THE ANCIENT GOVERNMENT OF DONGOLAH.

The Meleks who formerly reigned here were of the Zebain, to which tribe belong almost all these rulers, including Melek Tumbol, Melek Nazr e’ Deen, and, in fact, all those from Sennaar to Wady Halfah, with the exception of the meleks of the Shageea tribe. The peasants under these chiefs were generally called by the names of their villages, as those of Dongolah, Dongoloue, Korti, Kortie: but, since the conquest of the Pasha, they are called Berberene; a name derived from Berber. Sheakh Muktah[43], the most intelligent Arab I have ever met with, being, like several in Upper Nubia, of the race of cadis,—son after son the chief cadi,—and, therefore, as pure a source of information as by tradition can be obtained, informed me that all these peasants are of the great tribe of Ababja from the Yemen, who came here in the reign of the fourth caliph after Mahomet, and, finding the country inhabited by infidels, drove some out, but forced the greater number to become Mussulmen; and that thus the former inhabitants became blended with the Arabs, and have not been distinguishable from them for ages. This is a curious and highly interesting tradition, proving, historically, almost, what might naturally be supposed: but I will say more on this subject in my [Historical Appendix.]

The king of Sennaar held a doubtful and precarious rule over this country, receiving, according to the character of her monarchs, more or less tribute. The brave Shageea, alone, never bent the knee to this king. Two hundred years ago, the Sultan of Sennaar, as some call him, sent here a detachment of the tribe called the Funge, to which he belonged, to keep this country under his subjection. A great many of this race are still here, and they are considered to be inferior only to the Shageea in courage. They are supposed to be originally a colony of pagans, from the Bahr el Abiad, but they have nothing of the appearance of negroes. They ruled over the country 150 years. Ibrahim was the first, and he was succeeded by his son Musnet: their united reigns lasted eighty years; they sent considerable quantities of corn, oxen, and horses to Sennaar. The descendants of Musnet enjoyed less authority over their subjects, and the tribute to Sennaar was less regularly paid.

In the year 1782 the Shageea overthrew the government of the Funge, and reigned peaceably in their stead, under three meleks,—Melek Shouish, Melek Omar, and Melek Zebair. The account Burckhardt gives of the treacherous conduct of the Mamelukes towards Mahmoud el Adalenab is very correct, as far as it goes. Hadji Mahmoud Sheakh received them with every mark of hospitality, ministered to all their wants, and was in return barbarously murdered at Maraka, this very place which is now called El Ourde, or The Camp. The following particulars of this circumstance, which I received from the best sources at Dongolah, may not be perhaps uninteresting to the reader. The Mamelukes arrived at Captot; and Sheakh Mahmoud, the chief of the Shageea, descended the river on the opposite side, with a numerous suite. He bade the Mamelukes welcome to his kingdom, and informed them that, if they wished for grain, he would furnish them gratis with any quantity they desired. He told them, also, that whatever they asked for, which he possessed, should be immediately sent to their camp; and if they were anxious, as they professed to be, to proceed up the country to Sennaar, he would supply them with provisions for the journey, but if they chose to remain at Captot Marabat, they were welcome.

Four days afterwards, fifteen Mamelukes, or katshefs, as they are called, rode up and stopped at the door of the house of the grand Cadi Mahomet, having learnt that the Sheakh Mahmoud was with him. The sheakh having come out to salute them, they complained that they had no grain for their horses. The sheakh sent immediately for a bag for each horse, and ordered his people to fill a boat with grain, and convey it to the camp. The Mamelukes appeared still dissatisfied, and would not dismount whilst their horses were feeding. But their object was soon accomplished; for, as the sheakh approached the horse of one of them, to arrange the bag of corn it was eating, and said, “This is sufficient for your horses now, and I will send you as much as you desire,” the Mameluke, who had his carabine on one side of his saddle, without putting it to his shoulder, pointed it at the sheakh, pulled the trigger, and wounded him in the breast. The sheakh had scarcely drawn his sword a few inches from the scabbard, when another fired a blunderbuss at him, containing six balls, and he fell dead: another instantly separated his head from his body, and they afterwards mangled the corpse in a horrid manner with their sabres. The Cadi Mahomet, who was with him, was killed also by a blow of a sabre, and a black slave, who was in attendance, met a similar fate. Ten of the Shageea peasants, his servants, were present at this murder, but being unarmed they could not attempt to revenge the death of their chief, and therefore fled.

The Mamelukes remained nine years masters of the country. Including the servants, they were about 600 in number. Many died here; the remainder, on the invasion of the Pasha, went to Shendy, whence they passed to Darfour, and thence to Bornou, Baghermi, Fezzan, and Tripoli. Adouram Bey, one of their leaders, was killed near the latter place; but their other leader, Marfou Bey, arrived in safety at Tripoli.

I received the greater part of this account from the most authentic source, Sheakh Muktah, my informant, being the son of the Cadi Mahomet, who perished with the unfortunate Mahmoud. I ought to mention, as some palliation of this treacherous breach of hospitality, that it is said that the Berberene, weary of the Shageea, represented to the Mamelukes that Sheakh Mahmoud was devising some plan to destroy them, and therefore they may be said to have murdered him in self-defence. The object of the Mamelukes was to possess the country; and they were glad to avail themselves of this feeble excuse to break the laws of hospitality. Great praise is due to the few who accomplished the courageous and immense undertaking of crossing the centre of Africa. Such a journey would immortalise any European, but who would attempt it? At Darfour, Brown was detained a prisoner; and in the kingdom of Bornou or Fezzan Hornemann lost his life.

CHAPTER XV.

DEPARTURE FROM DONGOLAH. — NUMEROUS VILLAGES. — ISLAND OF ARGO. — RESIDENCE OF THE MELEK. — ARAB ACCOUNTANTS. — MELEK TUMBOL. — EXTENT OF HIS TERRITORY. — ARAB MANNERS COMPARED WITH EUROPEAN. — PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARABS. — THE MELEK’S DINNER. — MILITARY FORCE. — GARDEN. — VISIT TO THE ANTIQUITIES. — NUMEROUS VESTIGES OF ANCIENT TOWNS. — COLOSSAL STATUES. — REMAINS OF A LARGE TEMPLE. — NAME OF SABACO, THE CONQUEROR OF EGYPT. — ENTERTAINMENT OF AN ARAB SHEAKH. — RICHNESS OF THE ISLAND. — INDIGO. — ETHIOPIAN FORT. — CATARACT OF TOUMBOS. — MUTILATED COLOSSAL STATUE. — HOSPITALITY OF AN ARAB SHEAKH. — CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS. — HIPPOPOTAMUS. — ALARMING INTELLIGENCE. — REVOLT OF THE MAHAS. — DREADFUL CONSEQUENCES. — OUR PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE. — ARAB STORIES OF TRAVELLERS.

April 16. We left Dongolah at three this afternoon, and, after three hours’ march, stopped at Mecaurat. Our route has been on the skirt of the desert, about half a mile from the river. I ought to acknowledge here the civilities which we received from M. Martin, a French apothicaire, in the employ of the Pasha, who showed us every attention in his power, allowing to us a part of his house. I must not forget, also, the kind attentions of his lady, an Abyssinian girl; pretty, and, at the same time, kind and affectionate. In return for a small mirror, which I gave her, she presented me with a Sennaar dagger, with an ebony handle, ornamented with silver. I keep it as a remembrance of “la bella Maria.”

April 17. An hour and a half after starting, we arrived at a government store-house: adjoining it were several cottages in ruins. After ten hours’ journey, we arrived at Haffeer. The following is a list of villages and islands between New Dongolah and the province of El Mahas:—

East.Islands.West.
MeegasseerKaptot
Argo IslandGeradaWady Sais
IrseMecaurat
BinneBinni
AffidabMerouertiQuay
BoulinartiMuste
BourgosBadeen.AttikarhaHaffeer
SelinartiSerog
MagassarCoban
AshlianDakartiAkkidi
ToumbosToumbosHannek.

In the desert, at a distance, there are isolated hills, apparently of sandstone. On arriving, we visited the katshef of Haffeer, who received us very politely; the Mahmoor having spontaneously furnished me with different letters for the officers in his government: one for the melek of Argo and the katshef of Solib, &c.

At my request, the katshef immediately ordered a boat to be prepared to convey us to the Island of Argo, which I was anxious to examine, not only on account of its great extent, and the antiquities it contained, but also because it is the only place in Upper Nubia under the government of its rightful owner, who alone, of all the meleks, possesses now a shadow of his ancient authority.

April 18. An hour’s sail, with a fair wind, brought us to the northern extremity of the island, where the village is situated in which the melek resides. I went to his castle, which is fortified with towers (see [vignette]), and protected on one side by a high wall. It is capable of making some defence against an insurrection of the natives.

The court we entered first was filled with slaves of the melek, who, I was informed, including male and female, amounted to upwards of 200, living either in or around his residence. I ascended from the court, by ill-constructed steps, similar to, but not quite so good as, those we have in England for granaries, and entered into a divan, or audience-room, which had quite the appearance, and was about the size, of a small English barn. Around a part of the room was a divan of earth, besides which there were four angoureebs, or cord divans, covered with carpets and cushions. The roof is of a slanting form, resembling that of a barn: the wooden logs of which it is made are blackened by the smoke of the fires. The beams consist each of two pieces of timber, which are supported and kept together, at their junction, by a rough pillar that stands in the centre of the room. To retain this in its place, and bind it to the beam, there are slips of wood, about one foot long, on each side of the pillar, under the beam; and on these the ancient Egyptian and Ethiopian ornament of the globe and feathers is carved. It is more rudely executed than the ancient, but still it is curious to find even a vestige of this ornament in a modern Ethiopian habitation. The doorway, and, indeed, the house altogether, is rudely constructed, but much stronger and better than Arab houses in general. The appearance of the outside is superior to that of the interior.

The melek was out when we arrived. The brick divan already mentioned was partly occupied by his Arab accountants. In almost every village there is a little school, or rather, I should say, hut, which is used as such, and there are few of the peasants who have not made an attempt to learn to read and write; but, to use their own estimate, there is not one in a hundred whose knowledge extends beyond the alphabet, and putting together a few words. There are very few who can write, and none who know any thing of arithmetic. There are, however, some few of the sheakhs and others, who, from their learning, are called fakeers, and who are good Arabic scholars.

When we entered, the melek’s cash-keepers were counting the money they were receiving from the peasants, and settling their accounts with the assistance of their strings of beads. In this room, also, besides the servants, there were several relations, brothers and nephews, of the melek’s, but not distinguishable by their dress from the other Arabs.

After we had waited a short time, Melek Tumbol arrived, attended by about twenty of his people on horseback. The meleks whom I have hitherto seen have been generally fine tall men, having often an appearance really noble, and sometimes even majestic. The melek of Argo, on the contrary, is the most diminutive personage I have seen in the country: he has a good-tempered countenance, but, on close examination, something cunning in his expression, and nothing noble or imposing in his appearance. He was dressed simply as an Arab sheakh, except that his clothes were of a finer quality. He wore a long white fine cotton shirt, covering him from the neck to the feet, with very long and wide sleeves. He had a fine white Souakim shawl, with the usual red border hanging over his shoulder. His head-dress consisted of the red cloth cap (tarboush), with one of the silk Turkish handkerchiefs around it. He received us with the usual Arab politeness, read the Mahmoor’s letter, and entreated me to make his house my own. They presented us with coffee and pipes, in the Turkish fashion, and also with sherbet.

The islands and villages on the eastern side of the Nile are under his dominion; having belonged, according to his own account, from time immemorial to his family. He has within his territory, 925 water wheels, besides the land on the banks, which is cultivated after the inundation, and irrigated by hand labour.

When Ismael Pasha invaded this country, Melek Tumbol immediately joined his party, and furnished him with provisions for the army. In consequence of his services on that occasion, the Pasha has allowed him to remain in the command of his territories, and given to him the rank and pay of a katshef; and I am told he expects to be made a mahmoor: he is rich in dromedaries, horses, and slaves, and allowed to have ten water wheels gratis. His subjects have heavier taxes to pay than formerly, but they may consider themselves fortunate in not having inflicted on them the presence of their rulers. Not one Turk or Arab soldier resides on his territory.

Before the arrival of the melek, I was amused with the conversation of his servants. They spoke of his generosity as that of the greatest prince; stating, that, when a peasant gave him a sheep or a goat, he immediately presented in return a camel or a cow; and they added numerous similar instances of generosity, which with the Arabs is the noblest of virtues.

We told the melek that we wished to see the antiquities on his island. He expressed his willingness to forward our views; but, as they were four hours distant, and it was then late, he hoped we would delay our visit until the morning. I was not sorry to be thus obliged to pass the night with this chief, as I am always glad of an opportunity of making myself better acquainted with the Arab customs. There is something so simple and sincere in their hospitality and manner of living, that, unintellectual as their society is, I must confess it is not without its charm. The luxurious divan; the tranquillising pipe; the grateful sherbet and delicious coffee; and the ease and quiet of Oriental society, are not trifling enjoyments in this clime, the scorching heat of which alone inclines man to repose.

