body of such boats was composed of rushes, which, as I have observed, were bound together with the papyrus; and the mode of rendering them impervious to water is satisfactorily pointed out by the coating of pitch, with which they were covered. Nor can there be any doubt that pitch was known in Egypt at that time, since we find it on objects which have been preserved of the same early date; and the Hebrew word ny (zift) is precisely the same as that used for pitch by the Arabs, to the present day. Pliny mentions boats "woven of the papyrus," the rind being made into sails, curtains, matting, ropes, and even into cloth; and observes elsewhere that the papyrus, the rush, and the reed were all used for making boats in Egypt.t "Vessels of bulrushes" are again mentioned in Isaiah: Lucan alludes to the mode of binding or sewing them with bands of papyrus §; and Theophrastus || notices boats made of the papyrus, and sails and ropes of the rind of the same plant. That small boats were made of these materials is very probable; and the sculptures of Thebes, Memphis, and other places abundantly show that they were employed as punts or canoes for fishing, in all parts of Egypt, during the inundation of the Nile; particularly in the lakes and canals of the Delta. *Plin. xiii. 11. "Ex ipso quidem papyro navigia texunt." "Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro." Lucan, iv. 136. There was another kind, called by Strabo pécton, in one of which he crossed the Nile to the Island of Philæ, "made of thongs, so as to resemble wicker-work;" but it does not appear from his account whether it was formed of reeds bound together with thongs, or was like those made in Armenia, and used for going down the river to Babylon, which Herodotus describes, of osiers covered with hides.t The Armenian boats were merely employed for transporting goods down the current of the Euphrates, and on reaching Babylon were broken up; the hides being put upon the asses which had been brought on board for this purpose, and the traders returning home by land. "They were round, in form of a shield, without either head or stern; the hollow part of the centre being filled with straw." "Some were large, others small, and the largest were capable of bearing 5000 talents weight." They were therefore very different from the boats, reported by the same historian to have been made in Egypt for transporting goods up the Nile, which he describes as being built in the form of ordinary boats, with a keel, and a mast and sails. "The Egyptian boats of burden," he says, "are made of a thorn wood, very similar to the lotus of Cyrene, from which a tear exudes, called gum. Of this tree they cut planks measuring about two cubits, * Strabo, xvii. p. 562. + Herodot. i. 194. Those of the ancient Britons were made of and having arranged them like bricks, they build the boat in the following manner : — - They fasten the planks round firm long pegs, and, after this, stretch over the surface a series of girths, but without any ribs, and the whole is bound within by bands of papyrus. A single rudder is then put through the keel, and a mast of thorn-wood, and sails of the papyrus (rind), complete the rigging. These boats can only ascend the stream with a strong wind, unless they are towed by ropes from the shore; and when coming down the river, they are provided with a hurdle made of tamarisk *, sewed together with reeds, and a stone, about two talents weight, with a hole in the centre. The hurdle is fastened to the head of the boat, and allowed to float on the water; the stone is attached to the stern; so that the former, carried down the river by the rapidity of the stream, draws after it the baris (for such is the name of these vessels), and the latter, dragged behind, and sinking into the water, serves to direct its course. They have many of these boats; some of which carry several thousand talents weight."+ That boats of the peculiar construction he here describes were really used in Egypt, is very probable; they may have been employed to carry goods from one town to another, and navigated in the manner he mentions: but we may be allowed to doubt their carrying several thousand talents, or many tons, weight; and we have the evidence of the * Vide Plin. xiii. 21. Myricen, quam alii tamaricen vocant." + Herod. ii. 96. paintings of Upper and Lower Egypt to show that the large boats of burthen were made of wooden planks, which men are seen cutting with saws and hatchets, and afterwards fastening together with nails and pins; and they were furnished with spacious cabins, like those of modern Egypt. Pliny even goes farther than Herodotus, and speaks of papyrus vessels crossing the sea, and visiting the Isle of Taprobane* (Ceylon); unless, indeed, he alludes to their sails, made of the rind of that plant. We are not, however, reduced to the necessity of crediting these statements of Pliny and Herodotus; and though punts and canoes of osiers, and papyrus, or reeds, may have been used on some occasions, as they still aret, on the Nile and the lakes of Egypt, we may be certain that the Egyptians had strong and well built vessels for the purposes of trade by sea, and for carrying merchandise, corn, and other heavy commodities on the Nile; and that, even if they had been very bold and skilful navigators, they would not have ventured to India‡, nor have defeated the fleets of Phoenicia §, in their paper vessels. The sails, when made of the rind of the papyrus, have been supposed similar to those of the *Plin. vi. 22. "Quia papyraceis navibus armamentisque Nili peteretur (Taprobane)." They are very rude, and much smaller than those of ancient times. Among the numerous productions of India met with in Egypt, which tend to prove an intercourse with that country, may be mentioned the pine apple, models of which are found in the tombs, of glazed pottery. One is in the possession of Sir Richard Westmacott. Chinese, which fold up like our Venetian blinds; but there is only one boat represented in the paintings, which appears to have sails of this kind, though so many are introduced there; nor can we believe that a people, noted for their manufactures of linen and other cloths, would have preferred so imperfect a substitute as the rind of a plant, especially as they exported sail cloth to Phoenicia for that very purpose.* Diodorust and Herodotus ‡ both mention the fleet of long vessels, or ships of war, fitted out by Sesostris in the Arabian Gulf. The former states that they were four hundred in number, and that Sesostris was the first Egyptian monarch, who built similar vessels; but Herodotus merely says he was the first who passed into the ocean; and the necessity of previously having ships of war to protect the trade and coasts of Egypt, disproves his statement, and suggests that they were used at the early period, when the port of Philoteras traded with the Arabian, and, perhaps, even the Indian shore.§ Pliny supposes that ships were first built by Danaus, and taken from Egypt to Greece when he migrated to that country; rafts only having been previously known; and he states that some attributed their invention to the Trojans and Mysians, who crossed the Hellespont, in their wars with Thrace. The sculptures, however, of ancient Egypt * Vide Ezekiel, xxvii. 7. In the lamentation of Tyre," Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail." + Diodor. i. 55. Vide Vol. I. p. 46. Herodot. ii. 102. |