The papyrus rush is a native of the upper valley of the Nile, above the Ethiopia of the ancients; but it used to be largely cultivated in Egypt, and furnished the writing paper of the world, except in the few cases where the more expensive leather or parchment was employed. For this purpose its stalk was split into thin slices, two

Papyrus rush.

courses of which were laid crosswise, and glued together by the natural juice of the plant. Cordage was also made of the papyrus rush, as were wicker boats, which, as we learn from Isa. xviii. 2, would seem to have been used even on the Red Sea, and certainly on the river Nile.

ISAIAH, XXIX. 3.

"And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee."

The siege of a city, by means of an earth-mound.From the sculptures brought from Nimroud, in Bonomi's Nineveh.

The besieging army are shown to be Assyrians by the pointed cap worn by one of the soldiers. They have cut down a date-bearing palm, which the Jews were forbidden to do in an enemy's country by the Mosaic law of Deut. xx. 19. Of the three ranges of walls by which the city is guarded the lowest is higher than a full-grown palm-tree, and to attack these a mound of earth has been heaped up. Up this is rolled a castle on wheels, by

means of which the besiegers are put more on a level with the defenders. This was the practice of a besieging army as early as the time of David (see 2 Sam. xx. 15).

In the infancy of the engineering art mounds of earth were used much more than they are now. They were used by builders where we should use scaffolding of wood; and in particular the buildings of Egypt, where wood was scarce, were raised by such means. A stone was thus rolled on rollers up an inclined plane into its place on the top of a temple, when we should raise it by cords, pulleys, and beams of wood.

ISAIAH, XXX. 6.

"Into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them."

The fabulous winged serpent of the Egyptians, called a seraph in the Hebrew.-From the sarcophagus of

Oimenepthah. The Egyptian sculptors, with their remarkable fertility of invention, represented these seraphs among the other grotesque beings with which they peopled the unseen world; and travellers, when they had seen so many wonders in that wonderful country, and were told of others, were naturally puzzled, and in doubt as to which were real and which were imaginary. Herodotus made inquiry after these winged serpents, but was not able to see them. He was there in the autumn and winter, and was told that they flew over from Arabia in the spring, and were then killed by the ibis (lib. ii. 75).

ISAIAH, XLIII. 3.

"For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee."

The head of Cyrus, king of Persia.- From a sculpture in Persepolis. He wears the head-dress of an Egyptian god, or king. The ram's horns are those of the god Kneph; and above them are two asps, or sacred serpents,

each with a sun on its head; and between these are three other ornaments, not strictly Egyptian.

The prophet tells us that God promised to give Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba or Meroë, to Cyrus, as a ransom, for his allowing the Jews to return home from their captivity in Babylon. This they did under Prince Zerubbabel, B.C. 536. (See Ezra, i.) This sculpture, in agreement with the words of the prophet, shows Cyrus as already styling himself master of Egypt, and explains that his invasion of Asia Minor was only preparatory to the more distant warfare. Death, however, stopped these intentions; but the prophecy may be said to have been fulfilled in the person of his son Cambyses.

Seba, the country here mentioned with Egypt and Ethiopia, has been thought to be Meroë; at any rate, it was a country beyond Ethiopia. But as the Hebrew name of Egypt usually meant Lower Egypt, and Upper Egypt was often called Ethiopia, Seba may mean Nubia, where the town of Seboua was a place of considerable importance.

мии

This is the hieroglyphical name of Cambyses, king of Persia, copied from the Egyptian monuments sculptured in his honour after he had made himself master of that country, towards which, as we have seen, his father Cyrus had been marching. It is spelt “ Kanbosh.”

66

Cambyses began his mad and violent reign B.C. 529. One of his first acts was to forbid the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which his father Cyrus had allowed. (See