This is not a country for brilliant conversation and animated discussion: the former would be too great mental fatigue; and the warmth and excitement which the latter sometimes occasions, if not positively fatal, would certainly be extremely prejudicial to health, when the thermometer is above 100° in the shade. The Turks sit on their divans, and the Arabs on their angoureebs, and smoke the whole of the day. There is not the slightest obligation to converse; they sit and look at each other, and amuse themselves with their pipes, thoughts, castle-building, or business.

Unless you keep them occupied with your enquiries, long pauses often occur in the conversation, as if they were reflecting on what you had said. One advantage of their society is, that the conversation flows naturally, for not even the host considers any effort necessary to keep it up. A man in this country is not considered stupid because he has the sense not to talk nonsense. When any of them tell a tale, or make an assertion, however improbable they may be, politeness, aversion to discussion, and perhaps indolence, generally prevent the others from disputing, or making any remarks upon it. When a council is held upon subjects of importance, and each person is asked for his opinion, greater harmony could not exist in any assembly: the highest in rank expresses his sentiments on the subject first, and the others almost invariably coincide with him.

If a peasant had enough to support himself and family, even in a miserable manner, he would never labour to make himself more comfortable, but spend his time in the enjoyment of idleness, sleeping and smoking; he would, as the Berbers have been described as doing, sit for hours together in the shade, in the same position, without thought or care, with few ideas, and no wish to obtain more.

Their philosophy, however, is remarkable: scarcely an hour of their lives is embittered with useless regrets. They are totally free from that anxiety for the morrow which agitates Europeans, and prevents the enjoyment of the present good, by their insatiable thirst after greater happiness. An Arab never distresses himself, as we too often do, with imaginary evils; he is the child of destiny, and never torments himself with the apprehension of a misfortune which, if it is really approaching, he believes it out of his power to prevent. Niebuhr gives an extraordinary instance of their philosophy.[44]

This temperament is certainly more suitable to the climate, than the feverish anxiety, the angry passions, and restless ambition, which drive content from the abodes of so many Europeans. It is true, the Arabs are ignorant of the high intellectual enjoyments of literary and scientific pursuits, and of the pleasures, luxuries, and refinements of polished life; yet few, perhaps, will deny, that the man who is contented under any circumstances, who immediately becomes resigned to the caprices of fortune, who scarcely knows the meaning of the words worldly care, and is unagitated by any regret for past pleasures, or aching desire to obtain additional enjoyments, is possessed of a certain degree of practical, and not useless, philosophy.

Pl. 33.

On stone by W. Walton, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

COLOSSAL STATUE IN THE ISLAND OF ARGO.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

At twelve o’clock dinner was served up; and as the style was different from any I had hitherto seen, and is that usual with the kings of this country, a short description may not be uninteresting. Two mats were laid on the floor, on which we were invited to seat ourselves: they were rather hard, and not excessively clean. The dinner was served in six large wooden bowls, and the bread, which is made into thin light cakes, in elegant baskets of coloured straw, manufactured in Sennaar. The dinner consisted of mutton, fowls, bamia (Hibiscus esculentus), and an excellent omelet in a smaller dish, prepared expressly for myself by the wives of the melek. Raw onions, which are considered particularly healthy in this climate, and which, being much milder than ours, are not unpalatable, particularly after they have been soaked in water, were presented to each of us. I dined on the omelet, the other dishes being liquid, and so exceedingly hot, that I burnt my fingers in attempting to taste them.

The melek sat down with us, but did not eat much; he dines always in his harem. Of the latter I should say something en passant. I was informed elsewhere that he has had twenty-one, or, as some said, thirty-two, wives, all daughters or relations of other meleks. He is said now to have only three. He has no sons, but two beautiful daughters, unmarried, who, however, already take a share in the government. My servant saw one of them on an adjoining small island, where she resides with her slaves, and sends the produce to her father.

After we had dined, and quitted the mats, my servants and his cash-keepers sat down; and what they left was cleared by the servants of the melek. After washing, we had sherbet, coffee, and pipes. The melek then went to sleep, according to the Arab and Turkish custom. In the afternoon we walked about the place, and saw the ruins of the ancient village. The inhabitants of this island suffered severely from the inroads of the Shageea, with whom they were almost always at war. The Melek of Argo was able to collect a force of 700 men, many of them armed with coats of mail, of German manufacture. I wished to see these; but he said they were all in the possession of the Pasha of Egypt. This may be true of some of them; but, no doubt, the greater part he had secreted, aware that the day may arrive when he may require them.

The present melek has a small plantation of vines and pomegranates, which flourish luxuriantly in this country. He procured the plants a few years ago from Egypt; and seems to be prouder of his little garden than of any thing else he possesses. We had a supper in the same style as the dinner; and our beds were the angoureebs on which we had been sitting all the day, with a carpet for a mattress, and no other covering than our cloaks.

Island of Argo.—April 18. The melek, perceiving my impatience to visit the antiquities, provided my artist and myself with excellent horses, while my dragoman, and our guide, his nephew, accompanied us on dromedaries. We rode through the centre of the island, which is entirely uncultivated, but planted with acacias, like a shrubbery. The soil is capable of cultivation; and only a more extensive knowledge of hydraulics appears required to enable the people to irrigate and cultivate the whole of the island.

We set out at five o’clock, and, after two hours’ ride (about ten miles), reached the site of a small town or village, with merely a few bricks remaining. An hour afterwards we arrived at a similar place, and in ten minutes more at a third. Twenty minutes from the latter, being three hours and a half from the time that we started, we arrived at the antiquities which were the object of our excursion. The distance, from the rate we travelled, may be about eighteen miles.

Pl. 34.

On stone by W. Walton, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

COLOSSAL STATUE IN THE ISLAND OF ARGO.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The antiquities amply repaid us for the trouble of visiting them. They consist chiefly of two colossal statues of grey granite, now lying on the ground. The faces are Egyptian, but the sculpture is Ethiopian; not in a very good style, the forms being extremely bulky and clumsy. The length, including the pedestal, which is 2 feet 10 inches, is 23 feet. One statue has lost part of its arms; the other is broken into two pieces, but the features are less injured. They have never been quite finished; which is, doubtless the reason that neither is ornamented with hieroglyphics. The figures are placed in the usual standing position of Egyptian statues, one foot advanced before the other. The one that is broken has on the left foot a small statue. (See my picturesque views and architectural restoration, Plates [XXXIII.,] [XXXIV.,] and [XXXV.]) The ornaments around their necks and ankles are curious, and quite Ethiopian. The wreath around the head-dress of one of them is that of a conqueror; which I conceive to afford a strong ground for conjecturing that these statues were erected in commemoration of the conquest of Egypt: but I am led to this conclusion principally from the circumstance of the only name in hieroglyphics now remaining here being that of Sabaco, the first king of the Ethiopian dynasty who conquered and reigned over Egypt.

The circumstance of the statues not being finished, may be accounted for by the brief duration, at that period, of the Ethiopian dominion over this part of the country. The statues erected to celebrate the triumph of their arms in Egypt would naturally be thrown down by the Egyptian invaders. Psammitichus, the first king of the 26th dynasty, who reigned immediately after the Ethiopians, and whose territory, we know, from the Greek inscription at Abou Simbel, certainly extended as far as the second cataract, might have conquered this part of Ethiopia, and thrown down the statues of a king naturally so hateful to the Egyptians. They seem, like the two celebrated statues at Thebes, to have ornamented the entrance of a temple, for behind them is a considerable space covered with sandstone, all in small pieces, but evidently the ruins of a large temple.

Forty paces behind these colossals is a beautiful fragment of a small seated statue, without a head, and half buried in the ruins: the name of Sabaco is engraved on it in hieroglyphics; and 43 paces behind the latter is a group of six small monkeys, very much mutilated, and almost buried in the ground. The ruins of the temple extend 20 paces farther. It may have been perhaps from 250 to 300 feet long; but, profiting by the softness of the sandstone, the stones seem to have been studiously broken into the smallest fragments. There are, unfortunately, no hieroglyphics, except the name of Sabaco, before mentioned, remaining either on the statues or any of the stones; and, from the degree in which the edifice is destroyed, I did not conceive that, at all events, much advantage would be derived from excavation.

The name of this town is unknown; and, though the temple appears to have been considerable, the remains afford no ground to suppose that the place was of great importance. There is every reason to believe, however, that the Island of Argo was formerly much more flourishing than now. The different remains of ancient towns in the interior, now surrounded merely with acacia groves and uncultivated plains, prove the cultivation, at that time, to have been much more extended, and the island to have contained not only better built cities, but also a civilised population acquainted with the arts.

A sheakh, from a village at a short distance from the ruins, sent us some excellent bread and milk; and, when our work was finished, we went to his house, and reposed on his angoureebs,—luxuries which every peasant possesses: we also partook of some dates, bouza, and palm wine; the latter is like the honey of dates only more diluted with water. Strabo speaks of the Ethiopian beverage made of honey and barley; and also adds, that the only fruit in that country are a few dates in the royal gardens. After requiting the sheakh for his attention, we returned by the bank of the river to Melek Tumbol’s house.

Pl. 35.

RESTORATION OF THE TWO COLOSSAL STATUES IN THE ISLAND OF ARGO.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The country was rich and beautiful, and I observed a great quantity of indigo. In the melek’s territory, there are 500 water-wheels employed in the cultivation of this plant. It requires much water, each wheel being sufficient to irrigate on an average only three quarters of a feddan of land.

April 19. We dined and slept last night with the melek, and left him this morning soon after sunrise. We gave a backsheesh (present) of money to his servants, and, in return for his attention, I gave him the amber mouth-piece of my pipe. We returned in his boat to Haffeer; but as it was navigated by only two mariners, and sailed ill, I there procured another from the katshef to visit the granite quarries near the village of Toumbos.

On the east side, almost directly opposite to Haffeer, there is a brick ruin, half an hour’s walk from the river. I perceived, at a distance, that it was of no importance; but recollecting that Cailliaud mentioned it in his work as resembling the towers represented in the sculptures at Thebes, I visited it on foot, for want of any conveyance, and suffered severely from the scorching, almost vertical, mid-day sun. The ruin being situated in the desert, my feet, unprotected with stockings, which I have long since discarded, were dreadfully burnt by the hot soft sand, in which we sank, at every step, considerably above the shoes. This ruin has not the slightest resemblance to the towers in the sculpture at Thebes. It has been apparently for ages so much decayed, as scarcely to present any other form than that of a mere mass of brickwork; but I conceive it to be Ethiopian, and very ancient. It is difficult to imagine what has been its exact form (see [vignette]); but it has evidently not resembled, in any respect, the elegant fortresses represented on the walls of Thebes. The entrance into it, as will be seen by the view, is partly remaining. The name of the village near it is Korma.

RUIN OF AN ETHIOPIAN FORT.

We were two hours in descending the river to Toumbos. Immediately before arriving, we passed the first of the cataracts of Hennek. The country (see [vignette]) is very pleasing, flat, not romantic or picturesque, like the scenery between Philæ and Assuan; but the luxuriance of the vegetation on the islands, the acacias in the foreground, the picturesque groups of palm trees, the masses of rock impeding the current, and varying the tint of the river by the white surges they create, and, in the distance, the yellow sands, formed altogether a soft and lovely landscape. The rocks of the third cataract, at least here, are of grey granite.

A very short distance from the river, on a granite rock, called Hadjer el Dehab, or the Golden Stone, is a large historical tablet of hieroglyphics, with the common Egyptian ornament above it, of the globe, serpents, and wings. The hieroglyphics have been well executed, but are now so defaced that few of them are distinguishable. I copied a small portion of it containing the name of Thothmes I.; and in another small tablet adjoining, I observed the prænomen of Amunoph III.

CATARACT OF HENNEK.

From the similarity of this granite, I think it evident that the statues of Argo have been taken from these quarries. There is here also another statue, twelve feet in length, much injured, but in a tolerably good style of sculpture (see [vignette,] page 218). The head has been destroyed, perhaps by some accident in separating it from the rock, or rather in conveying it to its destination.

The katshef of Haffeer, through some misunderstanding, I suppose, had informed me that Toumbos was distant only half an hour’s or an hour’s sail. We, therefore, brought with us neither provisions, beds, nor coverings. On arriving at Toumbos, the sheakh invited us to pass the night with him. By the time we had finished our drawings and examination of the quarries, it was almost night, and, the wind having subsided, it was impossible to cross the cataract. We, therefore, gladly accepted his hospitality, having had nothing to eat since morning but grain, heated a little over the fire, with salt. The Arabs are fond of grain prepared in this manner; and, mixed with a few dates, it is not disagreeable.

The sheakh first conducted us into a ruined house, now used as a mosque, rather miserable-looking, close to the river, and therefore cold, especially for us, who had no covering. The heat of the day being so excessive, the fresh air of the night, and particularly of the morning, feels extremely chill. I complained of this accommodation, at which he seemed vexed, and asked my servant if we wished to sleep in his harem. Our complaint, however, procured us a comfortable room in his own house, good angoureebs, covered with mats and skins to lie on, a cheerful wood fire, and a good supper of excellent bread and milk, with a large bowl of meat. We had therefore no reason to complain of the sheakh’s hospitality.

COLOSSAL STATUE IN THE QUARRIES OF TOUMBOS.

