians possessed a well-organised system
of worship of divine powers, and that every town of any
importance had its own god, or object of worship, animate
or inanimate. The gods of the Eastern Delta were diffe-
rent from those of the Western Delta, and those of the
northern part of Egypt different from those of Upper Egypt.
Certainly by this time there had grown up in the minds of
the Egyptians a vague and dim idea of a great Creator who
seems to have been called " Pautti," and who was quite
distinct at that time from the ancestor god, and from the
beings who were styled " gods." They believed him to
jbe almighty and eternal, and to be just and righteous, but
jthey felt, as Africans have always felt, that he was too
l^reat, and too far removed from this world to concern him-
self very much with the affairs of men. These were under
the directions of a long series of " gods " and " goddesses,"
whose dispositions were on the whole considered to be friendly
towards man, and of a long series of devils, demons, fiends,
and evil spirits, who were naturally disposed to be un-
friendly or even directly hostile to man. The "gods" were
enemies of the devils, and the devils of the " gods " ; both
gods and devils, though possessing knowledge and powers
superior to those of men, resembled men in many respects,
for they grew old and died, and loved and hated, and were
amenable to flattery, and loved gifts and offerings. The
" gods " typified physical and moral good, and the demons
physical and moral evil, and th© strife between them in
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 165
nature and in the minds of men was perpetual. When the
strife took a very acute form the leader of the *' gods "
collected his hosts, and waged war against the leader of the
demons, i.e. the Devil, who, according to the Egyptians, was
always defeated and put to flight, but never destroyed,
and was, after a time, always ready to renew his attack.
A final lasting triumph of the leader of the " gods " wj
never imagined, and from the earliest to the latest perioc
this dualism, this belief in the existence of two everlasting
powers, the one good, the other evil, was one of the mosi
persistent characteristics of the Egyptian Religion.
The names of the " gods " of the Old and New Stone Ages
seem to have perished. Most of those of the period immedi-
ately preceding dynastic rule in Egypt are unknown, but
it is probable that a few of them have survived, e.g. Sebek,
the crocodile god ; Apet, the hippopotamus-goddess ; Nu and
Nut ; Net (Neith), the goddess of Sais ; Tet, the tree-god, or
pillar-god of Busiris ; Hep (Hapi), or Hepr, the Nile-god,
&c. The most important gods and goddesses were the
following : Nu and Nut, the sky-god and sky-goddesses ;
Khepera, the creator of the universe ; Heru-ur, or
'Horus the Great, an ancient form of the Sun-god ; Tem, or
'Atem, Aten and Ra, gods of the Sun; Tehuti (Thoth)
and Khensu, gods of the moon ; Keb, Taken, Tatanen,
earth-gods ; Hep, or Hap, or Hapi, the Nile-god ; Khnemu
and Ptah, who assisted Khepera in building up the material
universe ; Shu, the god of the air, light, and dryness, and
Tefnut, his female counterpart, goddess of rain and
moisture ; Set, the god of the desert and of all evil, physical
and moral ; Maat, goddess of order, law, right, truth and
wisdom, and Sesheta, goddess of drawing, design, painting,
&c., who, with Maat, was associated with Thoth in bringing
order into the world ; Nekhebet, the goddess of Nekheb,
the ancient capital of Upper Egypt ; Uatchet, the goddess
of the ancient capital of Lower Egypt ; Net (Neith) the
ancient goddess of Sais ; Bast, the ancient goddess of
Bubastis ; Sekhmet, a fire-goddess of Memphis, and her
son Nefer-Tem ; Ausaset, goddess of Heliopolis ; Seker,
i66 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
I the Death-god of Memphis ; Amen, a very ancient Theban^
'god, whose later form was called Amen-Ra ; and his female
counterpart Mux, who became the World-mother ; Menthu,
an ancient war-god of Upper Egypt ; Meskhenet, a birth-
goddess, and Rennet, a harvest -goddess ; Asar, or Sar
(Osiris), king of the Other World and Judge of the dead ;
AsT, or Set (Isis)_, sister and wife of Osiris ; Set, brother of
Osiris ; Nephthys, sister of Osiris and wife of Set ; Horus,
brother or son of Osiris ; Mesta, or Kesta, Hep, Qebh-
SENUF, and Tuamutef, the four sons of Horus ; Anpu and
Upuat, guides of the dead to the Other World, the latter
belonging to Upper, and the former to Lower, Egypt ;
Imhetep, the physician-god, &c.
The goddess Hathor, who is represented both as a cow and
as a woman with the ears of a cow, and the god Shu and the
goddess Tefnut were introduced into Egypt from the country
of Bakem, in the south-east Sudan. From the northern
Sudan came Bes, the god of music, singing and dancing,
and jollity and war. From Nubia came the gods Tetun,
Ahu, and Merul, and the goddesses Anqet and Satet.
From Syria and the country to the south of it and the eastern
Delta came Sept, Menu, a god of generation and reproduc-
tion ; Reshpu, god of lightning and thunder ; Bar, or Baal,
a war-god ; and the goddesses Antat, Astharthet, or Ash-
TORETH, Ketshet, Kent, Barata, the counterpart of Baal-
Zephon ; and from the land of the Hittites came the god
SuTEKH and the goddess Anthrata.
/ The principal sacred animals were : the Apis Bull of
\ Memphis, the Mnevis Bull of Heliopolis, the Bakha Bull,
J the Ram of Mendes, the Ram of Amen, the Hippopotamus
} of Taurt, Rerut, Apet, and Sheput, the Lion and Lioness
J called Mahes, Pekheth, &c., the Cow of Hathor, the Cat of
I Bast, the Lynx, the Ichneumon, the Shrew-mouse, the Dog
J or Jackal of Anubis, the Wolf of Upuat, the horned animal
I of Khnemu (the kudu 7). The principal sacred birds were :
\ the henu, or phoenix, a bird of the heron class, the vulture,
\ three kinds of hawks, the ibis, the swallow, the goose. The
\ principal sacred reptiles and insects were : the turtle.
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 167
several kinds of snakes, the scorpion, the frog, the grass-
hopper, the praying mantis, the beetle (scarabcBUS sacer), Sec.
The principal sacred fish were : the Abtu, Ant, Aha, At,
Utu, Mehit, and Nar, but these fish have not been satisfac-
torily identified.
The gods and sacred creatures mentioned above do not by
any means represent all the gods of the Egyptians, for the
names of about two thousand ** divine " beings are mentioned
in the religious texts. The large number of the Egyptian
gods is thus explained. In early times every nome, city,
town, and perhaps every large village had its god, or gods,
and each god had a female counterpart and often a son.
Such a group, i.e. husband, wife, and son, was called a triad ;
the triad of Memphis was composed of Ptah, Sekhmet, and
Imhetep, and the triad of Thebes of Amen-Ra, Mut, and
Khensu. Some important towns worshipped a company
of nine gods, or ennead. Thus at Hermopolis the ennead
consisted of Thoth and four gods and four goddesses, and at
Heliopolis of Atem, or Tem, the chief local god, and four gods —
Shu, Keb, Osiris, and Set — and four goddesses — ^Tefnut, Nut,
Isis and Nephthys — and to these Horns and Anubis are some-
times added. The only one of these gods who was connected
originally with Heliopolis was Tem. Shu and Tefnut came
from Bakem in the remote Sudan, and Osiris, Isis, Set, Neph-
thys and Horns belonged originally to a district near Abydos
in Upper Egypt. HeUopoHs also had a second ennead which
contained the lesser gods. The greatest toleration was shown
by the gods of one town to those of another, but as a rule
every man worshipped the god or gods of his own clan or
family, and those whom he knew best. The fortunes of the
gods varied with the growth or decay of the city or town to
which they belonged. Thus under the second and third
dynasties Amen was a local god of Thebes of no national im-
portance ; but when the Theban princes became kings of
all Egypt the power and glory of Amen filled all the country.
When the Theban kings expelled the Hyksos, and overran
Syria, and conquered Sinai, and the peoples of the Eastern
Desert and Nubia, Amen became the great national god of
i68 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Egypt, and his temple was the largest, richest, and most
beautiful in the land for nearly one thousand years. On
the other hand, Ra of Heliopolis, a form of the Sun-god
worshipped by the Semites and the peoples near the eastern
frontier of the Delta, was under the fourth and fifth dynasties
one of the greatest gods in Lower Egypt, and his priests
claimed that his power was supreme in the Other World.
But under the sixth dynasty Osiris became the chief god of
the Other World, and in the centuries that followed the down-
fall of that dynasty the great renown of Ra suffered echpse.
When Heliopolis became once again a great city under the
eighteenth dynasty, the priesthood of Ra flourished and
their god assumed a new importance, but he was second
to Amen, and when his name appears with that of Amen
in the compound god Amen-Ra, it follows and does not
precede it.
It is tolerably certain that when once the Egyptians had
formed triads, and enneads, and larger companies of gods,
the priests began to wonder how the gods came into being
and to make theories about them. In all such religious
speculation each body of priests must have tried to satisfy
first his own mind, and then the minds of the followers of
his chief god, that this god was the creator of the universe
and man, and that he was the father of all the gods and god-
desses known to them. We know that the priests of Memphis
tried to prove that their god Ptah was the most important
of all the gods, for a copy of the document in which one of
them tried to show this is cut upon a black stone slab in the
British Museimi. Similarly the Pyramid Texts (sixth dy-
nasty) and later documents show that the priests of Heliopolis
beHeved that their god Tem was the self-existent and eternal
god, and that he produced from the emanations of his body
the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut, in fact that Tem, Shu,
and Tefnut formed the first triad, or trinity. These three
names represent three aspects of one god ; it was only in
later times that they were personified. And the priests of
the goddess Net (Neith) of Sais, of whom four aspects were
distinguished, held the view that she was self-begotten and
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 169
self-produced, that she was the mother of the Sun-god, and
at the same time a perpetual virgin-goddess.
Although there is much that is uncertain in the texts that
describe these opinions, one fact is quite clear — ^all the great
priesthoods believed in the existence of one great, almighty, t
eternal, inscrutable, incomprehensible, and self-existent god, \
who existed somewhere when there was neither heaven nor '
earth, and before gods, men, animals, and death had come
into being. He was called in different parts of Egypt Tem^
Khepera, Ptah, Ra, Khnemu, At en. Amen, Herukhuti, &c.,
but the god referred to in each of these names is the same,
and these are only different names, or, as the Egyptians said,
different aspects or forms of him.
Though the Egyptians conceived of the existence of this
great unknown god, they were wholly unable to describe his
form, or to say where and how he lived. The texts suggest
that he must have lived for ages by himself in a state of
inactivity in the great watery mass, which the Egyptians
deified and called " Nu." The creation of the heavens
and the earth by him they explained thus. When he had
been living in Nu for some time he decided for some unknown
reason to create the heavens and the earth. Before he did
so he fashioned in his mind the similitude of everything which
he intended to create, and according to the design thus
evolved every material thing that exists was made. He used
his name as a word of power, and produced from himself
Shu and Tefnut, or heat and light and moisture. Earth
(Keb) and sky (Nut) were next created, and by the union of
these the animal and vegetable creations were produced. Men
were formed from the water that fell from the eyes of the god
upon his body, and among these were Osiris and his brother Set,
and his sisters Isis and Nephthys, and his son Horus. The sun
and the moon became the two eyes of the creator, and they
governed the world. Many other explanations of the creation
and the formation of man must have existed in Egypt, but
we do not know what they were. At a very early period the .
Egyptians evolved a theory to account for the alternation
of day and night, and to explain the waning of the moon.
170 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and eclipses, and storms. They thought that Set, the god
and symbol of all physical and moral evil, produced the
storms which caused " sickness " in the right eye of Horns,
the Sky-god, and obscured its light, and that it was he who
bit off and devoured a portion of the moon each day during
its season of waning, until he had swallowed the whole of it.
This disturbance of the orders of creation was put an end to
by the creator, who deputed Thoth, a personification of his
mind and its powers, to act as judge between the " two
fighters," Set and Horns. Thoth stopped the fight, and made
Set disgorge the moon which he had eaten, and put a limit
to his power to do evil. He could not prevent him from
creating storms and eclipses, but once and for all he made
it impossible for him to destroy the light of the sun and
moon. The decision of Thoth was so just that he was
ever after called the " righteous judge " and the " pacifier of
the two fighters." Other legends about the gods have
been described elsewhere,^ and they need not therefore be
discussed here.
It has already been stated that the principal cult of the
predynastic Egyptians was that of the ancestor, and we
know that it continued to be so in the beginning of the dynas-
tic period. Before the rule of the first dynasty, however,
there seems to have sprung into importance in some district
near Abydos in Upper Egypt the cult of a god called Asar,
or Sar, the Osiris of the Greeks. There is no reason for sup-
posing that Osiris was a new god, for he was a very ancient
one, and if we knew his complete history we should probably
,find that he was one of the oldest of Egyptian gods. In
one of his early forms he was a Water-god, and the thick
muddy waters of the Nile, on which the fertility of Egypt
»; depended, were said to flow from his body ; they were, in
^act, the essence of the god. Because this essence germin-
ated and grew up on the land in the form of millet, barley,
wheat, and other food-stuffs, and dates, figs, grapes, and fruit
of all kinds, Osiris was regarded as a god of vegetation.
When the Nile fell and returned to its winter level, and when
* See the volume on The Literature of the Egyptians, p. 71.
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 171
the harvest was over and the fruit was gathered in, Osiris
was said to be dead, and it was the winter that killed him.
In the same way the waxing and waning of the moon caused
this luminary to be identified with Osiris, and at one period
of his history Osiris was a Moon-god. Thus we see that with
Osiris were coupled the ideas of the renewed life, or resurrec-
tion, of the Nile in the form of the annual inundation, and of
vegetation, and of the moon. The creator, no matter by what
name he was called, gave life to every living being and thing
on the earth in the beginning, but it was Osiris who provided
for the resurrection in new forms. Man was no exception
to the rule according to which every being and thing died,
and the Egyptians looked to Osiris to effect the resurrection
of the dead, and to provided them with new bodies. How
or by what means he was thought to do this in the earliest
times, and what his form was, or where he lived, are matters
about which nothing is known. But in dynastic times the
Egyptians thought that he was one of the gods who at one
time reigned upon earth, and that all Egypt was his kingdom.
According to the text of a hymn to Osiris preserved on a stele
in Paris, Osiris inherited the sovereignty of the earth from
the Earth-god Keb, who, as we know, was his father. He
ruled his country with wisdom and justice, he destroyed all
her foes, he enlarged her boundaries, and made her great
and prosperous. The wicked were terrified at him, and good
men rejoiced in his rule, and the hearts of the Great and Little
Companies of the gods applauded the righteous acts of the
god-king, whose sole object was to " set right in the place
of wrong." In the Greek account of Osiris and his wife Isis^
written by Plutarch7 Osiris is said to have encouraged agrir
culture and the growth of the vine, and to have introduceds^
wheat into Egypt, and to have been a patron of singers and-
dancers. In all his good works Osiris was supported by hia
sister-wife Isis, who employed all her wonderful power ot\
speech and her skill as an enchantress and magician in pro-i
tecting her brother.
The only beings in Egypt who were dissatisfied with the
acts of Osiris were Set, his brother, the personification of all
172 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
evil, and his followers ; and Set hated Osiris with a deadly
hatred, and compassed his death, though by exactly what
means is not clear. According to one ancifent authority
Osiris was drowned, and according to another he was killed
by Set, either in a duel, or during a general fight. 'Plutarch
states that Set induced Osiris to lie down in a box, and when
he had done so. Set and his allies fastened down the cover
of the box, and threw it into the river, Osiris, of course, being
drowned. When Isis heard of the murder she at once set
out with Nephthys in search of the body, which, according
to the Pyramid Texts, the two sisters found lying near Aby-
dos, at a place called Netat. They had the body brought
into Abydos (according to the local tradition), and there with
the help of Anubis, a very ancient god of embakning and medi-
cine, they embalmed it. Some of the texts state that Isis
was assisted by Horus and his four sons, who performed very
elaborate ceremonies over the body of the god. Osiris was
buried at Abydos, and a tree grew up near his body, and en-
veloped it with its branches ; among the reliefs at Abydos
is one in which this tree is represented growing by the tomb.
When the body of Osiris had been in its tomb for a short
time Isis, assisted by Thoth and Horus, began to perform
ceremonies with the view of restoring Osiris to life. She
recited the words of power which she had learned from
Thoth, and Horus, having performed many ceremonies over
the mummy of Osiris, at length took out his own eye and gave
it to Osiris, who swallowed it, and thereby regained his life.
Thus Osiris rose from the dead, and became the king and god
of all the beings in Amenti, or the Other World. Thus he
conquered Death and defeated Set and all his powers of decay
and corruption, for, according to the texts, the flesh of father
Osiris suEered no corruption, and his mortal body neither
decayed nor became food for worms. At Busiris in the Delta
in the earhest times, and later at Abydos, his tomb became
the abode of life, and long before the reign of Mena, or Menes,
he had become the recognised symbol of the resurrection of
the dead and the lord in whose hands was the power of im-
mortality.
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 173
When Set saw that all his evil plans had miscarried, and
that he had only succeeded in making Osiris the heir to a
heavenly kingdom, he was filled with fury, and once again
he attempted to overthrow his brother Osiris. He ap-
proached the gods, and laid before them such serious charges
against Osiris that they decided to let him state his case,
and to adjudicate upon it. A full court of the gods assem-
bled, either in heaven itself or in the Great Hall in Helio-
poHs, and Osiris and Set appeared before them ; Osiris
entrusted his defence to Thoth, the great and learned scribe
of the gods, and the Maati goddesses, i.e. the two goddesses
of Truth, were present at the trial. We have no details
of the charges which Set brought against Osiris, or of the
counter-charges of Osiris against Set, but it is quite clear
that Osiris, aided by Thoth, succeeded in proving his inno-
cence, and in showing that Set had slain him without cause,
and that he had never forfeited his right to his kingdom
through misrule or injustice on his part. When the gods
had heard the evidence of Osiris, and the speech of Thoth,
they were satisfied that Set was a liar and a murderer, and
that Osiris was innocent (mad-kheru) of the charges which
Set had brought against him. They therefore ordered that
Osiris should succeed to the throne of his father Keb,
and that he should be henceforth king of all the gods in
Amenti, i.e. the Other World. And in their presence Set
was dragged forward, and Osiris was made to sit upon his
back as a sign of his conquest of him. Set, however, in no
wise disheartened by his defeat, transferred his hatred from
Osiris to Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, who had been
begotten by his father after death. From a legend cut on
the Metternich Stele we find that, owing to the persecution
of Set, Isis was obliged to flee to the Delta, and that she hid
herself in the papyrus swamps at Khemmis and brought
forth her child there. One day, during her absence. Set sent
a scorpion to the place where the child was hidden, and it
stung him to death. When Isis returned and found the boy
dead, she broke out into weeping and lamentations which were
heard all over the neighbourhood, and she was stricken by
174 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
bitter grief. Her sister Nephthys, seeing what had hap-
pened, appealed to the Sun-god, who stopped his boat,
and sent Thoth to instruct Isis in the words which would
expel the scorpion's power from his body, and restore Horns
to Ufe. Isis, having learned the words, recited them over
Horus, and the child came to life again, because the scorpion's
poison flowed out of him and fell to the ground. When
Horus grew to manhood he fought a great fight with Set,
whom he defeated, and in CQnsequence was called " Horus,
the avenger of his father" (Heru-netch-tefef). In later
times this fight was confused with the far earlier fight
between Horus the Great (Heru-ur) and Set, wherein Set
wounded Horus in the eye, and Horus cut off one of the
forelegs of Set, who had fought in the form of an animal.
The age of the legends of Osiris described above cannot be
stated, but it is certain that they were current throughout
Egypt before the Dynastic Period. The characteristics of the
kingdom over which Osiris reigned prove that the earhest
home of his cult was in the Delta, probably at Busiris, where
it seems to have superseded the cult of a still earlier tree-
god. From there it seems to have spread southwards, and
to have localised itself at Abydos, where it also superseded
the cult of the southern god Khenti Amentiu, whose name
means " Prince of those in Amenti." The priests of Osiris
taught that the body of man was a sacred thing, and dis-
couraged cannibalism, which was probably tolerably common
in those days. Their doctrine of the resurrection of the
dead spread throughout the country, and before the end of
the sixth dynasty the position of Osiris as chief god of
the dead was assured. Under the twelfth dynasty he
gradually assumed the character of the universal Ancestor-
god, and his authority in the Other World was absolute.
j^Jn him all men placed their hope of resurrection and immor-
I jtality, for he was the one god-man who had suffered pain
and ignominy, and who had died and risen from the dead in
a transformed body, and who was reigning over a never-
ending kingdom. Moreover, by virtue of his own innocence
and truth, he had the power to confer everlasting life upon
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 175
his followers, a power that had never before been possessed
by any other god of the dead.
The Precepts of Ptah-hetep prove that a very high standard
of morality existed among the Egyptians under the earliest
dynasties, but the religion of Osiris demanded a still higher ,
standard from its followers. Only those who had led a life
of truth and sincerity towards the gods and men could gain
admission into his kingdom, and all who had been liars and
double-dealers were an abomination to him. The soul of every
man was weighed before him in the Great Balance in the
" Hall of the Two Truths " by Anubis and Thoth, and unless
it was declared to be mad-kheru, (literally " truth- speaker,"
or " innocent ") by Thoth, and his verdict was ratified by
the Great Company of the gods, it was not permitted by
Osiris to enter into his kingdom of Sekhet-hetepet and live
there with the gods. If the soul, which was represented by
the heart of the man to which it belonged, was light in the
balance it was handed over to a monster called " Am-mit,"
or " Eater of the Dead," who devoured it at once. Under
the eighteenth dynasty the deceased was supposed to make
a series of declarations before forty-two gods, who were
present in the Hall of the Two Truths during the weighing
of his heart, that he had not committed forty-two sins.
These are all enumerated in Chapter CXXV of the Book
of the Dead. The oldest conception of the abode of Osiris,
where he lived surrounded by his righteous followers, was a
district closely resembling a fertile region in the Delta. It
was intersected by canals on which those who liked sailed
in boats which moved about through the utterance of words
of power, and wheat, barley, vegetables, and fruit grew
there luxuriantly. Each of the blessed received an estate
there, the size of which depended upon his merits, and on
it he Uved with his father, mother, wives, and children, whose
society he enjoyed as he had done upon earth. There he
met his old friends, and as his estate was worked for him
by the slaves of Osiris he lived a life of ease and leisure.
The Pyramid Texts state that the blessed wore fine hnen
apparel and white sandals, that their bread never gre\y
176 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
stale, nor their wine sour, and that they sat by the side of a
lake and ate the " wood of life," i.e. wheat, which was at
once the symbol of Osiris and the god himself. In this
state of happiness the blessed lived for ever and ever.
For the enemies of Osiris a terrible fate was reserved.
According to the Book of Gates and the Book Am Tuat,
the judgment of souls took place at ipidnight each day, and
those who had treated the god with contempt during their
lives and had been his declared enemies, then received their
punishment. They were handed over to the headsman of
Osiris called Shesmu, who, with the help of his assistants,
hacked them limb from limb, and chopped up their flesh,
which was then thrown into pits of fire. Before this
mutilation took place their hearts and other organs were
torn out of their bodies, and were devoured by an awful
monster who kept himself invisible. The pits of fire were
presided over by goddesses, who produced a continuous
supply of liquid fire from their bodies. The enemies of both
Osiris and Ra were quickly and utterly destroyed ; there is
no idea of everlasting punishment in the texts. The heads-
man Shesmu was occupied each day, and the pits of fire
were used each day, but this was because a new batch of the
enemies of Osiris was condemned daily.
The history of Osiris, apart from its purely religious
aspect, greatly impressed the Egyptians of all periods, and
at Abydos, and probably in every great sanctuary of the
god, a sort of miracle play was performed annually. The
scene of his murder was reproduced as far as circumstances
permitted, and ceremonies representing the bringing of his
body from Netat, which place was always assumed to be
near Abydos, its embalmment, its restoration to life, his
enthronement as king of the Other World, the attack made
upon Set and his followers, and many other incidents were
performed with great zeal and precision. The grief of
Isis, and the loving care which she showed in ministering to
her lord, living and dead, appealed strongly to the popular
imagination, and, in later times at least, the recital of the
compositions in which she and her sister were supposed
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 177
to give expression to their woe formed a very important
feature of the festival of the commemoration of Osiris, which
took place in December. On these occasions the parts of
Isis and Nephthys were taken by two young and beautiful
women, who held vases of water in their right hands and
Memphis cakes in their left hands ; on the arm of one was
a bandlet bearing the name " Isis," and on the arm of the
othef was a bandlet bearing the name " Nephthys." Certain
sections were sung by the women alternately, and some by
both together. The following extracts from a papyrus in
Berhn illustrate these '* Lamentations," Isis saith :
" Come to thy temple, come to thy temple, O god An,
come to thy temple ; thine enemy exist eth not. O beautiful
god Ahi, come to thy temple, let me see thee. I am thy
beloved sister, go not away from me. O beautiful Youth,
come to thy temple, immediately, immediately. I see thee
not, my heart is sorrowful, mine eyes search for thee, I
wander about to see thee. . . . It is a good thing to see thee,
to see thee, O An, it is good to see thee. Come to the woman
who loveth thee, who loveth thee, O Un-Nefer, whose word
is true. Come to thy sister. Come to thy wife, to thy
wife, 0 thou whose heart is still. Come to the lady of thy
house {i.e. thy chief wife). I am thy sister by thy mother,
be not thou far from me. Gods and men [turn] their faces
to thee, and they weep for thee at the same time. I cry out
to thee with tears into the height of heaven, thou hearkenest
not to my voice, I thy sister who was beloved by thee on
earth do this. Thou canst love no other woman except
myself, my brother, my brother."
Nephthys saith : " O beautiful king, come to thy temple,
let thy heart rejoice, all thine enemies exist not. Thy two
sisters are near thee, by thy bier, they cry out to thee
shedding tears. Turn thou thyself on thy bier, look thou
at thy fair women, speak to us, O King our Lord. Destroy
the sorrow which is in our hearts. Thy sisters and the gods
and men [long] to see thee ; turn thou thy face to them,
O King our Lord. Our faces live in seeing thy face. . . .
Our hearts will rejoice at the sight of thee, O beautiful king.
M
178 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
I am Nephthys thy sister whom thou didst love. The Seba
fiend is overthrown, he no longer existeth. I am with thee,
and I will protect thy members for ever."
The following passage, which was sung by both goddesses,
is quoted from the Festal Songs of Isis and Nephthys in the
British Museum : " Hail, beautiful god Ahi, come to thy
temple. ... I am the woman who defendeth her brother,
I am thy wife, thy sister by thy mother. Come, come,
hasten to me, O Strong-Heart. Let me see thy face, for I
do not see thee. . . . My heart burned [as] with fire at
thy escape from the Fiend, even as it bumeth with fire when
thou tumest thyself to me ; would that thou didst never
remove thyself from me I seek to see thee because
of my love for thee. I am in the great city with the
mighty walls, and I am overcome by my love for thee ;
come thou to me. ... I hid myself [from Set] among the
bushes in order to conceal thy son, so that he might speak
on thy behalf. And at the time when the great calamity
came upon thee, did not I gather together thy members
for thee ? I advanced being alone, and I ran about in the
bushes when a huge crocodile was pursuing thy son, and it
had its face directed towards the boy. Verily, I and the god
Anpu knew this. And I travelled about on the roads wander-
ing backwards and forwards in my search for my brother,
and I defended him against the Fiend, and the hearts of
hundreds of thousands of people burned with anxiety within
them. . . . Come to me in thine own form, come in peace,
in peace, O king of the North, 0 Prince, come in peace. O
let us see thy face again, as of old, for I love to look upon
thee."
Under the eighteenth dynasty, when the worship of Osiris
was in its most flourishing state, many hymns to the god
were written, but none of them describes so fully the exalted
position which he held in heaven and on earth as the follow-
ing text which is cut upon a stele preserved in Paris, which
is to all intents and purposes the confession of faith of the
official for whom it was composed. It reads :
Homage to thee, Osiris, lord of eternity, king of the gods,
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 179
whose names are many, whose transformations are holy,
whose form is hidden in the temples. He is the sacred
Ka, the Prince of Tatu (Busiris), the Chief also in Sekhem
(Letopolis), the Lord who is hymned in the nome of Ati,
the Prince of the sacred food in Ann (Heliopolis), the Lord
who is commemorated in Maati (the city of the Two Truths) ,
the Hidden Soul, the Lord of the Cataract Region, the holy
one of Memphis, the Soul of Ra. His very body reposeth
in Hensu (Herakleopolis). The perfect one who is hymned
in Nart, making his soul to rise up. Lord of the Great
House in Khemenu (Hermopolis, Eshmunen), mightily
victorious in Shashetep, Lord of eternity. Prince of Abydos,
whose domain in the Holy Land (a district of Abydos) is
extended, whose name is stablished in the mouths of men.
