BARK OF THE SUN IN THE FIRST HOUR OF THE NIGHT.

"More-18

"This water (which the sun is now na-
vigating) is the pool of Natron which
is joined with the pool of the field of the
great hall of judgment."
over the waters of the great hall of judg-
ment are joined with the waters of Abydos,
and they (together) are called the way
along which father Athom travels

when he approaches the mountains of
his rising."

The pool of Natron mentioned in this text, is the valley which lies to the northwest of Heliopolis, so well known to modern geographers as the valley of the Natron lakes, which in the opinion of many travellers was, at some remote period, one of the principal mouths of the Nile. There are many geographical indications in this part of Egypt, that the Nile once ran to the Mediterranean considerably more to the westward than at present. Herodotus also relates,* that Menes the builder of Memphis, diverted the course of the river by means of embankments, for the purpose of draining the marshes which lay to the west of his new city. The strange absurdity of the wild legend em

* Euterpe, c. 10.

FIRST EMIGRANTS FROM SHINAR.

21

bodied in the text, which dates from the very commencement of the history of Egypt, will be accounted for, if we assume that its authors were the first settlers in that country who had emigrated thither from the plains of Shinar. Looking westward from Heliopolis, they would nightly see the sun sink in the vast expanse of marsh which then bounded the horizon in that direction. Their notions of general geography would necessarily be very imperfect. The Nile was the only considerable river of which they could have known anything, except the Euphrates; and the plains of Shinar are so far distant from the embouchure of the latter, that there is no improbability in the supposition that those who were driven forth from thence by the confusion of tongues, would be ignorant of the fact that it flowed into the sea, and much more so, of the universal law by which all rivers terminate there. Under these circumstances, that which appeared in the visible heavens would at once be assumed as that which actually occurred. Having come to Egypt from the east, the extent of their knowledge to the westward would be the valley of the Natron lakes. They observed that the sun sank below the horizon nightly, near the place where their view was bounded by this portion of the river. They knew not what became either of the one or the other; and therefore they concluded that they both sank together into an imaginary abyss. In the construction of their legend respecting this abyss, they embodied the two primitive traditions; that the separate spirit goes under the earth, and that the soul will be judged hereafter for the deeds done in the body. Their acquaintance with the valley of the Nile upwards, extended only

22

EGYPT FIRST PEOPLED FROM THE EAST.

to Abydos, which is near the southern boundary of Upper Egypt; and, assuming as before, that the limit of their knowledge was the limit of all possible knowledge, here they supposed was the world's end, where the river and the sun rose from the abyss together. The signification of the name of Abydos To proves this to demonstration. It denotes the east GIGBT, i.e. the place of the sun's rising; the two words are identical in hieroglyphics.

This indirect but plain indication of the eastern origin of the first colonisers of Egypt, is confirmed by the dates of the monuments now in existence. The pyramids of Ghizeh, in the burial place of Memphis, are the most ancient of all the greater remains. Several of the tombs in their immediate vicinity also belong to the same remote period. As we proceed up the valley of the Nile to Beni Hassan and Abydos, the remains are those of the era of Osortasen: while at Thebes, and the regions to the south of it, we scarcely find a trace of any thing that is earlier than the eighteenth dynasty. More satisfactory proof could scarcely be desired that the progress of the first inhabitants of the valley was from Heliopolis upwards, not from Thebes downwards, as has been too hastily assumed by certain modern antiquaries. In this particular, therefore, the monuments of Egypt strongly confirm the scripture account of the first dispersion of mankind from the plains of Shinar.

§ 2. ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.

The sculptures of Ancient Egypt, whence our knowledge of the geographical notions which prevailed among its inhabitants are to be derived, dates between

the year 1600 and the year 1460 before the Christian era. Foreign nations are occasionally mentioned on works of art of a higher antiquity, but not to such an extent as to throw any light upon their ideas of the great divisions of the earth, and of the original distribution of the sons of Noah.

There is a design which is repeated in the tombs of the later kings of the eighteenth dynasty, and which evidently embodies the notions entertained by the Egyptians of the inhabitants of the earth. The most ancient copy of this design is in the tomb of Sethos I., which was discovered by Belzoni.* The picture represents four individuals of four races of men, who are conducted, or rather directed, by the divine hawk of the sun; denoted by the figure of an idol with a hawk's head. Its object is to show the superiority of Egypt over all other lands, through the blessing of her tutelary divinity, the sun,-the first king of Egypt, from whom, as we have said, all his successors took their well-known title of Pharaoh, that is, ope "the sun." Immediately after the sun, are four Egyptians, who are named "the human S race:" meaning, as will abundantly appear, that they were pre-eminently men above all other men. Above them is a hieroglyphic inscription, which reads as follows:-"The discourse of the hawk governing ... the appearing of the sun, in the third horary mansion, (i.e. in the third hour of the day), to the * Rosellini, M. R., plates 155 and 156.

† TNTH. This word signifies in Coptic, "likeness, image." In hieroglyphics it denotes the form of the idol in which the god, of whom it is predicated, appears: thus, means Ptah, wearing

this head dress.

The sun took a new body at every hour of the day and night.

24

C

THE SHEMITES.

black land (Upper Egypt), and to the red land =S (Lower Egypt). The sun, firm in his greatness in heaven, enlightens you, O ye kings (of the world). He vivifies the breath of your nostrils (while ye live); he dries; your mummies (when ye are dead). Your eyes are dazzled (21 weep) by my brightness, O ye of the chief race of men.”

The appearance of the race of men next in order, varies considerably in costume and complexion in the several repetitions of this picture which occur in the tombs of different kings; but all the copies agree in representing a people of much lighter complexion than the Egyptians, with blue eyes, and the hair inclining to red or flaxen, or, in some cases, black. We shall hereafter have the opportunity of identifying these races with the inhabitants of Canaan, and of the regions to the eastward of that country. The name which is common to them in all the copies of this picture" reads-uore, in which we at once recognise the Shemites, the descendants of the patriarch Shem, who occupied the country immediately to the eastward of Canaan, and were confounded by the Egyptians with the inhabitants of that country, probably, because they all spoke dialects of the same language. The inscription is "the sun drives ye away, O ye who are named the NAHOOT.‡ The sun

is unto you as the divine vengeance, that he may

*

cqcy. This word is not in the Coptic texts. The meaning is indicated by the egg which determines the group, and by the context.

† See Onomasticon.

↑ Vide infra.

$ 1 Lit. The lion-headed goddess чAIKWT, the firebearer, the Egyptian Nemesis.