April 20. At sunrise, after remunerating the sheakh for his attentions with a present of money, which I conceived would be the most acceptable that could be offered, we profited by a slight breeze, and, with the assistance of three of the peasants, passed the cataract. The sheakh gave me the not uncommon salutation at parting of “Minsh Allah rasak taip!”—“May God preserve your head from harm!” in a tone which appeared to me curious at the time, but which, I conceived, might allude to the passing of the cataract; though, as will soon be seen, before the setting of the sun, I understood his meaning. Soon afterwards, being becalmed, we pressed into our service a dozen peasants, who dragged us along with a cord.

This morning, and also yesterday, we saw on an island of sand, near Haffeer, a large hippopotamus. This is the only one that now remains in this part of the river, or so far to the northward. Here, too, it is said that this animal flies from the approach of man, and even from the boats. Each time that we approached the isle, it darted into the water. There were, a short time ago, several in this part of the river; but Melek Tumbol told me that he and his people had destroyed all of them, with the exception of this one, which had always eluded their pursuit. We did not arrive at Haffeer until one in the afternoon, half-famished, having had nothing for breakfast but a small handful of grain.

We received intelligence there which threw us into the greatest consternation. The province of Mahas, which commences at Hannek, one hour’s journey north from this place, and extends as far as Sukkot, has broken out into insurrection. The dreadful consequences of this event, cutting off completely my return to Egypt and Europe, and making me a prisoner Heaven knows how long; also the uncertainty of how widely the flame may spread, and what may be the result, caused me the greatest anxiety. I am informed there are already 300 insurgents collected, and that their number increases hourly.

The reason ascribed for this revolt is, that the government refused to accept in part payment of their taxes the linen cloths made in the country. The owners of each water-wheel, besides grain to the amount of five dollars, pay also fifteen in cash: the difficulty of realising this sum may be easily conceived in a country where there are no markets, little or no commerce, and that generally carried on by exchange. The katshef of Haffeer, on hearing, this morning, that they had murdered a kaimacam (officer), and three soldiers, within two hours’ march of his residence, hastened to the spot with about thirty soldiers, being all the forces he could muster. The insurgents had retired upon an island. He buried the three men the Mahas had killed, and brought away the other, whom they had severely wounded in various places, and left as dead. The katshef informed me, that, as he could not desert his post, he intended to shut himself up in the indigo manufactory, which was partly fortified. I immediately ordered my camels to be loaded for our return to Ourde, or New Dongolah, for it is now impossible to proceed on our journey north.

That dress which has hitherto been our protection, and procured us every where respect, now makes us a mark for the attack of the insurgents. They would never suppose that any friend of theirs would wear the costume of their oppressors. In our nizam dresses we should certainly be taken for Turks, and perhaps murdered in a summary manner. We have every reason to thank Providence that we were detained a day at Argo, otherwise our fate was inevitable, for we should have been exactly in the centre of the revolt at the very moment when it broke out. In these countries, where Europeans are almost unknown, except the few who, being in the service of the Pasha, are considered as Turks, the natives only distinguish two classes,—their own countrymen, and the white men, their tyrants and oppressors. We could not have expected to be spared, even had they recognised us as travellers: for they would have murdered us for the treasures which they imagine we find among the ruins.

It were endless to enumerate the ridiculous stories which the Arabs relate of these fancied discoveries. I will, however, mention one or two, as characteristic. On our return from the colossal statues in the Island of Argo, to the house of Melek Tumbol, one of his cash-keepers asked me if we had found any gold; and he stated as a fact to a crowd of Arabs in the room (swearing by his beard and the prophet), that at a ruin called Dendera, in Egypt, he accompanied two Englishmen, who obtained an immense treasure. The devil refused it until they should give him a water melon, to allay his thirst. The Englishman then sent him all the way to Kennah for the melon, and that as soon as the devil smelt the fine odour of the fruit, gold came down like rain. This the man declared he had seen with his own eyes, and all the Arabs implicitly believed him.

At Gibel el Birkel, the natives conceived that my excavations were made only to find gold; and they supposed me less fortunate, or less clever, than the last European, a noble Lord, who visited those ruins, who was stated to have found such a quantity, in the form of a granite lion, that he was obliged to have a boat from Dongolah to carry it down to Egypt.

CHAPTER XVI.

RETURN TO NEW DONGOLAH. — THE GOVERNOR. — HIS INDECISION. — GENERAL ALARM. — INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR. — HIS DIFFICULT SITUATION AND WANT OF ENERGY. — INCREASE OF THE INSURGENTS. — RETREAT OF THE KATSHEF OF HAFFEER. — TROOPS MARCHED OUT AGAINST THE INSURGENTS. — FEARS ABOUT THE RESULT. — THEIR ARMY. — THE BATTLE. — EFFECTS OF THE REVOLT. — ROADS IMPASSABLE. — RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION. — TURKISH AND ARAB EVOLUTIONS. — HASSANYEH. — FUNGE. — CURIOUS ASSEMBLAGE. — LULULOO OF THE WOMEN. — TURKISH SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE PROVINCES, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE PEASANTRY AND ARABS OF THE DESERT ABOVE WADY HALFAH.

El Ourde, or New Dongolah.—April 21. Immediately on my arrival, I paid a visit to the governor, but was not received; for, notwithstanding the general alarm which exists on account of the insurrection, he could not deny himself his mid-day nap. In the evening I was more successful. The more I see of this man, the more I feel alarmed about the length of time I may be detained, and what may be the result of this unfortunate affair, for I perceive clearly he is incapable of taking any resolution. He complained of not having force sufficient. I advised him to adopt the common Turkish system of offering a general pardon and lighter taxes, or muster all his forces, and crush, at once, a movement which, in a country like this, was likely to spread so rapidly.

April 29. A week passed without any plan being determined upon. I had not chosen to renew my advice, perceiving what I had already given to be fruitless. The greatest panic existed in the town. Some proposed to fly up the country; others, to reach Egypt by crossing the desert by Selemeh. We had, every day, some new and false rumour, that other districts had revolted, and that the whole valley of the Nile, from Wady Halfah to the extremity of the Pasha’s dominions, was on the point of throwing off the yoke of their oppressors. Sometimes the insurgents were reported to be within an hour’s march of the town, preparing to attack it. Muskets were distributed, the cannons prepared, and we were all to fight for our lives. At length, the officers, who are a despicable set, became refractory: some refused to march, while others were anxious to commence operations. The governor was undecided; some officers of the divan advised one course, and some another; and, while he vacillated between them, day passed after day, without any plan being adopted.

Foreseeing the consequences of this irresolution, while discontent was spreading even among the government troops, and the insurgents daily increasing, I determined to make one effort more to rouse him from his lethargy, and persuade him to adopt some vigorous measure. I, therefore, visited him, accompanied by a Greek dragoman, with whom the governor, being a Turk from the Morea, could converse in the Romaic without any other person in the divan understanding our discourse. I thus obtained the best chance of my advice being followed, by sparing his amour propre, of which he had a considerable stock.

I apologised for the liberty I was taking; conscious that, as a stranger, I had no right to interfere with his administration; but that my fate was linked with his, as the success of my own plans depended on his being able to restore order and tranquillity to the country. In return, too, for his attentions, I was anxious, if possible, to be of service to him; I regretted his present difficult situation, particularly as I saw him surrounded by men guided more by their passions than by reason. To my surprise, he raised up his head, which generally hangs over his knees, almost touching them, and expressed his willingness to listen to, and follow, my counsel. Tormented as he has been, for several days, with the insolent dictation of his officers, each insisting on some wild scheme of his own, he turned a ready ear to my suggestions, which were, of course, disinterested. Each officer, on the contrary, hoped, if his plan should be adopted, and be successful, that he might have the merit of the victory, and obtain, in consequence, a present from the Pasha.

I urged the governor to send to some of the sheakhs up the Nile, who are strongly attached to the government, and have no affection for the Mahas, to assemble their forces; and also to Melek Tumbol, who is said to have a force of 500 men, while the former could muster 600 men, and both would be quite willing to join the government. The governor had imprudently ordered the soldiers scattered in the different villages to assemble, under the katshefs and kaimacams, in bands of fifty. This had caused great dissatisfaction, by showing that he distrusted the fidelity of the peasants; and the measure was useless, except in affording a security for the lives of the soldiers, which, after all, was only apparent; for bands of fifty were too small to keep extensive districts in subjection, or protect themselves against the united attacks of the peasantry. I urged the governor to send for these troops to replace the garrison here, which he might thus be enabled to send out against the revolters. He consented to this proposition very reluctantly.

To my surprise, he informed me that he had sent no courier to Cairo. He had despatched one to Khartoun, in the hopes of procuring a reinforcement from that district. I did not think it probable that the government there would risk its security by sending part of their force to Dongolah: but it was great neglect not to inform all the governors around of the revolt, that they might guard against any attempts within their own territories; particularly as it is rumoured, though, probably, without foundation, that this is only the first explosion of a grand conspiracy, formed by the people, throughout Upper Nubia, to avail themselves of the present opportunity, whilst the Pasha is engaged with the war in Syria, to throw off his yoke.

The number of soldiers here at present is 200, part of a regiment of invalids sent to this province, being of no use at Cairo; the remainder of the regiment is scattered, as I have said, in small parties, about the province. As the Arab and Turkish merchants in the bazaar are more than sufficient to protect the citadel, and their fidelity may be relied upon, their lives and property being at stake, I urged the governor to send off the troops in the garrison without delay; and he promised that he would do so as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made. I advised him also to mount guards on the citadel, to dispel the panic which existed, and prevent the possibility of the place being surprised.

April 30. The katshef of Haffeer arrived, without having received permission from the governor to abandon his post, but conceiving it impossible, with only 50 men, to protect the indigo house, which is but partially fortified, against the threatened attack of the insurgents. He stated the force of the latter to be 1500 men; and a courier arrived last night, with the intelligence, that yesterday more soldiers were killed, and that another party of fifty only escaped through the means of an Arab sheakh, abandoning their baggage, and, mirabile dictu for Turks, also their pipes!

May 1. The troops, 150 in number (leaving 50 in the citadel), marched out this morning against the Mahas. They were accompanied by 120 volunteers, some of them mounted. The Hassanyeh and Funge, 500 strong, and Melek Tumbol on the opposite bank, with 500 more, are waiting to join them. They took with them one piece of cannon, an eight-pounder, on which they rested their chief hopes of success. The review of these warriors caused a great sensation in this little capital. The governor had distributed muskets and ammunition to all the merchants who joined the expedition, and also to those who remained in garrison. Each man was trying his weapon by firing it off. The women were weeping, and demonstrating their grief, according to the custom of the country, by a peculiar lululoo, caused by drawing their breath, and shaking their tongues between their lips, at the same time waving their hands, in sign of wishes for their husbands’ success.

Considering how this expedition was composed, I was almost doubtful of its success. The soldiers and officers were the refuse of the Pasha’s army; the merchants a confused mass; the commander notorious for cowardice; the cannon in the hands of men not renowned for their skill in engineering; and it seemed doubtful whether friendship to the Turks, the rancour of ancient feuds, or even the hope of plunder, be sufficient motives to induce the Hassanyeh Arabs and Melek Tumbol’s forces to act against their neighbours, fighting for their liberty, to free themselves from a grievous and intolerable yoke, and who had placed their all upon the die,—death or victory. The governor himself reviewed the troops outside the walls, and gave his last directions. How ridiculous this expedition would have appeared in Europe! It reminded me of the army of Bombastes Furioso; and the Mahmoor might have dismissed them with the same words,—

“Begone, brave soldiers, don’t kick up a row!”

May 2 and 3. were spent in great anxiety about the result of the expedition. Rumours were spread that the government troops were defeated, and that the Mahas were coming to attack the citadel.

May 4. This morning news arrived of the engagement, and that the Pasha’s troops had gained the victory. On the 10th, they and the merchants returned, and I received from some sensible Turkish merchants, on whose authority I could depend, the following account of the battle. The insurgents, 1300 strong, at three o’clock in the afternoon advanced to attack the government forces, encamped a little below Hannek. Their chief, Melek Backeet, sent round 300 of his men to intercept the enemy’s retreat; for it never occurred to the brave warriors of Mahas that they could possibly be defeated. If they had possessed any degree of judgment, or been less confident, and had made the attack during the night, they would probably have succeeded; for at that time no sentinels or guards were established, and the greatest confusion reigned in the Turkish camp.

About 150 of the Mahas had guns, but very bad ones, mostly matchlocks, and they were very ill supplied with ammunition. They were variously armed; some with lances, shields, German swords (see various plates of costumes); while others had only swords made of the acacia wood, about four feet long, rounded at one end for the hand, the rest cut thin, flat, and sharpened at both sides,—a heavy but formidable weapon in the hands of an athletic Arab. Others had staves only. Sentences in Arabic were written by the fakeers, on the wooden swords and staves; on some of them lines from the Koran: the most common were,—“May God give me force to destroy my enemies!” “May my foes tremble before me!” “May the acacia sword be as the sharp steel in my hand!” I have seen a staff similarly shaped in the museum at Berlin, with hieroglyphics on it; the latter I could not examine, as it was on a shelf, at too great a distance to be read.