He is the two Companies of gods (Pautti) of the Two Lands
{i.e. Egypt), Tern (?) the sacred food of the Kau (Doubles),
Chief of the companies of the gods, a perfect Spirit among
spirits. The waters of the celestial ocean (Nu) he draweth
to him, the north wind and the breeze of evening are in
his nostrils, to the satisfaction of his heart. His heart
germinateth giving birth to. . . . The starry heaven
obeyeth him. The mighty gates thereof open themselves
to him. He is the Lord who is hymned in the Southern
Heaven and worshipped in the Northern Heaven. The
imperishable stars are under the place of his face, and the
stars that never rest are his habitations. Offerings appear
before him by the command of Keb. The companies of the
gods praise him. The stars of the Tuat (the Nether Sky)
smell the earth (i.e. bow low) before him. The ends of the
earth bow in homage before him, and the uttermost limits
of the universe make suppHcation to him when they see
him. The holy ones acclaim his victory, all Egypt payeth
adoration when it meeteth His Majesty, the glorious Sah,
prince of the Sahu, whose rank is assured, whose rule is
firm, beautiful (or well-doing) Power of the company of the
gods, with gracious face, beloved by him that seeth him.
He setteth his fear in all countries through [his] love, and they
all proclaim his name above every other, and all make
i8o A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
offerings to him, the lord who is commemorated in heaven
and in earth. Many are the cries of joy made to him in the
Uak festival, and together the Two Lands hail him with
shouts of gladness.
He is the eldest and first of his brethren, the oldest god of
the company of the gods. He hath stablished right through-
out the world. He hath placed his son upon the Great
Throne of his father Keb (the Earth-god). He is the darling
of his mother Nut. Mighty of strength, he hath overthrown
Seba (a form of Set). He rose up and slew his enemy, he set
the fear of himself in his foe. He brought back the boun-
daries. . . . Stable of heart, his legs stand firm. He is the
heir of Keb and of the kingdom of Egypt. Keb perceived
his glorious abilities, and conferred upon him the direction
of the world so long as time shall last, and placed in his hand
this earth, its water, its winds, its vegetation, all its cattle,
all its birds, all its fowls, its creeping things, and the animals
of the desert became a gift to the son of Nut, and the Two
Lands were satisfied to [see him] ascend the throne of his
father like Ra, when he riseth on the horizon and giveth Hght
in the darkness. He illumineth [heaven] with the light of
his plumes, he floodeth the Two Lands with light, like the
Disk (Athen) each day. His White Crown pierceth the
height of heaven, it reacheth the stars. He is the leader of
every god, perfect in command and word, praised by the
Great Company of the gods, beloved by the Little Company
of the gods. His sister protected him, driving away [his]
enemies, turning aside from him calamities, strong of speech
with the spells of her mouth, skilled of tongue, making no
mistake in speech, making perfect command [and] word,
Isis, the glorious spirit, the avenger of her brother. She
sought him untiringly, she went round about this land sor-
rowfully, she would not have alighted had she not found
him. She made light with her feathers, she made air to be
with her wings, [as] she uttered wailings for her brother.
She raised up the inert members of him whose heart was still,
she absorbed his essence, she conceived an heir, she nursed
the child in loneliness, unknown was the place wherein he was.
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION i8i
He flourished, his arm became mighty in the House of Keb
{i.e. the earth). The company of the gods rejoiced, rejoiced,
at the coming of Horns, son of Osiris, stable of heart, true of
word, son of Isis, heir of Osiris. The Chiefs of Maat, the com-
pany of the gods, and Nebertcher himself gather themselves
together to him, and the Lord of Truth joineth them. Verily
those who destroyed sin rejoice in the House of Keb at the
transfer of the royal dignity to its owner, and of the sover-
eignty to him whose it is by right.
The cult of Osiris flourished from the earliest times until
about the beginning of the twentieth dynasty, and during
the latter part of this period the worship of the god at Abydos
must have been conducted on a magnificent scale. About
this time the belief became common that the actual tomb of
Osiris had been discovered there, and a massive stone bier,
with the figure of the god sculptured upon it, was made and
placed in the tomb of one of the kings of the first dynasty,
and was held in reverence as the actual funerary bed of
Osiris. Under the twenty-first dynasty the power of the
priests of Amen became predominant in Upper Egypt, and
an attempt was made by them to make Amen assume the
sovereignty of the kingdom of the dead. From the twelfth
dynasty onwards Osiris was generally regarded as the
Ancestor-god of all Egypt, and when we come to the nine-
teenth dynasty we find the ancient cult of the ancestor had
been absorbed in the worship of Osiris. Under the twenty-
second and following dynasties the worship of Osiris declined
gradually, and only at rare intervals were attempts made to
revive the former splendour of his worship. In the Ptole-
maic Period the introduction of the cult of Serapis, a com-
pound god of the dead, part Egyptian and part Greek,
hastened the decay of the cult of Osiris, and the adoration
paid to him was generally transferred to Horus, the son of \^
Isis. As the popularity of Osiris declined, that of Isis grew, I
and men began to worship her son as the personification of
Hfe and strength. When the Egyptians embraced Christi-
anity they saw nothing strange in identifying her with the
Virgin Mary, and her son Horus with the Babe Christ.
l82 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
In connection with the cult of the ancestor the primitive
Egyptians performed many rites and ceremonies ; some of
these were purely symbolic in character, but others were
magical, and were intended to influence the gods and spirits,
and to secure their friendship for the dead. However far
we go back we find magic flourishing side by side with reli-
gion, and it is hard to say which is the older ; in Egypt
magic seems to precede religion. Be this as it may, there
were at all times in use in Egypt two kinds of magic, the one
lawful and the other unlawful, or, as we say to-day, " white
magic " and " black magic." The two greatest men in
Egypt were the king and the official magician (the " medicine
man," or '* witch doctor " of modem African peoples). The
former directed the affairs of the kingdom and conducted
wars, and the latter, who was supposed to be in perpetual
communication with the ancestral spirits, the gods of a later
age, dealt exclusively with all spiritual matters, and informed
the king whether his acts and deeds were in accordance with
the wishes of the celestial powers. The title of this great
magician was " Kher-heb," and his power was very great.
He knew all the names and words of power, he composed
spells, he cast out devils, he sent dreams to sleeping folk and
interpreted dreams, he produced and stilled storms, he fore-
told the future, he raised the dead, he laid ghosts, he possessed
the secret of reciting the words of the liturgy in such a way
that material offerings became changed into the spirit food
of the god. He was, of necessity, a learned man, and he
knew the magical and religious literature thoroughly ; and
of course he could write ; these abilities commanded the
respect and fear of the people to whom the written word
was always sacred. No one questioned his power, because
all believed that it was obtained direct from the gods and
spirits, and as very few of the people were able to read or
write, they were not in a position to verify his interpreta-
tions of the books of magic, which formed one of the chief
sources of his power. Moreover, as the people never thought
out matters with which he was familiar, they were obliged
to accept, practically, everything he said. Little by little
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 183
they came to regard him as the equal of the powers they
wished to propitiate, and his influence became predominant
in all the principal religious and civil affairs of life. The
man whose wonderful works proclaimed that he was in com-
munication with the gods was not to be withstood by ordinary
folk, and his knowledge was in great demand by those who'
wished to use it for unlawful as well as lawful purposes.
The Pyramid Texts and their later forms, the Recensions
of the Book of the Dead, the Harris Magical Papyrus, the
Book of Aapep, and kindred works supply much information
about his methods of work, and from these the following
examples are derived. Having by some means found out
the secret, or " hidden," name of a particular god or fiend,
he addressed this being by that name, and then adjured him
to do his will. Sometimes he forced the god or spirit by
trickery to reveal his name, and sometimes he obtained it
from another god. Whenever possible he used the means
whereby some god had at one time or another vanquished
a foe, and he repeated the actual words, which the conquer-
ing god had used on that occasion. In all such spells or ad-
jurations names of power play a very prominent part. In
dealing with the dead the magician declared that he was Ra,
or Thoth, or Horns, and assuming that this declaration,
coupled with the use of the god's name, conferred on him
divine power, he proceeded to assure the dead that he could
perform for them whatever the god had done for the god
Osiris. Thus in the first Chapter of the Book of the Dead
he says, " I am Teti, the son of Teti, I was begotten in Tetu,
I was born in Tetu," meaning that he was Osiris himself.
Elsewhere he says (Chap. XXXIX) when he slays the devil
Aapep, ** I am Ra, the terrible one ; get thee back before
his beams." In another place (Chap. XL) he frightens the
monster Hai by describing to him the terrible tortures which
he will inflict upon him. It was impossible for the magician
to live in every tomb to protect every mummy, but he claimed
to be able to protect them by means of written spells. These
spells were copied upon a sheet or roll of papyrus which was
laid in the tomb, and when the dead man found himself in
i84 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
need of water or food, or in danger from noxious beasts or
creatures which threatened him with destruction, he recited
the spell proper for the occasion, and so the danger was
averted. All large copies of the Book of the Dead contain
many such spells, and their efficacy was firmly believed in
from the earliest to the latest times. Thus when he needed
air in the tomb he said, " I am Shu," and air was provided
for him ; when he needed water he said, " I am the Great
Nile " (Hep-ur), and water was provided. When he was
threatened with being scalded or burned with fire in the
Other World, he said, " I am the oar of Ra which the god
used when ferrying the gods' images over the Lake of Fire,"
and he became proof against fire and against boiling water
(Chap. LIH). These spells belong to different periods, and
some of them, according to modern ideas, render the repeti-
tion of others unnecessary. Thus in Chap. XLH the de-
ceased says, " There is no member of my body which is not
the member of some god." He then says he is with Ra and
under the protection of Thoth, that he is Khepera and lives
in the eye of the sun, that he is Horus and the " one who
proceedeth from the only one," that he is the Sprout of Nu,
and that his mother is Nut. But the Egyptian never omitted
any spell which he thought might be of the smallest use to
him ; his fathers had used it, therefore it must benefit him
in some way.
The importance of spells in the mind of the Egyptian is
well illustrated by a passage in the Harris Magical Papyrus,
in which it is said that Ra gave men spells which put lions
and enemies to flight, which shut the mouths of lions, leopards,
wolves, and panthers, and muzzle the goddesses Pakht,
Sekhmet, &c., and the men of every kind who speak evil
things. These spells cause men's limbs to become helpless
and diseased, and make their flesh to separate from their
bones and shrivel up. To obtain the best possible result
from a spell it was necessary to recite it four times, i.e. once
for each of the four quarters of the earth.
Often the written spell was accompanied by the use of a
magical picture. Thus if the spell, in which a man claimed
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 185
to be Ra and Shu seated in the eye of his father, were recited
four times by a man holding a drawing of the Eye of Ra with
a figure of Anheri sitting inside it, the power of the god's
name would rend the river bank, and cause the earth to break
out into fire, and would make the North to become the South,
and the South the North. The Theban and Saite Recensions
of the Book of the Dead are full of spells accompanied by
magical drawings. Thus the Chapter of the Ladder and a
drawing of it would secure for the deceased the use of the
famous ladder, whereby Osiris had climbed up from earth
into heaven. The Chapter of the Ferry-boat and a picture
of it would provide a boat for the deceased when he wished
to sail across the Nile of the Other World. Each part of the
boat possessed a magical name, which is given in the text
of the spell, and when all the names of the parts were properly
pronounced by the deceased the boat would sail to any place
to which he wanted to go. The Judgment Scene, whichi^^
represented to the initiated the deepest and most fundamental
truths in the religion of Osiris, was, to the ordinary Egyptian!
a magical picture drawn on funerary papyri with the vie\A
of making the gods declare those for whom it was draw4j
to be truth- speakers. If drawings of Osiris, Ra, Isis, and
Nephthys, the four gods of the winds, were painted on a coffin,
they would enable its occupant to enter each of the four
quarters of heaven. The spells that had to be recited were
a " great mystery," which was beyond the understanding
of the foreigner and the unlettered man. One drawing of
the god Menu over the heart, two drawings of a god with a
ram's head over each shoulder, and one over each breast,
enabled the deceased to drink from the celestial stream and
to shine like the stars in heaven. According to an ancient
tradition a certain amount of heat remained in the head of
the deceased until his resurrection ; if a drawing of the Eye
of the Sun-god were made and placed under the head of the
mummy in its coffin it was beheved to keep that heat in the
head undiminished.
Besides magical names and magical drawings the Kher-
heb used freely magical figures made of various substances.
i86 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
but especially of wax, for transmitting good and evil to the
living and the dead. In very early times the Egyptians
were anxious to avoid the performance of work in the
Other World, and a spell was provided in the Book of the
Dead (Chap. V) to enable them to do so. For some reason
or other this spell was considered insufficient to free them
from agricultural labours in the Kingdom of Osiris, so another
was composed (Chap. VI). The second spell was cut upon
the figure (shahti) of a man holding a hoe in each hand and
carrying a bag on his back, which was placed in the tomb
with the dead man, and when the dead man recited the
spell this figure became changed into a full-grown field-
labourer ready to do any work in the fields of Osiris which
he might be called on to do. As many as 365 such figures
have been found in one tomb, so the deceased in this case
enjoyed the services of a fresh labourer each day of the
year. These figures were intended to take the places of
the slaves who in early times were killed when a great man
died, and thrown into his tomb, so that their spirits might
go into the Other World with the spirit of their lord, and
minister to its needs there as their bodies had served him
here. The magical figure also played a prominent part in
certain ceremonies that were performed in the temple of
Amen-Ra at Thebes to effect the destruction of Aapep, a
form of Set, the god of evil, who fought daily against the
Sun-god. The priests recited this series of prescribed
spells : — " Get back. Devil, an end to thee ! I shoot flame
at thee, I destroy thee, I damn thee ! An end to thee, an
end to thee. Taste death ! An end to thee ; thou shalt
never rise up again. Thy face is on the block of slaughter
where Ra spitteth. Thou, thy soul, thy body, thy offspring,
thy hands, thy limbs, thy members, thy bones, thy spells,
thy mouth, thy form, thy attributes, thy creations, thy skin,
thy possessions, thy substance, thy seat, thy abode, thy
tomb, thy den, thy paths, thy going in, thy coming out,
thy steps, thy motion, and thy rest shall cease to exist."
The priests went so far as to threaten the gods with penalties
if they attempted to assist Aapep. These spells were said
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 187
over a drawing of Aapep made with green paint upon a
sheet of new papyrus, and over a wax figure of Aapep,
whereon his name was cut and the letters were inlaid with
green pigment. The wax figure was held over a fire made
of a magical plant, and as it melted the actual body of
Aapep in the sky was supposed to melt. The remains of
the figure were then mixed with filth, and spat upon many
times, and trampled upon with the left foot, and stabbed
with a flint knife, and then finally burnt in a fierce fire.
Figures of the allies of Aapep made in wax were treated in
the same way, and if all of them melted easily and burnt
freely it was regarded as a sure sign that the Sun-god had
overthrown all his enemies, and that he would resiune his
place in the sky at the proper time. Figures of Aapep were
burnt at stated times on certain days of the month
regularly, and also whenever hghtning appeared in the
sky, or when thunderstorms threatened to burst over the
land.
Another example of the use of the wax figure is found in
a papyrus containing an account of the great conspiracy
against Rameses III, about 1170 B.C. Among the conspi-
rators was one Hui, who made friends with one of the officials
in the Library of Amen, from whom he obtained some books
in which the theory and practice of magic were described.
He made wax figures, on which he wrote spells derived from
the books of magic, and gave them to an accomphce in the
palace who took them into the king's apartments, and he
intended them to make the king ill, to paralyse his body,
and to kill him. In this case the idea of the conspirator
was to make the spirits of sickness, disease, and death take
up their abode in the wax figures and pass from them into
the king's body. From Egypt the use of magical wax figures
passed to the continent of Europe, and thence into England.
It will be remembered that the famous Dr. John Dee was
summoned hurriedly to London, and instructed to use all
his powers to avert the danger imminent to Queen Elizabeth,
of whom a wax figure, with a pin stuck through its breast,
had been found in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Many examples
i88 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
drawn from English books might be quoted to prove the
use of magical wax figures with the view of causing the
death of the persons represented by them, and the custom
of sticking pins in wax figures and hearts, and placing
them in niches in the chimneys to melt away gradually,
is not unknown in some parts of England at the present
day.
Besides spells, magical drawings, and magical figures,
the magician was called upon to provide amulets ^ for the
living who wished to carry about with them the protection
of the gods, spirits, and sacred animals, and to benefit by
their power, and also for the dead. The earliest amulets
used in Egypt were probably the portions of the bodies
of great ancestors that were most directly connected with
the propagation of the race, and to this day in many parts
of Africa the most potent element in fetish " medicine " is a
small bone, or an eye-ball, or member, or emanation from the
body of an ancestor. Among the Egyptians two of the most
important amulets were the Tet, or Ded u, and the Tet
the former represented a part of the backbone of Osiris,
and gave the wearer virility, and the latter a part of the
body of Isis, and gave the wearer the strength of the blood
and power and spells of Isis. The Rubrics in the Book of
the Dead (Chaps. CLV, CLVI) say that the Osiris amulet
is to be made of gold, which was identified with the fluid of
life of Ra, and the Isis amulet of carnelian, or of some stone
the colour of blood. The popularity of these amulets is
attested by the large numbers of them that are to be seen
in all our great Museums, and the importance of them is
proved by the fact that on very many cofiins they are seen
held in the hands over the breasts. Other powerful amulets
were the following : The Heart — this preserved for the
dead the powers of the natural organ and took its place in
the body. To protect it seven prayers or spells were
composed, the most popular being that which is called
^ The word *' amulet " is derived from an Arabic word meaning " something
worn or carried on the person."
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 189
Chapter XXXB of the Theban Book of the Dead. This
prayer is very old, and said to have been in existence in the
first dynasty, when it was recited over a green stone scarab
to effect the " opening of the mouth " of the deceased ; at
a later period it was cut upon " heart scarabs " made of
green stone ; it continued in use down to the Roman Period.
The ^ARAB, or Beetle, symbol of new life and virility and
resurrection, ^Was" associated with the god Khepera, or
Kheperr, i.e. the ** Roller," who rolled the ball of the sun
across the sky. Having prepared a ball of matter to serve
as food for its offspring, the female beetle rolled it into a
hole in the ground in which it had laid one egg, and when
the young beetle was hatched out it fed upon it. With this
egg was associated the idea of " only-begotten," and the beetle
amulet gave to the wearer the protection of the only-begotten
son of the primeval Egyptian god. This idea was current in
much later times, for one Christian writer, who was acquainted
with the fact that the beetle of this class only laid one egg,
calls Christ the ** scarab on the wood," i.e. the Only-begotten
on the Cross. The Frog was the symbol of new life, regenera •[
tion, and resurrection ; in Christian times figures of the frog an :1
found on lamps, and are emblematic of re-birth. The Pillov\ J
gave the dead the power to lift up their heads, and pre-
vented them from faUing off their bodies. Other amulets
mentioned in the Book of the Dead are the Vulture, giving
the protection of Isis (Chap. CLVI), the Collar (Chap.
CLVIII), the Papyrus- sceptre, giving youth and vitality
(Chap. CLIX, CLX), the Cow of Hathor, giving warmth
(Chap. CLXII), the Utchats or Eyes of Horus, giving fife,
strength, and immortality (Chap. CLXIII), &c. Two very
ancient amulets were the Ladder and the Two Fingers
(index and medius) ; the former enabled the deceased to
climb up into heaven, and the latter supported him in his
efforts, and gave him the strength of the two fingers of Horus,
who assisted his father Osiris therewith when he climbed
up into heaven. Common amulets are the Nefer, which
gave good luck and happiness, the Serpent's head, a pro-
tection against the bites of snakes^ ot all kmas,^nd the
190 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Menat, which gave power and virility. A figure of any
and every god and sacred animal became a powerful amulet,
provided the Kher-heb had recited the necessary words of
power over it.
The Kher-heb was in early times also a physician, and as
he administered his medicines to the patient he assisted their
operation by reciting spells, charms, and incantations, and
^ometimes by performing ceremonies. Sicknesses and dis-
eases were caused by evil spirits, and when these were exor-
/ cised the patients recovered. In all such cases the magician
j had to discover the name of the spirit that was causing the
sickness ; this once found the treatment was easy. Sometimes
the sickness was caused by a hostile person who had recited
a series of spells whilst he tied knots in a piece of cord, and
so rendered his victim spell-bound. In such cases the magi-
cian healed the sickness by untying knots in a piece of cord,
and reciting as he did so very potent spells coupled with
mighty magical names. It is easy to see that all such magical
practices could be used equally well to injure and to benefit
the living and the dead, and that the use to which magic
was put depended on the character and object of the magician.
The chief magicians of the temples were men of great learning
and ability, which they used disinterestedly and with lofty
purpose. Before performing the most sacred ceremonies
connected with the worship of the gods and the cult of the
dead they abstained from the eating of meat and fish, and
made themselves ceremonially pure by ablutions and cens-
ings, and they spared no pains to make themselves acceptable
to the gods, between whom and men they were the authorised
jmediators. A sharp distinction must be drawn between
(magicians of this class and the astrologers, soothsayers,
[fortune-tellers, necromancers, casters of nativities, and sor-
Icerers of all kinds, who flourished in Egypt from the reign of
tRameses II onwards. The latter class of magicians were
impostors who deceived the people and professed to read
the future by the help of absurd tricks and ceremonies, to
foretell dreams, to transform men into animals and reptiles,
to heal the sick, to bring the spirits of the dead back to this
EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RELIGION 191
earth, to work miracles by means of potions derived from the
bodies of the dead, and to be able to make amulets that
would protect their owners for ever against every hostile
creature or thing in this world and the next. Such men onlyf
flourished in Egypt when her people as a whole had lost theiij
belief in Osiris and the other ancient gods, and were seeking
to make debased superstitions take its place.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS
According to Egyptian tradition the country of Egypt was
in the earhest times ruled by the gods, who lived upon the
earth, and went about among men, and mixed themselves
up in the affairs of the people. Their reigns lasted for a very
long time, and they did many great and mighty things, but
at length a time came when they decided to withdraw to
heaven, and Horus, the last king of the divine dynasty,
appointed his son by a woman living on the earth to succeed
him. Thus it happened that the first human king of Egypt
was part god and part man, and from the earliest to the
latest times the king was worshipped as a god, and his statues
had a place by right among those of the gods. He received
Egypt from the gods as his lawful inheritance, and every
man, woman, and child in the country were his slaves, and
only existed to work for him and to do his pleasure. The
gold in the bowels of the mountains and in the rivers, the wild
animals of the desert, the birds of the air, the fish in the rivers,
the cattle, and the crops in the fields were all his, for they lived
by and through him, and at his word they died. He, being
divine, was the source of all wisdom and knowledge, his power
was absolute, his authority illimitable, his decision on every
subject final, his person sacred, and the man who spoke
against him was guilty not only of treason, but of sin, and
paid for his boldness with his life. No man owned anything
absolutely ; he only used what he had at the pleasure of the
king, and he gave up land, house, cattle, wives, and children
when his lord needed them. These ideas concerning the king
are purely African, and the earliest kings of Egypt were exact
counterparts of the kings of Dahomey, Congo-land, Dar Fur,
192
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 193
Unyoro, Uganda, &c., described in the Travels of Skertchley,
Burton, Stanley, Speke, Baker, Johnston, and others, and
there is little doubt that they were of Sudani origin. The
king who ruled Upper Egypt had the signs 1 suten, or nesUy
placed before his name, and the king who ruled Lower Egypt
had \l^ bati; the former wore the White Crown Q, and
the latter the Red Crown \/. After the union of the North
and the South the king of the Two Egypts placed both
signs before his name thus 4^* ^^^ ^^ wore the double
crown )u . Before the union of the kingdoms of the North
and South kings had only one name, e.g. Seka, Khent, Besh,
&c. ; after the union the king of the Two Egypts took another
name on his accession to the throne, and a little later two
more — one as the Horus of gold, and the other as the Lord
of the Vulture and Uraeus Crowns, which signified his sover-
eignty over Nekheb, the ancient capital in the South, and
over Per-Uatchet (Buto), the ancient capital in the North.
Under the influence of the priests of Ra the kings of the fourth
dynasty, who were said to be sons of Ra, adopted a fifth name
as sons of Ra. In early dynastic times the personal name
of the king and his name as King of the South and King of
the North were written in an oval [ ], which is now
called a " cartouche," a word meaning " cartridge." This
name was given to the oval by the Frenchman ChampoUion,
but nowadays the word cartouche is often used to express both
the oval and the royal name which it contains. The king
had many titles, and the most extravagant epithets were
applied to him by his court scribes, but the title by which he
was best known in the countries outside Egypt was " Phar-
aoh," which represents the Egyptian Per-aa, i.e. " Great
House." The Great House was literally the royal palace,
but the Egyptians used the words to indicate the king, just
as the Turks and Arabs speak of the " Sublime Porte," and
194 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Europeans of the " Porte," when they refer to the Sultan
and his Government.
In the earhest times the dress of the king consisted of a
loin-cloth and a girdle or belt, to which was attached the tail
of an animal or a piece of bast to resemble a tail, similar to
that worn by chiefs in some parts of the Sudan at the present
day. Additions were lAade to the loin-cloth later, and it
became a sort of short tunic. His beard was carefully
trimmed to the traditional shape of that worn by the men
of Punt. When he was seated in state he held in his hands
a sceptre in the shape of a pastoral crook, and a whip, and
probably a large flint knife, for which in later days a bronze
sickle-shaped weapon was substituted. On his head was
the simple, high crown, made probably of reeds covered with
skin, and about his neck was a collar. When officiating in
the temple he wore various kinds of robes and crowns, the
latter being decorated with figures of cobras, metal disks,
ostrich feathers, and horns ; his sandals on such occasions
were turned up at the toes. He was, as a god, entitled to
wear the characteristic dress of the gods, and, like them, he
held the symbol of life in one hand. When fighting his
principal weapon was a club made of a stone fastened to
one end of a short stick, or a stone-headed axe ; in later days
he carried a bronze battle-axe and a bronze dagger. His
throne was set on a platform, with one or two steps in front,
beneath a canopy which rested on four poles ; it differed but
slightly from the shrines in which the primitive figures of the
gods were placed. All sorts of magical objects were attached
to the poles of the canopy to protect the king from enemies
and malign influences. Beneath the royal seat or chair of
state a reed mat was placed. In later times, when Egypt
was filled with the riches of Western Asia and the gold of the
Sudan, the throne and its canopy were made of costly woods
inlaid with precious stones, and gold, silver, and copper were
used lavishly in their decoration.
Theoretically the prosperity of all Egypt depended upon
the existence of the king in this world, and its prolongation
was prayeci for daily by himself and all his people. H^
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 195
offered worship and sacrifice to the gods daily as the legal
head of all priesthoods, and he performed daily a series of
elaborate ceremonies that were intended to renew in him
the divine power which he inherited from the gods. After
offering incense, and pouring out libations, and reciting
the appointed prayers, he approached the shrine, and the
figure of the god in it embraced him and laid its hands
upon him, and thus the " fluid of the god " passed from
him to the king. The performance of these ceremonies
must have occupied a very considerable part of the day, and
it is therefore probable that the king only assisted person-
ally at this service on special occasions, and that at other
times the high priest officiated. Another series of highly
symbolical ceremonies was performed for the maintenance
and prolongation of the king's life during the celebration of
the Set or Sed Festival, i.e. the Festival of the Tail. The
exact meaning of the name of this festival is doubtful, but it
seems to refer to the animal's skin in which the king was
enveloped during the ceremony that was supposed to effect
his re-birth and to give him renewed strength and additional
years of life.
The official honour paid to the king was similar to that
given to a god, and, as was common at all Oriental courts,
those who were privileged to know him intimately spared
no pains to make court etiquette as elaborate as possible.
To carry the king's sandals and his chair were honours
eagerly sought after, and Ptahshepses, who married Princess
Maatkha, daughter of Shepseskaf, records in his funerary
inscription that King Neferarikara allowed him to kiss the
royal foot itself, and not the ground at the king's feet !
The highest nobles prostrated themselves before the king
when summoned into his presence, and those who were
wise in their generation feigned to be blinded by his glory
and stunned by his majesty. Though Pharaoh the god was
the owner of all Egypt, Pharaoh the man possessed pro-
perty of various kinds, which was probably administered
by his own private officials just Uke the estate of any noble-
man. Whether he received a stated grant from the people
196 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
annually is not known, but it is probable that a considerable
share of all revenues found its way into the hands of his
stewards. But royal tombs like the Pyramids of Gizah
could never have been built out of any royal Civil List,
however large, and the greater part of the country's income
must have been spent for two or threescore years in build-
ing these mighty piles. The royal estates were worked by
forced labour, and were probably situated in the most fertile
parts of the country.
