CHAP. 78, 79. THE LINUS OR MANEROS. 131 is sung under various names not only in Egypt but in Phoenicia, in Cyprus, and in other places; and which seems to be exactly the same as that in use among the Greeks, and by them called Linus. There were very many things in Egypt which filled me with astonishment, and this was one of them. Whence could the Egyptians have got the Linus? It appears to have been sung by them from the very earliest times. For the Linus in Egyptian is called Maneros; and honour always given to Osiris-yewp- τοῖσιν δ ̓ ἐν μέσσοισι παῖς φόρμιγγι λιγείη when having gathered the grapes, they was 66 murmur 66 Euripides (cited by Athenæus, xiv. p. 619 c) says Linus and Ailinus were suited to joy also. Linus and Maneros were probably the genius or impersonation of song. The Egyptians now use ya laylee! ya layl!" as a chorus for lively songs, meaning " O my joy! O night!" alluding to the weddingnight; ya laylee, doos, ya laylee!" "O my joy, step, O my joy!" alluding to the dance. Cp. Hebr. Hallel, “singing, praising," whence hallelu-iah.[G. W.] 6 The Egyptian songs and hymns were of the earliest date, and, like their knowledge of painting and sculpture, were said to be 10,000 years old; but Porphyry hints at the reason of their origin being attributed to Isis, for it was in order to ensure respect for them that "they were preserved through successive ages as the actual poems of that Goddess." (Plato's Laws, book ii. p. 790.) Some have supposed their songs were of a mournful kind, and the character of the Egyptians to be the same; but the term "magis mœstiores applied to them by Ammianus Marcellinus is not consistent with their habits of buffoonery, love of caricature, and natural quickness, nor with the opinion of Xenophon, confirmed by Polybius (v. 81), who says, of all people they were the most addicted to raillery. (Cp. Her. ii. 60, 221. See At. Eg. W. ii. p. 264. 442.) This is inherited by their successors; as well as "gratitude for favours conferred on them," which Diodorus (i. 90) says was most remarkable in the Egyptians.—[G. W.] 132 DRESS OF THE EGYPTIANS. BOOK II. they told me that Manerôs was the only son of their first king, and that on his untimely death he was honoured by the Egyptians with these dirgelike strains, and in this way they got their first and only melody. 80. There is another custom in which the Egyptians resemble a particular Greek people, namely the Lacedæmonians. Their young men, when they meet their elders in the streets, give way to them and step aside; and if an elder come in where young are present, these latter rise from their seats. In a third point they differ entirely from all the nations of Greece. Instead of speaking to each other when they meet in the streets, they make an obeisance, sinking the hand to the knee. 8 81. They wear a linen tunic fringed about the legs, and called calasiris; over this they have a white woollen garment thrown on afterwards. Nothing of woollen, however, is taken to their temples or buried with them, as their religion forbids 7 A similar respect is paid to age by the Chinese and Japanese, and even by the modern Egyptians. In this the Greeks, except the Lacedæmonians, were wanting; and the wellknown instance at the theatre, mentioned by Plutarch, agrees with what Herodotus says of them. The Jews were commanded to "rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man" (Levit. xix. 32). The mode of bowing with their hand extended towards the knee agrees with the sculptures; one hand was then placed on the other shoulder or on the heart, or on the mouth, to keep the breath from the face of a superior. (See woodcut in note 6 to ch. 177.) Some even prostrated themselves on the ground before great personages, "in obeisance bowing themselves to the earth" (Gen. xlii. 26, 28), and knelt or "bowed the knee" before them, as the people were ordered to do before Joseph (Gen. xli. 43). And it is worthy of remark that the word "abrek" or "berek" is the name applied in Arabic to the kneeling of a camel to the present day. (Cp. rûkbeh, "knee," báraka, a "blessing," from kneeling in prayer.) Before a king or a statue of a God, they often held up both arms, and uttered an exclamation, probably resembling the Io triumphe, and Io Bacche, of later times.-[G. W.], A 8 The great use of linen has been noticed above (see n.1 ch. 37). The fringes were the ends of the threads (see woodcut No. I. figs. 7, 9, in ch. 37). In some women's dresses the fringes were also left, but these were also more frequently hemmed. shirt given by Professor Rosellini (p. 113, No. I. fig. 1), has the fringes. The same custom was adopted by the Israelites (Num. xv. 38), who were ordered to sew a blue riband on the fringe of the border; which calls to mind the blue border dyed with indigo found on some Egyptian linen, though that of the Israelites was intended to prevent its tearing. The woollen upper garment was only worn in cold weather (see At. Eg. W. vol. iii. p. 344 to 351), and the prejudice against its CHAP. 79-81. NOTHING OF WOOL BURIED WITH THEM. 133 it. Here their practice resembles the rites called Orphic and Bacchic, but which are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean; " 134 MONTHS SACRED TO THE GODS. BOOK II. for no one initiated in these mysteries can be buried in a woollen shroud, a religious reason being assigned for the observance. 