by the conquest of foreign nations, the enemies of his country, they affirmed that his power was exalted in the world like the sun in the heavens, and his beneficence only equalled by that of the deities themselves.*

Having reached the capital, preparations commenced for a general thanksgiving in the principal temple and suitable offerings were made to the presiding deity, the guardian of the city, by whose special favour and intercession the victory was supposed to have been obtained. The prisoners were presented to him, as well as the spoils taken from the enemy, and the monarch acknowledged the manifest power of his all-protecting hand, and his own gratitude for so distinguished a proof of heavenly favour to him and to the nation. And these subjects, represented on the walls of the temples, not only served as a record of the victory, but tended to impress the people with a religious veneration for the Deity, towards whom their sovereign set them so marked an example of respect. The troops were also required to attend during the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, and to return thanks for the victories they had obtained, as well as for their personal preservation; and a priest offered incense, meat-offerings, and libations, in their presence. † Each soldier carried in his hand a twig of some tree, probably olive,

*Conf. Rosetta Stone, where King Ptolemy is compared to Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and is called a beneficent deity.

Such is the subject of a procession I met with at the small temple in the Assaseef, at Thebes.

with the arms of his peculiar corps; and being summoned by sound of trumpet, they marched forwards to the temple, to the beat of drum.

Not only the light infantry, but even the heavy armed troops, presented themselves on this occasion without shields; and we may infer from their absence, and the substitution of a green branch, emblematic either of peace or victory, that the artist intended to convey an idea of the security they felt, under the protecting influence of the Deity, to whose presence they were summoned. It is difficult to decide whether this was a twig of olive, or what peculiar tree among the Egyptians was symbolic of peace or of victory; and if the bay tree was cultivated in Egypt, there is no reason to suppose it bore the same emblematic force as in Greece."

A judicious remark has been made † respecting the choice of the olive as the emblem of peace. After the devastation of a country by hostile invasion, and the consequent neglect of its culture, no plantation requires a longer period to restore its previously flourishing condition than the olive grove; and this tree may therefore have been appropriately selected as the representative of peace.‡ There is, however, reason to suppose that its emblematic character did not originate in Greece;

*I have seen garlands from Thebes apparently of bay leaves; but though cultivated there, the tree is not indigenous to Egypt.

By Mr. Bankes.

Paciferæque manu ramum prætendit olivæ." Virg. Æn. viii.

but that it dated from a far more remote period; and the tranquillity and habitable state of the earth were announced to the ark through the same token.

*

It was not customary for the Egyptian soldier to wear arms except on service, when on garrison duty, or in attendance upon the king: nor did the private citizen at any time carry offensive weapons about his person, either in the house or in the street; and this circumstance, as I have already observed, goes far to prove the advanced state of civilisation in that country, at a time when the rest of the world was immersed in barbarism. In Greece, the Athenians were the first to adopt the custom of going out unarmed; but many years elapsed before they were induced to welcome the innovation generally; and it was only finally established as an universal custom by the laws of Solon, six hundred years before our era.

CAPTIVES.

The captives, being brought to Egypt, were employed in the service of the monarch, in build

The Arabs have an amusing legend respecting the dove, or pigeon. The first time, it returned with the olive branch, but without any indication of the state of the earth itself; but on its second visit to the ark, the red appearance of its feet proved that the red mud, on which it had walked, was already freed from the waters; and to record the event, Noah prayed that the feet of those birds might for ever continue of that colour, which marks them to the present day. The similarity of the Hebrew words adoom (017), red, admeh (7), earth, and Adm (78), Adam, is remarkable. A "man" is still called "A'dam" in Turkish.

ing temples, cutting canals, raising dykes and embankments, and other public works: and some, who were purchased by the grandees, were employed in the same capacity as the Memlooks of the present day. Women slaves were also engaged in the service of families, like the Greeks and Circassians in modern Egypt, and other parts of the Turkish empire; and from finding them represented in the sculptures of Thebes, accompanying men of their own nation, who bear tribute to the Egyptian monarch, we may conclude that a certain number were annually sent to Egypt from the conquered provinces of the North and

It is evident that

East, as well as from Ethiopia. both white and black slaves were employed as ser

Herodotus and Diodorus state that the prisoners of Sesostris were condemned to perform all the laborious part of the works he undertook on his return to Egypt. Herod. ii. 108. Diod. i. 56. Diodorus here mentions some Babylonian captives.

vants: they attended on the guests when invited to the house of their master; and from their being in the families of priests, as well as of the military chiefs, we may infer that they were purchased with money, and that the right of possessing slaves was not confined to those who had taken them in war. The traffic in slaves was tolerated by the Egyptians; and it is reasonable to suppose that many persons were engaged, as at present, in bringing them to Egypt for public sale, independent of those who were sent as part of the tribute, and who were probably at first the property of the monarch: nor did any difficulty occur to the Ishmaelites in the purchase of Joseph from his brethren, nor in his subsequent sale to Potiphar on arriving in Egypt.

MILITARY LAWS AND PUNISHMENTS.

According to Diodorus, the Egyptians were not

* Gen. xxxvii. 28. Conf. also Gen. xliv. 9.