The royal palace was divided into several parts, and there
were in it a court in which great state ceremonies took
place, and a hall in which the king gave audiences and tried
cases of high importance, and a suite of rooms for his
private use, and the quarter set apart for the queen and
her personal attendants and for the use of the princes and
princesses, and the quarters of the ladies of his hartm. The
first wife of the king, i.e. the queen, was usually of royal
birth, and she shared the king's honours, and her name,
like his, was enclosed within a cartouche. The names of
very few of the earlier queens are known, and the monu-
ments supply no details of their lives. A king sometimes
married the widow of his predecessor, e.g. Khufu, or Cheops,
who married Mertitefs, the " very delightful " widow of
Seneferu. Provision was made for widowed queens and
their sons and daughters, and the greatest honours were
paid to them. -Kings usually married Egyptian or Nubian
women, but some of them selected their queens from foreign
nations. Thus Thothmes IV married a Mitannian lady,
to whom he gave the name of Mutemuaa, and his son
Amen-hetep III married Ti and several other ladies from
Western Asia, and to their influence was due, ultimately,
the downfall of the eighteenth dynasty. Rameses II also
married a Hittite princess. Theoretically all the kings of
Egypt were descended from Horus, but some claimed Ra
as their ancestor, and others claimed Amen ; as a matter
of fact several kings of Egypt had not a drop of Egyp-
tian blood, either divine or human, in their veins. Two of
the sovereigns of the eighteenth dynasty, Hatshepset and
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 197
Amen-hetep III, claimed to have been begotten by Amen-Ra
himself, and Alexander the Great, to strengthen his hold
on Egypt, also claimed to be the son of this god.
The king was supposed to govern Egypt directly — to make 1
the laws, to control the finance, to appoint the governors J
of districts, nomes, and towns, to direct the army, and to/
know everything that went on in his territory from one/
end of Egypt to the other. But, as is the case in most
Oriental countries, his actual knowledge of the details of
his government must have been very slight indeed, and he
depended almost entirely upon his chief officials for infor
mation, counsel, and guidance. Upper Egypt and Lower
Egypt were ruled each by a governor, who was assisted by
chiefs of towns and cities, heads of villages, and a staff of
highly trained scribes, who superintended the collection/
of the taxes, kept the government registers, and measured
the land and assessed the dues upon it. Judges and assis-
tant judges sat in the law courts in all large towns to try\
important cases, but in some trials judgment could only be |
given after consultation with the king, or his high court of
judges which sat in the capital. All cases of petty pecula-
tion, theft, robbery, burglary, cattle-stealing, &c., in the
country generally were dealt with by the local mayors or
magistrates, who performed all the functions of the kadis,
maamurs, and omdahs in Egypt in our own days. The
ancient Egyptians loved litigation as much as do their
descendants to-day, and we may rest assured that bribery
and corruption were as prevalent then as now. The fate of
litigants lay in the hands of the scribes of the courts, for they
drafted the pleas and defences, and they alone knew the laws
and precedents. Whatever may have been the feelings of
judges, it was not in the interests of the scribes or the
officers of the court to have cases decided summarily.
Stubborn witnesses and those suspected of lying were made
to tell the truth by beating on the soles of the feet {basti-
nado), and witnesses who were silent after this treatment
sometimes suffered the loss of their nose or ears.
The Egyptian aristocracy consisted of the old feudal
198 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
chiefs, the lesser nobles, the high officers of state, the royal
scribes, the great priesthoods, the men who had been ennobled
by the king, and the royal relatives. The feudal chiefs were
to all intents and purposes petty kings, and their powers
were only kept in check by strong kings. Egypt never pos-
sessed an ARMY in the modern sense of the word, for the Egyp-
tians of the lower classes were neither fighting men nor
soldiers by nature. In the earliest times the king drew his
levies from all parts of the country, and the weapons of most
of these consisted of large stout sticks, like the modern
nahiit, and clubs. The great nobles sent contingents of men
armed with bows and arrows, the latter tipped with flint,
shields, and rough battle-axes. At a later period such soldiers
and those maintained by the king were armed with bows
and arrows, bronze spears, swords, daggers, and battle-axes.
As early as the sixth dynasty Blacks from the Sudan were
employed in fighting Pharaoh's battles, and under the New
Empire many of the regular troops were Nubians. The army
of Rameses III was composed of mercenaries, for the natives
were no match for the well-armed and well-drilled foes who
threatened Egypt on all her boundaries. Egyptian peasants
and merchants made poor fighting men, and after the death
of Rameses III the masters of Egypt were in turn the armies
of the Libyans, the Blacks, the Persians, the Greeks, and the
Romans. The greater number of the so-called wars of the
Egyptians, beginning with Seneferu's invasion of the Siidan,
were nothing but raids pure and simple, for the object of their
kings was loot, slaves, cattle, gold, &c., which was digni-
fied by the name of tribute. When Pharaoh "extended
his borders " in any country the extension was followed by
slaughter, and wholesale destruction of property, and the
burning of towns and villages. The only Egyptian campaign
we know of that seems to have been conducted on any definite
plan was that of Rameses II against the Hittites in Northern
Syria. The Egyptian fought best behind walls, a fact well
understood by Usertsen III, who built the great forts in the
Second Cataract, and by the kings who built the first forts
on the north-east frontier to guard the old caravan road
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 199
between Syria and Egypt. The Eg5T>tians of the eighteenth
dynasty found chariots and horses very useful in Syria, but
there was no room for them in Egypt or Nubia.
Until the Egyptians began to obtain possessions in Pales-
tine and Syria under the eighteenth dynasty they had no
need of a navy. The natives of the northern parts of the -
Delta must from time out of mind have been familiar with
shipping, and, as many of them were akin to the seafaring^
folk who traded with the dwellers on the coasts of Syria
and North Africa and in the islands of the Mediterranean,
they probably made very good sailors. The bringing of tim-
ber from Syria must always have formed a lucrative trade,
and must have required a considerable number of tolerably
large sea-going ships, the crews of which were probably partly
Egyptian. The trade was in a very flourishing state in the
time of King Seneferu (third or fourth dynasty), and there
is no reason for thinking that it was started by him. In
the Red Sea many sea-going ships were engaged in the trans-
port of copper from the mines in the Peninsula of Sinai to
some port on the western shore of the Red Sea near the
modern town of Kuser, and at a comparatively early period
the Egyptians had intercourse by sea with Punt and with
the ports on the coast of Southern Arabia. With this over-
seas trade the Egyptians of Upper Egypt had little to do.
The Pharaohs of the-eighteenth dynasty ernployed ships in
connection, with their campaigns in Syria, but there is no
evidence that they maintained permanently a fleet of war-
ships for the defence of Egypt. The first king who recog-
nised the true importance of a navy was Rameses III (twen-
tieth dynasty), and he established a fleet in the Mediter-
ranean and another in the Red Sea. In many of his ships
soldiers formed an integral part of the crew, and protected
their precious freights from pirates and other sea-robbers.
In his great campaign against the Syrians and their allies
his navy co-operated so successfully with his army, that he
was able to inflict upon the enemy a defeat that was as un-
expected as it was crushing.
The important priesthoods of Egypt were always great
200 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and powerful organisations, and to all intents and purposes
they directed the government of the country. Theoretically,
as we have seen, the king's power was absolute, but practi-
cally he carried out the will of the priests, for their leaders
saw the gods face to face, and talked with them, and were the
mediums through which they gave their commands to their
son the Pharaoh. Moreover, the priests were the reposi-
tories of the learning and wisdom of Egypt ; they composed
the liturgies and the religious texts wherein were enshrined
the beliefs and mysteries of the Eg3^tian faith, they were
the trustees of the property of the gods, they administered
the revenues of the temples, they superintended the mummi-
fication of the dead, they devised the elaborate system of
funerary ceremonies in the tomb, and they were the stewards
of all the mysteries of heaven and earth. The high priests
were beyond doubt able and learned men, and the religious
literature of Egypt testifies to their high moral instincts
and to their spiritual-mindedness. They practised asceti-
cism and prepared themselves for important duties by fasting
and prayer, and by abstaining from fleshly lusts, and they
cleansed their bodies by sprinkling themselves with water
in which natron, &c., had been dissolved, and by drinking
the same and by censings with specially prepared incense.
This they did because they realised that they were the tem-
porary abodes of the spirit of the Creator of the world, and
the means of communication between the gods and ancestral
spirits and the living. The high priest of Memphis, the
Urkherphemu, or " Great director of the artisans," and the
high priest of Heliopolis, the JJrmau, or ** Great Seer," and
the high priest of Thebes became, they thought, during the
performance of their most sacred duties, counterparts of the
gods Ptah, Temu-Ra, and Amen.
Apart from these great temple officials we find attached
to most temples the "servants of the gods," a chief
libationer and Jiis assistants, a Kher-heb, whose office has
been already described (see p. 182), a steward, a registrar,
and a copyist of the books used in the temple services.
In very large temples there were very many other " priests "
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 201
who kept the apparel of the gods and dressed their
statues on days of festival, priests of the altar, " divine
fathers," priests of the first, second, and third order, &c.
Certain duties seem to have been performed in some of the
temples by members of the laity who were called " priests
of the hour," but what these duties were is not clear. Pro-
bably in the earliest times every citizen of a certain position
in his town served as watchman, or keeper, of the temple in
his turn for an " hour." The son of a priest was always
elected by the colleagues of his father to a priestly office,
but not necessarily to the office which his father had held.
The daughters of the old feudal lords of the Ancient Empire
were always priestesses of Hathor, just as their fathers were
always priests of the local gods, but their office was honorary.
Under the eighteenth dynasty the services in the temple of
Amen were augmented by many hymns, litanies, choruses,
&c., which were. sung by the shemdt, or women singers, who
accompanied them with the rattling of sistra. These shemdt
included all the well-born women in Thebes, and they formed
a sort of sacred har'im belonging to the god Amen-Ra, the
head of which was the queen, or first wife of the king. Dur-
ing the rule of the Priest-kings of Thebes under the twenty-
first dynasty some of the ladies of the hanrn possessed very
great power, and filled many offices. Thus Nesi-Khensu
is actually described as the viceroy of Nubia, and is called
the wife of Amen-Ra and mother of the god Khensu the
Child, and priestess of Amen-Ra, Nekhebet, Osiris, Horus
and Isis, and Hathor. Her daughter Nesitanebtashru held
the position of official copyist and arranger of the hymns and
music in the temple of Amen-Ra, and she was also a singer,
perhaps a soloist, in the temple of Mut, the female counter-
part of Amen-Ra. Her copy of the " Book of the Dead "
is probably the work of her own hands, and as several of the
compositions found in the latter part of it are not found
elsewhere, we may assimie that they were composed by her.
In later times the chief lady of the hartm of Amen, whose
official title was neter tuat, actually usurped the functions
of the high priest of Amen, so that the chief ecclesiastical
202 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
officer of the god was a woman ! In her was vested all the
vast property of Amen, and her influence and authority were
very great.
Under the early dynasties many of the priests lived in the
same way as other gentlemen of their class, and wore much
the same kind of dress, but the high priests of some of the
large temples wore the special insignia of their offices when
performing very solemn or very important ceremonies.
Under the New Empire the dress of the priests became more
elaborate and varied, but even so some of them wore tunics
&c., which were similar in shape to those of the priests of the
Ancient Empire. In the papyri of the Book of the Dead
the Sem priest usually wears the leopard skin, or panther
skin, which seems to have been in some way symbolic of his
office. In the Papyrus of Ani (Chap. XVIII) we see the
Sameref and Anmutef priests also wearing the leopard skin.
Under the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the priest-
hoods of Amen of Thebes and Ra of Heliopolis became very
wealthy, owing chiefly to the rich spoil which the vic-
torious Pharaohs brought back from Syria, and the gold
which was poured into Egypt from the Sudan. But besides
the substantial share of the spoil which was set apart for
their gods, the priests made large sums of money by burying
the dead. The embalming of the dead was carried out by
professional embalmers who were attached to the temples,
and all the various objects employed in furnishing the tombs
were provided by workmen who were directly under the
control of the priests. Their carpenters made the coffins,
the sledges, the ushabtiufLguves, the coffers for the " Canopic "
jars, &c. ; their weavers made the linen in which the dead
were swathed ; their stone masons hewed the tombs in the
cemetery in the hills on the western bank ; their scribes
wrote the funerary papyri and drafted the inscriptions for
the coffins and the sepulchral stelae ; their metal workers
supplied the bronze vessels and figures ; their lapidaries
cut the alabaster vases and amulets ; their farms suppHed
the beasts for sacrifice ; their apothecaries supplied the
incense, scents, drugs, unguents, and oil^used in the funerary
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 203
ceremonies ; their jewellers produced the ornaments made
of gold, silver, and precious stones, and their bakers, butchers,
and confectioners produced the cakes, joints, and sweet-
meats for the funeral feasts and the sepulchral offerings.
In short, the priests became funerary providers, and they
carried on a very large and profitable business, because they
enjoyed a monopoly in burials. To carry out all the various
works which the priests undertook during the eighteenth
and nineteenth dynasties required the services of a very
large number of men of all sorts, from scribes to farm
labourers, and it is probable that more officials were employed
in the service of Amen than in that of the king and country !
The priesthood of Amen was the richest in Egypt, and it
maintained trading ships on the high seas and soldiers to
protect its vast possessions. We have already seen in the
section on Egyptian History how the high priest of Amen,
little by little, acquired power in the country until he
became not only the rival of the king, but the king himself.
In their anxiety to honour their god, and incidentally to
magnify the position of his priests, they lost all sense of
proportion, and having set all classes against them, and
neglected the general well-being of the country, they
wrecked their own interests, and destroyed their own power,
which had taken centuries to build up.
The affections of the Egyptians centred in their homes
and in their wives and families. Kings and noblemen' of teii
married more~than one wife, and, speaking generally, there
must have been good reasons for their so doing, for there is
no doubt that, as a rule, the Egyptian loved one wife only,
who ruled supreme in his house, and was the mother of his
children. She was called the " mistress of the house,"
neht per, and the position of the good wife and mother was
absolutely secure. How the preliminaries of a marriage
were arranged is not known, but it is probable that there
was a " go-between " who interviewed the parents of the
girl and man, and proclaimed the beauty of the one and
the strength of the other, and helped in settHng the amount
which the father of the man was to give to the father of the
204 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
girl. It is unlikely that the marriage ceremonies were
elaborate; indeed it is very doubtful if there was any
ceremony at all beyond a formal handing over of the girl
to her future husband, and the utterance on his part of
some such simple phrase as ** I have taken thee," in the
presence of the parents and relatives. A feast, more or
less elaborate according to the means of the parents, followed,
and then came singing and dancing to reed-pipes and some
kind of drum, in which everybody joined, and the drinking
of very much beer. In late times, after the influence of
the Greeks had spread throughout Egypt, the well-to-do
families insisted on wedding contracts being drawn up
when their sons and daughters married.
It was more common among families who possessed
estates for a man to maxQL-his sister, or his niece, than a
stranger. The marriage of brother with sister is abhorrent
to us, but this was not so in Egypt. One of the oldest
traditions in the land made the primitive Osiris marry his
sister Isis, and he was said to be the father of Anubis by his
other sister, Nephthys. The primary object of brother and
sister marriages was to keep the property in the family, and
in Egypt at the present time the marriage of first cousins
is highly approved of, because when the two fathers are
brothers it avoids the undue division of the family and the
scattering of the property. Some such idea was probably
in the minds of the Ptolemies, all of whom married either a
sister, sometimes more than one, or a niece, for the Greeks
hated the marriage of brother and sister. The conditions
under which women were obtained in marriage by workmen,
artisans, and farm labourers are unknown, but it is pro-
bable that they were to all intents and purposes bought
and sold. Wealthy men maintained on their establishments
bands of pretty young women who were skilled dancers and
players on the harp and pipes, and who amused their
masters during their leisure hours with dances, songs, and
instrumental music. Sometimes members of these bands
became secondary wives of their masters, or employers, and
sometimes merely concubines. But there also existed com-
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 205
panics of such young women who could be hired for any
entertainment where singing and dancing were required,
and about them gathered disorderly folk of both sexes.
When unoccupied professionally in the houses of their hirers
they drifted to the quarter of the town where the beer-
houses and eating-houses were situated, and consorted with
men of all classes.
The married woman who was the mother of children
enjoyed the greatest freedom. She ruled her house and
family with benevolent but despotic power, and her influence
extended far beyond the walls of her dwelling. She went
about freely in the towns and villages, conversed with men
as well as women, and, unlike the modem Egyptian woman,
she wore no veil. A son respected his father, but he loved
his mother, and the sages of Egypt impressed upon every
boy that it was his bounden duty never to cause her pain
or anxiety. In the Precepts of Khensu-hetep it is written :
When thou art grown up, and art married, and hast a house,
never forget the pains which thou didst cost thy mother,
nor the care which she bestowed upon thee. Never give
her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hands to
God in heaven, and He hearken to her cry [and punish
thee]. Similarly the husband is exhorted to treat his wife
well, and in the Precepts of Ptahhetep (about 3200 B.C.) it
is written : If thou wouldst be a wise man, rule thy house,
and love thy wife wholly and constantly. Feed her and
clothe her, love her tenderly, and fulfil her desires as long
as thou livest, for she is an estate which conferreth great
reward upon her lord. Be not hard to her, for she will be
more easily moved by persuasion than by force. Observe
what she wisheth, and that on which her mind runneth ;
thereby shalt thou make her to stay in thy house. If thou
resist est her will it is ruin. The honour in which the mother
was held is attested by many monuments. Thus on innumer-
able sepulchral stelae the name of the mother of the deceased
is given, but not that of the father, and a man was proud to
trace his descent from his mother's side of the family.
It is probable that girls were betrothed when they were
2o6 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
only a few years old, and we may assume that in all classes
they were married before they were fifteen years of age.
The birth of a child was celebrated with rejoicings, and if its
parents were well-to-do they made a feast and there were
music and dancing. A child received a name soon after
birth, and the day on which his name was bestowed upon
him was frequently celebrated by him in later years with
rejoicings. Names were of many kinds. Sometimes the
name was that of an ancestor, or of a god, and sometimes
the name of a god or king formed a part of it. Twins were
sometimes called by the names of twin-gods, e.g. Hem and
Suti, i.e. Horus and Set. The name often described some
physical characteristic, thus a boy was called " Nekht " i.e.
" Strong," or a girl " Netchemet," i.e. " Sweet " ; pet names
were also used, e.g. Mai-sheri, i.e. " little cat," or '' Pussy."
Two neighbouring children might have the same name, e.g.
" Teta," but one of them would be called " Teta ki," i.e.
the " other Teta." Often, however, the same name was
given to several children in the same family, or to father
and son for several generations, and much confusion was the
result. The Egyptians attached the greatest importance
to the preservation of the name, which was considered to
be an integral part of a man, and therefore it was the duty
of every son to take care that his father's name was carefully
preserved on his funerary stele and other monuments, and
in his tomb. On many statues dedicated by sons to their
fathers we find cut on the pedestals, " His son made his
name to live," and in some funerary inscriptions the dead
man in enumerating his virtues states that he repaired the
broken letters in the inscription on his father's tomb. To
obliterate the name of a man on his monuments was
equivalent to condemning him to destruction, for no one
and no thing had being if it had no name. Hence arose
the custom of cutting out from inscriptions the names
of enemies : thus Thothmes HI obliterated Hatshepset's
name on her monuments, and, with the view of destroying
the god Amen, the fanatical King Amen-hetep IV had his
name cut out from an untold number of monuments.
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 207
Children of both sexes lived exclusively with their mothers
for the first three years of their lives, and the peasant
woman worked in the fields with her child lying either upon
her neck and shoulders, or bound to her back with a cloth.
For some years after children could crawl or walk about
they went naked, just as they do to-day ; boys wore a thin
girdle about the waist, and little girls wore an amulet on
some part of the body to keep away the ** evil eye." Their
heads were clean-shaven, but boys wore a lock or curl on the
right side of the head in imitation of Horus the Child, the
son of Isis. The children of the upper classes were taken
care of by their mothers' slave women, and were provided
with toys of all kinds of an elementary character, such as
balls made of papyrus or leather stuffed with chopped
straw, and models of cats, dogs, lions, apes, elephants,
hippopotami, &c. These toy animals often had movable
limbs or jaws, and the joy of the child who possessed the
wooden cat (now in the British Museum, No. 15671) with
inlaid crystal eyes, and a movable jaw studded with metal
teeth, can be readily imagined. The young children of the
peasant crawled about on the ground inside and outside
the mud hut, and played with their neighbours and the
family goat, or donkey, or cow. Little girls loved dolls then
as now, and all large Museums contain many interesting
examples of mud dolls, wooden dolls, dolls with and with-
out hair, &c. Among the poor the future of the children
was fixed at a very early age ; the boys learned to work
in the fields or at a trade, and the girls were married long
before they were fifteen. These child-wives collected the
materials for the fire, fetched the water from the river in
pots which they carried skilfully on their heads, looked
after any animals which their husbands possessed, and
brought up their children to do the same. Before they
were thirty they had daughters old enough to be married,
and were to all intents and purposes old women, bent of
back and withered of face. The daughters of the well-to-do
were in better case, for they were better fed, better housed,
and better clad, and were protected from the burning
208 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
heats of summer, and from the glare of the waters of the
inundation, and from the bitter cold of the winter morning
hours between midnight and three o'clock. It is doubtful
whether girls in any class learned to read or to write as a
general rule.
The boys of the well-to-do were sent to school, because
most fathers hoped that their sons would become scribes,
and perhaps even rise to positions in the king's service.
There appear to have been local village schools in Egypt,
where the elements of education were taught, and to which
a mother sometimes brought her boy's allowance for the day —
three bread-cakes and two vessels of beer. The pupils worked
from early morning until noon, and the master never spoiled
by sparing the rod any boy who came late persistently, or
who was lazy or inattentive. Masters and parents knew well
that the wits of some boys could only be sharpened by the
apphcation of the palm stick to their backs. It is tolerably
certain that in these elementary schools the pupils learned
to read and perhaps to draw hieroglyphs, and to take down
from dictation passages from works dealing with morality
and inculcating respect to their seniors. Whether they were
made to learn by heart passages from some standard religious
book, like the modern Egyptian children, who for the past
twelve hundred years have learned passages from the Kuran,
is not known, but it is very probable. Personal cleanliness
and diligence and obedience, as being acceptable to gods and
men, were certainly taught. From the elementary schools
boys passed on to those that were maintained by the great
temples, and perhaps also by the Government, and in these
they studied the subjects which would qualify them for
occupation in the Civil Service of their country or in the
temples. Those who wished to be employed in the public
departments learned arithmetic, book-keeping, geometry,
mensuration, and for all such the possession of good hand-
writing was absolutely necessary. A good knowledge not
only of hieroglyphs was required, but also of the cursive hand
in which accounts were kept and reports written. The pupil
learned to write well and to spell correctly by copying out on
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 209
papyrus, or on slices of limestone or white-washed boards,
with a reed dipped in ink made of lamp black, extracts from
the Precepts of the sages of olden time, which the master
considered suitable for the improvement of his mind, morals,
and manners. Certain passages or texts were selected for
copying with the view of improving his composition and en-
larging his vocabulary, and he was urged to employ old
metaphors and allusions, and archaic words, and high-flown
similes as much as possible. The art of letter-writing was
carefully studied also, as well as the drafting of reports.
Students of theology, who wished to be employed in the
temples, in addition to making themselves expert scribes,
were obliged to study the ancient works on magic, religion,
mythology, medicine, astrology, &c. In both the elementary
schools and the secondary schools the pupils spent a good
deal of time in gymnastics and in playing games, and it goes
without saying that, in a country like Egypt with its great
river and canals, most boys were good swimmers. The
Egyptian had a very real respect for learning, but it is ahnost
certain that very few of the general public could either read
or write. The art of writing he regarded with almost super-
stitious reverence, for it savoured of magic in his opinion.
The profession of the scribe was at all times greatly esteemed,
not so much for the learning which it represented as for the
wealth, and power, and high position which a truly expert
scribe enjoyed.
The DRESS of the Egyptians, both of men and women, was
made chiefly of_linen^ for wool was considered to be unclean.
The simplest form of dress common in the earUest period
was the loin-cloth ; it was worn by all classes, and by both
sexes, and its early form was preserved in religious cere-
monial apparel down to the latest times. Attached to its
upper edge was a border which resembled a girdle or belt,
and from this there hung down behind an animal's tail, or
an imitation of one made of bast or leather. As time went
on the loin-cloth developed into a short shirt resembling a
kilt, which sometimes projected in a peak above the knees.
Later the shirt was lengthened and made to cover a larger
O
j
)
210 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
portion of the body, and finally it reached from the breast
to the knees. Sometimes a shirt was worn over the loin-
cloth and a loose flowing garment over both, its size and
fullness depending upon the rank or occupation of the
wearek Under the New Empire the garments of the women
of th« mpper classes became voluminous, and in all classes
thece s ;ems to have been a tendency to wear much clothing.
At [this time garments with large loose sleeves and capes
beaame popular with women of the well-to-do classes. Much
ofAhe Imen cloth worn was of a very light brown colour when
ew, and was moderately thick, but the hnen used by the
wealthy must have been of exceedingly fine texture, and,
judging by the pictures of the priestesses given in papyri,
it must have been semi-transparent. In some periods the
linen cloth was ornamented with bands of blue or green
threads. The gimierous folds in some garments suggest
that the Egyptians knew of some process of hot pressing or
ironing. ' " ' "
Both men and women wore wigs of various forms and
shapes, some being very full and heavy, and some relatively
short. Some men and women shaved their hair off, and some
only " cropped " it and cultivated masses of short curls ;
many women let their hair grow and wore it in a large number
of long plaits, with or without fringes at the ends. In order
to make their hair appear more abundant than it was, some
ladies plaited locks of goats' hair with their own, and then
frizzed it out all round their heads. Some Sudani women at
the present day load their hair with mud mixed with castor
oil and goats' hair, and from a distance their heads look like
large, round baskets. As a rule men of the upper classes
shaved their beards and moustaches, but they wore, on certain
ceremonial occasions, false beards, made in the characteristic
pointed form, turned up in front, so dear to all Africans.
The form of the beard was traditional, and was derived from
Punt, the ancestral home of the Egyptians. As a rule the
Egyptians wore nothing on their feet, and the use of the
SANDALS only became common at a comparatively late
period. They were perhaps worn ceremonially by kings
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 211
and high officers of state in the early period. They were
made of papyrus, palm fibre, and leather, and in late times
sides were added to them and they resembled shoes ; they
were kept on the feet by means of a thong passing between
the big and second toes, and by a cord tied round the ankles.
Kings, queens, and members of the royal family wore various
kinds of head dresses symbolic of their rank, but ordinary
women were content with a bandlet, or fillet, more or less
decorated. Both men and women wore finger-rings,
BRACELETS, ARMLETS, NECKLACES, elaborately inlaid and
decorated pectorals, pendants, amulets ; women of all
periods wore anklets, and under the New Empire earrings
were common among them. Soldiers wore on ceremonial
occasions the gold collars which were the reward of
bravery, and every man of position carried a staff, or stick,
which seems to have varied in length according to the rank
of its owner.
The heat and scorching winds from the South made care-
ful attention to the skin absolutely necessary, for health of
body and content of mind depended upon it. Among the
poorer classes men and women anointed their bodies freely
with castor oil and other thick and more or less impure oils
sold in the bazaars for native use. Women of rank and
fashion used fine oils imported from the East, and specially
prepared unguents and salves, many of which were scented
with strong-smelling perfumes. During feasts balls, satur-
ated with oil or pomade, were placed on the heads of the
feasters, and as the heat of the head melted it the grease
ran down over the head, neck, and body, and produced
pleasurable sensations. The heat and glare caused diseases
of the eyes, which were treated with medicated ointments,
antimony, and lead ; the eyelids were smeared with the oint-
ment and the powdered medicine was then laid on them.