Twelve Turks on horseback accompanied the troops; to whom, with the Arab merchants (Jelabs), and about 500 Hassanyeh, must be ascribed the honour of the victory. Melek Tumbol’s Arabs were on the opposite side of the river, and the soldiers of the government were so placed by their skilful commander, behind their own friends, that they could not fire a single shot. The general, usually a great talker, became miraculously silent when the engagement commenced; and, knowing the value of his person, very prudently placed it out of danger. The artillerymen fired the cannon sixty-two times, only wounding one man: but, to give them their due, I was informed by several, that the victory was chiefly gained by the noise they made.

To the astonishment of the brave Mahas, the government forces, or rather the merchants, undeterred by their cries of “Cip! cap!” and dancing round and round (see view of the Shageea fighting, [Plate XXXVIII.]), returned the shaking of their spears with a good discharge of musketry, while the Hassanyeh made a sharp attack. An engagement of a few minutes ended in the unfortunate Mahas flying to the river. Numbers were shot sitting on the rocks and islands, and others in crossing the stream: altogether about 120 perished.

The regular troops, not having fired a ball during the engagement, discharged their muskets in the air to celebrate their victory; and the brave commander, now quite loquacious, gratified his thirst for blood by the massacre of two unfortunate young prisoners, who fell into his hands. Melek Backeet, the chief of the Mahas, is said to be concealed in the country, but that feudal attachment to their chief, which is so strong among all the Arabs, will secure him against being discovered.

A general pardon having been proclaimed, according to the usual Turkish system, until the government feels itself sufficiently strong to punish the delinquents, several of the inferior sheaks have accepted the amnesty offered by the governor, and the peasants are returning to their occupations. Many of the water-wheels are injured, and a great number of the working oxen killed by the Mahas. The loss to the government cannot, it is said, be less than 5000l.

My chief apprehension now is, that the roads will be infested by the most desperate of the Mahas, acting as brigands; among others, by their chief: we are therefore still detained here until this man is taken, or has left the country, and tranquillity is entirely restored. Several caravans of merchants are likewise deterred from going down to Egypt. They thus incur a large expense, having to maintain a number of slaves; but they seem greatly afraid of encountering the journey. I proposed forming a great caravan, but they coolly replied, that they should wait until the full moon, and, in the mean time, see whether I passed safely.

Pl. 38.

SHAGEEA FIGHTING.

On stone by Walton from a Drawing by L. Bandoni.
Printed by C. Hullmandel.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

May 11. The return of the expedition was celebrated with great rejoicings. The Mahmoor, shortly after sunrise, reviewed about 300 troops, who have arrived, within these few days, from Handek, Meroueh, and other parts of the province; he marched out with these, and joined the armament encamped at a short distance from the walls, and all together then entered the citadel, in procession. The governor, at the head of the regular troops, who kept up a continual fire, went foremost, followed by the Turks and sheakhs on horseback, going through their evolutions, which consisted in a kind of mock battle, where they certainly displayed admirable horsemanship; sometimes galloping at full speed, suddenly halting, and wheeling round and round, the Turks firing their pistols, and the sheakhs brandishing their lances. Some of the meleks and sheakhs made a very picturesque appearance, being well mounted, with their peculiar costumes, lances, swords, and shields, the latter of the hide of the hippopotamus. After these came the Jelabs, or merchants of the bazaar, making liberal use of the muskets and ammunition given to them by the governor. Then followed a great number of the Hassanyeh, and some few of the Shageea Arabs, mounted on camels, dromedaries, or horses, and some on foot, going through their evolutions as in battle, brandishing their spears, leaping in the air, first on one leg, then on the other, at the same time turning round and shouting their war cry, “Cip! cap!” and beating their shields with their spears. Lastly came a tribe, formerly mentioned, the Funge,—fine athletic men, said to be very brave. They wear, like the others, their garments in the antique style, and their heads, as is the custom of the Arabs of the desert, uncovered, but protected from the sun by bushy tresses, reaching almost to the shoulders.

The coup-d’œil was rendered particularly striking, by the variety of costumes, complexions, and arms, and the singularity of the evolutions. We saw in one field the regular troops, Fellahs from Egypt, marching and firing in the European manner; the natives of the Caucasus, the Turks, exhibiting their more dashing Mameluke exercise; but neither of them attracted half so much my attention as the wild extraordinary manœuvres of the dark peasants of the country and the Arabs of the desert. I should not forget, also, the cries of the women. The house-tops, and the walls of the citadel, were covered with them, cackling (I think that the most appropriate term) a welcome to their husbands in the same curious manner I have before described; but on this occasion the note was different, being expressive of joy at their return.

The governor, afraid of the Pasha’s censuring, and, perhaps, dismissing him, on account of this affair, pays, from his own purse, the expense of the expedition; and he has made a present of 100 piastres to each Turk, 50 to each melek, 30 to each sheakh, of 10 to each peasant and merchant. He pays for the gunpowder also,—no trifle, since, beside what was consumed in the action, they have been firing ever since, to indulge their fondness for the report of a gun, under the plea of celebrating the governor’s triumph. The day is to be devoted to feasting and rejoicing. Those who can afford it have killed cows, others sheep. The mallums, the Coptic treasurers and writers of the government, are now very conspicuously exhibiting their joy. They have been terribly alarmed during this affair; conceiving, perhaps with some reason, that, besides their office, and having the character of being individually rich, their obnoxious titles of Christian dogs and tax-gatherers would have ensured to them, had the citadel been taken, being the first to have their throats cut.

In relating the causes of this insurrection, I shall only be giving a sketch of the Turkish system of governing the provinces, which has rarely, if ever, been sufficiently elucidated. The government of the pashas in Egypt is essentially military. The officers all of whom (except sometimes the baractars) are Turks, decide every question connected with the revenues, and often interfere, in other affairs, with the decisions of the cadis. The system of the government is to extort from the peasant the utmost possible amount of tax, leaving him only what they consider, or pretend to consider, a sufficient subsistence, but it is usually a most miserable one.

I will give a more detailed account of the system in Egypt, at a future opportunity, and shall here only say a few words respecting that unfortunate country. If the peasants did not actually steal from their own fields, in some places, they could not exist. Although they bury their grain under ground, and by various other methods deceive their oppressors, numbers perish from the want of sufficient nourishment and clothing. I have seen them, in winter, assembled in a corner, round a miserable fire, shivering with cold and hunger. In the most favoured clime under heaven, and the most productive country on the face of the earth, a vast proportion of the peasants may be said barely to exist upon food more calculated for cattle than for human beings, and, bad as it is, they have rarely enough.

The Pasha has power sufficient to hold them in subjection, and by his extortions fills his coffers; but necessity alone induces them to submit. He not only imposes most enormous taxes upon every article of produce, but obliges them to cultivate what he chooses, and take the price he offers for the produce. He is the only purchaser of the grain, cotton, and indigo, and of the gum of Kordofan, ostrich feathers, and other articles. Slaves are almost the only commodity the merchants now are allowed to take in exchange for the manufactures they carry to Sennaar and Kordofan: even wild animals of the desert, as the giraffe, are a monopoly of the government.

The Pasha is the great landlord of this immense district: the people are his slaves. His revenues are derived not only from the regular taxes, but from his profits as a merchant, which are enormous, in consequence of the low rate at which he pays the peasants for their produce, compared with that at which he sells it again to the Europeans. It is true that this source of gain is greatly diminished by the roguery of the different officers through whose hands it passes. From the highest to the lowest there is seldom any exception,—mahmoors, nazrs, katshefs, kaimacams, and soldiers, all concur in diminishing the amount, and, in particular, the mallums, or Coptic accountants. The latter not only cheat the ignorant Turks, who generally cannot read their accounts, but often trade with the money of the treasury, and incur losses which they are unable to repay. A number, on this account, are always immured in the prisons of the Pasha.

The peasants in Upper Nubia are free from these pecuniary distresses, and are comparatively happy. It is very true, that, instead of paying only one dollar in money, two pieces of linen cloth, and a sheep, thirty piastres, which was all they paid their ancient meleks, they are now obliged to pay fifteen dollars in cash, and five in grain; in all, three hundred piastres: ten times as much as they paid formerly. Instead of sleeping, as was their custom, the greater part of the day, they are now obliged to work: but the man who is at all industrious may earn an ample sufficiency to afford food and dress such as he has been accustomed to. The following calculation will show more precisely their present condition.

Each sakkea, or Persian wheel, is sufficient to water three quarters of a feddan of land, planted with indigo, and each feddan produces a hundred cantars of the herb, and sometimes more, when carefully irrigated: being seventy-five cantars for the extent of land which one wheel will water. The government pay the peasants 12½ Egyptian piastres for each quintal; that is, 937 piastres for the whole, which, at the current rate of the dollar here, 15 piastres, is equal to 62½ dollars; whence we must deduct twenty for the duty, and there remains for the persons to whom the wheel belongs, 42½ dollars, or 637 piastres: but, as this is the lowest calculation, we may fairly estimate nearly two piastres per day for each water-wheel. This will go to the support of one family, provided it can afford five persons capable of putting their shoulders to the wheel; but otherwise, two families must unite to reckon up that number. A great deduction on the gain of the peasant in Egypt is the immense expense of the wheel: but here they are so much more simple, they cost a very trifling sum; the oxen only 30 piastres each, and their keep next to nothing.

However small a sum two piastres, or sevenpence English, may appear to a European, it is amply sufficient in this climate, where every necessary is so cheap. In Lower and Upper Egypt, where bread is so much dearer, and meat and milk double the price, the fixed price of a labourer amounts to half a piastre per day, to sustain himself and perhaps a family. Most of the peasants here, too, have other slips of land which are watered by the inundation of the river, and they gain considerably by their date trees, notwithstanding that they pay a tax of a piastre for each tree. They also rear flocks, and cultivate vegetables, particularly the favourite Arab ones, bamia and malakkhia; they make linen, spirit, bouza, &c. They allow, too, that grain pays them still better than indigo.

The condition of the peasants of Upper Nubia is thus happy, compared to those of Egypt. In this country, you very rarely see a peasant with a ragged garment, and there are very few of the men who have not their harems. Those who live near the seat of government have also the advantage of supplying the markets with the few vegetables the country produces, and of being employed as workmen. Some also keep camels, which afford them a large profit.

The Arabs of the desert have still more reason to be satisfied with the present government, so far as regards their pecuniary interests. They pay tribute only for the land they cultivate, which is in general very little, and in many cases none at all; but otherwise they gain a sufficient livelihood, by transporting to Egypt, with their camels, the grain collected as revenue, or purchased by the government, and in aiding the now constant passage of troops and merchants. Many of the Arab tribes of Kordofan, who formerly never came here, now participate in the profit of carrying the 2500 camel loads of gum, which, as before stated, are annually sent from that country to Cairo.

Thus the labouring peasants of the Nile and the Arabs of the desert in Upper Nubia, so far as regards the taxes and means of subsistence, are in happy circumstances compared to the Fellaheen of Egypt; but in other respects they are equally galled by their Turkish rulers. In Egypt, the officers only are oppressive: the soldiers, who are Fellaheen, like the peasants, are not so insolent as here, where their comparatively white complexion, their character as conquerors, and their pride as askari, or soldiers, induce them to despise the natives, and oppress them more than the government authorises.

When the chief governor of a province is possessed of talent, energy, and firmness, the officers and soldiers are prevented from committing many excesses; but when the country has the misfortune to be under a man like the Mahmoor of Dongolah,—too timid to redress the complaints continually made against the disorderly soldiers,—its state may easily be imagined. Each soldier is a little tyrant, and commits a series of gross and petty vexations inconceivable to a European. Of the many I have witnessed, I will give only a few specimens:—If the soldier wants a sheep, fowls, eggs, or any other article, he obliges the peasant to sell them at half the market price, and not unfrequently refuses to pay any thing at all. When becalmed on the river, he goes on shore, and forces ten, and sometimes twenty, natives to drag his boat, without any remuneration. If he meets a peasant girl carrying milk or butter, he often helps himself to half without paying for it, unless with a salute; and woe betide the imprudent sheahk or peasant who refuses to give gratuitously the best his house affords, or neglects the horse or camel of the Turk or soldier who has taken up his quarters for the night at his house. If camels or donkeys are wanted, they must furnish them, and consider themselves fortunate if they get any trifle in return. The haughty manner of the conquerors is still more galling to the Arabs: their usual manner of addressing them is, “Kelp, Marhas!”—“Dog! villain! Do this! do that! quick! quick! cursed be your race!” with threats of a beating, even actual blows, and sometimes with the sole of the shoe, which is the greatest indignity that a Mahometan can receive.

Men whose ancestors have been chiefs in the country for ages must now submit to the insolence and contumely of this vile and lawless soldiery. From negligence the latter often do not demand the tax on the water-wheels for some time; then, all at once, they appear, calling out, “Pay me to-morrow, or the bastinado!” The peasant, not being allowed sufficient time to raise the money, is obliged to suffer this degrading punishment, and often even have his ears nailed to a board. Being at a distance, perhaps, from the seat of government, or large market towns, he has no opportunity of selling his produce; nevertheless, with double the value of the sum required in effects, he has to undergo a disgraceful punishment, because he has no dollars.

