to wear an alarming aspect, and Egypt was itself invaded. Every precaution which skill or courage could suggest was taken by the Egyptian monarch; the passes were well guarded; all the fortified towns were strongly garrisoned; and, though inferior in numbers, his troops, both natives and Greek auxiliaries, were animated with that enthusiasm which valour, confidence, and a good cause can alone impart. The soldiers were eager to meet the enemy, and boldly rushed to battle. The fight was obstinate; but numbers prevailed. After a severe contest, the Persians were victorious; and Nectanebo, having abandoned his positions, in order to retire upon and secure Memphis, his army became dispirited, Pelusium surrendered, and resistance was no longer offered to the arms of Ochus. Flying, therefore, from Memphis, Nectanebo retired into Upper Egypt, and at length withdrew to Ethiopia: the Delta and all Lower Egypt falling a prey to the conqueror, who finally succeeded in reducing the whole country, about the year 340, in the 21st of his reign.

During the previous occupation of Egypt by the Persian troops the inhabitants had been exposed to cruel persecutions. They were now doomed to greater sufferings. If Cambyses had committed unheard-of enormities; if he had derided the religion and insulted the deities of Egypt; if he had ordered the bull Apis to be brought before him, and had stabbed it with his dagger*, and been guilty of every species of oppression, these were trifling

* Herodot. iii. 29.

Wanton

compared with the enormities of Ochus. injustice, murders, profanation of religious rites, and continual persecutions, seemed to delight him. The sacred Apis was slain, and served up at a banquet, of which Ochus and his friends partook; and all Egypt groaned under the tyranny of this inhuman despot. Two years, however, fortunately relieved them from his caprices; and the Egyptians, to show their abhorrence for him, and their hatred of his name, substituted for it the representation of a sword, the emblem of destruction, in their catalogue of kings.*

Ochus and his two successors constituted the 31st Dynasty of Manetho: during which period nothing happened worthy of notice; and the invasion of the Macedonians in the year 332 put an end to the dominion of the Persians in Egypt.

The arrival of Alexander was greeted with universal satisfaction. Their hatred of the Persians, and their frequent alliances with the Greeks, who had

*Plut. de Iside et Osiride, s. ii.

fought under the same banners against a common enemy, naturally taught the Egyptians to welcome the Macedonian army with the strongest demonstrations of friendship, and to consider their coming as a direct interposition of the gods; and so wise and conciliatory was the conduct of the early Ptolemies, that they almost ceased to regret the period when they were governed by native princes.

To detail the events of the Ptolemaic history is not my present intention, nor is it necessary to introduce any account of their reigns in a work which purposes to relate solely to the history and manners of the ancient Egyptians; but if the reader is desirous of consulting a chronological notice of those princes, I refer him to that work* from which I have taken the dynasties inserted in the preceding pages.

• My Egypt and Thebes, p. 508. et seq.

No. 6.

Alabaster pillow for the head.

Alnwick Museum.

Extent of the Country. Revenue and Commerce.

The Castes of the Egyptians. The Sacerdotal Order. Kings.-First Caste.-The Priests.-Second Caste.-Military Class. - Auxiliaries. - Arms. Troops. The Enemies and Conquests of the Egyptians.-March to War.-Their Humanity. - Triumph. Captives. - Military Laws and Punishments. Other Members of the Second Caste. - Third Caste. Fourth Caste. Laws and Government. The Kings. Judges.-Laws. - Passports.-Murder.-Right of Fathers. -Minor Offences. Theft.- Debt.- Deeds. - Marriages. Slaves. Children. Respect for Old Age, and for their Kings. Gratitude of the Egyptians.- Uniformity of their Laws. Different Lawgivers. Governors of Provinces.

EGYPT, properly so called, is that portion of the valley of the Nile lying between latitude 24° 3′ and 31° 37', or between the island of Philæ at the cataracts of E'Sooan* and the Mediterranean Sea. †

According to the Oracle of Ammon, all those who drank the water of the Nile and lived to the north of Elephantine were Egyptians. Herodot. ii. 18. † At Cape Boorlos.

With the exception of the northern part about the Delta, its breadth is very limited, and the cultivated, and consequently inhabited portion, is frequently confined to less than half the distance between the eastern and Libyan chains. The average breadth of the valley from one mountain range to the other, between Cairo in Lower and Edfoo in Upper Egypt, is only about seven miles; and that of the cultivable land, whose limits depend on the inundation, scarcely exceeds five and a half, being in the widest part ten and three quarters, and in the narrowest two miles, including the river.*

The extent in square miles of the northernmost district between the pyramids and the sea is considerable, and that of the Delta alone, which forms a portion of it, may be estimated at 1976 square miles; for though it is very narrow about its apex, at the junction of the modern Rosetta and Damietta branches, it gradually widens on approaching the coast, where the base of this somewhat irregular triangle is eighty-one miles. And as much irrigated land stretches on either side E. and W. of the two branches, the northern district, with the intermediate Delta included, will be found to contain about 4500 square miles, or double the whole arable land of Egypt, which may be computed at 2255 square miles, exclusive of the Fyoom, a small province consisting of about 340.

* That is in Middle Egypt, and to the north of Edfoo; between which town and E'Sooan the valley is so narrow that in some places there is scarcely any soil on either side of the river, so that this part does not enter into the general average I have given.