Many women beautified their eyes by painting their eyebrows
and adding ar+hiCK^ine under each eye. Different kinds of
eye-paint were used according to the season of the year, but
it was absolutely necessary to anoint the eyelids with one
kind of ointment daily. Some ladies rouged their cheeks
^^-A:^
212 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
and lips, and all women of position stained the nails of their
fingers and toes a reddish yellow with the juice of a plant
which the Arabs call hinnd {henna). The importance at-
tached to the artificial beautifying of the body is proved by
the fact that after embalmment the faces of women of high
rank were often rouged, and their eyelids and eyebrows
painted with antimony. A mirror and a fan were carried
by ladies of fashion, Roughnesses of the skin were removed
by rubbing with a piece of stone something like pumice stone,
and small hairs, and probably grey hairs also, were extracted
by tweezers.
he FOOjD^f the poorer classes consisted of coarse bread,
onions, and other vegetables, and salt. The bread was made
of millet, barley, and wheat, which were ground in a hand-
mill or crushed on stones ; the dough was made into thick,
fiat cakes of various sizes, which were baked in hot ashes
or on hot stones. The commonest vegetables were onions,
beans, peas, lentils, cucumbers, radishes, water melons,
leeks, garlic, spinach, the egg-plant, and edible roots of the
turnip and carrot class. The straw of the millet and barley
served as fuel. The peasants and slaves in the Delta ate
various kinds of fish, both fresh water and salt water, but in
some periods the eaters of fish were regarded as unclean ;
the people of Upper Egypt probably salted and potted the
little fish that were found in the irrigated basins, just as they
do to-day. The well-to-do classes ate animal food, i.e. the
flesh of the goat, cow, ox, gazelle, &c., which was boiled or
roasted, and eaten with boiled grain or vegetables. The
water-fowl of the marshes, several kinds of geese, pigeons,
doves, &c., were commonly eaten. Animals intended for
food and geese were fattened artificially, and the trade in
geese must have been very large. Milk was drunk in large
quantities, and cheese was a common article of food. Native
fruits were figs, dates, mulberries, grapes, &c., and in the
gardens of the wealthy foreign fruits were probably found.
Rock salt was obtained from the Western Desert, and a coarse
kind came from the salt lagoons in the Delta ; seeds of aro-
matic plants probably were stewed with the meat, and made
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 213
seasoning other than salt unnecessary. The common drink
of the ( ountry was beer, of which many kinds were known.
Many kinds of wine were drunk, e.g. wines made from grapes,
dates, and honey, and under the New Empire several foreign
wines were imported. The Egyptians must have known that
strong intoxicants could be made from dates and grain steeped
in water, and fermented, and as these drinks were easily
made they must have been drunk by the poorer classes in
considerable quantities. At certain festivals all men were
expected to get riotously drunk, and there is little doubt that
they did so. The poor man squatted on the ground and ate
his food, and the rich man either lay on a mat or cushion,
or sat on a low stool. Joints and birds were torn to pieces
with the hand, each man tearing off as much as he wanted.
Grain and boiled vegetables were scooped up by the right
hand, and were eaten from it. Fingers were wiped on very
thin round bread-cakes, made as large as a small pocket-
handkerchief. Cakes made very rich with honey and
fat, and sometimes stuffed with aromatic seeds, served as
" sweets," and when the meal was ended water from a vessel
was poured over the hands of the eaters by the servants.
\\ ater, cooled by being placed in the wind in a porous vessel,
was drunk from an earthenware bottle, and wine and beer
from bowls.
The poor man had few amusements. He began his work
at dawn and ended it at sunset, and the peasant farmer was
always busy with his land. On public festivals and holidays,
of which there were many, he probably enjoyed some relaxa-
tion, and then he sat in his village, played draughts, drank
beer, and talked to his friends and neighbours The Egyp-
tian gentleman amused himself in fishing, fowling, and hunt-
ing, and in those days when sportsmen were few, the deserts,
the marshes, and the river must have yielded large quantities
of game and fish. Dancing was a very popular amusement
among all classes, and in the village dances at least nearly
everyone joined. It is clear from the scenes on the monu-
ments that several kinds of dances were known, but it is
impossible to describe them, for all details are wanting.
214 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
In the large towns many amusements were to be found, for
in them the population as a whole did not go to bed at sun-
down. On festival days acrobats of various kinds gave
exhibitions of their skill, and professional dancers, both male
and female, musicians, wrestlers, jugglers, conjurors, and
every kind of public performer vied with one another in their
efforts to please the public and gain a living,
'h The Egyptian hquse was usually built of mud. The
house of the peasant an3 farm labourer was a mere mud hut,
roofed with palm leaves plastered with mud. It probably
had an opening high up in one of the walls to let out the
acrid smoke of the cow-dung fire, and an opening in another
that served as a doorway. The small farmhouse contained
two or three small rooms, one of which was used for storing
grain. The large farmhouse stood in a courtyard, along one
side of which was a series of small chambers that were used
as grain bins. A flight of mud steps led to the flat roof on
which the owner slept on hot nights, and on the south side
of it was a small chamber, facing the north, in which the
farmer sat in the evening and enjoyed the cool breeze. The
courtyard was surrounded on all sides by a mud wall, in which
was a stout door that swung in a stone socket and co'uld be
fastened by the pushing of a strong bolt into a deep cavity
of the wall. In the courtyard the large water- jars were kept,
and here the grain was ground, and the bread-cakes were
made and baked. The farmhouse itself was a one-storeyed,
long, low, rectangular building, the walls of which sloped
inwards towards the top. The house of the nobleman was
usually built in two storeys among trees, each floor consist-
ing of two series of rooms, with the doors and openings for
light all towards the north. Sometimes the rooms occupied
three sides of a courtyard, and a large, shady portico formed
the fourth side ; all the openings for hght were near the
ceilings, and wind shafts were built in the roof. The sleep-
ing rooms were in the upper storey. Near the house were
the wine and oil presses, the store chambers for grain, fruit,
and vegetables, the beer-house, the stable, and the cattle
byres, and huts for the use of the servants. In the grounds
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 215
round about the house were groves of flowering shrubs,
avenues of trees, ornamental lakes, and gardens. Under the
eighteenth dynasty a great feudal lord's abode was not very
much different from the king's palace, for it contained his own
special apartments, one suite of rooms for his wife, another
for the ladies of his house, another for the children, another
for the servants, and one or more extra large rooms wherein
he could transact official business and entertain his friends in
such manner as befitted his rank. In the earliest times the
royal palaces were built of wood, and were brightly painted,
like the shrines of primitive gods. In later times they were
built of mud bricks, and then the whole of their interior
arrangements had to be modified. Later still the " palace "
became a collection of houses, built among gardens, palm
groves, lakes, and fish ponds, and surrounded by a substantial
wall. The royal bedroom, living room, audience chamber,
banqueting room, &c., were larger than those in a noble-
man's house, but the general arrangement and distribution
of the suites of rooms among the queen, the royal ladies, the
princesses and princes, and the servants were the same.
The Egyptians did not fill their houses with furniture
as do* Western nations, and ornaments for the walls in the
form of pictures, brackets, statuary, &c., were unknown
to them. The floors of the rooms of the well-to-do were
covered with rugs or mats made of reeds, and low benches,
covered with mats or cushions, ran round the walls of the
reception rooms for the use of guests and visitors. The
walls were often decorated with mats made of reeds dyed
in different colours. Important visitors sat upon chairs of
state made of ebony inlaid with ivory and precious woods,
and provided with cushions covered with leather or cloth.
Many kinds of stools were used, either with or without
cushions, and some folded up like our modern camp-stools.
Couches or sofas were also made, and the sitters probably
sat upon them cross-legged. The bedstead was rectangular
in shape like the modern ankarib in the Sudan, and was
provided with cushions and padded quilts. The pillow in
use among all classes was a wooden head-rest, from five to
2i6 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
eight inches high, which was placed under the neck, and
which kept the head well above the cushion, in what we
should think a most uncomfortable position. In very
early times several low stands on which to place water-
bottles, food, &c., were found in good houses, but later these
were superseded by tables of different sizes and heights.
Cavities cut in the wall were used sometimes as cupboards,
but clothing, jewellery, ornaments, and valuables generally
were kept in boxes, which served the purpose of both
wardrobes and safes.
It has already been said that the Egyptian regarded
WRITING with almost superstitious reverence, and this is
literally true, for he was taught that hieroglyphs were
invented by the god Thoth, in other words, that they were
invented by one of his divine ancestors. Though the
earliest written Egyptian characters known to us belong to
the predynastic period, it was some time after the beginning
of the dynastic period before the Egyptians were able to
arrange their characters in such a way as to form inscrip-
tions. Egyptian writing exists in three forms, called Hiero-
glyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic. Tho oldest of these is
hieroglyphic or picture-writing, which was sacred and of
divine origin, because it was used in writing down the
words of the gods. It remained in use in all periods, and
was employed chiefly for monumental purposes, i.e. for
inscriptions on the walls of temples, tombs, obelisks, statues,
sepulchral stelae, &c. Hieroglyphic writing was found to
be too elaborate for ordinary purposes, and the scribes first
modified the pictorial characters, and then abbreviated
them, and in coiuse of time produced the cursive form of
writing called '* hieratic." Later still the scribes, between
a thousand and six hundred years before Christ, invented
a purely conventional system of signs, based upon the
hieratic, which is called ** demotic." During the first three
centuries of the Christian Era the hieroglyphic and hieratic
systems of writing fell into disuse, and demotic writing was
employed for most purposes. When the Egyptians em-
braced Christianity they decided to have written in Greek
The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum.
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 217
letters the Egyptian translations of the Holy Scriptures
which were made for them, but as some of the sounds pecuHar
to the Egyptian language could not be expressed by any of
the letters of the Greek alphabet, they added seven char-
acters from demotic writing to the Greek letters which they
adopted. Before the close of the Roman occupation of
Egypt all knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, and
from that time to the beginning of the nineteenth century
neither Oriental nor European could read or understand a
hieroglyphic inscription. Many attempts were made to
decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centiuries, but none succeeded until the dis-
covery of the Rosetta Stone in 1798, among the ruins of
Fort St. Julien near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. This
Stone passed into the possession of the British in 1801,
and was deposited in the British Museum in 1802. On its
face are cut 14 lines of hierogyphs, 32 lines of Demotic, and
54 lines of Greek. The name of Ptolemy cut on it was
deciphered by Dr. Thomas Young, and that of Cleopatra,
which is cut upon an obelisk from Philae now standing at
Kingston Hall in Dorsetshire, was identified by Mr. Bankes.
In 1819 Young published a list of alphabetic Egyptian
characters, six of the values of which are accepted as correct
at the present day. In 1822 Champollion published a greatly
enlarged list of alphabetic characters, together with classi-
fied lists of hieroglyphs, &c. To him we owe the system
of grammar and the general method of decipherment which
are the foundation of all modern Egyptological work.^
The hieroglyph is a picture of an object, animate or in-
animate. A picture may represent an idea, e.g. a picture
of a musical instrument s5niibolises not only music, but
joy, happiness, pleasure, &c. A hieroglyph of this kind
is called an ideograph. Every object had a name, there-
fore each hieroglyph, or picture, was a word-sign, and each
^ For a short and handy description of the way in which the names of
Ptolemy and Cleopatra were deciphered, and for a general account of the
Rosetta Stone and a good collotype plate of it, see the little monograph
entitled The Rosetta Stone^ published by the Trustees of the British Museum,
price sixpence.
2i8 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
word-sign was originally syllabic. An alphabetic hiero-
glyph is a picture of an object to which the sound of the
first letter of the syllabic word-sign was given as its phonetic
value ; thus the sign for ** mouth," the syllabic word-sign
for which was ra, was called r, and the a was dropped, and
the sign for mouth became the alphabetic hieroglyph with
the value of r. Alphabetic and syllabic hieroglyphs are
often used together in writing a word, without any regard
to their ideographic values, and in such cases a picture
indicating the meaning of the word is placed after them.
Thus in the word sfent a '' knife," we use the pictures of a
chair-back, a reptile, a wave, and a hand, and these are
followed by a picture of a knife. The picture that follows
the word is a determinative, but some pictures that
follow words determine sounds, and others determine mean-
ings. The fundamental words of the Egyptian language
are African in origin, but at a very early period, several
thousands of years before Christ, the Egyptians borrowed
the words for the personal pronouns from some Semitic
people, and the names of certain objects which they im-
ported from them. —«-«-«————
A good general idea of the average Egyptian can be derived
from the monuments and writings that have come down to
us. In the first place he was a very religious man. He
worshipped God and his deified ancestors, offered sacrifices
and offerings to the dead, and prayed at least twice daily,
i.e. morning and evening. He believed in the resurrection
of the dead through Osijris, and in the life everlasting, and
was from first to last confident that those who had led
righteous lives on earth were rewarded with happiness and
lived with Osiris in heaven, and that the wicked on earth
were punished with annihilation in the next world. His
deep-seated interest in religion had a very practical object7
namely, the resurrection of his spirit-body and his soul's
future happiness in heaven. His conscience was well deve-
loped, and made him obey religious, moral, and civil laws
without question ; a breach of any of these he atoned for,
not by repentance, for which there is no word in his language^
DAILY LIFE OF THE EGYPTIANS 219
but by the making ofjDfferings. _ In all religious matters he
was strongly conservative, and his conservatism led him
to hold at the same time behefs that were not only incon-
sistent with each other, but sometimes flatly contradictory.
In reaUty his rehgious books are filled with obsolete behefs,
many of which were contradicted by his religious obser-
vances. He had a keen sense of humour and was easily
pleased. He loved eating and drinking, music and dancing, and
festivals and processions, and display of all sorts and kinds,
and he enjoyed himself whenever an opportunity offered.
Over and over again the living are exhorted to eat and
drink and enjoy themselves. His morahty was of the
highest kind, and he thoroughly understood his duty towards
his neighbour. He was kindly and humane, he fed the
hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, lent a boat to the ship-
wrecked man, protected the widows and orphans, and fed
the starving animals of the desert. He loved his village
and his home, and rejoiced when he was "loved by his
father, praised by his mother, and beloved by his brothers
and sisters." He was a hard worker, as the taxes wrung
from him by tax-gatherers and priests in all periods testify.
He was intensely superstitious, and was easily duped by the
magicicm and the medicine man, who provided him with
spells and incantations and amulets of all kinds. He was
slow to anger and disHked military service and war. His
idea of heaven was the possession of a homestead in a fertile
district, with streams of water and luxuriant crops of wheat,
barley, fruit, &c., wherein he would live a hfe of leisure
surrounded by all those whom he had known and loved
upon earth. He had no wish to enlarge the borders of
Egypt, except for the loot which raids brought in ; he never
sought to bestow the blessings of Egyptian civilisation
upon other lands, and he never indulged in missionary
enterprises of any kind. His rehgious toleration was great.
He was content to serve God and Pharaoh, and he wished
above all things to be allowed to till his land and do his own
business in his own way in peace. The ideas of the modern
free and independent " young Egyptian " were unknown
220 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
to him, and he had no " national spirit," and yet the
influence of his beUefs and rehgion, and hterature, and arts
and crafts on the civiUsation of other nations can hardly
be overestimated. In one of the least known periods of the
world's history he proclaimed the deathlessness of the
human soul, and his country has rightly been named the
" land of immortality."
CHAPTER IX
EMBALMING, TOMBS, FUNERARY CEREMONIES, AND THE
WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
How the earliest inhabitants of the Nile Valley disposed of
the bodies of their dead is unknown, but it is probable that
the greater number of them were thrown out into the " bush,"
or desert, to be eaten by wild beasts. It is certain also that
cannibalism was practised, and that one village community
ate the dead of the other, a custom that seems to have existed
in many parts of Africa from time immemorial. Attempts
were made, no doubt, to preserve the bodies of the chiefs of
clans, or tribes, and those of great warriors and men of dis-
tinction in primitive society, but we have no certain informa-
tion on this point. In the latter part of the New Stone Age
the dead were laid in very shallow pits made on the outermost
edge of the cultivated land, or in the desert itself, and the
state of the human remains found in them suggests that they
had never been embalmed in any way. Just before and -for
some centuries after the beginning of the Dynastic Period
bodies were buried in a contracted position, i.e. they lay on
their left side with the legs bent upwards in such a way that
the knees almost touched the chin, and the elbows were bent,
and the hands held up towards the face. Soon after the end
of the first dynasty attempts seem to have been made to
preserve the body systematically, and a simple form of em-
balming came into use. It is possible that these attempts
may have been the result of the development of the cult of
Osiris, whose priests proclaimed the resurrection of the body.
In other words, every man's body became an object of great
value to him, for out of it, in some way, was developed his
222 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
new body, which was to live in the kingdom of Osiris. No
process of embalmment, however simple, was unattended with
expense, and therefore the bodies of slaves and of the poorer
classes of the people were disposed of in the old manner.
Under the third and fourth dynasties the art of embalming
developed, and the dead were no longer laid on their left
sides, but stretched out at full length on their backs. As
soon as the embalmer began to bandage the body with strips
of linen, instead of wrapping it up in a reed mat, or in the skin
of an animal, the contracted position became impossible and
had to be abandoned.
During dynasties IV-VI the kings, and certain members
of their families, and some of the highest officials were elabo-
rately embalmed and swathed with linen bandages before
burial. These facts are proved by the fragmentary remains
of Menkaura (fourth dynasty) now in the British Museum,
and by the royal mummies that were found in some of the
Pyramids of Sakkarah, and that used to be exhibited in the
Egyptian Museum at Biilak in Cairo, and by the following
statement that is cut on the front of the tomb of Sabna at
Aswan. Sabna's father, who was called Mekhu, died, or was
killed, when he was on a mission in Nubia in the reign of
Pepi II. When Sabna learned this, he set out with soldiers,
and one hundred asses, and gifts for the Nubian chiefs, and
in due course he reached the place where his father died,
and found his body. He made a cofhn for it, and brought
it back to Aswan, where he found the messengers, whom he
had sent to inform the king of what had happened, returning
from Memphis with embalmers and the chief Kher-heb (see
p. 182), and with holy oil and linen, and all the materials
necessary for embalming Mekhu' s body. Thus we have
definite proof that under the sixth dynasty there existed at
Memphis a body of professional embalmers of the dead, and,
as they went to remote Aswan by the king's orders to embalm
Mekhu, we may conclude that they went to other parts of
the country to embalm the bodies of the royal friends to
which the king was pleased to grant burial. And we may
note the fihal piety that made Sabna to travel far into Nubia
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 223
and bring back his father's body for embalmment, whereon
depended its resurrection.
Under the twelfth dynasty the art of embalming reached
a very high pitch of perfection. They found a way of re-
moving the flesh from the body so thoroughly that the
mummies ^ of this period often consist of little more than
bones and sinews. The internal organs, which in the earliest
times seem to have been thrown away, or wrapped in linen
cloths smeared with preservative unguents, &c., were at this
period carefully embalmed and placed in four vessels, com-
monly called " Canopic jars," made of stone, or earthenware,
or wood. Each jar represented one of the four sons of Horns,
who embalmed his father Osiris, and had a cover made in
the form of the head of that god ; these four sons of Horns
were confounded with four very much older Horus-gods,
who presided over the four quarters of the world and repre-
sented the four cardinal points. The four embalming gods
were called Mesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsenuf, and had
the heads of a man, a dog-headed ape, a jackal, and a hawk
respectively. The organs placed in the jars were the stomach
and large intestines, the small intestines, the heart and lungs,
and the liver and gall bladder. When the jars were filled
the covers were fastened on, and all four were put in a box
that contained four cavities and was mounted on a sledge.
The goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and Serqet were associ-
ated with the four sons of Horus in protecting the contents
of the four jars, and copies of the spells which they recited,
and which are often cut in hieroglyphs on the jars, form part
of the CLIst Chapter of the Theban Book of the Dead. The
box containing the Canopic jars is often seen in pictures of
the funeral procession being drawn along behind the coffin.
Under the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the art of
embalming the dead culminated. The wealth of Egypt was
at this time so great, and all classes of people were so pros-
perous, that many were able to afford the luxury of embalm-
ment for their relatives. The mummies of kings and high
1 The word " mummy " is derived from the name of the substance, mumya^
i.e. bitumen, which in late times was used in embalming the body.
224 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
officials were made and bandaged with great skill, and the fact
that many mummies of this period have come down to us in
the most perfect state of preservation proves how efficient the
embalmers were thirty-five centuries ago. If a good speci-
men be unrolled it will be found that every toe and every
finger has been bandaged separately, and that from first to
last the amount of linen required for swathings, pledgets,
pads, and sheets for the final coverings is very large indeed.
The unguents and the spices, e.g. myrrh, cassia, &c., which
were brought from foreign parts, were very expensive items,
and it is clear that only the wealthy could pay for high-class
embalming, to say nothing of the elaborate funerary furni-
ture for the tomb and the tomb itself. Herodotus mentions
three kinds of embalming, and Diodorus, who also refers to
three kinds, says that the first cost a talent of silver (about
£250), the second twenty minae (about ;f6o), and that the
cost of the third kind was nominal. In the first kind the
brain was extracted through the nose, and the viscera were
removed through a hole cut in the left side of the body ; the
choicest unguents and medicaments were then used in treat-
ing the body, which, having been sewn up, was steeped in
natron for seventy days, and then bandaged and put in a
coffin. In the second kind the treatment of the body was
much less elaborate, and very few expensive medicaments
were used ; in the third kind little more was done to the body
than steep it in natron for seventy days. There must have
been many poor folk who could not afford even this treat-
ment for their dead ; for these the evisceration and drying
of the body in the sun would probably suffice. Under the
later dynasties bodies were embalmed by being steeped in
bitumen, and instances are recorded of the dead being pre-
served in honey, e.g. Alexander the Great. The Greek and
Roman settlers in Egypt often had their dead embalmed in
the Egyptian way, as had some of the Egyptian Christians,
or Copts, who also preserved many of the funerary customs
of their non-Christian ancestors. It is doubtful if embalming
was generally practised after the third century a.d.
Whatever may have been the views held by the Egyptians
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 225
of the Old and New Stone Ages as to the probabilities of a
future Hfe, it is quite certain that from first to last the
Dynastic Egyptians believed in the resurrection of the dead
in some kind of body, and this was the chief reason why
they embalmed the dead and, little by little, raised up the
elaborate system of the worship of the dead, of which so many
remains have come down to us. There were probably
many Egyptians in all periods who believed in the resurrec-
tion of the physical body, otherwise several of the ceremonies
that were performed in the tomb have no meaning, and in
this case many chapters in each Recension of the Book of
the Dead were copied and buried uselessly with the dead
for four thousand years or more. On the other hand, there
were many who thought that the body always remained on
the earth, and that the soul and other immaterial entities
in it left it and departed to heaven, where they took up
their abode in a sort of immaterial shape or form, which
was somehow derived from the body whence they came.
The texts state that when a man was born into the world
he possessed a khat, or material body, and three principal
spirit entities called Ka, Ba, and Khu, or Aakhu. The word
Ka represents a purely African conception of a spirit-being,
and because this conception is wholly foreign to Western
minds, and unknown to us, the word describing it can only
be translated with approximate correctness. The commonest
renderings proposed for " Ka," from about 1840 onwards,
are " double, genius, effigy, statue, image, person, idol,
guardian angel, or spirit, or god, the principle of life and
material strength, totem," &c. ; and many of these render-
ings describe certain aspects of the " Ka " at different periods.
In the earliest times the Ka of a man was that portion of
the corporate life of his clan, or tribe, or community, which
was incarnate in him. In dynastic times it was believed
to leave the body at death, and meat, and drink, and shelter
had to be provided for it by the kinsmen of the deceased.
If food offerings were not made to it in the Ka-chapel by
the Ka-servant, it would either have to live upon offal or
perish.. In the Ptolemaic Period the idea of the Ka had
226 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
changed greatly in the minds of the Egyptians, and it then
seems to have been regarded as a sort of benevolent guardian
angel. The Ba was the heart or animal- soul, and the
Khu was the spirit-soul, and together they formed the
dual-soul, the original conception of which is African. The
seat of the Ba was the heart, and it possessed a Khaibit,
or ** Shadow," another essentially African conception, and
was very intimately connected with the Ka. The Shadow
left the body with the Ka and the dual-soul, and shared the
fate of the Ba. The Ba returned to the earth and often
visited the body in the tomb ; this is proved by several
drawings on funerary papyri in which the Ba, in the form
of a man-headed hawk, is seen flying down the pit of the
tomb and hovering over the mummy. Often it perched on
a tree, which was probably planted specially for its use, as
we see from the following extract from the Stele of Nekht-
Menu : " May they (the gods) permit me to go into and
come out from my tomb. May my majesty refresh its
Shadow. May I drink water out of my cistern each day.
May all my limbs flourish. May the Nile give me bread and
green herbs of every kind in their season. May I pass over
my estate daily. May my Ba alight upon the branches of
the trees which I have planted. May I refresh myself under
my sycamore-fig trees and eat of the food which they give.
May I possess my mouth wherewith to speak like the
Shemsu Hem (i.e. the Followers of Horns). May I come
forth out of heaven and descend upon the earth. Let me
not be imprisoned by the way. Let there not be done
unto me what my Ka hateth, and let not my Ba be held
in restraint."
Often the Ba used the inscribed stele in the tomb as a
resting-place, and the Egyptians may have thought, like
the Chinese, that souls lived in the stelae. A good example
of the Ba resting on the stele is supplied by a painted wooden
funerary tablet in the British Museum (No, 8468). Several
of the pyramids at Meroe still exhibit the little cavity, with
a stone ledge, which in one face, near the top, was specially
made for the soul of the dead kin^ to alight upon when it cam^
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 227
to visit its body under the pyramid. In many parts of
Africa at the present day the natives, when making a tomb,
make a small shaft leading to the surface from the actual
cavity in which the body lies, so that the soul may pass up
and down it whenever it pleases.
What forms were taken by the Ba and the Khu in the
Other World is not known. The Ba, as we have seen,
is represented as a man-headed hawk, and the Khu by a
bird of the heron class, but they cannot have appeared in
heaven in these forms. In papyri and on stelae the blessed
are given the forms of human beings, and are arrayed in
fine apparel, and wear necklaces, pectorals, armlets, brace-
lets, and anklets, and white sandals. This proves that
the Egyptians believed that the form of body given to the
blessed at their resurrection was that of the mortal body
which they had had in this world. But whether the resur-
rection body was believed to be a transformed mortal
body, or an emanation from it, the texts do not help us to
decide. That the future life of a man was believed to
depend upon the preservation of the physical body in a
complete form is beyond question.
Whilst the body of a royal personage or man or woman
of high rank was being embalmed a priest stood by and
watched the process. As each bandage was applied and at
each anointing of the limbs he recited a spell, or, as we
should say, prayer, the object of which was to place the
members under the protection of the gods and goddesses,
and to make the spirits of the oils and drugs operate with
the best possible results.^ The names of the divine pro-
tectors of the members of the dead are enumerated in
Chapter XLII of the Book of the Dead. In addition to
these prayers the various parts and internal organs of the
body were protected by a series of amulets, each of which
had its appointed place. These were made of gold, gilded
wood or wax, valuable stones of various kinds, e.g. carnelian,
lapis-lazuH, haematite, mother-of-emerald, porcelain, glass
1 Specimens of these will be found in the companion work on Egyptian
Literature, p. 104.
228 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
paste, &c., and were placed either directly on, or inside,
the body, or laid between the folds of the linen swathings.
The number of amulets so employed varies. Frequently
they are four in number, and consist of figures of the four
sons of Horns made of wax, or porcelain, or glass. From
the twentieth dynasty onwards as many as forty amulets
are found on one mummy, and in the Ptolemaic Period a
tradition was current that the body of Osiris had been pro-
tected by one hundred and four amulets. Perhaps the
most important of all such amulets was the large green
basalt scarab, on the base of which was cut Chapter XXXB
of the Book of the Dead, which was placed inside the body
under the breast, or upon it outside. In many cases a
simple scarab mounted in a ring, and worn on one of the
fingers of the left hand, took the place of the large " heart-
scarab." Sometimes a long roll of papyrus inscribed with
numerous chapters from the Book of the Dead was placed
by the side of the body or laid between its legs before the
final bandaging, and such a roll was regarded as a very
great protection for the dead. The bandages of many of
the kings of the eighteenth dynasty, e.g. Amen-hetep I and
Thothmes III, were covered with texts from the Book of
the Dead written in black ink, and the mummy of the
priestess Hent-meht, now in the British Museum, when
found was wrapped entirely in papyrus swathings inscribed
with a hieratic version of the Book of the Dead.
The decorating of mummies began under the influence of
the priests of Amen. In olden times the outer covering of
a mummy consisted of a sheet of flaxen cloth, or linen of
rather fine texture, which was kept in its place by one per-
pendicular and three horizontal hnen bands ; in later times
a sheet of salmon-coloured cloth formed the final covering.
Under the twentieth or twenty-first dynasty mummies began
to be enclosed within cases made of linen stiffened with lime
plaster, which were moulded to the outHnes of the mummy,
and then laced up the back. On the fronts were painted
religious and mythological scenes, in which the deceased is
seen adoring the gods or sitting with them, magical symbols,
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 229
&c. Under the twenty- sixth dynasty mummies were often
covered with large sheets of blue bead- work, which symbolised
the heavens. At the end of the Ptolemaic Period the wealthy
caused a wooden panel, on which a portrait of the deceased
was painted, to be fastened on to the bandages over the face
of the mummy, so that visitors to the tomb might know at
once whose mummy they were looking upon. At this time
some families kept their mummies with painted portraits
in their dwelling-houses, so that they might see the present-
ments of the faces of their loved ones at will. Finally, in
the latter part of the Roman Period, mummies of wealthy
persons were wrapped in sheets of silk. The mummies found
at Akhmim (Panopolis) in Upper Egypt were wrapped in
large linen coverings, in which designs were woven in various
dark- coloured threads, or worked upon them after the cloth
was woven. The bandages or outer coverings of Christian
mummies are often ornamented with crosses in which the
old Egyptian symbol of " life " is merged, and with doves,
symbolic of the Holy Ghost.