The Mahas who revolted had not paid the government for some time. The mahmoor sent a villanous Turk into their province, with the instruments of torture, who immediately began bastinadoing them, nailing their ears, and threatening to cut off their heads, if they did not pay him. He visited Melek Backeet, who owed a considerable sum to the government, and told him that, if he did not pay his taxes in a few days, every species of torture would be inflicted upon him. The Mahas manufacture a strong linen cloth, which is very much esteemed throughout all the valley of the Nile. Being at a distance from the capital, and thus unable to command an immediate sale, at least for the large quantity on hand, they tendered it in part of their taxes. The government refused, though the transaction would have been very advantageous to them, the linen being offered at a price much lower than it sells for in the bazaar of Dongolah. Melek Backeet, therefore, excited the revolt, preferring death to the ignominious punishment with which he was threatened.

This country, under proper management, might become a far greater source of wealth to the Pasha than it even now is. Notwithstanding the galling system of the Turks, the natives are sensible of the advantages of a settled and firm government; and the peasants of the Nile, most particularly, are glad to be released from the tyranny and spoliation accompanying the feuds and petty wars by which the country was formerly torn. Did the Turks but treat them as men, and not disgust them by their insulting manners, and by inflicting on them such degrading and infamous punishments; had their rulers but a few ideas of common policy and legislation, the resources might be greatly augmented, the revenue increased, and the people would be the most happy and contented under the sun. The superiority which fire-arms afforded to their haughty conquerors taught them to despise the strength of the Arabs, and, with that insolence which is ever united with ignorance, they do not in the slightest degree endeavour to attach them to the government, or, in fact, condescend to treat, otherwise than as a vastly inferior race, the people which it cost them so much, even with all their advantages, to conquer.

CHAPTER XVII.

DEPARTURE FROM EL OURDE. — ALARMS OF THE CARAVAN. — MELEK BACKEET. — RETURN TO HAFFEER. — DETENTION IN THE INDIGO MANUFACTORY. — NUBIAN PLANTS. — SECOND EXPEDITION OF THE GOVERNMENT. — FANATICISM OF THE INSURGENTS. — THE BATTLE. — PRISONERS. — DEPARTURE FROM HAFFEER. — DESCRIPTION OF THE CARAVAN. — CATARACT. — EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION. — SPLENDID RUINS OF SOLIB. — EXCAVATED TOMB NEAR SOLIB. — RUINS OF SUKKOT. — HEAT OF THE CLIMATE. — ISLAND OF SAIS. — REMAINS OF CHRISTIAN RUINS. — DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF THE DESERT.

May 18. I conceived, from the information which I obtained from the government, and other quarters, that I might now pass with tolerable safety through the province of Mahas, particularly by not following the banks of the river, but taking the short cut across the Desert, from Fakeer el Bint to Solib. By this route I shall miss the ruin of Sescé; but, as it consists only of two or three columns, I shall consider myself fortunate if I escape from the country with this slight sacrifice. My caravan wish me to go on direct to Egypt, without stopping at any more ruins, particularly those of the splendid and celebrated Temple of Solib, which is situated at the northern extremity of Mahas; but I have told them that I will not leave that place until I have fully examined it, and taken every drawing and measurement I shall consider necessary. They are dreadfully afraid of meeting with Melek Backeet, who, with a few desperate companions, has committed several depredations: they think it very hard to incur any risk for the sake of a few old stones: but I have hazarded my own life and health in visiting this baneful clime; and I will not consent to pass, in that hurried manner, one of the chief objects of my journey. I took leave of the mahmoor, who gave me a guard, consisting of an Arab baractar (ensign) and six soldiers, mounted on dromedaries. We have, therefore, now nothing to apprehend from stragglers. None of the merchants would venture to join my caravan, notwithstanding my having a guard. I should delay my departure for some days, but I see no chance of Melek Backeet being taken, and, consequently, of the roads being clear, and I am sick of this detention. We left Dongolah at three o’clock, and slept in a beautiful grove of palm trees.

May 19. Arrived this evening at Haffeer, and was well entertained by the katshef, who chose the finest sheep in the village to regale my caravan.

Hannek.—May 20. We started soon after sunrise. Two Turkish officers, with their servants, joined my caravan this morning. Their company was not desirable, but the addition to our force, of six persons, well armed, was not to be despised. We halted at Hannek, to fill our water-skins, previous to entering the desert. After dinner, at three P.M., we were on the point of mounting our dromedaries, when a courier arrived from Sukkot, and informed us that Melek Backeet, and his great coadjutor the Cadi Esau, are at Fakeer el Bint, and in the desert, waiting for the Bey Zadé[45] and his caravan, knowing that we intended to pass, and believing us loaded with gold, which we had found in the temples. The news produced the greatest consternation among my little troop. The soldiers were more pusillanimous than the rest. One of the Turkish officers, a cowhass, who last night, at Haffeer, talked loudly of his valour, had this morning not a word to say. Such a change of countenances I never witnessed: even my own servants were afraid to proceed. With such an escort, and uncertain of the force of the Mahas, it was impossible to attempt to pass. I, therefore, sent to the katshef of Haffeer for a reinforcement: he advised me not to advance, as the news was quite true. A reinforcement he could not give, as he had only twenty soldiers to guard the indigo-house.

May 21. This morning I returned to Haffeer, and having ascertained from several peasants and couriers that Melek Backeet had already with him 100 men, and that the number was increasing hourly, I abandoned the idea of continuing my journey without additional force. I, therefore, sent my dragoman to the mahmoor with a letter, begging him not to delay, but send immediately a sufficient number of soldiers to clear the country of the insurgents. Were I alone, I would run the risk, and attempt to cross the desert, or rather, with a compass in my hand, make a circuitous route. This plan would, perhaps, have enabled me to elude the enemy; yet, unfortunately, they have their spies in every direction, even in Dongolah. My departure would be reported; and although I were to sacrifice my baggage, their horses, swift dromedaries, and superior knowledge of the country, would enable them easily to overtake me, or intercept my route. For myself, I would run any hazard, rather than endure, a day longer, the ennui of being detained here; but the lives of others I have no right to compromise. According to the arrangements I had made, I ought now to have been in Europe. The heat is excessive, and increasing daily, and my funds diminishing. As this delay will oblige me to pass, with more haste, the antiquities below, my vexation may be imagined.

Haffeer.—May 21. to June 2. I was detained at Haffeer, in the indigo-manufactory, twelve days. During this period, we collected and made drawings of several plants. I publish three, which I think may be interesting to the general reader, having mentioned them repeatedly. One, in [Plate IV.,] is the senna, a name, doubtless, familiar to all. It grows wild upon the house-tops and in the fields: the flower is yellow, and the leaves of a pale green. The other plant, in the same plate, I have called indigo; but although very good indigo is extracted from it, it is, in reality, a totally different plant,—the Tephrosia Apollinea of botanists. [Plate LII.] is a drawing of the Osshi, the Calotropis gigantea. There are large plains in this neighbourhood entirely covered with it, and, as I have stated in my description of Makkarif, it abounds also in the province of Berber. The interior of the flower is of a pink colour; the buds contain a pungent liquor, of the colour of milk, which, according to the Arabs, blinds when put in the eye. The leaves are of a greyish green. The apple, represented in the Plate, contains the seed and a fine glossy silk. The plant varies from four to six feet in height, and is extremely valuable to the natives, being almost their only firewood; and, as I have stated before, many camel loads of charcoal made from it are sent to Cairo, being excellent for gunpowder. Among the others I found, the only one of any interest, and characteristic of Nubia, was a small kind of rue, the Ruta tuberculata of botanists.

The mahmoor, having at his disposal a considerable body of troops, which he had assembled, according to my advice, from different parts of the province, was fortunately enabled to send out immediately 300 soldiers. The Turks having, on the last occasion, obtained 100 piastres and their expenses, again volunteered their services. Having united with Melek Tumbol’s Arab forces, they marched against the Mahas, who had rallied, in great numbers, under their old chief, Melek Backeet; and this time had very judiciously stationed themselves on a steep rock on a large island, near Hannek, making excursions day and night, and rendering the roads quite impassable.

Pl. 4.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.
INDIGO.SENNA.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Pl. 52.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

OSSHI.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The commander of the expedition was the same brave fellow who took such particular care of his person during the former engagement. He encamped near the Mahas, and published a proclamation offering them a general pardon. The Cadi Esau and many of the other sheakhs were disposed to accept the terms, when another fanatic priest started up, and upbraided them with their cowardice, treachery, and folly; “since,” said he, “you know that the Turks will deceive you, and it is evident that God has given our enemies into our hands; for without seeking them they are come to us.” By this absurd harangue, he kindled a wild enthusiasm, to increase which all the fakeers were employed in writing charms on their weapons. The commander was afraid to attack them, on account of their number and their strong position; but the Turkish volunteers laughed him to scorn, and dashed forward on horseback to charge the Mahas. Notwithstanding the formidable position of the insurgents, many of them having fire-arms, and the facility their situation afforded them of rolling down stones on the Turks, yet such was the effect of the instantaneous and gallant example set by the latter, that the soldiers followed en masse, and soon dislodged and put to flight the unfortunate Mahas.

In this engagement they calculated that 170 were killed, and about 30 made prisoners. I myself saw here 105 pairs of ears on a string, which the victors were conveying to the governor; and I am informed the commander has another. Very many being shot in the river, their ears could not be obtained. They brought also to Haffeer twenty-two prisoners, linked together in a string, having their arms tied behind their backs, in the ancient Egyptian manner. Their arms were drawn together behind with a rope, attached a little above their elbows; causing, of course, an unnatural and painful projection of the chest. Some of them were apparently half-bred negroes, who were or had been slaves. They were all tall athletic men, but wild and haggard in their appearance, and seemingly insensible either to pity or to suffering. Seeing them in pain, I begged the Turks to loosen their cords, which they did as a favour to me; but the prisoners seemed quite indifferent, and did not even thank me. I persuaded the Turks, also, to liberate from the cords a young boy, of twelve or thirteen, on account of his extreme youth; but the lad has something roguish in his eye; so that, if the soldiers on guard do not pay more attention than it is their custom to do, I flatter myself that, before they arrive at Dongolah, he will profit by the indulgence, and effect his escape.

On hearing of the defeat of the Mahas, I determined instantly to start, conceiving that, though Melek Backeet and his followers have escaped, they will, for at least a day or two, be too much engaged in providing for their own safety to lose time, and risk their own security, in waylaying travellers. The only danger is that of falling in with them by accident among the rocky passes of the cataract, or in the desert; and they would gladly get hold of us, not, perhaps, for plunder, but as hostages for their own security. Now, however, we were all willing to encounter every risk rather than support this endless delay, and be any longer confined to the prison of a wretched indigo-house, in which my artist, myself, and the two Turks had only one small hot room to sit, eat, and receive visiters. The heat is dreadful: no cool refreshing wind to mitigate the scorching rays of a sun almost completely vertical; every breath of air heated as if issuing from a furnace; even the evenings, after sunset, are hot. At that time I generally went down to the river, the air on the banks being less oppressive: from about midnight until sunrise, and even a few hours after, it is very cool and delightful; and, not to lose the enjoyment and benefit of that period, I have for the last month slept, like the Arabs, in the open air.[46]

My caravan, being strengthened by some merchants who joined us, became now rather formidable, and may be worth describing. My own party consisted of eleven, including the habeer (guide), two Ababde, and three Hassanyeh, the owners of our two dromedaries and six camels. My artist and myself were well armed, and my dragoman, and Greek and Coptic servant, also had muskets, with which the Mahmoor had provided them. My guide had fire-arms, and the Arabs their lances and swords: therefore, including the guard which the governor had given me, of a baractar and six soldiers, my own party consisted of eighteen persons, of whom thirteen had fire-arms. The two Turks and their two servants were provided with them; and their camel-drivers were three Shageea armed with spears. Besides these, five merchants, three with guns, joined my caravan. We were, therefore, altogether, thirty men; twenty with fire-arms; and were thus, I think, a match for 100 of the Mahas, with their matchlocks and lances: but we all conceived it so very probable that we might meet a party of the insurgents, that I directed each person to keep his musket in his hand during the whole night.

We started at four in the afternoon, and marched until two in the morning, ten hours, and encamped in the desert two hours before arriving at Fakeer el Bint. The effect of the caravan winding along the rocky banks of the cataracts in a line, one after the other, on account of the narrowness and badness of the road, was very picturesque. The variety of the costumes and armour; the numerous Arab tribes,—for scarcely more than two or three of our party belong to the same one,—Hassanyeh, Shageea, and Ababde; Berberenes of Upper Nubia, and Fellaheen of the lower valley of the Nile; Turks, Greeks, and Europeans,—all differing in dress, features, and complexion,—formed an interesting group. I could trace the gradations of colour, even in my own caravan, from the yellowish Arab of Cairo to the darker native of Upper Egypt, and from the brown Dongoloue to the dark-brown Shageea; but the latter are very different in feature and complexion from the bluish-black of the negro slaves belonging to the Turks.

We all preserved the strictest silence, which enabled me to enjoy more the noise of the cataracts, the soft moonlight, and the romantic rocky scenery: but while I felt the beauty of the latter, I was well aware that the granite rocks and passes afforded an ambush for the Mahas, which was not without danger to us, their unskilfulness and ignorance being my only security. We met repeatedly parties of women and boys, either acting as spies, or going, as they pretended, to Haffeer, their houses being destroyed, and husbands and fathers dead. Their manner was certainly suspicious, and I had some difficulty in preventing my soldiers from treating them as spies. We passed several cottages, now uninhabited in consequence of the revolt.