82. The Egyptians likewise discovered to which of the gods. each month and day is sacred;1 and found out from the day 1 This may partly be traced in the names of some of the months, as Thoth, Athor, and Pachons; and on a ceiling of the Memnonium at Thebes, and on another at Edfoo, each has a god to which it belongs. Some suppose they indicate the festivals of the gods; but this would limit the festivals to twelve in the year. It is, however, singular that the months are not called by those names, but are designated, as usual, as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of the three seasons. (See n. on ch. 4 in the Ap., CH. ii.) The Romans also made their twelve gods preside over the months; and the days of the week when introduced in late times, received the names of the sun and moon and five planets, which have been retained to the present day. The names of gods were also affixed to each day in the Egyptian almanacs, according to Charemon, in the same manner as those of saints in the modern calendar. The Egyptians divided the year into 12 months of 30 days, from the earliest times of which we have any record; and the fabulous reign of Osiris, 28 years, appears to have been taken from the 7 days of 4 weeks, or 4 weeks of years, as their period of Triacontaeterides, of 30 years, was from the month of 30 days. Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 18), too, distinctly states that "the practice of referring the days of the week to the 7 planets began among the Egyptians." The week of 7 days (sheba, ya) is mentioned at the period of the Creation, and it continued to be used in the time of the patriarchs (Gen. vii. 4; xxix. 27). It was probably of very early use among the Egyptians also, judging from the 7 days' fête of Apis and other hebdomadal divisions; but they generally make mention of decades or tens of days, which are CHAP. 81-83. DIVINATION. 135 2 of a man's birth, what he will meet with in the course of his life, and how he will end his days, and what sort of man he will be discoveries whereof the Greeks engaged in poetry have made a use. The Egyptians have also discovered more prognostics than all the rest of mankind besides. Whenever a prodigy takes place, they watch and record the result; then, if anything similar ever happens again, they expect the same consequences. 83. With respect to divination, they hold that it is a gift which no mortal possesses, but only certain of the gods: thus the time of Psammetichus II., and in the tombs of the 20th Dynasty at Thebes. The word "hour" is said to be found as early as the 5th Dynasty (see Lepsins, Band iii. Abth. ii. Bl. 72, 76), and with the name of King Assa.-[G. W.] 2 Horoscopes were of very early use in Egypt (Iambl. 8, 4), as well as the interpretation of dreams; and Cicero (De Div. i. 1) speaks of the Egyptians and Chaldees predicting future events, as well as a man's destiny at his birth, by their observations of the stars. This was done by them, as the monuments show, by observing the constel. lations that appeared on the eastern horizon at the moment of his birth, or any event they wished to decide about, took place. The fallacy of predicting a particular death from the "ascendant" at the time of any one's birth has been well exposed by Cicero, who asks, "Were all those who fell at Cannæ born under the same constellation, for they had all one and the same death ?" (De Div. ii. 47.) Interpreters of dreams were often resorted to in Egypt (Exod. xli. 8); and Diodorus (i. 25) says the prayers of the devout were rewarded in a dream by an indication of the remedies an illness required. Cicero (De Fato, 6) speaks of the belief that "any one born at the rising of the Dogstar could not be drowned in the sea."-[G. W.] 3 Yet the Egyptians sought to "the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that had familiar spirits, and to the wizards" (Is. xix. 3). Herodotus 3 probably means that none but oracles gave the real answer of the deity; and this would not prevent the "prophets" and "magicians" pretending to this art, like the μávтeis of Greece. To the Israelites it was particularly forbidden "to use divination, to be an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." (Deut. xviii. 10, 11.) It is singular that the Hebrew word nahash, "to use enchantments," is the same as the Arabic for serpent." A Gnostic Papyrus in the British Museum, sup posed to be of the 2nd century, and found in Egypt, mentions divination "through a boy with a lamp, a bowl, and a pit," very like what is now practised in Egypt and Barbary; and the employment of boys of old is mentioned by Origen and others. It also contains spells for obtaining power over spirits, for discovering a thief, for commanding another man's actions, for obtaining any wish, for preventing anything, &c. Others in the Leyden Museum contain recipes for good fortune, for procuring dreams, for making a ring to bring good fortune and success in every enterprise, for causing separation between man and wife, giving restless nights, for making oneself loved, &c. Magical tricks were practised of old also (Exod. vii. 11), and they probably became more general in later corrupt times. Publ. Cambridge Ant. Soc. Svo. No. 2.) Apuleius also mentions the magic of Egypt.-[G. W.] (See |