To ensure further the preservation of the dead, the em-
balmed body in the case of a king or great personage was
provided with a sarcophagus and wooden shell coffin,
the earliest forms of which were rectangular. The sarco-
phagus was usually made of stone, and its ornamentation
varied at different periods. In the earliest times its sides
were ornamented with architectural reliefs, reproductions
of " false doors," and other portions of the early tomb ; in
later times figures of the gods were sculptured upon the ends
and sides, and inscriptions were added. The oldest wooden
sarcophagi are of the same shape as those of stone, and under
the eleventh and twelfth dynasties their insides were often
covered with religious texts describing the Other World,
and coloured drawings of the Islands of the Blessed, and
of the regions to be traversed before reaching them. The
texts often contain long extracts from the funerary com-
positions cut on the insides of five pyramids at Sakkarah
(Pyramid Texts), and from the " Book of the Two Ways," and
from an early Recension of the Book of the Dead, in which
230 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
large portions of these works were incorporated. Some
time between the twelfth and the eighteenth dynasties it
became customary to make coffins in the form of a man,
and to provide them with models of human faces. The
coffins of the eighteenth dynasty are usually brightly
painted and decorated, and those of the priests and priestesses
of Amen are covered with religious and mythological scenes,
many of them being of great interest. The mummies of
some kings, queens, and people of high rank were provided
with a stone or wooden sarcophagus and two inner wooden
coffins, usually covered inside and out with characteristic
coloured drawings and texts. Some of the inner coffins
are beautifully inlaid with hieroglyphs made of coloured
glass paste, and with figures of the gods also made of glass
paste. Many of the inner coffins of the priests and priestesses
of Amen bear on the front the prenomen, or throne name, of
Amen-hetep I, the founder of the priesthood of Amen, and
one of the greatest benefactors of the order. The coffins of
the twenty-first dynasty do not exhibit such good work
as that of the three preceding dynasties, but their decora-
tion is quite characteristic, and illustrates the influence of
the cult of Amen upon funerary artistic work. During the
following dynasties the art of coffin making and decorating
decayed, and we no longer find the careful workmanship of
an older period. The form of the coffin is much less exact,
the colours are more crude, and the artistic work is of a
poor character. Many coffins have a plinth up the back
to resemble the Tet of Osiris, and on the insides large figures
of the goddesses Nut, Hathor, and Amentet are painted.
All man-shaped coffins intended for the mummies of men
had beards attached to the faces ; all the beards were more
or less pointed, and were intended to represent the charac-
teristic beards of those traditional ancestors of the Egyptians
who came from Punt in the Egyptian Sudan. After the
twenty-sixth dynasty wooden coffins are very large and
badly made, and it is evident that the painted scenes and
inscriptions were executed by unskilled workmen in a hurry.
On the other hand, many handsome well-cut and polished
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 231
limestone and granite man-shaped coffins of this period
prove that some skilled funerary masons still survived. The
massive stone sarcophagi of this period, which have been
found chiefly in Lower Egypt, are very fine, and those
intended for royal personages, or great priestly officials,
are beautifully decorated on the inside with large numbers
of figures of the gods carefully cut and polished, and on the
outsides with scenes and hieroglyphic texts from the Book
Am Tuat. In the Grseco-Roman period coffins are rec-
tangular in shape, and the texts upon them are usually ex-
tracts from late funerary compositions based upon the Book
of the Dead. A new kind of sarcophagus also came into
use. A large rectangular board was prepared, about 7 or 8
feet long and 2 or 3 feet broad, and having been painted with
figures of the gods and sacred symbols, the mummy was
laid upon it. Over it was then placed a deep, rectangular
vaulted cover, with an upright post at each comer, and the
ends of the four uprights sank into holes specially cut for
them in the board on which the mummy lay. The outside
of the cover was painted with figures of the gods and sacred
animals worshipped at this period, and on the framework
hieroglyphic inscriptions were cut. The coffins and sarco-
phagi of this period had to be made very large, because
the art of making small, well-proportioned mummies had
died out, and the large, shapeless bundles which mummies
had now become would not fit coffins of the ordinary size.
In the early centuries of the Christian era the inscription
containing the name and genealogy of the deceased is often
in Greek, and among the figures of the gods are to be found
those of the gods of the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, and of
the Thirty-six Dekan Stars, besides several which have not
been satisfactorily identified.
Having briefly described the making of various kinds
of mummies, and the principal kinds of coffins in which they
were placed, the kinds of graves and tombs to which they
were finally consigned must now be mentioned. The earliest
graves in Egypt are shallow hollows dug in the ground, large
enough to hold the skeleton or the body, whether buried
232 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
lying at full length on its back, or on its side with the knees
up to the chin ; the offerings made to the dead in the
eariiest times were probably laid on the grave. What the
earliest royal tombs were like is not known, but the kings
of the first dynasty were buried in tombs of very consider-
able size. Thus the tomb of King Aha at Nakadah in Upper
Egypt was 175 feet long and 88 feet wide ; it contained twenty-
one chambers, and the middle chamber of the middle row
was probably the mummy chamber. It was built of unbaked
bricks, and mud was used for mortar. Among its ruins
were broken marble and earthenware vessels, flints, red-
ware vases, and many miscellaneous objects, among them
being the inscribed ivory plaque that has been said to con-
tain the original form of the name of Mena (Menes), the
first dynastic king of Egypt. A remarkable royal tomb of
the third dynasty is that of King Tcheser at Bet Khallaf in
Upper Egypt. The portion of the building above ground is
26 feet high, 278 feet long, and 146 feet wide ; from the
top of it stairs lead down to the chambers, which are 80
feet below the surface of the ground, and which, when
excavated, were found to contain wine jars and large
numbers of broken stone vessels of various shapes and
kinds. This same king built another tomb for himself at
Sakkarah in the form of an oblong pyramid, with six steps,
about 200 feet high, the north and south sides at the base
being each 352 feet long, and the east and west sides being
each 396 feet long. It contains many chambers, several
of which were beautifully decorated, but the king's mummy
was not buried in this pyramid.
Under the fourth dynasty the most stupendous of all
the Egyptian Royal Tombs were built, namely, the pyramids
of Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, commonly known as the
Pyramids of Gizah. The stones for building them were
obtained in the quarries of Turah, on the east bank of the
Nile, about eight miles from the site of the pyramids. They
were taken down to the Nile and ferried across in large, flat-
bottomed barges, and having been unloaded from the barges,
they were dragged on sledges up the road to the rocky plateau
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 233
on which the pyramids are built. Here the stones were
dressed and laid in position, one row on the other. No
great and elaborate machinery was used in this process,
as some have imagined, for the Egyptians possessed nothing
of the kind ; the sledge, the inclined plane of sand, or
ramp, the wedge, and lever, and the crowbar were the
principal instruments used in building the pyramids. On
the north side of the pyramid a large funerary temple was
built, and here service for the dead was performed daily,
and offerings to the dead were received. Round about
each pyramid were the tombs of the great officials who had
served its builder during their lifetime, and if we examine
these we find that they contain all the essential parts of a
good tomb, and that the same principle underlies both the
pyramid of the king and the tomb of the official. In the
case of the pyramid the mummy chamber is usually under
the centre of the building, and is approached by means of
one or more corridors, which could be blocked at the ends ;
the funerary temple outside the pyramid was intended
primarily for the deposit of the offerings by which priests
and temple servants were maintained. The tomb of the
nobleman of the pyramid period consisted of a low, rec-
tangular building, with sides that sloped inwards towards
the top, and with a door on one side ; in this building the
offerings to the dead were made, and commemorative ser-
vices performed. The common name for such a tomb is
mastabah, and is derived from an Arabic word meaning
" bench." Inside this building is a pit or shaft, which
varies in depth, and at the bottom of it is a very short
passage leading into the rectangular chamber in which
lay the mummy in its sarcophagus. The rectangular building
of the mastabah is the equivalent of the funerary temple
of the pyramid; the pit is represented by the corridor,
whether horizontal or sloping upwards or downwards, of the
pyramid, and the mummy chamber is the same in each. In
the mastabah, low down in the west wall, is a stele, which
is always inscribed. At its foot on the ground are usually
found a tablet for offerings, made of granite or some kind
234 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
of sandstone or alabaster, and two obelisks, or two stands
for offerings. Hewn in one of the walls is a long, narrow
hollow called a serdab, in which the Ka statue of the dead
man was placed ; it communicates with the chamber by
means of a very narrow passage, through which the smell
of the offerings and sacrifices was supposed to reach this
figure. The depth of the pit in the mastabah tomb varies
from 40 to 80 feet. The insides of the walls of the masta-
bah chambers are often decorated with painted scenes
illustrating events in the life of the dead man, agricultural
operations on his estates, the performance of funeral cere-
monies, the celebration of religious festivals, the transport
of funerary offerings to the tomb, &c. These scenes were
painted, no doubt, during the lifetime of the owner of the
tomb, and they are most valuable sources of information
about the manners and customs of the people in that
remote epoch. The art of building both pyramids and
mastabahs attained its highest level under the fourth
dynasty, but shortly afterwards decay set in, and sepulchral
work of all kinds became inferior both as regards design
and execution. Under the sixth dynasty pyramids became
small relatively, and few which contain religious texts,
with the exception of those of Unas, Teta, Pepi I, Merenra,
and Pepi II, are of interest.
In all succeeding periods the tombs made for kings and
noblemen consist of a hall for offerings, a pit or corridor
leading directly to the mummy chamber, and a mummy
chamber. Under the twelfth dynasty the tombs of the
wealthy often took the form of a small pyramid about 30
feet high, which rested on a brick base a few feet in height ;
the mummy was buried either in a cavity in the masonry,
or in a small chamber under the building. Sometimes the
pyramidal part of the tomb rests upon a rectangular
chamber with walls sloping inwards, after the manner of a
mastabah. In some places, e.g. Beni Hasan and Aswan,
large and fine tombs were hewn by feudal families high up
in the sides of the limestone or sandstone hills, tier above
tier, and each of these consisted of the offering chamber,
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 235
the pit, and the mummy chamber. The coffins and sarco-
phagi were dragged up an inclined plane made of stones
with steps running up the middle of it from bottom to top
for the use of those who did the hauling ; on each side
of the steps the face of the inclined plane was carefully
smoothed so that sledges might move along upwards without
difficulty. The only complete example of such a " stair-
way " now in Egypt is found at Aswan. Many tombs of
this period are decorated with long series of scenes in which
the principal events in the hves of those for whom they were
made are represented, and these throw great light upon the
manners and customs of the Egyptians. Many of them also
contain biographies of the dead, cut or painted in hiero-
glyphs, which are of the greatest value because of the
historical information contained in them.
The tombs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties,
both royal and private, have all the essential characteristics
of those of the earlier periods, but in detail they vary very
much. The largest and finest of them all are the tombs of
the kings that lie in two valleys of Western Thebes, and the
oldest royal tomb is that of Thothmes I. As the wealth
of the dynasty increased the tombs grow larger and larger,
and the mummy chamber is hewn deeper and deeper in the
mountain. The corridors are of increased length, and to
them are added numerous chambers, the exact purpose of
which is not very clear, but many of them must have been
used by the priests when performing the ceremonies con-
nected with the worship of the dead kings. The walls of
the corridors and chambers are decorated with figures of
gods, often beautifully drawn and painted, and with the
scenes and descriptive texts of two illustrated " guides "
to the Other World, viz., the Book Am Tuat and the Book
OF Gates. In the Hall of the tomb of Thothmes III a
complete copy of the text of the former work written in
hieratic covers the walls. In the tomb of Seti I the greater
portion of each of these works is given, as well as the text
of the " Praisings of Ra," and of several mythological
legends, all in hieroglyphs, and large coloured figures of the
236 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
gods. In the tomb of Amen-hetep II are still to be seen the
bodies of two of the wives of the king, who either were
strangled or committed suicide when their lord was laid
in the tomb.
The tombs of the nobles of the period, though not so
large, are equally interesting, and many of them supply
most valuable historical information. The wall paintings
illustrate events of importance in the lives of the men for
whom they were made, especially those that were calculated
to impress the visitor to the tombs with a sense of their
greatness and power. Thus the officer who was over the
tribute is seen receiving gold, silver, precious stones, leo-
pard skins, chairs, beds, ostrich feathers, &c. from the
Sudani envoys, and gifts of vases and other products of
the craftsman's skill from the envoys from Western Asia.
The inscriptions in some tombs are far more valuable
than the pictures, especially those that describe the works
of the great architects, sculptors, and overseers of works
who planned the buildings, and decorated the temple of
Amen with gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones, and
set up the magnificent obelisks and statues, and made
Thebes under the eighteenth dynasty one of the most
splendid cities in the world. As the wealth of Thebes
declined funerary art declined also, and though royal and
private tombs on a large scale were built under the nineteenth
and twentieth dynasties the work of both sculptor and
painter is poor and careless. The spirit of Egyptian
funerary art was dead, and the gracefulness of the hiero-
glyphic characters had departed. Under the twenty-sixth
dynasty when, through the influence of the Saite kings,
attempts were made to revive the art of the early dynasties,
numerous tombs were built according to ancient plans, but
they and the sarcophagi and other furniture in them lack
the simpHcity and dignity of the ancient models. In the
Graeco-Roman Period the general plan and arrangement of
the tomb changed greatly, the result probably of beliefs that
were not of Egyptian origin.
We may now return to the mummy. When the embalm-
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 237
ing and bandaging of the body were ended, and the internal
organs were embakned and placed in the ** Canopic " jars,
the day was fixed for what we may call the funeral. Assum-
ing that the dead man had belonged to the well-to-do class,
and that he had hved on the east bank of the Nile, his
munmiy would be taken to the river and ferried over to the
west bank, where most of the cemeteries were situated.
There it was placed on a sledge under a brightly decorated
canopy, and the funeral procession was formed. The Kher-
heb priest or his assistants made the path ceremonially
pure by sprinkHng it with water in which natron had been
dissolved, and by burning incense in a censer. The sledge
was drawn along by the animals that were intended to be
slain for the funeral feast, and as the procession moved on
the wailing women filled the air with their cries of lamen-
tation, and beat their faces and breasts. The rear was
brought up by the servants of the dead man, who were laden
with provisions for the funeral feast, and with the various
articles that had been used by him and were going to be
deposited with his mummy in the tomb. On arriving at
the tomb, the mummy was lifted off the sledge and made to
stand upright, and the family of the dead bade it farewell.
Then the Kher-heb priest, clad in the leopard skin and
wearing the garments prescribed for the occasion, stood up
and recited passages from the Liturgy, and from composi-
tions with contents similar to those of the First Chapter of
the Book of the Dead. He then began to perform the
ceremonies of " Opening the Mouth." Under the New
Empire these were accompanied by the sprinkling of water
and the burning of incense, and the presentations of a very
long series of offerings. The priest touched the mouth of
the mummy, or the statue that was sometimes substituted
for it, with a flint or metal instrument, thus repeating what
Horus did when he and Isis were trying to restore life to the
body of Osiris. The words said by the priest as he touched
the mouth with the instrument " opened the mouth " of
the dead man, i.e. restored to him the use of all the natural
functions of his body. Meanwhile the animals for sacrifice
238 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
had been slaughtered, and the heart and right fore leg of
the bull (or ox or cow) were presented to the mouth of the
mummy. Various kinds of wines, beers, and other articles
of food were next presented ; and the words which the priest
pronounced as he presented each were supposed to trans-
form it into the hidden and secret body of Osiris, on which
the gods and the spirits and souls of the righteous lived.
When the dead man had partaken of these offerings by
means of some mysterious and magical process, the resur-
rection of his spirit-body was supposed to have been effected.
And when his family and kinsmen ate it this trans-
formed food became to them a means of communion with
their ancestors and with all the divine beings among whom
they lived ; and for a season at least it made them
*' divine " also.
When all the ceremonies were ended the mummy was
laid in the coffin and taken into the tomb and placed in the
sarcophagus already there, and very special means were
taken to protect it and to provide its Ka with food. One
of the most important ceremonies performed to protect it
is described in Chapter CXXXVIIA of the Theban Recension
of the Book of the Dead. Four figures, each of which had
one of the names of the Four Pillars, or Sons, of Horus
written upon its shoulder, held in their hands lighted torches
made of a special kind of cloth dipped in Libyan unguent,
and after they had been burning for some time each was
extinguished in an earthenware vessel that was filled with
the milk of a white cow. The object of this ceremony was
to make the dead man " imperishable," and to make his
heart soul to come forth from his body, and to strengthen
the spirit soul, and to make it "to flourish like Osiris for
ever and ever," and to make the dead man to assume the
form of Osiris in the eyes of all the dwellers in the Other
World. When this ceremony was performed no one except
the ministrant was to be present, save perhaps the father
or son of the dead man, for it " was an exceedingly great
mystery of Amentet," and it was a " type of the mysteries
of the Land of the God." In each wall of the tomb was a
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 239
cavity, wherein was placed a powerful amulet that prevented
hostile fiends and devils from approaching the walls. In
the west wall a crystal Tet, mounted on a mud brick, was
placed, facing the east. In the east wall a figure of Anubis,
made of mud and incense and mounted on a mud brick,
was placed, facing the west. In the south wall a reed
filled with incense, and smeared with pitch and lighted,
and mounted on a mud brick, was placed, facing the north.
In the north wall a palm-wood figure of a man seven fingers
high, mounted on a mud brick, was placed, facing the south.
Each brick was inscribed with a special formula, and when
the four bricks, &c. had been placed in their places the
cavities were walled up. This ceremony was only effectual
when performed by a holy man, who was ceremonially
clean, and who had eaten neither meat nor fish, nor had had
intercourse with women. The rubric referring to the palm-
wood figure orders the priest to " open its mouth," i.e. to
perform on it on behalf of the dead the very ancient cere-
mony that was believed to restore to him all the natural
functions of the body.
The offerings of meat, drink, fruit, flowers, unguents, &c.,
which the living were obliged to bring regularly to the tomb,
were provided, in the case of kings and members of royal
famihes and the old feudal lords and noblemen, by endow-
ments, and in early times the revenues of certain lands and
farms were settled upon tombs in perpetuity. But such
endowments were often aUenated, and often came to an
end through some perfectly legitimate cause, and then the
kinsfolk of the dead were obliged to provide the offerings
necessary at their own expense. Every pious man felt it
to be his duty to do all in his power to maintain the lives
of his ancestors in the Other World, and this could only
be done by presenting offerings to their tombs. Moreover,
the giving of offerings procured for the giver the favour
of the gods, and he not only accumulated credit in heaven
by his piety, but received the gifts of health and prosperity
upon earth. And what a man did for his father his son
would do for him. Now experience showed the Egyptian
240 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
that very large numbers of tombs were soon neglected by
the living, who not only failed to bring offerings to the
dead, but who also allowed the funerary chapels to fall
into ruin. To avoid the terrible effects of such neglect
the help of religious magicians was called in. The priest
composed a formula in which the Earth-god Keb, or Anpu
(Anubis), or Osiris, or any other god who at that time was
considered to be a god of the dead, was called upon to
provide the dead man with cakes and ale, and oxen and geese,
and unguents, in short, with every thing which he needed.
This formula was cut or painted on sepulchral stelae in all
periods and on the wooden figures, coffers, &c., that were
placed in the tomb. When the dead man in the tomb
found that offerings were not brought to him, it was in-
tended that this formula should be recited by him as a
word of power, and as he recited it men believed that the
offerings mentioned in the spell actually appeared in the
tomb. The same result was supposed to be brought about
by any visitor to the tomb who recited the formula that
was written on the stele in it. The collective name for
sepulchral offerings was fert kheru, i.e. " things which
appear at the word." The formula mentioned above was
from the fourth dynasty onwards preceded by the words
Nesu ta hetep, meaning " the King gives an offering." They
were cut in tombs and on stelae first of all when the king
gave permission for the bodies of his friends to be buried
in tombs, and when he sent an offering as a contribution
towards the funeral feast. As time went on and burials
in tombs became common in all parts of Egypt, it was
obvious that the king could not send gifts for every funeral
feast celebrated in the land. But the innate conservatism
of the Egyptian made him continue to prepare his sepulchral
word of power with the words Nesu ta hetep for many centuries
after they had ceased to have any meaning.
The worship of the dead was one of the chief charac-
teristics of the Egyptian Religion, and it expressed itself
by the gift of funerary offerings. The worship of the gods
seems to have been of secondary importance, for all the
FUNERARY CEREMONIES 241
services held in the great funerary temples were performed
for the benefit of dead kings, and most of those held in the
temples of gods like Ptah, Ra and Amen-Ra, were performed
for the benefit of the living king, the part-divine and part-
human Pharaoh. One of the kings of the eighteenth
dynasty, Amen-hetep III, went so far as to set up a statue to
himself as a god in the temple of Sulb in Nubia, and on a
bas-relief there this king is actually seen worshipping his
own image ! There is no proof that any king of Egypt ever
built a temple in which the people were intended to worship
God and God alone, and there is no evidence that public
worship in our sense of the word was ever performed in
any temple of Ancient Egypt.
CHAPTER X
EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY
The primitive inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile probably
divided the year into two seasons, Summer and Winter.
As time went on they found it to be absolutely necessary
for successful agricultural operations to know the periods
of the year in which to expect the inundation, and with this
object in view they probably tried to make use of the period
of the moon. They soon discovered, however, that the
moon was very little or no use for this purpose, because her
periods do not divide the year with exactitude. At some
period, probably before the rule of the dynastic kings, they
came to the conclusion that the year contained 360 days,
which they divided into twelve months, each containing
30 days, and so made a calendar. Some think that the
adoption of this calendar by the Egyptians took place
about 4241 B.C. A little experience showed the Egyptians
that the year of 360 days was too short, and they therefore
added five days more to it, thus making their year to contain
365 days. The year of 360 days was divided into three
seasons called Akhet, Pert, and Shemu, which began about
our July 19, November 15, and March 15 respectively.
The five days added yearly were called the " 5 days over
the year." But as the true year contains nearly 3651- days
the Egyptians found that their year was practically a day
short of the true year every fourth year. And as time went
on their year would work backwards until at length the
summer of their calendar would coincide with the winter
of the true year, and the winter with the summer. The
Egyptians were far too skilful agriculturists to allow the
242
EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 243
shortness of their year of 365 days to upset their farming
plans, and it is only fair to assume that they had some
rough-and-ready, though sure, ways of knowing the right
time for sowing their fields. Some think that they were
acquainted with the Sothic year, i.e. the year which
began on the day when Sothis, or the Dog Star (Sirius),
rose with the sun, i.e. on July 19 or 20, but there is no evidence
that the early dynastic Egyptians knew anything about the
Sothic Period {i.e. the length of time between two risings
of Sothis with the sun, or 1460 Sothic years, each con-
taining 365J days, or 1461 true, i.e. solar years), or that
they ever made, or were capable of making, the elaborate
calculations which the use of the Sothic Period would have
necessitated.
Whether the Egyptians were acquainted with the Sothic
Period or not matters little, for this Period is useless in
assisting us to assign a date to the beginnings of Egyptian
civilisation, and the existing Egyptian monuments do not
help us, as the following facts will show. The King-List
of Abydos contains 76 names of kings, but we know that
many other kings reigned during the first eighteen dynasties
besides those it mentions. The Tablet of Sakkarah contains
50 names, and, like the King-List of Abydos, it does not
give the lengths of the reigns of the kings whose names
occur on it. The Royal Papyrus of Turin (written about
1500 B.C.) contained about 300 names of kings, and the
number of years of the reign of each, but, as many parts of
it are wanting, it does not enable us to arrive at a definite
conclusion as to the total of the years of the reigns of the
kings whose names appeared in it. Manetho's King-List
is only known from copies of it made hundreds of years after
his death, and these copies do not agree in their statements.
Thus one version says that 561 kings reigned in 5524 years,
and another gives the number of kings as 361, and their
total length of reigns as 4480 or 4780 years ! So long as the
number of kings is unknown, and the order in which each
succeeded is unknown, and the mmiber of years which each
reigned is unknown, it will be impossible to make up a
244 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
complete scheme of Egyptian Chronology, and this is the
state of the case. The reason is that the Egyptians never
wrote history in our sense of the word.
In predynastic times several kings probably reigned at
the same time, each in his own district or petty kingdom.
After the union of the South and the North under the king
whom the Greeks called Menes, there were long intervals
during which Egypt had only one king, but as soon as a
strong king died, or a dynasty came to an end, one king, or
more, at once appeared in each of the two great divisions
of the country, and in times of anarchy the events of the
predynastic period repeated themselves, for the great
nobles promptly assumed the title of king, and every petty
chief asserted his independence, and made war on his
neighbour how and when he pleased. It is quite impossible
to write the history of Dynasties VII-X, and Dynasties
XIII-XVII, although the names of scores of kings of these
dynasties are known, and every system of chronology dealing
with these periods is purely theoretical. Even the order of
succession of some of the best-known kings is uncertain, and
this must always remain so, for very few kings of Egypt
cared to perpetuate in any way the memory of the deeds
of their predecessors. There was no common era by which
either king or subject reckoned ; each king made his own era,
and every event was dated by the years of his reign.
At the present time the dates proposed by Egyptologists
for the reign of Menes, or the first dynastic king of Egypt,
whatever his name may have been, are 5869, 5702, 5613,
5004, 4400, and 3315 B.C., that is to say, there is a difference
of more than 2500 years between the highest and the lowest
computations ! With these facts before them many readers
will no doubt be incHned to distrust any and every statement
they read on Egyptian chronology, but this is unnecessary,
for all these computations are quite arbitrary. All the
evidence now available goes to show that the civilisation of
Egypt is very, very ancient, and that, from its beginning
to the time when we have certain knowledge of it, many
centuries must have elapsed. And, as indicating the exist-
EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 245
ence of civilisation of a high class in Egypt at a very early
period, the earliest date that has been proposed by any
Egyptologist is, in my opinion, far more likely to be correct
than such a date as 3315 B.C. The dynastic Egyptians
themselves did not know how old their civilisation was,
and in the nineteenth dynasty the scribes who drew up the
draft of the King-List of Abydos were even uncertain about
the spelling of the names of some of the earliest kings !
It cannot be too clearly stated that every scheme of
Egyptian chronology hitherto proposed for Dynasties I-
XVII is largely guesswork, and it is difficult to see at present
how any correct scheme can be formulated, for the necessary
facts and figures are wanting. Similarly, it is impossible to
state the true date of the beginning of the rule of the dynastic
kings of Egypt. The difficulties of Egyptian chronology
have been well considered by many Egyptologists, and
those who hold moderate views on the subject think that
the dynastic civilisation of Egypt lasted for a period of
about 4000 or 4500 years. This view was substantially
that held by the late Dr. Birch and the late Dr. Brugsch,
and it seems to agree, on the whole, with the general trend
of the evidence of the monuments and of Manetho ; but in
the Hght of the information derived from the Babylonian
Chronicles the date of the eighteenth dynasty must be
lowered from 1700 to 1600 B.C. Dr. Brugsch's system of
chronology, with a few modifications, has therefore been
adopted in this book, but in using it the reader should bear
in mind the remarks above.
WORKS ON EGYPTIAN HISTORY,
RELIGION, ETC.
Am^lineau, E. — Les nouvelles Fouilles d'Abydos. 4 vols.
Paris, 1899.
Tombeau d' Osiris. Paris, 1899.
Birch, S. — His edition of Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians,
London, 1878.
BissuNG, F. W, VON. — Geschichte Aegyptens im Umriss.
Beriin, 1904.
Der Antheil der aegyptische Kunst am Kunstleben der
Volker. Munich, 191 2.
Denkmaler Aegyptisches Skulptur. Leipzig, 1908.
BoRCHARDT, L. — Die Aegyptische Pflanzensaule. Beriin, 1897.
Breasted, H. — A History of Egypt. London, 1906.
A History of the Ancient Egyptians. London, 191 2.
Ancient Records — Egypt. Chicago, 1906.
Brugsch, E. and Bouriant, U. — LeLivre des Rois. Cairo, 1887.
Brugsch, H. — Geschichte Aegyptens. Leipzig, 1897. [English
translation, A History of Egypt under the Pharaohs.
London, 1878.]
Dictionnaire Geographique. Leipzig, 1879.
Die Aegyptologie. Leipzig, 189 1.
Religion and Mythologie. Leipzig, 1885.
Budge, E. A. W. — A History of Egypt. 8 vols. London, 1902.