June 3. We arrived, in two hours, at Fakeer el Bint, and found the village entirely deserted. The Mahas, by their imprudent rising, have entailed a long series of sufferings and wretchedness on their families; even those peasants who took no part in it are ruined; their houses destroyed; their oxen killed, and their water-wheels broken. We may admire the enthusiastic courage of the chiefs, who, born to command, could ill endure the proud contempt and degrading punishments of their insolent oppressors; but we cannot but condemn their guilt and rashness in sacrificing, without the remotest chance of ultimate success, the lives and happiness of so many of their countrymen. I observed, on an island near Fakeer el Bint, several fugitives. The Nile forms, between this place and Solib, a considerable bend, the distance along the banks, through the province of Mahas, being nearly thirty hours’ march of a camel, or about seventy miles, and by the desert only twelve hours, or thirty miles. We entered the desert at three o’clock. Never have I felt such excessive heat; every breath of air is baneful. I tried to protect myself from it with a turban and umbrella, and even the sheets of my bed were put in requisition. I made an endeavour to construct a tent on my dromedary; but my efforts were fruitless, the wind being too strong. I felt my mouth dry and parched, and would have given even one of my drawings of Meroe for a glass of pure cold water; but every drop we had was soon quite warm. Before dark we had passed the mountainous and the only soft part of the desert, and at midnight we encamped within nine miles of Solib. The rocks are chiefly of serpentine, slate, sandstone, and granite, the latter often much decomposed: there were also a few fragments of marble scattered about.

Ruins of Solib.—June 4-8. This morning, being anxious to arrive at the celebrated Temple of Solib, I started before sunrise, and, pushing on my dromedary at a quick pace, I arrived there in two hours. The first view of the temple is very imposing; standing proudly at the extremity of the desert, the only beacon of civilisation in this sea of barrenness. The situation of the temple is as picturesque as it is extraordinary. The columns are so distinctly visible, that, at a distance, it has almost the appearance of a Grecian edifice. On approaching nearer, the effect is changed, but not injured; for, though not Grecian, it is of the purest Egyptian architecture. I rambled over it for some time, delighted with its picturesque appearance: the plan of the temple is also beautiful, and the architecture of the most chaste simplicity; but, as an antiquarian, I could have wished for more remains of sculpture, and tablets with hieroglyphics.

The first grand propylon of the temple is 600 feet from the river; but the form and exact dimensions of it are now not distinguishable, being entirely ruined, and the materials almost all carried away. From the appearance of the rooms, which the reader will observe on a reference to the [Plan,] there seems to have been the same economy of stone in constructing of this propylon, which we shall presently observe in the second. Behind the first are the remains of two sphinxes. One of them is nearly destroyed, but the other is not so much injured as to prevent my perceiving that the style of the sculpture has been good; but in its present state I did not consider it worth a drawing. I observed that the first and second propylons were connected together. The Plan ([Plate XL.]) will show that in front of the second there are the remains of two walls, which, no doubt, connected it with the first. This is quite in conformity with the general construction of Egyptian edifices. A flight of steps, now scarcely distinguishable, led up into a court before the second propylon. This court, the entrance into which is about 85 feet from the first propylon, is 70 feet long and 45 feet wide. It was ornamented with six columns, the diameter of which is 10 feet; the traces of them only are visible.

Pl. 40.

Drawn by L. Bandoni. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

TEMPLE OF SOLIB BUILT BY AMENOPH 3.

London. Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The remains of the second propylon are more considerable. Each wing is 78 feet wide; the door in the centre, leading into the temple, 11 feet wide, making the total width 167 feet. The depth of the propylon is 24 feet. It is remarkable, that this propylon is not, like those of Egypt, a solid mass of stone, with only staircases, and, occasionally, small rooms, but finished, and apparently used for habitations. The one here contains three rooms on one side, and two on the other, but without doors, and evidently constructed with a view of using little stone, as the walls are not hewn smooth. This is an economy of material rarely seen in Egyptian edifices. The doorway leading into the temple is of the correct Egyptian form, the width of the centre part, which is 17 feet long, being 13 feet, and that of the two ends, which are each 3 feet long, being, as already mentioned, only 11 feet wide. The recesses, thus formed in the centre of the doorways, add very much to their architectural beauty. The view from this doorway of the next court of the temple is very magnificent. This court is 90 feet long and 113 wide, and was ornamented with twenty-eight columns, a single row on each of the north, south, and east sides, and two on the west, being the side opposite to the entrance. There are now seven of these columns standing, with the bud-shaped capital. I observed a slight difference in their dimensions, but they are of the purest Egyptian architecture; their circumference is 19 feet 4 inches, and intercolumniation 5 feet 5 inches. Few more striking views are presented in any part of the valley of the Nile than the first entrance from the second propylon into this court.

COLUMNS OF SOLIB.

[Plate XLI.] is taken from this point, and will, I trust, give the reader a correct idea of the magnificence and exquisite architectural beauty of this temple. Five columns appear in this view, detached from each other, proud monuments of the power and greatness of the Egyptian conqueror Amunoph III., who erected them, and whose name and titles are engraved in hieroglyphics on their shafts. They bear also the name of the great divinity Amun Ra, to whom the temple was dedicated. The remains of many of the columns are lying on the ground; the roof is gone; and only one piece of architrave remaining, supported by one of the most beautiful and perfect of the columns. The architectural form of these columns is more light and elegant than almost any specimens of the same kind in Egypt; at the same time without losing that character of grandeur and severity, so much in unison with its situation. The background to this view (as will be seen in the [Plate]) is the trackless desert,—a vast yellow ocean, bounded only by the horizon, without an eminence, or even hillock, visible to relieve the eye; and that tide of sand which never ebbs, driven on continually by the prevailing strong winds from the north, and particularly the north-west, beats against the temple, and daily encroaches on its remains. On the east side, at a short distance from the ruin, towards the Nile, Isis seems still to extend her protection, and a luxuriant and beautiful vegetation flourishes; but on the other sides Typhon reigns in gloomy solitude, and the traveller turns with delight from the contemplation of the bleak and dreary wilderness, to the elegant and magnificent work of art which adorns its margin.

[Plate XLII.] is a view I made which shows all the seven columns which remain in this court.[47] Waddington speaks of the red tints of the sandstone: there are a few, but very few, the general colour being much whiter than that of any Egyptian or Ethiopian ruin I have seen. I was in doubt whether to consider it as arenarious limestone, or sandstone; but the specimens I brought to England have been decided to be sandstone. The background of this view, consisting of the river and distant hills, is very pretty. The view is taken from the last existing room; and the reader will perceive to the right, in the foreground, the fragment of a column on which is one of the representations of prisoners which adorn all the columns of that room. The next court is more destroyed; yet there are sufficient traces of the columns to show precisely what the plan has been. It is of the same width as the last court, and 78 feet long; and was ornamented with two rows of columns on the north and south sides, and on the east and west with one only; in all, thirty-two. The circumference of each is 17 feet; but not one of them is standing.

Pl. 41.

On stone by W. P. Sherlock, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

TEMPLE OF AMENOPH III, SOLIB.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The next chamber, which was apparently an intermediate room leading to the sanctuaries, contains the remains of twelve columns, of which now only one remains perfect. The capital is of a form generally considered as Ptolemaic, but we have here authority for calling it Egyptian. It represents branches of the palm tree, and near the base of these columns there is some interesting sculpture; a number of prisoners, represented with their heads and busts resting on turreted ovals, containing the names of the countries whence they come; and, to signify that they are prisoners, their hands are tied together behind their backs, in the usual Egyptian manner, tight above the elbows, causing a painful and unnatural projection of the chest. The prisoners on the columns on the north side of this room have beards and hair; and some, without hair, appear to be old men. Their features are fine, and have very little of the Negro cast. On the opposite side, the prisoners represented are youths with their hair tied in a knot a little below the crown of the head, and hanging down almost to their shoulders. These have very much of the Negro features, wide nostrils, thick lips, and high cheek-bones. I copied the names of thirty-eight of these provinces: the only one I could make out was that of Mesopotamia, in hieroglyphics.

On the column in this room which still preserves its capital, is some sculpture, in a good style, representing the king presenting offerings to Honsoo, with the globe and short horns for a head-dress. The remains of the temple extend a hundred feet beyond this room; so that the entire length of the edifice must have been about 540 feet, and the number of columns with which it was adorned, and whose situation can now be accurately ascertained, is eighty-four. There must, however, have been a greater number; for among the confused piles of stone which are stated above as extending a hundred feet beyond this room, I found some fragments of columns 3 feet in diameter. ([Plate XLIII.] is taken from this end of the temple.) This is also an extremely beautiful point of view; but although not even a small stone is omitted, and notwithstanding the temple is so ruined, the reader will perceive that there is no excess of shapeless masses of stone to spoil the effect of the splendid architectural remains of the edifice. The column I have described with the Ptolemaic capital is the most prominent object in this view; but the picturesque grouping of the columns of the great court is finely exhibited from this point.

On the door leading from the first great court into the second, the king is represented with a staff in his hand, addressing Amun Ra, who has the usual sceptre of the gods. Above the latter is the king presenting offerings to a divinity, the hieroglyphical titles of which are not legible; but the wings of the goddess of truth are visible. Behind the second propylon, there has been some very interesting sculpture, but it is now scarcely perceptible: the figures were apparently only one foot high. One piece I copied, which had some of the hieroglyphics remaining; but above this I could only distinguish the divinities with the attributes of Horus, Thoth, Anubis, Osiris, and Amun Ra, to whom the temple is dedicated. This sculpture is in basso relievo. It is much to be regretted that it is so defaced; for, doubtless, it has been a most interesting mythological tablet. Some of the blocks of stone are harder than the others, but the greater number are exceedingly soft, doubtless, one cause of the ruined state of the temple, and why the sculpture is scarcely distinguishable.

Pl. 42.

On stone by C. Hullmandel from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

SOLIB.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The remains of the ancient city extend for a considerable distance both towards the north and south. On the bank of the river, 240 yards farther north than the temple, are the remains of a small pier, 13 feet high, and 20 feet long; while 200 yards to the north of this pier is a projection of stones into the river, thrown in apparently to form a port. This has evidently been a city of some importance. Its situation, at the commencement of the road across the desert, is also deserving of attention. The town was advantageously situated, being on the route both of those who followed the banks of the river and also of those who crossed the desert.

Ptolemy places the great cataract at 22° 30′; Φθουρι, at 21° 20′; a difference of 1° 10′. The real difference of latitude is 1° 27′; that is, 17′ more; but Autoba, the town he mentions before Phthouris, is stated to be only 54°, that is, 23° less than the ascertained difference; and Pistre, which is the next town he mentions after Phthouris, is 1° 50′ from the cataract; that is, 23° too far distant. We have thus, I think, no other alternative than to suppose this to be the site of Phthouris, which, from the magnitude of the ruins, must have belonged to a city of great importance, and one that he would not have omitted to mention. The Temple of Siscé is probably the site of Pistre.

After the pyramids of Meroe, this is decidedly the most interesting and magnificent ruin we have seen in Ethiopia; superior to the former, perhaps, in picturesque and architectural beauty, but less interesting to the antiquarian, as being Egyptian, and not Ethiopian. It is worthy of remark, that, with the exceptions of the colossal statues of Argo, I have not met with any genuine Ethiopian remains since I left Gibel el Birkel. Travellers who extend their tour of the Nile to the second cataract, would be amply repaid for their additional fatigue, if they visited this temple.

We found, on our arrival at Solib, a number of merchants detained there on their way to Dongolah, on account of the insurrection. They were delighted to see us arrive, and prepared immediately for their departure. They complained bitterly of their long detention and great consequent expense. Solib is almost at the extremity of the province of Mahas; but, the peasants of this end of the province not having taken any part in the revolt, we were comparatively secure, although Melek Backeet, their chief, has a house in the neighbourhood. I lived under a shed at a short distance from the temple, and remained there four days, working almost from sunrise until sunset, regardless of the extreme heat. I now required a sheep every day for my caravan, which I had some difficulty in procuring, having had repeatedly to send across the river. I fortunately provided myself with a large stock of bread and biscuit at Dongolah: there is none to be had here.

June 8. At the quick pace of the dromedary, I was twenty minutes in going, this evening, from the temple to the village of Solib. It is remarkable for the cottages being made, like those of the latter in Mahas and Dongolah, of the stalks of the dourah, and branches of the palm tree: here, however, the foliage extends considerably above the roofs of the huts; and thus not only protects them in some degree from the rays of the sun, but gives them a very picturesque and graceful appearance. The house of the sheakh of the village is fortified with square towers.

Pl. 43.

