MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

OF THE

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

ERRATA IN VOL. I.

Introduction, page 10. line 18. for "terminate," read "terminates." Page 12. line 3. for "Herodotus," read "Aristotle;" and line 7. for "Aristotle" read " Herodotus ;" and transpose notes † and ‡ ; and for "Herod. ii. 16." read "Herod. ii. 15."

29. line 2. for "the whole of the above-mentioned kings is 192," read "the number of the above-mentioned kings is 200.'

92. Note 3. after "root of emerald," add "or glass." Notes 4. and 6. for "Plin. xxxvi. 19." read "Plin. xxxvi. 13."

93. line 14. for "Nomes of Egypt," read "Nomes of central Egypt." line 20. for "the lake Moris," read "the lake, or rather canal, Moris."

66

96. note 3. for "Sosostris. Intulerit," read Sesostris intulerit."
117. line 2. for "TEpippʊTov," read "EpipPUTOV."

128. note 3. for "spectatio," read "spectatior," in a few Copies.
226. line 12. for "eastern coast," read "western coast.

298. line 6. for "quilted a headpiece," read "a quilted headpiece."
350. note, for "end of Chap. V." read "beginning of Chap. VII."

Usirtasen 1.

THE oldest and most authentic record of the primeval state of the world is unquestionably the Scripture history; and, though the origin of its early inhabitants is only traced in a general and comprehensive manner, we have sufficient data for conjecture on some interesting points.

CHAPTER I.

Origin of the Egyptians. Slow Increase of the Delta. The Egyptus of Homer.-Ethiopia sometimes put for the Thebaid. -Early State of Society. - The Hunter, Shepherd, and Agriculturist. Hierarchy of Egypt.- Menes the first King. Neither Osiris nor any other Deity ever supposed by the Egyptians to have lived on Earth.- Period elapsed from Menes to the Persian Invasion. Oldest Monuments of Egypt. The Pyramids.-Osirtasen Contemporary of Joseph.-The Pastor Kings not the Jews. - Early Advancement of Egypt, from the Monuments and Scripture History. - Nothing certain before Osirtasen I.

THE oldest and most authentic record of the primeval state of the world is unquestionably the Scripture history; and, though the origin of its early inhabitants is only traced in a general and comprehensive manner, we have sufficient data for conjecture on some interesting points.

I am fully aware of the profound metaphysical import of the first book of Moses, but the allusions to real events are no less obvious and important; and it is to these alone that I shall have occasion to advert in the present inquiry.

Every one who considers the features, the language, and other peculiarities of the ancient Egyptians, will feel convinced that they are not of African extraction, but that, like the Abyssinians and many inhabitants of the known valley of the Nile*, they bear the evident stamp of an Asiatic origin; and Juba, according to Pliny †, affirms that "the people of the banks of the Nile, from Syene to Meroe, were not Ethiopians‡, but Arabs." And if feature and other external appearances are insufficient to establish this fact, the formation of the skull, which is decidedly of the Caucasian variety, must remove all doubt of their valley having been peopled from the East: and some may even consider it directly alluded to in the book of Genesis §, where Ham, the son of Noah, and his immediate descendants, are said to have inhabited the lands of Ethiopia, Egypt||, Libya, and Canaan. The name of Ham is, in fact, the same as that of Egypt, Khem, or Cham; and Moses may have pointed out the eastern origin of the Egyptians

That is, the Neel-el-Azrek, the Blue,' or more properly the Black Nile,' in contradistinction to the Neel-el-Abiad, the White (River) Nile.' Azrek is commonly used to signify black as well as blue. + Plin. lib. vi. 34. That is, Blacks. § Gen. x. 1-6. || Mizraim, or Mizrim, a plural word applied to Egypt (Gen. 1. 11. et passim), is the Hebrew mode of expressing the two regions of Egypt' (so commonly met with in the hieroglyphics), or the 'two Misr,' a name still used by the Arabs, who call all Egypt, as well as Cairo, Musr or Misr. Thummim or Thmim is in like manner the two truths.'

Ham is also put for Egypt, as in Psalm lxxviii. 51. and other parts of Scripture.

by introducing him as a son of Noah. But it is more reasonable to suppose that a colony of Asiatics settled in Egypt at a subsequent period, and that to this cause we ought to attribute the marked distinction between the head of the Egyptians and the Blacks. Conjecture, however, is unable to fix the time when the event took place; and though it may be ascribed to an era when parts of the earth were already thickly peopled, yet probability suggests that it occurred when nations were in their infancy, and at a period far beyond the reach of history.

There has always been a striking resemblance between the Egyptians and Asiatics, both as to their manners, customs, language, and religion; and some authors have considered the valley they inhabited to belong to Asia rather than to Africa* : others, again, have divided the country into two parts, the east and west banks of the Nile, assigning the former to Asia, the latter to Africa, and taking the river as the boundary line of the two continents. In manner, language, and many other respects, Egypt was certainly more Asiatic than African; and though there is no appearance of the Hindoo and Egyptian religions having been borrowed from one another, which many might be induced to conclude from their great analogy in some points, yet it is not improbable that those two nations may have proceeded from the same original stock, and have migrated southwards from their parent country in central Asia.

*Plin. v. 9.