The Book of the Kings of Egypt. London, 1908.
The Egyptian Sudan. 2 vols. London, 1907.
Annals of Nubian Kings. London, 191 1.
The Gods of the Egyptians. London, 1904.
Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. London, 191 1.
Egyptian ReHgion. London, 1899.
Egyptian Magic. London, 1899.
Legends of the Gods. London, 191 1.
346
WORKS ON EGYPTIAN HISTORY, Etc. 247
Capart, J. — Les Debuts de TArt en i^gypte. Brussels, 1909.
L'Art Egyptian. Brussels, 1909.
Choisy, a. — L'Art de b§,tir chez les ]£gyptiens. Paris, 1904.
DiODORUS SicuLUS. — The section on Egypt.
DuEMiCHEN, E. — Geographie des alten Aegyptens. Berlin, 1887. *
Elliot Smith, G. — Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Cairo,
1910.
The Ancient Egyptians. London, 1911.
Erman, Ad. — Aegypten und Aegyptischen Leben im Altertum,
Tubingen, 1885. [English translation by H. M. Tirard.
London, 1894.]
Die aegyptische Religion. Berlin, 1905. [English transla-
tion by A. S. Griffith. London, 1907.]
Firth, C. M. — Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Cairo, 1912.
FoucART, G. — Histoire des Religions. Paris, 191 2.
Histoire de I'ordre lotiforme. Paris, 1897.
Gauthier, G. — Le Livre des Rois d'lSgypte. Cairo, 1907.
Griffith, F. Ll. — Karanog. London, 1912.
Hall, H . R. — Ancient History of the Near East. London, 1 9 1 3 .
Herodotus. — The Second Book. Egypt.
Hopfner, T. — Der Thierkult der alten Aegypter. Vienna, 191 4.
Jequier, G. — Histoire de la CiviUsation i^gyptienne. Paris
[no date].
Decoration J^gyptienne. Paris, 1911.
Lefebure, E. — Rites ]£gyptiens. Paris, 1890.
Lepsius, R. — Konigsbuch. Berlin, 1858.
LiEBLEiN, J. — Recherches sur THistoire de Tancienne ifigypte.
Leipzig, 1910-11.
Recherches sur la Chronologic. Christiania, 1873.
LoRET, V. — L']£gypte au temps des Pharaons. Paris, 1889.
Mahaffy, J. P. — The Ptolemaic Dynasty. London, 1899.
248 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Maspero, G. — Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de TOrient.
6th edition. 1904.
Au Temps de Ramsds. Paris, 1910.
Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de 1' Orient Classique:
1. Les Origines (Egypt and Chaldea). Paris, 1895.
2. Les Premieres Melees. Paris, 1897.
3. Les Empires. Paris, 1899.
English translations of the above by M. L, McClure under
the titles of The Dawn of Civilisation, The Struggle of
the Nations, and The Passing of the Empires, appeared
in London in 1894, 1896, 1900, respectively.
L'Archeologie j^gyptienne. Paris, 1906.
£gypte (in " Ars Una " series). Paris, 191 2.
£tudes de Mythologie. Paris, 1893.
Meyer, E. — Geschichte des alten Aegyptens. Berlin, 1887.
Aegyptische Chronologie. Berlin, 1904.
Geschichte des Altertums. Stuttgart, 1909.
Milne, J. G. — Egypt under Roman Rule. London, 1898.
MoRET, A. — l^gypte au temps des Pharaons. Paris, 1908.
Caractdre Religieux de la Royaute Pharaonique. Paris,
1902.
Le Rituel du Culte Divin joumalier. Paris, 1902.
Mystdres i^gyptiens. Paris, 1913.
Rois et Dieux d';^gypte. Paris, 191 1.
Morgan, J. de. — Recherches sur les Origines de r:6gypte.
Paris, 1896, 1897.
Les Premieres Civilisations. Paris, 1909.
Muller, W. M. — Asien und Europa nach Aegyptischen Denk-
malern. Leipzig, 1893.
Naville, E. — La Religion des Anciens j^gyptiens. Paris, 1906.
Newberry, P. and Garstang, G. — A Short History of Ancient
Egypt. London, 1904.
Perrot, G. and Chipiez, C. — Histoire de T Art — l^gypte. Paris,
1882.
Petrie, W. M. F. — History of Egypt. 3 vols. London, 1894.
Royal Tombs. London, 1900-1.
Abydos. London, 1902-3.
WORKS ON EGYPTIAN HISTORY, Etc. 249
PiERRET, P. — Essai sur la Mythologie ifigyptienne. Paris, 1879.
QuiBELL, J. E. — Hierakonpolis. London, 1900.
Reisner, G. — The Cemeteries of Naga-ed-D6r. Leipzig, 1908.
Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Cairo, 1912.
RouG^, J. DE. — Geographic Ancienne de la Basse l^gypte.
Leipzig, 1874.
Sethe, K. — Beitrage zur aeltesten Geschichte. Leipzig, 1905.
Spiegelberg, W. — Geschichte der Aegyptischen Kunst.
Leipzig, 1903.
Steindorff, G. — The Religion of Ancient Egypt. New York,
1905.
Strabo. — The section on Egypt of his Geography.
Strack, M. L. — Die Dynastic der Ptolemaer. Berlin, 1897.
Strauss und Torney. — Der altaegyptische Gotterglaube.
Heidelberg, 1889.
Weill, R. — Des monuments et de I'Histoire des 11® et III®
dynasties. Paris, 1908.
Recueil des Inscriptions ]£gyptiennes du Sinai. Paris,
1904.
Wiedemann, Ad. — Die Religion der alten Aegypter. Miinster,
1890. [English translation. London, 1897.]
Aegyptische Geschichte. Gotha, 1884.
Herodots zweites Buch.
Wilkinson, G. — The Ancient Egyptians. 3 vols. London,
1878.
ZiMMERMANN, F. — Die Acgyptischc Religion. Paderbom, 1912.
A Bibliography of the Siidan will be found in my Egyptian
Sudan, vol. ii. p. 515.
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS
OF EGYPT
I
2. -Seka
3. Khaau
4. Tau
5. Thesh
i.i Aha
2. Narmer
3. Khent
4. Tcha
PREDYNASTIC PERIOD
From the Stele of Palermo
6. Neheb
7. Uatchnar
8. Mekha
9 a
10. ff wanting
DYNASTIC PERIOD
First Dynasty, 4400 b.c.
5. Ten, or Semti (Hesepti)
6. Atab (Antchab)
7. Hu (?)
8. Qa or Sen
1. Hetepsekhemui
2. Nebra
3. Enneter
1. Khasekhem
2. Besh
3. Tcheser
Second Dynasty
4. Sekhemab
5. Perabsen
6. Sent
Third Dynasty
4. Sanekht
5. Neferka
6. Seneferu
* The numerals do not always indicate the order of succession.
* He may have been the first king of the fourth dynasty.
250
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT 251
Fourth Dynasty, 3700 b.c.
1. Sham
2. Khufu (Kheops)
3. Tetefra
4. Khafra (Khephren)
5. Menkaura
6. Shepseskaf
Fifth Dynasty
1. Userkaf
2. Sahura
3. Neferarikara-Kakaa
4. Neferkara-Shepseskara
5. Nuserra
6. Menkauheru
7. Tetkara-Assa
8. Unas
Sixth Dynasty
1. Teta
2. Ati
3. Pepi I
4. Merenra
5. Pepi II
Seventh and Eighth Dynasties
[Of these nothing is known.]
Ninth and Tenth Dynasties
[These ruled at HerakleopoUs ; the names of some of the
kings are given in the King-List of Abydos.]
THE ERPA ANTEF, GOVERNOR OF THEBES
Eleventh Dynasty
1. Uahankh
2. Nekhtnebtepnefer
3. Sankhabtaui
4. Nebtauira
5. Nebhapra
6. Sankhkara
7. Sekha . . . ra
Antef-aa
Antef
Menthuhetep
Menthnhetep
Menthuhetep
Menthuhetep
Menthuhetep.
253
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
IWELFTH DYN/
^STY, 2400 B.C.
I.
Sehetepabra
Amenemrhat I
2.
Kheperkara
Usertsen (or, Senusert) I
3-
Nubkaura
Amenemhat II
4.
Khakheperra
Usertsen II
5.
Khakaura
Usertsen III
6.
Maatenra
Amenemhat III
7-
Maakherura
Amenemhat IV
8.
Sebekneferurra.
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Dynasties
Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings
Eighteenth Dynasty, 1600-1400 b.c.
1. Nebpehtira
2. Tcheserkara
3. Aakheperkara
4. Aakheperenra
5. Maatkara
6. Menkheperra
7. Aakheperura
8. Menkheperura
9. Nebmaatra
10. Neferkheperura
11. Ankhkhepenira
12. Nebkhepenirra
13. Kheperkheperura-arimaat
14. Tcheserkheperura-setepenra
Aahmes I.
Amenhetep I.
Tehutimes I.
Tehutimes II.
Hatshepset (Queen).
Tehutimes III. j
Amenhetep II. ■
Tehutimes IV.
Amenhetep III.
Amenhetep IV(Khuenaten,
or Aakhuenaten).
Saakara-tcheserkheperu.
Tutankhamen.
Ai.
Heruemheb.
I
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT 253
Nineteenth Dynasty, 1350-1200 b.c.
1. Menpehtira Rameses I.
2. Menmaatra Seti I.
3. Usermaatra-setepenra Rameses II.
4. Baenra-meriamen Merenpthah (Menephtah).
5. Menmara-setepenra-meriamen Amenmeses.
6. Khuenra-setepenra-arimaat Saptah Merenptah.
7. Seti II (?).
Arsu, the Syrian.
Twentieth Dynasty, 1200-1100 b.c.
I. Userkhara-setepenra-meriamen Setnekht Merira
Meriamen.
2.
Usermaatra
Rameses III.
3.
Usermaatra (or, Heqmaatra)
Rameses IV.
4.
Usermaatrasekheperenra
Rameses V.
5.
Nebmaatra-Ashttau
Rameses VI.
6.
Usermaatrasetepenra
Rameses VII.
7-
Usermaatrakhuenamen
Rameses VIII.
8.
Sekhaenra-meriamen
Rameses IX. Saptah
9-
Neferkara-setepenra
Rameses X.
10.
Khepermaatra-setepenra
Rameses XI.
II.
Usermaatenra-setepenra
Rameses XII.
Twenty-First Dynasty, 1100-966 b.c.
A . Reigning at Thebes (Priest-Kings)
1. Hemnetertepenamen Herheru.
2. Paiankh.
3. Painetehem I.
4. Menkheperra.
5. Painetehem II.
254 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
B. Reigning at Tanis
1. Hetchkheperra-setepenra Nesbanebtet (Smendes).
2. Taakheperura-setepenra Pasebkhanut I.
3. Usermaatra-setepenra Amenemapt.
4. Neterkheperra-setepenamen Saamen.
5. Aakheperra-setepenamen Pasebkhanut II.
Twenty-Second Dynasty, 966-750 b.c. (about)
Buiuaua, a Libyan, founder of the d5masty.
1. Hetchkheperra-setepenra Shashanq (Shishak) I.
2. Sekhemkheperra-setepenra Usarken (Osorkon) I.
3. Usermaatra-setepenamen Thekleth I.
4. Usermaatra-setepenamen Usarken II. Sa-Bast.
5. Sekhemkheperra-setepenamen Shashanq II.
6. Hetchkheperra-setepenra Thekleth II.
7. Usermaatra-setepenra Shashanq III.
8. Usermaatra-setepenamen Pamai.
9. Aakheperra Shashanq IV.
Twenty-Third Dynasty, 750 (?)-733 (?), b.c.
1. Seherabra Petabast.
2. Aakheperra-setepenamen Usarken III.
3. Usermaatra Thekleth III.
About this time Piankhi, king of Nubia, invaded Egypt
and conquered it.
Twenty-Fourth Dynasty, 733 (?) b.c.
Uahkara Bakenrenef (Bocchoris).
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT 255
Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Nubians, 700 b.c,
Kashta (?)
1. Neferkara Meriamen Shabaka (Sabaco)
2. Tetkhaura Shabataka.
3. Khuneferratem Taharqa (Tirhakah).
4. Bakara Tanutamen.
Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, 666-527 b.c.
Uahabra Psemthek (Psammetichus) I.
Uhemabra Nekau (Necho).
Neferabra Psemthek (Psammetichus) II.
Haaabra Uahabra (Hophra).
Khnemabra Aahmes (Amasis) II.
Ankhkaenra Psemthek (Psammetichus) III.
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty, Persians, 527 b.c.
1. Mesutra Kambathet (Cambyses).
2. Setutra Antriush (Darius).
3. Khshiarsha (Xerxes), the Great Pharaoh.
4. Artakhshashes (Artaxerxes), the Great Pharaoh.
5. Userkhepesh Meri-Amenra-neb-Hebt-neter-aa Antriusha
(Darius) II.
Twenty-Eighth Dynasty
Amyrtaios (on the authority of Manetho),
Twenty-Ninth Dynasty, 399 b.c.
1. Baenra meri-neteru Naifaarut.
2. Khnemmaatra-setepenkhnemu Haker.
3. Userptah-setep-en-Ra Psamut.
256 A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Thirtieth Dynasty, 378 b.c.
1. Senetchemabra-setepenamen Nekhtheruheb (Nektane-
bus I).
2. Arimaatenra Tcheher (Teds) Setepenanher.
3. Kheperkara Nekhtnebef (Nektanebus II).
Macedonians, 340 b.c.
1. Setepenra-meri-amen Alexander the Great, the son
of Amen.
2. Userkara-meri-amen Philip Arrhidaeus.
3. Haaabra-setepenamen Alexander II (of Egypt).
Ptolemies I-XVI., 305-30 b.c.
Romans, 30 b.c.-a.d. 378 (Theodosius I).
Byzantines, a,d. 395 (Arcadius)-6io (Heraclius I).
Persians take Egypt 619 ; are expelled 629.
Arabs, a.d. 640-1517.
Turks, 1517.
1798. Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt.
1805. Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt.
1882. Battle of Tell al-Kabir, and occupation of
Egypt by the British.
INDEX
Aaab, 65
Aah, 72
Aah-hetep, 72
Aahetepra, 68
Aahmes I, 72, 73
— II, 142
— son of Abana, 72, 74, 75
Aahmes Pen-Nekheb, 73, 76
Aahenaten, 73
Aakheperenra, 76
Aakheperkara, 74
Aakheperra Pasebkhanut, 123
— Shashanq, 129
_ — Userkena, 130
Aakheperura, 83
Aakhu, 225
Aamu, 46, 51, 57, 66, 79
Aaneterra, 68
Aapehti-Set, 68
Aapehti-Set Nubti, 71
Aapep, 166, 183, 187
Aaqennra Apepa, 71
Aaqenra, 68
Aata, 73
Aat-Sekhau, 63
Aauserra Apepa, 68
Abana, 73
Abbott Papyrus, 71
Abd ar-rasul, 128
Abdi Milkutti, 136
Abhat, 86
Absha, 57
Abstinence of priests, 190
Abtu fish, 167
Abu, 2, 54
Abu Hamad, 6
Abukir, 7
Abu Simbel, 8, 102, 108, 109, 141
Abusir, 45
Abydos, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
35, 54, 55, 56, 60, 62, 64, 65, 69,
76, 82, 100, no, 143, 167, 170,
172, 174, 176, 179, 181
Abydos, King-List of, 100
— seven shrines of, 100
Abyssinia, 4, 5, 6, 11, 22, 159
Achaeans, 112
Acrobats, 214
Adjurations, 183
Aegyptus, 2
Aehan, 34
Africa, 3, 22, 112, i6i-, 199, 221,
227
— Central, 4 ; East, 152 ;
North, 115 —
— circumnavigation of, 140
Africans, 210
After-birth, 29
Agade, 17
Agriculture, 171
Aha, 27, 30, 36, 232
— fish, 167
Ahab, 129
Ahi, 177, 178
Ahu, 84, 166
Ai, 96, 97
Aiguptos, 2
Air-god, 165
Akabah, Gulf of, 3
Akaluka, 136
Akhaemenes, 148
Akhmim, 229
Akhthoes, 50
Akuasha, 112
Alabaster, 35, 42, 234
Alabastronpolis, 97
Al-Arish, 99
Al-Ashraf Tuman Bey, 160
Albert N'yanza, 4
Albert Edward N'yanza, 4
Aleppo, 1 01, 102
Alexander the Great, 150, 151,
197, 224
— embalmed, 151
— II of Egypt, 152
Alexandria, 7, 151, 152, 153, 159
257 R
258
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Alexandrian Library, 30, 153
Alisphragmuthosis, 70
Al-Kab, 72
Al-Kahirah, 160
Al-Kantarah, no
Al-Lahun, 58
Alnwick Castle, 82
Alphabet, Egyptian, 217
Altaqu, 134
Altar, 45 ; priests of, 201
Amadah, 83
Amasis I, 126
— II, 142, 143, 145, 147
Amen, god of Thebes, 53, 54, 74,
81, 82, 96, 98, 100, 102, 109,
III, 120, 122, 124, 125, 129,
130, 150, 151, 166, 167, 169,
181, 200, 201, 202, 206, 228,
230
— figure of, as amulet, 125 ;
his name obliterated, 93 ; priest-
hood of, 203 ; temple of, flooded,
123
Amen of Hebt, 147
Amenartas, 135
Amenemapt, King, 124
Amenemhat I, 52, 53, 54
— 11, 56
— Ill, 42, 60, 63, 68
— IV, 63
Amenemheb, 80
Amen-hetep I, 18, 73, 74, 77, 126,
128, 226, 230,
— II, 83 ff., 114, 115, 236
— Ill, 86, 87, 88, 89, 96, 97,
107, 109, 113, 123, 158, 196,
197, 241
— IV, 89-95, 96, 97, 114, 206
Amen-hetep, son of Hep, 90
— high priest, 121, 122
Ameni, 56
Ameni-Antef- Amenemhat, 64
Amenisenb, 69
Amenmeses, 114, 116
Amenophis II, 83
Amen-Ra, 71, 73, 74, 78, 80, 82,
85, 86, 87, 90, 93, 119, 120, 121,
132, 151, 152, 158, 166, 168,
186, 197, 201, 241
Amen-Ra, hymn to, 147 ; incar-
nations of, 77
Amen-Ra, Mut, and Khensu, triad
of, 167
Amentarit, 145
Amentet, 230, 238
Amenti, 172, 173
Amestris, 148
Ammenemes, 54
Am-mit, 175
Amosis, 72
Amphipolis, 152
Amr ibn al-asi, 160
Am Tuat, Book of, 91
Amulet, 207
Amulets, 121, 188 f., 202, 211,
227
— the 104 of Osiris, 228
Amusements, 213
Amjrrtaios, 149
An, 44, 177
Anastasius, 159
Ancestor, 54, 161, 170
Ancestor-god, 174, 181
Anen, 77
Angel, guardian, 225
Anhep, Queen, 99, 126
Anheri, 185
Ani, Papyrus of, 202
Animal soul, 226
Animals, domestic, 14 ; sacred,
163, 166 ; veneration of, 163
Ankarib, 215
Ankhkaenra Psemthek, 144
Ankhnesmerira, 47
Ankhsenamen, 96
Ankhsenpaaten, 96
Anklets, 211
Anmutef, 202
Annals, 21 ; of Thothmes III, 80,
81
Annana, 114
Annihilation, 218
Anpu, 166, 178, 240
Anqet, 166
Ant fish, 167
Antariush, 147
Antat, 166 ~
Antchab, 33
Antef I, 69
— II, 69
— Ill, 69
Antefs, 53
Antefa, 50
Antef-aa, 51
Antef Nekhtnebf, 51
Antelopes, 25
Anther, 68
Anthrata, 166
INDEX
259
Antimony, 25, 29, 211, 212
Antinoopolis, 159
Antiochus the Great, 155
— IV, 156
Antony, Mark, 158
Anu, 26, 43, 55, 74, 115, 179
Anu-resu, 53
Anubis, 33, 166, 172, 175, 204,
239, 240
Apachnas, 67
Ape, dog-headed, 78, 223
Apep, 68
Apepa I, 68
— II, 68
— Ill, 68
Apet, 156, 165, 166
Aphek, 136
Apis Bull, 34, 143, 153, 166 ;
slain by Cambyses, 146
Apophis, 67, 68
Apothecaries, 202
Apparel of gods, 201
Apries, 141
Arabia, 11, 18, 24, 26, 45, 58,
66, 118, 152, 154, 199; Penin-
sula of, 10, 12
Arabs, 3, 63, 146, 160, 193, 212
Aradus, loi
Archaic Period, 30
Archers, 117
Argo, Island of, 65
Aristocracy, 198
Arithmetic, 208
Arkata, 81
Armant, 53, 188
Army, the, 198
Army of Rameses II, 102
Arqamen, 156
Ar-rafah, 3
Arrhidaeus, 151
Arrow-heads, 15
Arrows, 23 ; flint-tipped, 25
Arsinoe Town, 154
Arsu, the Syrian, 115
Artashumara, 89
Artatama, 85, 89
Arthet, 47
Artaxerxes I, 148, 149
— II, 149
— Ill, 149, 150
Arvad, 80, loi, 147
Asa, 128
Asar, 166, 174
Ascalon, 95, 113
Asclepios, 36
Aset, mother of Thothmes III,
76, 79
Aset, goddess. See Ast and Isis
Ashtoreth, 166
Ashurbanipal, 137, 138, 139
Asia, 13, 22, 58, 76, III
Asia Minor, 115
Asia, Western, 75, 80 .
Asiatics, 57, 58, 95
Asna, 4
Ass transport, 118
Assa, 44, 45, 48
Assyria, 18, 80, 129, 133, 139
Assyrians, 67, 70, 133, 134, 137,138
Ast, 166
Astab, 45
Astabtaui, 45
Astemkhebit, 128
Astharthet, 166
Astrologers, 190
Astrology, 209
Aswan, 6, 8, 32, 44, 46, 50, 143,
222, 234, 235
Asyut, 50
At (fish), 167
Atbara, 4^ 5, 138 ; flood of, 5
Atchab (Antchab), 33
Atem, 165, 167
Aten, 96, 165, 169
•— cult of, 93, 97
— city of, 94
— heresy, 98
Atet, 38
Ateta, 27
Athenians, 148
Athitaui, 53
Athribis, 132
Ati, 179
Auapet, 127, 128
Auapeth, 130
Auletes, 157, 158
Auput, 130
Ausaset, 168
Auxiliaries, 102
Avaris, 67, 70, 71, 72
Axes, two-headed, 25
Ba, 225, 226, 227
Baal, 112, 136, 166
Baal-Zephon, 166
Bab al-Mandib, 10, 11
Babylon, 80, 141, 142, 150, 151,
154, 159, 160
26o
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Babylonia, 17, 19, 89, 94
Babylonians, 18, 141, 142, 144
Babylonian writing, 18
~ language, 147
Backbone of Osiris, 188
Baggarah, 23
Baghdad, 68
Bahr al-Gebel, 4
Bakara Tanutamen, 137
Bakem, 166, 167
Bakenrenef, 132
Baker, Sir S., 4, 193
Bakers, 203
Bakha Bull, 166
Bakt, 160
Balance, the Great, 175
Bankes, Mr., 217
Bar, 166
Barata, 166
Bardes, 147
Bardiya, 147
Barges, 32
Barley, 14, 170, 175, 212
Bas-reliefs, 36
Bast, 165
Bastinado, 197
Batn al-Hagar, 146
Battle-axe, 17
Baurtet, 44, 48
Beads, i6, 20
Beadwork, 229
Beans, 212
Beard, 194 ; the African, 25
Beards, false, 210
Beasts for sacrifice, 202
Bebars, 160
Bedstead, 215
Beer, 204, 213
Beer-cellar, 214
Beer-houses, 205
Beetle, 167, 189
Bek, 94
Bekhten, 108
Beliefs, religious, 219
Belt, 209
Benhadad, 129
Beni Hasan, 234
Bentresht, 108
Benu, 166
Beon, 67
Berenice, 100, 153, 155 ; town,
154. 159
Bes, 136, 166
Besh, 34, 35, 193
Bet al-Wali, 109
Betchau, 34
Bet Khallaf, 35, 36, 232
Betrothal, 206
Bewitchment, 120
Beyrut, 95
Bier of Osiris, 181
Birds, sacred, 166
Birket al-Kurun, 7
Birth goddess, 166
Bitter Lakes, 1 1 1
Bitumen, 223, 224
Black River, 5
Blacks, 198 ; character of, 60 ;
decree against, 59 ; land of, 56
Blacksmiths, 22, 23, 24
Blemmyes, 22, 159
Blessed, the, apparel of, 227 ;
state of, 175
Blood renewing life, 29
— of Isis, 188
— sacrifice, 45
Blue Nile, 23, 45, 48, 85
caravan route, 22
Boat-building at Syene, 47
Boat of Amen, 125 ; of Amen-
Ra, 85
Boats of reeds, 15
Bocchoris, 132, 133, 134
Body, resurrection of, 221
— the transformed, 174
Bodyguard, 106
Boghaz Koi, 107
Book Am Tuat, 176, 231, 235
Bookkeeping, 208
Book of Aapep, 183
— of the Dead, 33, 42, 54, 65,
81, 122, 140, 175, 183, 184, 185,
201, 223, 225, 228, 229, 231
— of Gates, 176, 235
— of praising Ra, 122, 235
— of the Two Ways, 229
Books of magic, 182
Boomerang, 15, 25, 48, 78
Boussard, 155
Bowmen, 118
Bows, 23, 25
Bracelets, 211
Brain, 224
Bread, 212 ; imperishable, 175
Bread cakes, 213
Breccia, 17
Bribery, 197
Bubastis, 54, 55, 60, 64, 67, 68,
INDEX
261
no, III, 123, 127, 128, 129,
131, 132, 143, 165
Bucklers, 127
Bulak, 222
Buiuaua, 127
Bukem, 17
Bull = king, 29
— a ship, 72
Burglary, 197
Burial, contracted, 38, 221 ; early,
16
Burlus, 7
Burton, Sir R., 193
Bush, the, 221
Busiris, 26, 130, 164, 165, 172,
174, 179
Butchers, 203
Buto, 26, 148, 152, 193
Byblos, 125, 126
Byzantium, 159
CmsAR, 157, 158
Caesarion, 158
Cairo, i, 3, 6, 7, 50, 54, 71, 76,
III, 114, 120; Old, 159;
origin of name, 160
Calendar, reform in, 155
Cambyses, 144, 145, 146, 147, 154
Camp of Rameses II, 104
Canaan, 113
Canaanites, 113
Canal, Nile-Red Sea, in, 140, 147
— in First Cataract, 59, 81
Canals, 21, 47, 154
Candace, 159
Cannibalism, 174, 221
Canopic jars, 202, 223, 237
Canopus, Decree of, 154
Caracalla in Egypt, 159
Caravans, 10, 37, no, 118
Carians, 139
Carnelian, 188, 227
Carrot, 212
Carthage, 146
Carthaginians, 146
Cartouche, 193
Cassander, 152
Cassia, 224
Castor oil, 210, 211
Cat of Bast, 166
Cataract, First, 2, 6, 8, 36, 43, 47,
54, 59, 75, 82, 139
— Second, 8, 53, 59, 64, 75, 82,
146, 198
Cataract, Third, 65, 75, 82, 100,
146
— Fourth, 84, 87, 129
Cataracts, the six, 6
Cattle, 7 ; byres, 214 ; stealing, 197
Causeway, the pyramid, 40
Causeways, 21
Cedar, 85, 125
Centurions in the Sudan, 159
Ceremonies, 182, 221
Chains, 22
Chairs, 215
Champollion, 128, 155, 193, 217
Characters, pictorial, 37
Chariots, 199
Charm, 190
Cheese, 212
Cheops, 196
Chief month, 97
Children, birth of, 206 ; educa-
tion of, 207
Chinese, 226
Chisels, 20
Choruses, 201
Christianity, 181, 216 ; in Nubia,
160
Christians, Egyptian, 224 ; perse-
cution of, 159
Chronology, 242
Circumnavigation, 140
Cleanliness, 208
Cleopatra Tryphaena, 156, 157, 158
Cleopatra's Needle, 82
Club, 194
Coffin, 222, 224, 229
— of earthenware, 16
Coffins, 202 ; man-shaped, 230
Collar amulet, 189
Collars of gold, 211
College of Darius, 147
Colossi, the Two, 87
Commerce of Egypt, 118
Confectioners, 203
Congo-land, 192
Conjurors, 214
Conscience, 218
Conspiracy, 54, 187; against
Rameses III, 119
Constantine the Great, 159
Constantinople, 159, 160
Contracts of marriage, 204
Copper, 17, 18, 64, 80, 83, 118,
120, 199 ; spear heads, 22 ;
tools, 35 ; working in, 20
262
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Copper mines in Sudan, Sinai, &c.,
^ i8, 33, 35, 36, 38, 44, 45, 55, 87
Copper statue, 46
Coptos, 52, 65, 69, 82, 118, 159,
224
Cornbins, 214
Corn-mill, 212
Cornelius Gallus, 158
Corvee, 196
Couches, 215
Cow, 163 ; of Hathor, 166, 189 ;
white, 238
Cow-goddess, 29
Cowhead, flint, 17
Creation, 169
Crete, 115
Crocodiles, 14, 163, 178
Crocodile-god, 53, 62, 165
Croesus, 144
Crook, 194
Cross, the, 229
Crowbar, 233
Crown, various kinds of, 193, 194
Crowns of South and North, 32
Cucumbers, 212
Curl on the head, 207
Cush, 3
Cushions, 215
Cyaxares, 140
Cylinder seal, 18
Cyprus, 80, 116, 152
Cyrene, 154, 156
Cyrenians, 142
Cyrus, 144
Dagger, 121, 194
Dahomey, 192
Dahshur, 60 ; Pyramids of, 38
Dakhlah, 146
Dakkah, 155
Dam at Aswan, 8
Damascus, 129, 134
Damietta, 67
— arm of Nile, 7
Danaoi, 115
Dance of the god, 48
Dancers, 171, 214
Dancing, 32, 213, 219
Dancing-god, 166
Daphnae, 139
Dar Fur, 192
Darius I, 147, 149
— II, 148
Date palms, 7
Dates, 69, 170, 212
David, 127
Day, 169
Dead, resurrection of, 171 ; wor-
ship of, 54, 221, 225, 240
Death, conquest of, 172
Death-god, 33, 166
Decipherment, 155, 217
Decius, 159
Ded, 188
Dee, Dr. John, 187
Degradation of an official, 69
Deification of members, 184
Dekans, the Thirty-six, 231
Delta, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 21, 23, 24,
26, 45, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69,
90, 97, 98, no, 112, 114, 115,
117, 123, 130, 132, 137, 139,
142, 148, 149, 151, 153, 156,
164, 166, 168, 172, 173, 174,
T^75> 199, 212
— population, 12
Deltas in Upper Egypt, 8
Demons, 164
Demotic writing, 140 ; language,
155, 216
Denderah, 23, 82, 157
Der al-Bahari, 51, 71, 73, 78, 81,
, loi, III, 114, 120, 125
Der al-Madinah, 155, 156
Desert-god, 165
Design, goddess of, 165
Determinative, 218
Devil, 165, 186 ; casting out of a,
108, 182
Devils, 164
Diana, temple of, 157
Dictation, 208
Diligence, 208
Diocletian, 159
Diodorus, 42, 61, 132, 147, 149,
224
Dionysos, 157
Diorite, 35, 36, 52
Disk, winged, 24
Diviner, 91
Divine fathers, 201
Dog-god, 166
Dolls, 207
Dongola, 160 ; Old, 3 ; Province,
75
Door, false, 229 ; granite, 47
Double, the, 225
Double dealing, 175
INDEX
263
Dover, 212, 229
Dowry, 89
Draughts, 213
Drawing-goddess, 165
Dream of Tanutamen, 137
Dreams, 182
Dress, 209 ff.