On stone by W. P. Sherlock, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

TEMPLE OF AMENOPH, SOLIB.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

About a mile beyond the village is the rock called Doshe, which, projecting into the river, divides the province of Mahas from Sukkot. It is of sandstone, and contains traces of iron ore: its surface is rugged, and in part blackened by the sun, forming a striking contrast to the bright yellow sand which covers the central part of the rock. At the eastern end, above the river, is an excavated tomb, which contains some traces of sculpture, though now scarcely distinguishable. I perceived, from what remains, that it was in a good style of basso relievo. There were some ovals, but no hieroglyphics on them at all legible. I endeavoured to make out the name, and, from the slight fragments remaining, I conceived one to be that of Thothmes III., and another that of Osirtisen III., but must confess I could not make them out at all satisfactorily.[48] At the end of the tomb are the remains of three divinities, seated. The sculpture of these does not seem to have been good, but they are so defaced, that it is impossible to decide upon the style. On each side of the divinities is a niche. The site of this tomb is picturesque, commanding a fine prospect of the river. (See [vignette.]) Above it a king is represented making offerings to a divinity with the attributes of Kneph, and behind the latter are two other divinities, one with a plain helmet, the other a vase on her head. Beneath the line containing these subjects is another containing a figure kneeling, and a long tablet of hieroglyphics; but the latter are so broken and defaced, that only one here and there is legible. On the south side of the tomb is a beautiful little piece of sculpture, representing a king making offerings to Amun Ra, with the head-dress of the globe and short horns; and behind the last is a goddess. The name of the king seems to have been broken off designedly, and the hieroglyphics are very much defaced.

FROM A TOMB EXCAVATED OUT OF THE ROCK NEAR SOLIB.

June 8. We left the village of Solib, and province of Mahas, at four o’clock, and arrived at the village of Sukkot at six in the evening. This is rather a large place, and the residence of the katshef. I observed, in passing, four of the fortified houses of the sheakhs; the rest of the houses are of mud: there are some few of the palm leaves, but not so picturesque as those of the Mahas.

TEMPLE OF SUKKOT.

TEMPLE OF SUKKOT.

We stopped to examine some ruins, called by the peasants, Biban. The first consists of two fragments of columns, around which are the traces of the temple. The plan is Roman-Egyptian, and is rather curious, though not good. (See [vignette.]) Three hundred and fifty yards to the north there is another ruined temple. One column is standing amid a mass of large stones: it reminded me of the solitary column, and the vast masses around it, of the Temple of Hercules at Girgenti; but the comparison is very degrading to the great beauty of the latter. The capital of this is almost entirely defaced, but it has decidedly been a head of Athor. On some of the stones I observed fragments of Egyptian ornaments, and the fragment of a name, apparently Amunoph III. The column is fluted, but not in the usual Egyptian style, being much more flat. Attempts have apparently been recently made to throw it down, or break it to pieces, its architectural ornaments being quite obliterated. Its circumference is 12 feet 8 inches. East of the temple is a basalt statue, the sculpture of which seems to have been very good, but it is very much injured. On the interval between the two temples, and also for 350 yards beyond, extending thus over a space of 700 yards, there are traces of the city. These may be called the ruins of Sukkot, from their vicinity to that village, which is the chief place of the province.

It is very difficult to ascertain what was the ancient name of this place. The situation of the ruins agrees better with the position, according to Ptolemy, of Phthouris, than Solib; but the insignificance of the remains here, compared to the splendid ruins of Solib, prevent my imagining it to be that city. It may be one of the many mentioned by Pliny, or the Autoba of Ptolemy.

Half an hour after we left this ruin we passed the village of Gobetziteen. I observed a large caravan of slave merchants from Dongolah, who had left Solib this morning: their numerous fires, and the groups seated under the palm trees, were very picturesque, presenting effects that even a Gherardo della Notte could scarcely have done justice to. They complained of the detention at Dongolah having cost them so much. The expense of transporting the slaves from Kordofan, or Abyssinia, to Cairo, is very great; the duty alone, besides the maintenance, is nearly seven dollars each. They pay duty at four different places: at Kordofan, at Dongolah, at Deroueh near Assuan, and, lastly, at Boulak near Cairo.

We stopped at the village of Essau, opposite to the Island of Hadji Falme. On the latter they tell me that there are antiquities, but all broken; and I could not procure a boat to visit them. Being rather late of arriving, I found the inhabitants of the village sleeping in the open air; the women on the angoureebs, and the men on mats: and, I can assure the reader, it is a great enjoyment, in this climate, to sleep thus beneath the clear blue sky. About ten o’clock the air becomes rather cool, while at midnight and in the morning it is comparatively cold: this invigorates the frame, after the enervating heat of the day; and, in this climate, there are no fogs or damp to dread. It is the only time that I can now enjoy; yet I support the heat better than my servants, though accustomed to that of Egypt all their lives. We are exposed nearly the whole day to a sun almost directly vertical, without a breath of cool air to alleviate our sufferings. The wind generally blows from the north, but, instead of being refreshing, it is so heated, in passing over the desert, that it not only feels oppressive, but dries up the mouth and skin, and checks perspiration. The Arabs, under the shade of their palm trees, and smoking their pipes, enjoy this hot weather; but the unfortunate traveller, exposed to these scorching winds, and to the heat reflected from the rocks and sand, has no other respite to his sufferings than during the now short nights.

June 9. At Gobetziteen the Island of Sais commences, and extends for six hours towards the north. At this season of the year no boat is necessary to visit this island, the water which separates it from the main land being only deep enough to reach the knees of the camels. It contains no remains of Egyptian antiquities. The peasants spoke of ruins; but they proved to be some grey granite columns belonging to a Christian edifice. They are in the centre of the island, nearly half an hour from the river. Each column consists of one piece of granite, with a Greek cross on their capitals. They are not very unlike the Christian monolithic pillars in the centre of the splendid portico of Medenet Abou. There are a great many wells in this island, with water-wheels, by means of which a considerable part of the interior is irrigated. I had a drawing of these Christian ruins taken by Mr. B.; but, not setting much value on it, I have mislaid it. From the number of houses the island appears to be populous. An hour beyond Sais, and four hours from Essau, we stopped at a small village of five huts, called Kasr Towaga, from the brick ruins of a castle of that name close adjoining.

The ride this morning was most uninteresting; a slip of uncultivated land, narrower than even in the most barren parts of Lower Nubia, separating the river from the bleak and dreary desert. In the latter I observed several hills of light sand, which a strong wind would easily move, to the risk, perhaps, of the unfortunate travellers who might happen to be near. These moving masses of sand would baffle the efforts of cultivators more advanced in knowledge than the Nubians. It is not, therefore, surprising that these unfortunate beings consider as useless any attempt to resist so relentless an invader. The islands, protected by the river, afford them a refuge and support, without which this part of the valley of the Nile would soon be abandoned to the gazelles and beasts of prey. Our camels often sank up to the knees in sand. I observed on the latter great quantities of scarabæi. I have often seen these insects on the sand in parts of the desert where it was difficult to conceive how they could exist. Perhaps they live on other insects too minute to be seen by the naked eye. I once gave a scarabæus a date, and was astonished with what avidity he devoured a part of it, till he was completely gorged, and apparently half dead.

I observed here a curious thrush, which is also very common near Dongolah. One I killed measured nine inches in length, including the tail, which is four and a half. The under part of the wings is of a light brown colour, and the lower feathers of the tail are edged at the extremity with white; otherwise, the plumage is entirely of a brownish black. The beak and legs are black; the former is curved.

CHAPTER XVIII.

KASR TOWAGA. — DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING THE RIVER. — INDOLENCE OF THE ARABS. — ARAB SHEAKH. — TEMPLE OF AMARAH. — PRESENT INHABITANTS. — WADY EL HADJAR. — FORTIFIED HOUSE ON AN ISLAND AT DAHL. — CATARACT OF UCKMA. — BIGOTRY OF THE INHABITANTS. — VARIOUS CATARACTS OF THE NILE. — MINERAL SPRING AT TANGOURE. — TEMPLES OF SEMNEH, ON THE WESTERN BANK. — CURIOUS MANNER OF CROSSING THE RIVER. — TEMPLE OF SEMNEH, ON THE EASTERN BANK. — INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCKS. — THE ARAB ROBBER ISAH. — SECOND CATARACT OF THE NILE. — INDUCEMENTS FOR TRAVELLERS TO EXTEND THEIR JOURNEY BEYOND THIS POINT. — COMPARISON BETWEEN VOYAGES IN THE DESERT AND AT SEA.

At Kasr Towaga I wished to visit the remains of the Temple of Amarah, on the eastern bank; but for several hours I despaired of procuring a raft or boat, or any other means of crossing the river. After waiting some time, I observed at a distance a Sukkot ferry-boat, and immediately offered nine Turkish piastres to an Arab to go for it, and the same sum for the boat; and, as the camel-drivers began to be mutinous at the idea of being detained another day, I promised them a backsheesh of eighteen piastres; but such is the character of the Arabs in this country, that, so long as they have enough to procure any kind of food, they will seldom exert themselves to procure more. They prefer to live miserably, scarcely better than their fellow-labourers the camels, rather than to better their condition, secure an independence, and a provision against a day of distress.

To increase their possessions, and elevate themselves to a higher rank by their activity and frugality, are ideas which never enter the minds of these children of destiny. If they earn a little money, or if some favour of fortune places unexpectedly in their hands a hundred piastres, they more generally spend it in a few nights of festivity, and burden themselves with the expense of another wife, than reserve it for the day when the fickle goddess may cease to befriend them. With what alacrity would a poor European accept the offer of 9 piastres (2s. 3d.) to walk two miles for a boat! How gladly would a European boatman earn the same sum by merely ferrying us across the stream; yet it was more by threats than by this offer (although equal to eighteen days’ wages) that I induced one of my camel-drivers to go, during the heat of the day, for the boat. As, of course, I promised the reward only in case of success, he was unwilling to undergo this little fatigue on an uncertainty. My firman was also necessary to dispose the boatmen to earn more in twenty-four hours than they certainly have gained during the whole of the past week.

My camel-drivers were very mutinous when they found me determined to pass the night at Amarah: my guide threatened to leave me, but he changed his tone when I told him to go, and declared I would not pay him. By the present of eighteen piastres, added to certain threats of the korbash (whip made of the hide of the hippopotamus), if they annoyed me, order was restored. Backsheesh has great influence on the Arabs, but without a certain degree of firmness they are sometimes difficult to manage.

We crossed the river, landed on the eastern bank, and went to the nearest village, called Heber. We found the sheakh and the principal inhabitants assembled under the shade of the palm trees. The sheakh, a noble-looking fellow, with that dignified gravity which I have so often found among the Arabs of this rank, received us with the usual attentions; and, in compliance with my request, immediately procured us donkeys, and conducted us to the village of Amarah, a ride of an hour and a half. The sheakh had a house at Amarah, to which he took us, and gave us an excellent supper and angoureebs to sleep on, which are very necessary here, on account of the number of scorpions. The road between the villages of Heber and Amarah is through the desert. I found on it some beautiful specimens of red Egyptian jasper and hornstone nodules. We passed a large mountain, called Hadjer el Heber, of a very imposing appearance, which we had remarked this morning, on the opposite side of the river. It is about ten miles distant from the Nile.

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF AMARAH.

The Temple of Amarah is about half an hour’s walk from the village of the same name, and is situated between the villages of Heber and Amarah, in the desert, to the right of the road we passed. There is sufficient remaining of the Temple of Amarah to exhibit the style and epoch. The architecture is Ethiopian (see [Plan]). A gateway, 19 feet wide, and ornamented with two columns, fragments of which are remaining, 3 feet 8 inches in diameter, leads into a room 53 feet by 30, ornamented with eight columns, also 3 feet 8 inches in diameter. Not a fragment of their capitals remains; but a considerable portion, covered with sculpture, of each column is standing.

The sculpture on the columns is Ethiopian, but very indifferent, and the hieroglyphics so wretchedly executed, and so defaced, that it was scarcely possible to decipher any of them. The lowest row on the columns represents divinities of the Nile, besides which I observed a goddess with the globe, long horns, and two feathers, perhaps Koht, another with a plain helmet such as Neith often wears; and there is a representation of a king making offerings to Kneph, represented with a ram’s head, globe, and two feathers; and also to Thriphis, with a tiger’s head; a plain figure of Amun Ra, and the same with the figure of a mummy and globe and two feathers: I also remarked Honsoo with the globe and short horns. In the centre of the columns is a line of hieroglyphics, which I copied as well as their ruined condition would permit: they contain some curious titles, and the name of a king which is unknown. I conceive the temple to have been dedicated to Kneph, as the representations of that divinity are more frequent, and in more conspicuous situations, than the others.

The foundations of the temple are of brick, and, for some distance around, are scattered fragments of pottery with branches of the palm tree painted on them, remains, no doubt, of the ancient city. The columns are of sandstone. Plate XLIV. (see [Frontispiece]) shows two of them in detail, and their situation in regard to the Nile, or rather, I should say, as the river is not visible, to the palm groves on its banks, and will enable the reader to judge of the style of the sculpture. Ptolemy places the second cataract in latitude 22° 30′, and Berethis, on the eastern bank, 21° 30′. The difference of 1° agrees very exactly with the distance between the cataract and the ruins of Amarah.

The country on this side of the Nile is richly cultivated, and the inhabitants bear no appearance of poverty. Notwithstanding the heavy taxes which they pay, those who are industrious may easily earn sufficient to render them comfortable. I saw about thirty of the peasants, who were all particularly clean and well-dressed. A party of them were feasting on raw liver. The custom of eating raw kidneys and liver is very common south of the second cataract. The same custom is, I understand, very general in Syria, and once existed in Scotland. I observed here, also, a custom which I had often heard of, but never before witnessed. When an Arab loses any near relation, his friends are expected to condole with him on his loss, by literally mingling their tears with his; for they place their cheeks together, and sigh and sob often for ten minutes at a time. This custom in the land of crocodiles reminded me of our expression of “crocodile tears.” A French merchant, Sheakh Ibrahim, who has often visited these regions, was described to me as a perfect Arab; and when I asked why, “Oh,” said they, “he eats raw liver, and cries as we do.”

