from the boats and transport them to the mountain of Libya; and for this service 100,000 men* were employed, who were relieved every three months. In the operation of forming the road, by which the stones were carried, ten years were consumed; and this arduous undertaking appears scarcely inferior to the pyramid itself, which, independent of the time employed in preparing the hill where it stands, occupied twenty years.' The historian then proceeds to describe the pyramids : but as I have given an account of them in a previous workt, I think it unnecessary to repeat it here, and resume my history of the successors of this monarch.

After a reign of fifty years, Cheops, who, as I have already stated, appears to have been the Suphis of Manetho, and the Chembres of Diodorus, was succeeded by Cephren his brother. He reigned fifty-six years, and erected a pyramid similar to that of his brother, but of rather less dimensions.

Mycerinus, the son of Cheops, was his successor. He was a good and religious prince; and his memory was revered by the Egyptians beyond that of all his predecessors, not only because of the equity of his decisions, but because his love of justice was so great that if complaint was made of his conduct he always showed a willingness to redress the injury. He had an only daughter,

* Plin. "Trecenta LX. hominum millia annis XX. eam construxisse produntur. Tres vero factæ annis LXXVIII. et mensibus IV."

+ Egypt and Thebes, p. 323.

who died some time after he ascended the throne, which was the first misfortune he experienced; and being much afflicted by her death, and wishing to honour her funeral with more than ordinary splendour, he enclosed her body in a heifer made of wood, richly ornamented with gold. It was not buried, but remained even to the time of Herodotus in the palace at Saïs, in a magnificent chamber, where exquisite perfumes burnt before it every day, and brilliant illuminations continued throughout the night.*

Mycerinus afterwards met with a second calamity. The oracle of Buto sent to inform him he should live six years and die the seventh; and though he represented his piety and upright conduct, the same answer was returned, with this addition, that his early death was in consequence of

his virtues.

During this period of his reign † he occupied himself in constructing a pyramid; and if we may believe Diodorus, he died before its completion. It stands near those of his father and his uncle; and though much smaller, was considered, when entire, far more elegant than the other two, being cased with red granite.‡ On the northern face he inscribed

It is very questionable if this heifer referred to the daughter of Mycerinus; and judging from what the historian adds of the Egyptians flagellating themselves in honour of a certain god (Osiris), it would rather seem to belong to Isis, or to Athor.

+ Herodotus mentions a ridiculous story of his passing the night in revelry, and endeavouring to convict the oracle of falsehood, by turning night into day, and thus doubling the number of years.

Pliny says, "Tertia minor prædictis, sed multo spectatior Ethiopicis lapidibus." xxxvi. 17. Herodotus says, it was of Æthiopian stone, as far as the middle of its height.

his name; and the entrance, though still closed and undiscovered, may be looked for on this side, like those of the other two pyramids. The Greeks erroneously attributed its erection to the courtesan Rhodopis; but, as Herodotus observes, it is improbable that a monument, which cost several thousand talents, should have been erected by her, and even impossible, since she did not live at the same epoch, but during the reign of Amasis.

The immediate successor of Mycerinus is uncertain. According to Herodotus, it was Asychis, who appears to have been a Memphite. Diodorus, however, here introduces the names of Tnephachthus, and his son Bocchoris, both omitted. by Herodotus, as Asychis and Anysis are in his catalogue of kings.

Tnephachthus, or, as Plutarch calls him, Technatis, is only known as being the father of Bocchoris, and as having led an expedition into Arabia, where he endured great privations and hardships, owing to the loss of his baggage in so inhospitable a country. And being obliged to put up with the poor and slender diet he there met with, and finding his sleep in consequence much more sound and refreshing, he felt persuaded of the ill effects resulting from a luxurious mode of living, and was resolved on his return to Thebes to record his abhorrence of the conduct of Menes, who had induced the Egyptians to abandon their frugal and simple habits: he, therefore, erected a stela, with an inscription to that purpose, in the temple of Amun at Thebes,

where his son also made considerable additions to the sacred buildings dedicated to the deity.

While examining the ruins of Karnak, I met with one tablet, which appeared at first sight to resemble a monument of this kind; but on further examination I altered my opinion, and was obliged to relinquish all hope of finding it there, or, indeed, in any other building at Thebes.

Bocchoris, his son, a Saïte by birth, succeeded him. He is represented to have been despicable in his person, but the qualities of his mind fully compensated for any imperfections of the body; and so far did he surpass all his predecessors in wisdom and prudence, that he obtained the distinctive surname of "the Wise." He is reputed to have been one of the Egyptian lawgivers, and in this capacity to have introduced many useful regulations in the ancient code respecting debt *, and fiscal matters; though some have supposed his care of the revenue to proceed from a feeling of avarice, rather than from a desire to benefit the state. t He was said to have been taken prisoner by Sabaco the Ethiopian, and to have been burnt alive; but this assertion is destitute of probability, and there is great doubt whether Sabaco was his immediate successor, or whether, as I have already observed, several kings intervened between Bocchoris and that monarch. To enable us to solve these questions, we require more positive authority, either from the monuments, or from history, and

* Diodor. i. 79. Vide infrà on the Laws of Egypt. Ibid. i. 94. This is also the opinion of Diodorus, i. 65.

it is equally useless to inquire if Asychis was the same as Bocchoris. I therefore proceed to notice the reigns of Asychis and Anysis, as given by Herodotus.

The former was not only an encourager of art, but a benefactor to his country by the introduction of some salutary laws respecting debt. "Finding that commercial interests suffered from an extreme want of money, he passed an ordinance that any one might borrow money, giving the body of his deceased father as a pledge: by which law the sepulchre of the debtor fell into the power of the creditor; for if the debt was not discharged, he could neither be buried with his family in that or in any other tomb, nor was he suffered to inter any of his children."

Among the monuments erected by Asychis was a pyramid of brick, with this inscription engraved on a marble slab, "Compare me not with the stone pyramids, for I am as superior to them as Jove is to the other gods. Thus was I made: men probing with poles the bottom of a lake drew forth the mud which adhered to them, and formed it into bricks."

Four pyramids built of these materials still remain in Lower Egypt, independent of several smaller ones at Thebes, and it is probable that one of them is that alluded to by Herodotus as having been erected by Asychis. Two are close to Memphis and the modern town of Dashoor; the others stand at the entrance of the Fyoom. Near the former are two pyramids of stone; and this circumstance, and their vicinity to Memphis, in