Drills, 20
Drinks, intoxicating, 213
Drugs, 202
Drum, 204
Drunkenness, 213
Dualism, 165
Dulgo, 100
Dust, volcanic, 4
Dwarf, 45, 48
Dynasties, history of, 26, 31
Earrings, 211
Ears, slit, 98
Earth-god, 165, 171, 180, 240
Earthquake, 87
Eastern Desert, 10, 22, 24, 159
— Sudan, 23
Eater of the Dead, 175
Eating-houses, 205
Ebony, 48, 52, 78, 80
Eclipses, 170
Edfu, 8, 22, 23, 24, 30, 100, 149,
154, 156, 157
Efifigy, 225
Egg plant, 212
Egypt, area of, 3 ; boundaries
of, 3 ; communication of, with
Babylon, 1 7 ; gift of the Nile, 3 ;
origin of name of, 2; scenery
of, 6, 7
Egyptians, character of, 218 ;
pre-dynastic, 11 ft. ; sons of
Ham, 2
Eight gods, 147
Ekron, 134
Eleazar, 154
Elephant hunts, 80
Elephantine, Island of, 2, 3, 43, 47,
48, 49, 54, 60, 82, 87, no, 138,
139, 152, 158
Eliakim, 135, 140
Ehzabeth, Queen, 187
Eltekeh, 134
Embalmers, 202, 222
Embalming, 221 ; three kinds of,
224
Embalmment, 176
Emerald mines, 100
Emeralds, 151
Enmaat-Hap, 35
Endowments, 115, 239
Ennead, 167
Enneter, 34
Ephesus, 157
Epiphanes, 155
Era of the martyrs, 159
Eratosthenes, 154
Ergamenes, 155, 156
Esarhaddon, 136, 137
Eshmunen, 147, 179 .;
Esna, 4, 8, 9, 154, 156
Essence of Osiris, 170
Ethiopia, 150, 159
Ethiopians, 127
Euergetes I, 154
— n, 156
Eupator, 156
Euphrates, 140
Eusebius, 31
Evil eye, 207
Evil, god of, 165, 170
Evisceration, 224
Exodus, 114
Exorcisms, 190
Extradition, 107
Eye-ball, 188
Eye of Horus, 172, 185 ; amulets,
189
Eye paint, 211, 212
Eyes of the creator, 169
False Pyramid, 38
Famine, seven years', 36
Fan, 212
Farmhouse, 214
Fasting, 200
Father Amen, 161
Father-god, 161 ; Great Father,
161
Father Osiris, 161
Fayyum, 7, 53, 61, 154
Feathers in hair, 25
Fenkhu, 73
Ferry-boat, 185
Festal songs, 178
Festival, 21, 219
Fetish, 188
Fiends, 164
Fighters, the Two, 170
Figs, 170, 212
Figures, magical, 185
264
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Fillet, 211
Finger rings, 211
Fingers, amulet of the two, 189
Fire, 16, 20
Fire-drill, 16
Fire-pits, 176
Fish, 7, 15, 119, 212 ; sacred, 167
Fish-ponds, 215
Fish-traps, 213
Fishing, 213
Flaying, 148
Fleet, 38; Mediterranean, 118,
140 ; Red Sea, 118, 140
Flints, 13 ; worked, 35 ; workers,
15
Flint tools, 9
Floats, 15
Fluid of the god, 195
Flute-player, 157
Followers of Horus, 226
Food, 212 ; animal, 212
Foreigners, influence of, 11 1
Fort St. Julien, 217
Forts, chain of, iii, 113; in
Sudan, 59
Fortune-tellers, 190
Forty-two judges, the, 175
Fowling, 15, 213
Frog, 167, 189
Fruit, 119, 175
Furniture, 215
Fustat, 160
Future Life, 16
Gabinius, 157
Gains Petronius, 158
Gall bladder, 223
Game, 213 ; games, 209
Gardens, no, 215
Garlic, 212
Gaumata, 147
Gaza, 134
Gazelle River, 4, 5, 23
Gebel Barkal, 88, 136
— Doshah, 60
— Sahabah, 3
— Silsilah, 2, 87, 98, 128, 141
— Zabara, 100
Gebelen, 25, 68, 123
Geese, 212 ; fattening of, 212
Generation, god of, 166
Genius, 225
Geometry, 208
Gezer, 95, 113
Ghosts, 182
Gilukhipa, 88, 89
Giraffes, 26
Girdle, 209
Gizah, 6, 39, 41, 85 ; Pyramids
of, 40-42
Glass, 227
Glaukias, 152
Goat of Mendes, 34
Goats, 7
God, 219 ; names of, 169 ; origin
of belief in, 161 ; god-man, 174
Goddesses, 164
Gods, 164; dressing of, 201;
worship of, 240
Gold, 10, 36, 38, 52, 56, 58, 78,
188, 227
Gold mines, 56, loi
— mining, 99, no
— shrouds, 121
— trade, 100, loi
— transport, 60
Gondokoro, 3
Goose-god, 166
Goshen, land of, in
Government, 197
Grandfather-god, 161
Granite, 32, 36, 47, 88 ; quarries, 8
Grapes, 170, 212
Grasshopper, 167
Gravel, 4
Graves, 231 ; neolithic, 9, 10, 16
Great Father, 161
— Hall, 173
— House (Pharaoh), 193
— Oasis, 126, 147, 149, 157
Greek, 153; alphabet, 217; lan-
guage, 153, 155 ; on coffins,
231 ; religion, 153
Greeks, 2, 20, 72, 132, 139, 141,
143, 144, 147, 150, 156, 170,
198, 204
Green water, 5
Groves, no
Guard-houses, 118
Gulf of Solum, 3
— of Suez, 140
Gum, 80
Gymnastics, 209
HaaabrX, 141
Haankhef, 64
Hadenduwa, 22
Hades, 153
INDEX
265
Hadrian, 159 ; visits Egypt, 159
Haematite, 227
Haggi Kandil, 94
Hai, 153
Hair, modes of wearing, 210
Haker, 149
Hall of Columns, 99, 109
— of Set Festival, 128
— of Two Truths, 175
Ham, 2
Hamath, 129
Handwriting, 208
Hands, cutting off of, 75
Hanunu, 134
Hapi, 165, 223
Hare, 25
Harim, 119, 196 ; of Amen, 201
Harmais, 97
Harmakhis, 100
Harmakhis-Kheper-Ra-Tem, 85
Harris Pap3n:us, 183, 184
Harvest, 171
— god, 54
— goddess, 166
Hathor, 17, 29, 56, 78, 109, 155,
156, 164, 166, 230 ; priestesses
of, 201
Hatshepset, 76, 77, 78, 82, 158,
196, 206
Hawarah, 61
Hawk = King, 28
— 34 ; gods, 166 ; man-headed,
226 ; staff, 25
Headdresses, 211
Head -rest, 215
Heart, 223, 226 ; amulet, 188 ;
scarab, 228
Hearts, 1 76 ; stabbed with pins,
188
Heat in head, 185
Heat-god, 169
Heaven, idea of, 219
Heben, 23
Hebrews, 2, 144 ; Scriptures of,
154
Hebt, 147
Hekaptah, i, 2
Heliopolis, 26, 34, 42, 43, 45, 54,
55, 69, 74, 82, 92, 94, 95, 98,
109, no, III, 112, 115, 119,
123, 131, 135, 141, 160, 165,
166, 168, 173, 200, 202 ; ennead
of, 167 ; Library of, 64
Henna, 212
Hennekht, 36
Hennu, 52
Hensu, 50, 179
Hent-meht, 228
Henu Boat, 33
Hep, 165
— son of Horus, 166
— an official, 90
Hepr, 165
Hep-ur, 184
Heq, 70
Heqet, 44
Her, King, 63
Her, pyramid, 42
Heraclius, 160
Herakleopolis, 50, 53, 60, 130, 179
Heresy of Aten, 98
Herhermaat, 69
Her-Heru, 122, 123, 125, 126
Herkhuf, 47
Hermonthis, 53, 158
Hermopolis, 72, 130, 147, 179
— ennead of, 167
Herodotus, 42, 61, 62, 143, 224
Heron, 166, 227
Heru, 206
Heruemheb, 97, 98
Herukhuti, 169
Herunetchtef, 174
Herusatef, 146
Herutataf, 42, 91
Heru-ur, 165, 174
Hesepti, 31
Hetchheqra, 124
Hetchkheperra, 123, 127, 129
Hetepsekhemui, 34
Hetsuten, 97
Hezekiah, 134, 135
Hidden Soul, 179
Hierakonpolis, 28
Hieratic, 216 ; writing, 140
Hieroglyphic writing, 152, 216
Hierogljrphs, alphabetic, 218 ; list
of, 217
High priest of Amen, 121, 127
High priestess of Amen, 139
Hippopotamus, 14, 70, 166 ; god-
dess, 165
Hittite apparel, 108
— princess, 108
Hittites, 80, 95, 99, loi, 102, 104,
105, 108, 109, no. III, 113,
166, 198; defeat of, 103;
treaty, 107
266
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Holy Ghost, 229
Holy of Holies, 78
Homage, 195
Home life, 203
Honey, 119, 213, 224
Hophra, 141, 142, 143
Horizon of Aten, 94
Horse and chariot, 75
Horses, 132
Horns, 23, 24, 26, 55, 78, 100,
166, 173, 181, 183, 184, 194,
196, 201, 237; stung by a
scorpion, 1 73 ; the four sons
of, 172, 223, 238
— and Set, the fighters, T74
— as Christ, 181
— name, 45
— last divine king, 192
— of Buto, 152
— of Edfu, 24
— of gold name, 45, 193
— the Great, 165, 174
Hoshea, 133
Hostages, 80
House, 214, 215
House of the Ka of Ptah, i
Hu, 33
Hu= Sphinx, 42
Hui, 120, 187
Humour, Egyptian, 219
Hundred years' peace, 159
Hunt, 25 ; of lions, 88 ; of wild
cattle, 88 ; royal, 39
Hunting, 86, 213
Huts, mud, 14
Hycsos, 68
Hyksos, 63, 66, 69, 70, 74, 79,
96, 167 ; attacked by Amasis I,
72 ; expulsion of, 73
Hymn, 201 ; of Menephthah, 113
Iannas, 68
Ibis, 72, 166
Ibrim, 120
Ichneumon-god, 166
Ideograph, 217
Idol, 225
Illahun, 58
Images of gods from Persia, 154
Imhetep, 91, 166, 167
Immortality, 172, 174, 218
Impalement, 148
Inaros, 148
Incantation, 86, 163, 190
Incense, 78, 202, 206, 237
Ink, 209
Insects, 14 ; sacred, 166
Instructions of Amenemhat, 54
Inuaman, 113
Inundation, the, 5, 61, 71, 208
Ionian, 139
Ipeqher, 68
Iqebarh {?), 68
Irkhulini, 129
Irrigation, 20, 54, 61
Isaiah, 50, 135
Isis, 44, 100, 155, 156, 158, 166,
169, 171, 172, 173, 174, 176,
177, 201, 204, 223, 237; as
Virgin Mary, 181 ; raises Osiris,
180, 181 ; worship of, sup-
pressed, 159
Ismailiyah, no
Israel, 127, 129
Israelites, 113, 133, 134
Island of Konosso, 84
— of Meroe, 138
— of Pharos, 151
— of Tombos, 75
Islands of Blessed, 229
— of the Mediterranean, 11, 26,
152
. Issus, 150
Isthmus of Suez, 10, 11, 66
luaa, 89
Ivory, 15, 36, 48, 78, 80
Jackal, 25, 223
Jackal-god, 166
Jars, stone, 20
Javelins, 25
Jawhar, 160
Jazirat al-Malik, 59
Jehoahaz, 140
Jehoiachin, 141
Jehoiakim, 140, 141
Jeremiah, 141
Jericho, 142
Jeroboam, 127
Jerusalem, 70, 127, 134, 135, 142,
154
Jewellers, 203
Jews, 152, 153
Joah, 135
Johnston, Sir H,, 193
Jonias, 67, 68
Joseph, 40
Josephus, 66, 70, 127
INDEX
267
Josiah, 140
Judaea, 70, 128
Judah, 134, 137, 140, 141
Judge of the Dead, 166
Judges, 197
Judgment of souls, 176
Judgment scene, 185
Jugglers, 214
Julius Africanus, 31
Jupiter Ammon, 3, 146
Jur River, 23
Justinian, 159
Ka, 48, 179, 225, 238
Ka-chapel, 225
— servant, 163, 225
Kadashman Eniil, 89
Kadesh, 80-81, 83, loi, 102, 104,
106, 107, 109
Kagera, 5
Kaheni, 132
Kaiechos, 34
Kakaa, 44
Kakau, 34
Kalabshah, 8, 109, 157
Kam, 2
Kambasutent, 146
Kambathet, 144
Karnes, 71
Kamt, 77
Kapur, 117
Karaduniyash, 89
Karai, 3, 83, 86
Karamama, 129
Karamat, 127
Karbanit, 137
Karkar, 134
Karkemish, loi, 141
Karmah, 6, 75, 100
Karnak, 54, 55, 73, j6, 78, 82, 83,
84* 96, 97, 98, 99, 107, 109,
119, 127, 128, 135, 141, 143,
151, 152, 154, 156, 157
— avenue, 87
Kash, 3, 56
Kashta, 133
Kau, 179
Keb, 165, 169, 171, 173, 179, 180,
181, 240
Kem Aten, 93, 97 ; in Sudan, 93
Kena, 11
Kent, 166
Kesta, 166
Keti, loi, 108
Ketshet, 166
Kha, a pyramid, 35
Khabbasha, 148, 152
Khabiri, 95
Kha em Mennefer, 72
Khafra, 41, 232
Khaibit, 226
Khalifahs, 160
Kham, 2
Khamuast, 11 1
K^hamura, 68
Khaneferra, 65
Khanes, 50
Khargah, 126, 146, 147, 149
Khartum, 4, 5, 6
Khasekhem, 35
Khasekhemui, 34, 35
Khasekheti, 31
Khat, 225
Khati, 50
Khauserra, 68
Khemenu, 72, 147, 179
Khemmis, 173
Khensu, 87, 119, 165, 167; goes
to Bekhten, 108
Khensu Hetep, 205
Khensu the Child, 201
Khent, 193
Khent Hennefer, 74
Khenti Amenti, 30, 174
Khentkhatur, 56
Khentcher, 69
Kheops, 39
Khepera, 165, 169, 184, 189
Kheperr, 189
Kheperkara, 149
Kheraha, 131
Kher-heb, 182, 190, 200, 222, 237
Kherpkheperra, 128
Kheta, 95, 99, loi, 107, 113
Khetasar, 108
Khetneter, 35
Khian, 68
Khnemabra, 143
Khnemet Amen, 78
Khnem-Khufu, 39
Khnemu, 36, 44, 82, 87, 165, 166,
169
Khnemu-hetep, 57, 58
Khu, 225, 226, 227
Khuenaten, 93
Khufu, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 91, 196,
232
Khut, 40
268
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Khut Aten, 89
Khutaui Sekhemra, 64
Khutauira, 64
Khutenaten, 94, 96, 97
Kilt, 210
King, 192 ff. ; dancing, 32 ;
greatness of, 62 ; his great
names, 45 ; position of, 182 ;
worship of, 241
King-List, 27 33, 154 ; Lists, 30 ;
of Abydos, 100 ; of Rameses
II, no
Kings, pre-dynastic, 21
Kipkip, 138
Kissing the foot, 195
Knives, 20 ; flint, 16
Knots and spells, 190
Koleydozo, 160
Kom Ombo, 156, 157
Kom Ombos, 8, no
Konosso, 84
Korosko, 54
Kubban, 100, loi
Kudu, 166
Kummah, 2, 59, 63
Kuran, 208
Kurnah, 83, 99
Kuser, 11, 118, 199
Kiish, 135
Labour, forced, 196
Labourers, field, 186
Labyrinth, 62
Lachish, 95, 134
Ladder, 185
— amulet, 189
Lake Abukir, 7
— Burlus, 7
— made for Ti, 88
— Manzalah, 7
— Mareotis, 7
— Moeris, 7, 61
— No, 4
— of Fire, 184
— Tanganyika, 5
— Victoria, 4
Lakes in Delta, 7
Lamb, eight-legged, 132
Lamentations of Isis, 177
Lamersekni, 130
Lamp black, 209
Land of gold (Nubia), 59
— of the Blacks, 56
— of the Bow, 23
Land of the God, 238
— of the North, 2
— of the South, 2
Lapis-lazuli, 42, 60, 227
Lasso, 29
Lathjnrus, 156
Latins, 2
Latopolis, 154
Lawgivers of Egypt, 132
Law-goddess, 165
Laws, 20 ; civil and religious, 218
Lead, 80, 211
Leap-year, 155
Learning, 209
Lebanon, 125
Leeks, 212
Leka, 112
Lentils, 212
Leopard, 75, 184 ; skins, 202
Letopolis, 33, 179
Letter-writing, art of, 209
Lever, 40, 233
Libationer, 200
Library of Alexandria, 153, 154,
158
— of Amen, 187
— of Heliopolis, 64
— of Pergamum, 158
Libya, 46, 53, 140, 148, 151
Libyan allies, 117
Libyans, 10, 11, 26, 55, 73, loi,
112, 113, 114, 115, 126, 127,
142, 198
Life, renewal ceremonies, 29
— symbol of, 194
Light-god, 165, 169
Lighthouse of Alexandria, 154
Lightning-god, 166
Limestone, 36
Linen, 15, 202, 210, 222 ; apparel,
175
Lion from Baghdad, 68
— god, 166 ; goddess, 160
Lion-hunt, 88
Lions, 25, 88, 184
Lisht, 54, 56
Litanies, 201
Liver, 223
Loin-cloth, 194, 209
Loot, 219
Lotus, 34
Lull, 134
Lungs, 223
Luxor, 7, 8, 96, 97 ; temple of, 87
INDEX
269
Lycians, 112
Lydia, 144
Lying, 175
Lynx, 1 66
Maaabra, 68
Maamur, 197
Maat, 165
Maatenrakhaenra, 69
Maati, 173, 179
Maatkara, 123
Maatkha, 195
Maatnefert, 76
Mace, 17, 25, 28
Mace-head, 17 ; of Narmer, 29
Macedonians, 150, 152
Madinat Habu, 76, 119, 156, 157
Magic, 161 fE., 209 ; black and
white, 182 ; theory and prac-
tice, 187
Magicians, 91, 120, 182, 219
Magistrates, 197
Magush, 147
Mahes, 166
Mahdi, 23
Mai-sheri, 206
Mamluks, 160
Manasseh, 137
Manetho, 31, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39,
43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52,
54, 55, 56, 58, 63, 66, 67, 68,
70, 72, 97, 115, 123, 124, 126,
130, 149 ; his history, 66, 154
Manners, 209
Mantis, 167
Marble, 17
Marcianus, 159
Marea, 139
Marriage, 203 ; contracts, 204 ;
customs, 89 ; feast, 204 ; with
sister, 204 ; with cousin, 204 ;
Ptolemaic, 204
Mars, 160
Martyrs, Era of, 159
Masaherta, 124
Masaherth, 124, 126
Mashashara, 117
Mashkan, 116
Mashuasha, 130
Mashuashau, 112, 115, 117
Mastabah, 233
Matchai, 47
Mats, 15, 215
Mattaniah, 141
Maxyes, 112
Mayor, 21
Mazakes, 150
Medes, 140
Media, 133
Medicaments, 224
Medicine, 33, 209
Medicine-god, 172
— man, 182, 219
Mediterranean Sea, 3, 4, 13, 61,
64, 112, 140, 143, 152, 199
Mediim, Pyramid of, 38
Megabyzus, 148
Megiddo, 80, 140
Mehit fish, 167
Mehtenusekht, 127
Mekha, 21
Mekhu, 48, 222
Melons, 212
Memnon, 86, 87
Memnonium, 100
Memphis, i, 2, 21, 23, 31, 33, 34,
35, 45, 47, 48, 49, 67, 72, 73,
82, 91, 94, 98, 109, no, 112,
119, 123, 124, 130, 131, 135,
137, 138, 141, 143, 144, 146,
150, 151, 160, 165, 166, 168,
179, 200
— cakes, 177
Memphis, Decree of, 155 ; triad
of, 167
Memphites, 131
Men, creation of, 169 ; old, of
village, 21
Mena, 2, 27, 34, 100, 172, 232
Menat amulet, 1 89
Menat Khufu, 58
Mendes, 34, 130, 149, 154, 166
Menephthah, 112, 1 13-15
Menes, 2, 27, 34, 100, 172, 232
Menkaura, 42, 44, 222, 232
Menkheperra, 79, 84 ; the priest
king, 124, 126, 128 ; Piankhi,
135
Menmaatra, 99
Menpehtira, 98
Mensuration, 208
Menthu, 87, 166
Menthu-hetep kings, 51, 53
— an official, 56, 69
Menu, 65, 69, 166, 185
Meraiai, 112, 113, 115
Merasar, 99
Merawi, 84
270
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Mercenaries, 118, 139, 141, 198
Merenptah, iii ; Sa-Ptah, 114
Merenra, 234
— Mehtiemsaf, 47
— Hetephermaat, 112
Merimes, 86
Meri Ra Pepi I, 46
Merit Aten, 96
Mermashau, 68
Meroe, 138, 226 ; kingdom of, 138
Merpeba, 33
Mertisen, 51
Mertitefes, 39, 41, 196
Merul, 166
Meskhenet, 44, 166
Mesopotamia, 75, 160
Mesniu, 22
Mesta, 166, 223
Mestchem, 57, 58
Mesutra, 144
Metal workers, 202
Methen, 39, 80
Metternich Stele, 1 73
Milk, 212, 238
Millet, 14, 59, 170, 212
Minyah, 53
Misphragmuthosis, 70
Miracle Play, 60, 65, 176
Miracles, 190
Mirror, 212
Mitanni, 80, 85, 88, 89, 94
Mizraim, 2
Mnevis Bull, 34, 166
Moisture goddess, 169
Monkeys, 78
Monotheism, 93
Monster, 51
Moon, 72, 169 ; phases of, 170
— god, 72, 171
— worship, 24
Morality, 175, 219
Masque at Dongola, 160
Mother, the, 205 ; position of, 203
Mother-of -emerald, 227
Mud, 4 ; deposit of, 6
Muhammad All, 82
Muizz, 160
Mulberries, 212
Mummification, 49
Mummy, 223 ; decorations of,
228; of Osiris, 172 ; chamber,
234
Museum at Alexandria, 153, 154
— in Cairo, loi
Museum, Sir J. Soane's, 100
Music, 219
Music-god, 166
Musicians, 214
Muslims, 55
Mut, 87, 166, 167, 201
Mutemhat, 123
Mutemuaa, 86, 196
Muthenra, loi, 102, 107
Mutilation of wicked, 176
Mutkhanefer, 135
Mutnetchemet, 97
Mycerinus, 42
Myrrh, 10, 52, 78, 224
Mythology, 209
Nabonidus, 143
Nabukudurusur, 140
Nabupalusur, 140, 141
Nabut, 17, 198
Nagaa, Temple of, 145
Naharayim, 80
Naharen, 80, 84, 85
Naharina, 75
Nahren, 107
Najjadah, 27, 232
Name, the, 206 ; the hidden, 183
Names of power, 182
— of the king, 193
Napata, 3, 22, 83, 86, 129, 132,
136, 137, 138, 146, 159
Napt, 22
Nar, 167
Narmer, 27, 29, 3°, 32, 33, I59
Nart, 179
Nativities, 190
Natron, 200, 224 ; water of, 231
— god, 26
Naucratis, 143
Navy, 199; founded, 118
Nebertcher, 181
Nebhaptra, 51
Nebmaatra, 86
Nebra, 34
Nebtauira, 51
Nebti name, 45, 193
Nebuchadnezzar II, 140, 141, 143
Necho, 139, 140, 141
— of Sais, 137
Necklaces, 15, 211
Necromancers, 190
Necromancy, 182
Neck-weight, 26
Nefaarut, 149
INDEX
271
Nefer amulet, 189
Neferabra, 141
Neferarikara, 195
Nefer-hetep, King, 64
— scribe, 57
Neferhetepes, 44
Neferkara Pepi II, 48
— Shabaka, 133
Neferkaura, 122
Neferkheperurauaenra, 91
Nefermaat, 38
Nefert, 38
Nefertari, 109
Nefer-Tem, 165
Nefertemkhura, 136
Nefertithi, 91
Negro tribes, 10
Neheb, 21
Nehsi, 78
Neighbour, duty to, 219
Neith, 17, 26, 132, 140, 143, 146,
147, 165, 223 ; four aspects of,
168
Nekau, 139
Nekheb, 24, 25, 34, 165, 193
Nekhebet, 24, 34, 35, 165, 201
Nekhen, 24, 25, 28, 34
Nekht, 33, 206
Nektanebes, 149
Nektanebos, 149
Nekhtherheb, 149
Nekhtmenu, 226
Nekhtnebef, 149, 150
Nekhtnebtepnefer, 51
Nemareth, 130, 131, 132
Nemart, 127
Neolithic Egjrptians, 9, 14
Neos Philopator, 156
Nephthys, 44, 166, 169, 172, 174,
177, 178, 204, 223
Nero, 159
Nesi Khensu, 201
Nesitanebashru, 201
Nesubanebttet, 123, 125
Nesutahetep, 240
Net (Neith), 17, 26, 165, 168
Netaqert, 139
Netat, 172, 176
Netchemet, 206
Netekamen, 145
Neterkheperra sa Amen, 124
Neter-tuat, 201
Ni, 83
Night, 169
Nile, 3 ff., 20, 24, 44, 54, 58, 73,
87, 90, 94. 100, 118, 130, 131,
140, 147, 154, 159, 170, 184,
226, 232
— barrier, 25 ; bed of, 6 ; the
Celestial, 185 ; flood, 5, 21, 26 ;
heights of, 21 ; fork of, 7 ;
length of, 4, 5 ; levels, 61, 63,
64 ; Nile Red Sea Canal, 159 ;
reservoirs, 4 ; sources of, 6
— god, 6, 165
Nineveh, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139,
140
Nitocris, 139
Nobadae, 23, 159
Nomes, 20
Nome symbol, 20
North, a ship, 72
Noses, slit, 98
Nothus, 148
Nu, 165, 169
Nubia, 8, 22, 24, 35, 36, 47, 51,
53, 56, 59, 73, 74, 75, 76, 79, 80,
81, 83, 87, 88, 97, 98, 100, loi,
102, 109, III, 119, 120, 123,
125, 128, 129, 130, 136, 141,
155, 156, 158, 160, 166, 167,
199, 201, 222, 241 ; four great
tribes of, 54 ; Northern, 3
Nubians, 60, 72, 74, 76, 81, 84,
86, 98, loi, 113, 118, 129, 131,
133, 138, 146, 158, 159, 196;
embrace Christianity, 160 ; turn
Muslims, 160
Nubkhas, 65, 121
Nubtauira, 68
Nubti, 68
Nut, 164, 165, 169, 180, 184, 230
Oar of Ra, 184
Oasis of Dakhlah, 146
— of Khargah, 146, 147
— Siwah (Jupiter Ammon), 3,
146, 151
Obedience, 208
Obelisk, 45, 55, 164 ; obehsks, 8 ;
in tombs, 234
Obelisks of Amenhetep III, 87
— of Hatshepset, 78
— Rameses II, no
— Thothmes I, 76
— — III, 82
IV, 84
Ochus, 149
272
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Offerings, 218, 219, 232 ; funer-
ary, 162 ; transmutation of,
238 ; chamber of, 235
Oil, holy, 222
— balls, 211
— press, 214
Oils, 202, 211
Ointments, medicated, 211
Omdah, 198
On, 55
Oneness of Amen and Aten, 93
Onias, 156
Onion, 156
Onions, 212
Only-begotten, 189
Opening the mouth, 163, 237
Orchards, 119
Orontes, 80, 83, loi, 102, 104,
105, 106
Oryxes, 56
Oryx nome, 58
Osiris, 26, 29, 32, 47, 55, 56, 64,
69, 100, no, 153, 164, 166,
168, 169, 170, 176, 183, 185,
191, 201, 204, 221, 238, 240 ;
the 104 amulets of, 228 ; as
moon, 171 ; abode of, 175; com-
memoration of, 177 ; drowned,
172 ; miracle play of, 60 ; tried
by gods, 173
Osorkon I, 128
— II, 128, 129
— Ill, 130, 131, 132
Ostrich, 25 ; feather, 194
Other World, 47, 56, 99, 100, 153,
161, 166, 168, 172, 174, 184,
227, 229, 239
Overseer of works, 239
Pagans, persecution of, 159
Paiankh, 124
Painetchem I, 124
— 11, 124
Painting, goddess of, 165
Pakanana, 119
Pakht, 184
Palace, 196, 215
Palaeolithic Egyptians, 9, 13
Palermo Stone, 21
Palestine, 11, 45, 66, 75, 76, 79,
95, 99, loi, 106, 107, no, 112,
114, 115, 117, 119, 122, 124,
127, 133, 134, 136, 137, 139,
140, 141, 142, 152, 155, 156, 199
Palettes, 25
Palms, 7
Pamai, 129
Panelling, wood, 32
Panopolis, 229
Panthers, 184 ; skins of, 48
Papremis, 148
Papyrus, 34; roll of, 228; sceptre,
189 ; swamp, 173
Papyri, funerary, 202 ; magical,
183
Paqrer, 137, 138
Parahu, 78
Parembole, 156
Pasebkhanut I, 123, 124
— II, 124, 127
Pashalik, 160
Paste, 227
Pautti, 164, 179
Peas, 212
Pectorals, 211
Pekheth, 166
Pelusium, 139, 144, 149, 150, 151,
160
Pendants, 211
Pennekheb, 73
Pennut, 120
Pentaurt, 102, 119
Pepi I, 46, 47, 48, 234
— II, 48, 222, 234
Pepinekht, 48
Peraa, 193
Perabsen, 34
Per-art, 112
Per-Atem, no
Pergamum, 158
Per-Ramessu, no
Per-Sept, 137, 138
Persia, 18, 144, 147, 160 ; lan-
guage of, 147
Persians, 146, 148, 149, 150, 159,
198
Person, 225
Pert Kheru, 240
Per-Uatchet, 193
Petaast, 132
Petabast, 130
Pe-Tep, 26, 148
Petronius, 158, 159
Pharaoh, 95, 134, 144, 147, 148,
150, 193, 219, 241
Pharaohs, 8, 22, 69, 199, 202
Pharos, 151, 154
Pherendates, 150
INDEX
273
Philadelphus, 153
Philae, island of, 6, 8, 109, 154,
155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 217
Philip of Macedon, 151
— Ill, 151
Philistines, 115, 134
Philometor, 156
Philopator I, 155
Phoenicians, 73
Phoenix, 166
Physician, 108 ; sent to Bekhten,
108
— god, 166
Physcon, 156
PiSnkhi, 22, 133, 135 ; invades
Egypt, 130
— high priest, 135
Picture writing, 206
Pictures, magical, 184
Pigeon houses, 7, 212
Pillage, 106
Pillar-god, 45, 165
— worship, 163
Pillow, 189, 215
Pins in wax figures, 188
Pirates, 115
Pit of tomb, 234
Pithom, no, 154
Plants from Rethenu, 80
Pliny, 62
Plum-pudding stone, 17
Plutarch, 171, 172
Porcelain, 277
Porphyry, 35, 36, 52
Porte, 194
Portrait statues, 43
Portraits on mummies, 229
Port Said, 7
Possession, demoniacal, 108
Potions, 191
Potter, 15 ; wheel of, 15
Pottery, 15, 19
Prayer, 200
Priest, 20 ; Kings, 201
Priests of the hour, 201 ; orders
of, 201
Priesthood of Amen, 93, 97, 101,
124, 125, 230 ; flight to Nubia,
130 ; usurps royal power, 121 fF.
Priesthoods of Egypt, 199 ff.
Primis, 76
Prince of Kash, 56
Princess, the possessed, 108
Processions, 219
Prosecutions by Government, 121,
122
Prudhoe, Lord, 82
Psammetichus I, 139
— n, 141
— ni, 144
Psamut, 149
Ptah, I, 73, 99, 100, 102, 109, 112,
119, 131, 143, 150, 165, 167, 168,
169, 200, 241 ; triad of, 167
Ptah-hetep, 175, 205
Ptah-shepses, 44, 195
Ptolemais, 153
Ptolemies, 150 ; policy of, 152, 153
Ptolemy I, 151, 152, 153
— II, 34, 66, 153
— Ill, 154
— IV, 155
— V, 155
— VI, 156
— VII, 156
— VIII, 156
— IX, 156
— X, 156
— XI. 157
— XII, 157
— XIII, 157
— XIV, 157
— XV, 157
— XVI, 157
Puam, 82
Puarma, 130, 132
Pukhipa, 108
Punishment, 176
Punt, 10, 44, 52, 56, 57, 79, 80, 81,
118, 194, 199, 210, 230 ; expedi-
tion to, 78
Puntites, 10
Purestau, 115
Purple linen, 228
Pussy, 206
Pygmy, 45
Pyramid Builders, 43
— of Amenemhat I, 54
— of Amenemhat III, 61
— the blunted, 45
— of Dahshur, 38
— the False, 38
— of MSdum, 38
— of Pepi I and II, 48
— of Sebekemsauf, 65
— of Teta, 46
— of Unas, 46
— of Userkara, 46
S
274
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Pyramid of Usertsen I, 56
— of Usertsen II, 58
— of Usertsen III, 60
Pyramids of Gizah, 39, 40, 196,
232
Pyramid Texts, 183, 229
Qa, 34
Qebh, 34, 43
Qebhsenuf, 166, 223
Qehaq, 118
Qehau, 116
Qepqepa, 138
Quartz, loi
Queen, 196
Quilts, padded, 215
Quivers, golden, 127
Ra, 45, 47, 54, 56, 78, 93, 102, 108,
164, 165, 168, 169, 176, 183,
184, 185, 202, 241 ; priests of,
193; soul of, 179; of Sak-
habu, 44
Raamses, no
Ra-Apepi, 70, 71
Raau, 40
Rabsaris, 135
Rab-shakeh, 135
Radasiyah, 100
Radishes, 212
Ra Harmakhis, 23, 41, 42, 109
Rahetep, 38
Raids, 198
Rain-goddess, 215
Rains in Sudan, 5
Rakote, 151
Rams of Amen and Mendes, 166
Rameses I, 98, 99, 126
— II,'68, 100, loi, 112, 114, 126,
141, 190, 196, 198
— Ill, 115 ff., 120, 126, 187,
198, 199
— IV, 120
— V, 120
— VI, 120
— VII, I20
— VIII, 120
— IX, 65, 126
X, 122, 126
— XI, 122
— XII, 122
Rameses-nekht, 121
Ramesseum, 107, no, 113
Ramessu, loi. See Rameses.
Ramp, 233
Raphia, 134, 136, 155
Rapihu, 134, 136
Ratetef, 41, 42
Reading, 208
Rebirth, 29, 32, 189, 195
Red Sea, 3, 8, 10, 11, 22, 44, 52, 58,
100, 140, 147, 152, 154, 159, 199
Reed, 209 ; mat, 222 ; of incense,
239
— pipes, 204
Regeneration, 189
Rehenu, 44
Rekhmara, 82
Religion, 161 ff., 209
Remembrancer, 102
Rennet, 166
Repentance, 218
Reproduction, god of, 166
Reptiles, sacred, 166
Reret, 166
Reshpu, 166
Resurrection, 33, 171, 174, 189,
218, 225 ; body of, 225, 227
Rethenu, 75, 80, 85
Rewards, 218
Rhind Papyrus, 68
Riblah, 140, 142
Riches of Egypt, 118
Righteous, 218
Ring, 228
Riots in Egypt, 157
Ripon Falls, 4, 5
Rites, 182 *
Robbery, 197 ; of tombs, 65
Rocks, 4, 8
Romans, 23, 153, 156, 157, 158,
159, 160, 198
Rome, 156, 157, 158
Rosetta, 155; Stone, 155, 217;
arm of the Nile, 7
Rouge, 211
Roxana, 152
Rugs, 215
Rut-tetet, 43, 44, 78
Saakara, 95
Sa-Amen, 99, 124,
Saben, 48, 49
Sabna, 222
Sacrifices, 218
Sadengah, 88
Sah, 179
Sahal, 36
[26
INDEX
275
Sa-Hathor, 56
Sahura, 44
Sailors, 199 ; Phoenicians, 140
St. John Lateran, 82
Sais, 26, 130, 132, 137, 139, 140,
141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146,
147, 149, 165
Saites, 67
Sakha, 63
Sakhabu, 44
Sakkarah, 35, 87, 98, 229, 232
— Pyramids of, 222
— Tablet of, 33
Saladin, 160
Salah ad-Din, 160
Salatis, 67
Salim, 160
Sallier Papyrus I, 70
Salt, 212
Samannud, 31
Samaria, 133
Sameref , 202
San, no
Sand, 4
— dunes, 7 ; hills, 146
— storm, 146
— inclined plane of, 233
— stone, 4
Sandals, 175, 184, 195, 210, 211
Sandal-bearers, 28, 29
Sanehat, 54, 55
Sanekht, 36
Sankhabtaui, 51
Sankhkara, 51, 52, 53
Saparuru, 99, 107
Sa-Ptah, 114, 115
Sar, 166, 170
Sarabit al-Khadim, 55, 56
Sarcophagus, 229 ; chamber, 234
Sardinians, 112
Sargon I, 17
— II, 133, 134
Satet, 166
Sati, 74, 76
Saut, 26
Sauu, 56
Scalding, 184
Scarab, 189 ;
on the wood, 189
Amenhetep III, 88
Scarabaeus sacer, 167
Scents, 202
Sceptre, 32, 194
School, 208
green basalt, 228 ;
scarabs of
Schools, elementary, 208 ; second-
ary, 209 ; temple, 208 ; village,
208
Scorpion, 14, 167, 173
Scribe, profession of, 208
Scribes, royal, 198
Scriptures, Egyptian translation
of, 217
Seals, 18
Seamen, 118
Sea-coast, 22 ; Kings of, 137
— power, 118
— robbers, 115
Seba, 178, 1 80
Sebek, 53, 62, 145
Sebekemsaf, 65, 121
Sebekemsauf, 65
Sebekhetep, 64
— in, 65
Sebek-neferut-Ra, 63
Sebennytus, 31, 149, 154
Seherabra, 130
Sehetepabra, official, 62
Seka, 21, 193
Seker, 33, 165
Sekhem, 33, 179
Sekhemab, 34
Sekhemkara, 64
Sekhet-hetepet, 175
Sekhmet, 87, 165, 167, 184
Semites, 10, 11, 19, 22, 33, 64, 66,
112, 114, 118, 168
Semnah, 2, 59, 60, 61, 64, 76
Sem priest, 202
Semqen, 68
Semti, 31, 33, 36 ; tomb of, 32
Sen, 34
Senate of Rome, 156, 157
Seneferu, 38, 39, 42, 196, 198, 199
Senekhtenra, 71, 72
Senmut, 78, 82
Sennaar, 10
Sennacherib, 134, 135, 136
Senseneb, 74
Sent, 34
Senusert, 55
Sept, 58, 166
Septimius Severus, 87, 159
Septuagint, 154
Seqennra I, 68, 70, 71, 72
— n, 71
— in, 71
Serapeum, 87, 142
— +-Serapis, 152, 1591 181
276
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Serdab, 234
Serekh, 27, 34 ; name, 193
Serpent amulet, 1 89
Serqet, 223
Sesebi, 100
Sesheshra I, 69
— 11, 69
Sesheta, 165
Sesonchosis, 55
Sesostris, 58
Set, 23, 68, 165, 166, 169, 170, 171,
172, 173, 176, 178, 186; the
liar, 173 ; his mutilation, 174
Set and Horus, 170
Set (Isis), 166
Set Festival, 29, 32, 55. ^95
Setetu Antariush, 147
Sethroites, 67
Seti I, 27, 99, 100, loi, 109, 122,
126, 147, 235
— II, 114, 115
Set-nekht, 115
Seven Wonders, 154
Shabaka, 130, 133, 134, 135, 137
Shabataka, 135
Shablukah, 6
Shabti figure, 186
Shadow, 226
Shakalshu, 112
Shalmaneser, 129, 133
Sharatenu, 112
Sharhana, 72
Sharruludari, 137
Shartana, 115, 118
Sharuken, 72
Shashetep, 179
Shasu, 66, 76, 99
Shaving, 210
Shebna, 135
Sheep, 7
ShemS-t, 201
Shemshu Atum, 83
— Heru, 226
Shepenapt, 139,
Shepherds, 63, 66, 68, 70
Shepseskaf, 43, 195
Sheput, 166
Shesmu, 176
Shields, 127
Ships, 119, 199 ; of Amen, 203
Shirt, 210
Shishak I, 127
— 11, 129
— Ill, 129
.Shishak IV, 129
Shishak of Busiris, 130
Shoes, 211
Shrew-mouse, 166
Shrine, 29 ; on steps, 32
Shrines, primitive, 17
Shrubs, 215 ; flowering, 110
Shu, 17, 165, 166, 169, 184, 185
Shushan, 154
Shushter, 154
Shutarna, 88, 89
Sicily, 115
Sickness, cure of, 190
Sidon, 136, 141, 142
Signet ring, 34
Signs, alphabetic and syllabic, 3 7
Silk, 160, 229
Silsilah, no
Silver, 52 ; treaty tablet of, 107
Simyra, 80
Sinai, 3, 18, 33, 38, 39, 44, 45, 46,
53, 56, 61, 63, 66, 87, 118, 120,
167, 199
Singers, 171
Singing, god of, 166
— women, 201
Sin jar, 80
Sins, the forty- two, 175
Sister marriage, 153
Sister-wife, 171
Sistra in temple, 20
Siut, princes of, 50
Siwah, 3, 146, 151
Skertchley, Mr., 193
Skhaenra, 68
Skin, treatment of, 212
Skins of animals, 15, 78
Sky-god, 165, 170
Sky-goddess, 165
Slaves, 80, 101 ; killed at death
of chief, 186 ; of temples, 119
Slave Sultans, 160
Sledge, 223, 233, 235, 237
Sledges, 40 ; for bier, 202
Smendes, 123
Smerdis, 147
Smerkha, 33
Snakes, 14 ; sacred, 167
So, 133
Soane, Sir John, 100
Sobat River, 4, 5
Sofa, 215
Soldiery, how armed, 198
Soleb, 82
INDEX
277
Solomon, 127
Solum, 3
Somerset River, 4
Son of Ra, 45 ; name, 45, 193
Soothsayers, 190
Sorcerers, 190
Sostratus, 154
Soter I, 153
Soul, 162 ; copper statue of, 46 ;
idea of, 161 ; immortality of,
220 ; shaft for, in tomb, 227 ;
weighed, 175
Souphis, 39
Spear heads, 15, 25
Speke, Mr., 4, 193
Spells, 120, 182, 183, 185-87, 223,
227 ; fourfold, 184 ; of Isis,
188
Sphinx, 41, 42, 62, 85
Sphinxes, ram-headed, 87
— of Tanis, 62
Spies, 102
Spinach, 212
Spirit, 162 ; ancestor, 162 : being,
225 ; body, 218, 222, 238 ; soul,
226 ; spirit soul of Aten, 93
Spirits, ancestral, 182
— of diseases, 187
Sprout of Nu, 184
Staff, 211
Stairway of tomb, 235 ; in tomb,
32, 35, 232
Standards, the four, 29 •
Stanley, Sir H., 4, 193
Statue, 225 ; of 885 tons, no
Statues of high priests, 122
Stele in tomb, 226, 233
— of 400 years, 68
— of Palermo, 27, 35
— trilingual, of Darius, 147
Step Pyramid, 35, 36, 232
Stick, 17
Stomach, 223
Stone Age, Old and New, 9
Stone belly, 146
Stones, worship of, 164
Stools, 215
Storms, 170, 182
Strabo, 100
Straw, 212
Strong-heart, 178
Sublime Porte, 193
Sudan, 5, 6, 10, II, 17, 18, 22, 38,
46, 48, 53, 56, 79, 93i 96, 100,
loi, no, 152, 154, 159, 160, 166,
194, 198, 202, 215, 230
Sudan conquered by Usertsen III,
58
Suez Canal, no
Suicide, 84, 120, 236
Sulb, 82, 88, 241
Sumerian civilisation, 18
Sumerians, 19
Sun, 169 ; gods of the, 165
— god, 42, 55, 62, 165, 168, 169,
174, 186; Syrian, 119; three
characters of, 55 ; symbol of, 45 ;
temple, 45 ; worship, 24, 45
Superstitions, 191
Survey, 54
Susa, 154
Suserenra, 68
Susian language, 147
Sutekh, 69, 70, 71, 102, 107, 112,
166
Suti, 206
Swallow, 166
Sweets, 213
Swimming, 209
Sycamore, 226 ; fig, 163
Syene, 46, 143, 1 59
Syria, 24, 26, 38, 45, 53, 66, 69, 70,
72, 75, 76, 79, 80, 83, 85, 89, 90,
95, 96, 98, 99, loi, 102, 106, 107,
108, no, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117,
121, 123, 124, 128, 129, 133, 136,
137, 140, 142, 143, 151, 152, 155,
156, 157, 160, 166, 167, 198, 199,
202
Syrians, 84, 113, 118
Taakheperura, 124
Tabah, 3
Tablet for offerings, 233
— of Sakkarah, 33
Tachos, 149
Tafnekht of Sais, 130,6!.
Taharq, 135, 136
Tail, 25, 209; worn by kings,
194
Takhisa, 83, 84
Tale of Two Brothers, 114
Tandamanie, 137
Tanen, 165
Tanis, 54, 55, 60, 62, 65, 68, 107,
no, 113, 114, 123, 124, 125, 126,
135, 136, 137
Tanunau, 115
278
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Tanutamen, 137, 139 ; invades
Egypt, 138
Target shooting, 85
Taratisebu, 107
Tartan, 135
Ta-sti, 23
Tatanen, 165
Tatu, 179
Tatum-khipa, 89
Tau, 21
Tau-Sa, 71
Tau-aaaa, 71
Tau-aa-qen, 68, 71
Taurt, 166
Tausert, 115
Taxation, 90, 157
Taxes, 115, 122
Tax-gatherers, 115, 148
Tchah, 88, 90
Tchar, 98, 99, 102, 117
Tcheher, 149
Tcheser, 35, 36, 232
Tcheserkara, 73
Tcheser Tcheseru, 78
Tchetamenafankh, 130
Tchetmet, 23
Tefaba, 50
Tefnut, 17,' 165, 166, 169
Tehuti, 165
Tehutimes. See Thothmes.
Tekleth I, 128
— II, 129
Tell al-Amarnah, 85, 89, 94 ;
tablets of, 88, 95
— al-Yahudiyah, 119, 156
— Bastah, no
Tern, Temu, 165, 167, 168, 169
Temple of Jerusalem, 127, 141
Temples, great wealth of, 119;
staff of, 200
Tem, Shu, and Tefnut, 168
Temu, 55, 119
Temu Ra, 210
Ten, 31
Ten Tribes, 127
Tenttaa, 73
Teos, 149
Tet, 164, 165, 188 ; of Osiris, 230
— crystal, 239
Teta, 47, 234 ; pyramid of, 46
— the magician, 43
— of Coptos, 69
Tetaan, 73
Teta Ki, 206
Teti, 183
Tetkaura, 135
Tet-t, 26
Tetu, 183
Tetun, 84, 166
Thamar, 115
Thaneni, 80
Thannyras, 148
Thebais, 70
Thebans, 72, 129 ; and Hyksos, 71
Thebes, 23, 25, 27, 52, 53, 54, 60,
69,71,73,74,80,83,87,91,93,
94, 96, 97, 108, 109, 112, 113,
115, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125, 126,
129, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136,
137, 138, 139, 146, 150, 155, 158,
186, 200, 201, 202, 236
Thebes and Thothmes III, 82 ;
princes of, 50 ; sack of, by
Assyrians, 138 ; triad of, 167 ;
Western, 76, 98, loi
Theft, 197
Thehenu, 112, 113
Thekru, 115
Thenpu, 80
Thentsepeh, 127
Theology, 209
Thesh, 21
Thi, official, 44
This, 31
Thmuis, 143
Thoth, 72, 76, 165, 167, 170, 1/2,
173, 174, 175, 183, 184, 216;
spirit of, 91
Thothmes I, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
235
— II, 76, 77, 79, 126
— Ill, 76, 77, 79 ff., 83, 92, 97,
102, 117, 206, 228
— IV, 41, 84, 91 ff., 196
Throne, 194
Thuaa, 89
Thummosis, 70
Thunder-god, 166
Ti, Queen, 88, 89, 91, 93, 196
Ti, nurse, 96
Tiles, glazed, 119
Timaus, 67
Timber, 199
Tirhakah, 135, 136, 137, 139
Tit, 112, 115
Tof, 15
Toleration, 219
Tomb, the Egyptian, 221, 231
INDEX
279
Tombs, endowments of, 239 ;
robberies of, 121, 126 ; of the
Kings, 65
Tombos, 75
Torches, the Four, 238
Totem, 20, 163, 225
Toys, 207
Trade, 152, 154 ; development of,
139 ; routes, 44, 118
Trajan, 158
Transformations, 190
Treachery, 130
Treason, 69
Treaties, 89
Treaty, Hittite-Egyptian, 167
Tree-god, 165
Tree of Osiris, 172
Trees, 7 ; worship of, 163
Triads, 167
Tribute, 198
Trinity, the first, 168
Troja, 40
Truth, 175 ; goddcvss of, 165, 173
Tuaa, Queen, loi
Tuamutef, 166, 223
Tuat, 179
Tunep, 80, 81, 107
Tunic, 25, 194
Turah, 73, 87, 141, 149, 232
Turin Papyrus, 27, 41
Turks, 193 ; take Cairo, 160
Turnip, 212
Turquoise, 38, 60
Turshau, 112
Tushratta, 89
Tutankhamen, 76, 88
Tweezers, 212
Two Kingdoms, 21
— Lands, 2
Tyre, 95, 99, i34. 136, 141,
142
Tyrsenians, 112
Uahabra, 139
Uahankh, 51
Uahkara, 132
Uak festival, i8o
Uasheshu, 115
Uatchet, 165
Uatchnar, 21
Uauat, 24, 47, 80, 84
Uganda, 10, 193
Uhemabra, 146
Ukhedu, 33
Una, 47, 59
Unas, 45, 46, 47, 234
Unguents, 202, 211, 220
Union of Two Lands, 27
Un-Nefer, 177
Unyoro, 193
Unuamen, 125, 126
Upmaat, 69
Upper Nile, 4
Upuat, 166
Ur pyramid, 41
Uraeus crown, 193
Urkherphem, 200
Urmaaneferura, 108
Urmau, 200
Userenra, 44
Userhat-Amen, 85
Userkaf, 44, 45
Userkara, 46
Usermaatra Amenemapt, 124
— Meri Amen, 115
— Setepenamen, 120
— Setepenra, loi
— Usarken, 128
Usermerra, 68
Userra, 44
Usertsen I, 55, 69, 122
— 11, 56
— Ill, 2, 3, 58, 59, 75, 198
— IV, 63
Ushabtiu figures, 202
Utchaheruentresu, 145
Utchats, 189
Utfu, 100
Utu fish, 167
Valley of the Nile, i, 2, 4
Valley of Tombs of Kings, 71, 84,
91, 98, 99, III, 113, 114, 120,
122
Vases, alabaster, 202 ; gold, 84 ;
silver, 84
Vatican, 145
Vegetables, 119, 175, 212, 213
Vegetation, 7 ; god of, 170
Viceroy of Nubia, 56
Victim, 29, 32, 45
Victoria N'yanza, 4
Village, 14
Vine, 171
Vineyards, 119
Virgin goddess, 169
Virility, 188, 189
28o
A SHORT HISTORY OF EGYPT
Viscera, 224 ; protection of, 227
Vulture, 34, 166 ; amulet, 189 ;
crown, 193 ; goddess, 24
WADi Half AH, 3, 6, 8, 59
— Hammamat, 11, 44, 45, 46,
62, 65, 120, 141
— Magharah, 35, 36, 38, 39, 44»
55
— Sabua, in
— Ulaki, 100
— Tumflat, III
Waist belt, 25
War boat, 47, 59, 170, 197
— god, 166
Washing of hands, 213
Water bottles, 216
Waterfowl, 7, 119, 212
Water-god, 170
— jars, 214
— skins, 52
Wax, figures in, 187 ; gilded, 222 ;
used in magic, 186
Weapons, flint, 17 ; metal, 23
Wedges, 40, 233
Well at Abydos, 56
Wells, 100, loi, 119
Wheat, 26, 170, 171, 175, 176, 212
Whip, 32, 194
White Nile, 4, 5, 23, 48
Wicked, the, 218 ; punishment of,
176
Widows, 196
Wife, precepts concerning, 205
Wigs, 210
Wild cattle, 88
Winds, gods of, 1 85
Wine, 213 ; imperishable, 176
— coolers, 213
— press, 214
Winter, 171
Wisdom, goddess of, 165
Witch doctor, 182
Wolf -god, 160
Wolves, 184
Women, wailing, 237
Wood, 36 ; of life, 176
Woods, precious, 78
Word of power, 169, 172, 182
Word sign, 217, 218
Work, spell to avoid, 186
World mother, 160
Worship of animals, 34
— daily, of king, 195
— public, 241
Wrestlers, 214
Writing, 182 ; art of, 18, 36, 209
— three kinds of, 216
— boards, 209
Xerxes, 148, 152
Xois, 63, 65
Yellow River, 5
Young, Dr. T., 155, 217
ZakazIk, 6
Zedekiah, 141-2
Zeker Baal, 125, 126
Zerah, 128
Zerakh, 128
Zoan, no
Zobah, 127
Zodiac, Twelve Signs of, 231
Printed by Ballahtynk, Hanson &* Co.
at Paul's Work, Edinburgh
s:^^
RETURN TO the circulation desl< of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
• 2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(510)642-6753
• 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing
books to NRLF
• Renev\/als and recharges may be made 4
days prior to due date.
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
APR Z 4 2001
12,000(11/95)
YB 34058
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES
CD^t,lDflD3b
^
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11