I saw here a description of guitar, which is very common in Upper Nubia, but it may be called the guitar of the Shageea, as that tribe possess more beautiful ones than are found elsewhere. They consist, as the vignette will show (see [vignette]), of a circular bowl, about nine inches in diameter, of wood, or sometimes of the shell of a tortoise of the Nile: this is covered with prepared sheepskin, in which are six small holes, marked E. The three sticks B, C, D, are generally of acacia; but in Dar Shageea they are sometimes of ebony, and ornamented with silver and ivory. There are five cords attached to the cross stick C, but they have no pegs, merely folding several times round the latter in rather a clumsy manner: they, however, manage to tighten them. F is a string to attach it to the wall; and G is a plectrum, with which they strike with their right hand the cords near the bridge; playing, at the same time, with the left. Their music is wild and simple,—little variation in it,—but some of their airs are not unpleasing. The reader will perceive, from the vignette, that the form is not very unlike that of the Greek lyre.

June 10. We returned at noon from the Temple of Amarah to the village of Kasr Towaga; started from the latter place at two in the afternoon, and advanced five hours in the desert. The first part of this wilderness is desolate and frightful, beyond any I have ever seen. After a short space its appearance became still more terrible, resembling a sea agitated and driven into the most awful shapes by wild winds. For the first few hours the ground was covered with pebbles and quartz nodules of various colours. The rocks, which are of gneiss, serpentine, and flinty slate, occasionally appear. Four hours after starting, we passed a mountain called Hellal, of a conical shape, the second we have observed of this form since we left Kasr Towaga; and an hour afterwards we encamped in the desert.

June 11. We started at sunrise; and in half an hour entered among a chain of granite rocks; fine, bold, roundish masses, having all the appearance, at a distance, of being detached and piled on each other. In two hours and a half from the time we started, we arrived at the Nile, opposite the Island of Dahl. For some time before arriving, we observed, on the eastern bank, a fine eminence, which, at one point of view, reminded me somewhat of the western mountain of Thebes, although smaller, and of a less brilliant colour. The place at which we stopped (see [vignette]) offers one of the most picturesque views in the Batn, or Wady el Hadjar, into which we have now entered. The Island of Dahl is the principal object: on a picturesque rock, in the centre of it, is a fortified castle of a sheakh, the successor, perhaps, of one of the forts on the islands represented on the walls of Thebes.

ISLAND OF DAHL IN THE WADY EL HADJER.

The latter part of the small desert I passed this morning was strewed with quartz, generally white. The gneiss of which the rocks, at the commencement of this little desert, are formed, is soft, friable, disposed in strata: there are also rocks of mica slate of a grey colour. The granite rocks, at the other extremity, consist almost entirely of felspar and quartz; the former predominating, with very little mica: the grain is extremely coarse, generally very friable, of a pink, but mostly of a grey colour. There were also in this desert some rocks of felspar, porphyry, and a great variety of granite—tone-granite, syenite, and others.

At two o’clock, we left, with great reluctance, the shade of the doum trees, and the enjoyment of one of the most beautiful views in the valley of the Nile, to encounter again the horrors of the desert and a burning sun. For the first part of our route, the rocks were of syenite. The circular summits of these dark red rocks were visible as far as our view could reach, rising sometimes in hills, but mostly in pyramidal and conical forms. I observed a line of calcareous rock about 13 feet broad, almost resembling the foundations of a wall, which crossed the road, and extended east and west among the granite rocks. This was followed again by the granite; and shortly after these was a similar narrow, but less regular, cross of jasper, and also one of porphyry. I brought away no specimens of the latter, for the masses were large, and difficult to break. Afterwards, we had a succession of granite, porphyry, compact felspar, hornblende slate, grey gneiss, and serpentine; and the rocks, immediately before arriving at the Nile, were of syenite.

We passed this little desert in five hours, with great fatigue to the camels and the men on foot, on account of the sand and heat. We encamped, for the night, at the small village of Uckma, which consists of only eight houses; but I am informed that this is the name of the district, as there are two other little villages, one on the opposite side of the river, and the other on the island, which bear the same name. My servants, or, rather, my guide and camel-drivers, made us pass for Turks; saying, that the peasants of this district were so bigoted, that, if they knew us to be Christians, no consideration would induce them to supply us with either milk or meat for ourselves, or straw for our camels. The noise of the cataract here is very fine.

June 12. A curious circumstance happened to me last night. I am rather attached to a pretty little capuchin monkey which I received from the Governor of Berber, and which (an unusual circumstance with these animals) shows some little gratitude for my attentions. Several times it has escaped among the acacias of the desert; but, notwithstanding the temptation of the gum, it never attempted to run away when I went for it myself. I was anxious that it should not share the fate of my Dongolah greyhound, and die of fatigue. Having taught it to be clean, and being unwilling to trust it to my servants, I carried it always on my own camel, to shelter it from the sun; and as the poor little animal suffered exceedingly from the cold at night, I allowed it to sleep under the margin of the covering of my divan. For some nights past it had got into the habit of laying its head on the corner of my cushion, and, amused at this manœuvre, I indulged it; but the ticking of my watch always annoyed it, and several times it had attempted to take it away; but, aware of this antipathy, and the mischievous propensities of the race, I always wore my chain around my neck. Last night, when in bed, I looked at the watch, which was a hunting one, and having broken the hinge of the gold covering of the face, omitted, I presume, to fasten it with the spring. This morning, on being called, I looked, as usual, at my watch, and found that this piece was missing. I immediately cast my eyes on the monkey, and saw, by its fluttering and leaping about, and the ruffling of its skin, which always takes place when it is afraid, that it was the culprit; yet all my efforts to find the covering were useless. My bed was on the sand of the desert, in which, no doubt, the animal, on seeing it loose, had buried it deep, thinking, by that means, to get rid of its nightly annoyance, or, perhaps, from its usual instinct of taking every opportunity to do mischief.

We set out an hour before sunrise, and, crossing a short but heavy sandy desert, arrived, in two hours, at Lamulay. The rocks, at starting, were of gneiss, but there occurred afterwards some of serpentine and grey granite; and I observed some of quartz, and very small particles of the latter disseminated over the sand. There is a cataract at Lamulay, but it is not so loud as the one we heard last night, at Uckma. The view is very fine at this part. We were two hours in going from Lamulay to Tangoure. The rocks were chiefly of two descriptions of quartz. We came then to another cataract, making the sixth from Dongolah:—the first at Hannek; the second at Kouki; the third at Dahl; the fourth at Uckma; the fifth at Lamulay; and the sixth at Tangoure. All these may be passed without much difficulty for about six weeks or two months in the year; but at this season no description of boats could pass. Between the above-mentioned places the river and the rocks on the opposite side make so many bends, first east and afterwards north-west, that our roads, across the little deserts, on the west side might often be considered as the strings of a bow. On the eastern side of the river there seems to be a continued range of picturesque rocks. We miss, I fear, much fine scenery in not being able to follow closely the bank.

Two hours north of Tangoure there is said to be a spring of mineral water, about 100 yards from the river, which flows in small quantities out of the rock into an ancient reservoir, and is described as so hot that the vapour will answer for a bath. I regretted much not being able to visit it, but I must have gone on foot, and, being to-day far from well, could not have endured the excessive heat; but I have this information not only from the natives, but also from Monsieur M., at Dongolah, who had visited it. We started from Tangoure this afternoon, at half past two, and, after five hours’ march, halted in the desert for the night. The rocks are of granite, serpentine, porphyry schist, and quartz. Strata of these minerals occurred, sometimes alternately, every few minutes.

June 13. Whenever there are antiquities to be seen, I care not how little sleep I take. I had my men up soon after midnight, and in three hours we arrived, as the sun was rising, at the Temple of Semneh. This temple is more remarkable for its situation than for architectural beauty. It consists of a single narrow room 28 feet by 10 feet, with a plain façade, in the centre of which is the entrance. The exterior sides of this room are ornamented with square pillars, and one polygonal column. The temple faces the south, which is singular, particularly for an edifice constructed by an Egyptian king. On the eastern side are three square pillars standing entire, and the base of another; and on the western one column, one square pillar, and the base of a third. The [view] shows this side, and also the façade of the temple. The pillars sustain blocks of stone, that is, architraves, which still remain, projecting about one foot beyond the columns. I thought, at first, from this projection, that they might have extended to other walls; in which case the edifice would have some resemblance to the sanctuary in the small temple at Medenet Abou; but, from there being no remains to support this supposition, and also from the projection being very small, and, I might say, the architrave’s extending so far beyond the centre of the column, I conceive that the temple has never been finished, and the architraves hewn to the size of the columns.

TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

The interior and exterior of the walls of this little temple are covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics; but, unfortunately, in some parts, rather defaced. Over the entrance, the king is represented on his knees making offerings to Kneph. The original sculpture of part of the façade of the temple has been defaced to make room for a more modern work, and for a long tablet of hieroglyphics, which I copied. The sculpture, from its style, is certainly Roman; the figures not well drawn, and the hieroglyphics wretchedly executed: the subject represents a woman, with a lotus flower, making offerings to a divinity with the head-dress of the horns and two feathers. The hieroglyphics and sculpture of every other part of the temple are in a good style. The name and titles of Thothmes III., Sun, Establisher of the World, is executed in intaglio on the column and square pillars, and the same name in basso relievo is every where visible on the walls. In the interior of the temple the same subject is repeated four times, but in only one instance is very distinguishable. (See [Plate LI.]) The king, Thothmes III., is represented making offerings to his ancestor Osirtesen, seated as a divinity in the boat of the sun, with the crook and lash of Osiris in his hands.

Before Osirtesen are four standards, one with a representation of the ibis, emblematical, no doubt, of Thoth: the others are not visible. These standards are supported by arms emanating from the cross of life, and the sceptres of the divinities; emblematical, I conceive, of their being the standards of the gods, perhaps of the divinities of Amenti, Thoth, Horus, and Anubis. One is of Thoth, evidently, from the ibis; the others are defaced. The reader will observe how different this style of sculpture (see [Plate LI.]), which is the best Egyptian, is to the Ethiopian (see [Plate X.]). They have evidently had a common origin; but there is a marked difference in the execution. On the western side of the exterior of the temple the king is represented making offerings to different divinities, principally Kneph. I copied all the hieroglyphic inscriptions. The hieroglyphics on the columns and pillars are merely the names of Thothmes. The column which I have stated as polygonal has a base and a square slab for its capital.

Pl. 51.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

SCULPTURE IN THE TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

In the interior of the temple is the fragment of a statue of Osiris, badly executed: the head is wanting, and on the breast is the crook and lash. I conceive the style to be Egyptian Roman. It is very probable that this temple, originally dedicated to Kneph, was afterwards, in the more corrupt Roman age, appropriated to the peculiar worship of Osiris. This edifice (see [Plan]) is in a large irregular brick inclosure, the walls of which are generally seven to eight feet thick: this is not of Egyptian, but apparently of Roman, construction. In some parts masses of brick project from the wall, perhaps to support them; their ruined state makes it impossible to decide certainly, but I am inclined to believe them to be entrances.

PLAN OF RUINS.

I went to examine the pass or cataract of Semneh, which I had some difficulty in reaching, having to climb for a considerable space over the granite rocks. The latter are generally rose-coloured, extremely hard; but there are some rocks of basalt shining like black lead, and I observed light thin strata of quartz. The width of this channel, the only one the Nile passes through, when it is low, I found to be a stone-cast. The river rushes through with great rapidity, so that I could not cross here from the number of vortices caused by the excessive force and velocity of the current.

June 14. Wishing to pass over the river to the temple on the opposite side, I commissioned the sheakh to collect the inhabitants, and make me some kind of boat. This morning, at eleven o’clock, he came to inform me that a raft was ready, and men to steer it. My Arabs having taken the camels and dromedaries to pasture at a distance from the temple, I was obliged to set out on foot, and, after walking three quarters of an hour, amid severe heat, I arrived at the place where they intended to cross, fully two miles south of the pass or cataract. The river in this part is about a third of a mile wide, and, except in one or two places, where the current is rather strong, it was scarcely ruffled. The peasants had constructed two rafts, one for ourselves, the other for the servants. They were simply trunks of the acacia lashed together, on which they placed dourah for us to sit on. All the inhabitants of the country were collected to see the expedition. Ten or twelve men, some on geerbahs (water-skins), others on pieces of wood, supported and conducted each raft, two or three on each side, and four behind, pushing it along. Doubting the security of the boat, I had taken the precaution to take off my clothes, and fasten them on my head, like the Arabs. This was fortunate; for the dourah straw was soon saturated with water.

Nothing could be more picturesque than the boats and their conductors. The Arabs had all their clothes tied on their heads, and they carried their charms, arms, knives, swords and spears, fastened in the same manner. Shouting and singing, they pushed us across very cleverly: the only difficulty was in passing the parts where the current was strong. We had also some little fear of the crocodiles. Three Turks shot two in this very place only two months ago, and yesterday we saw one on the shore. The peasants at first refused to take us across for this reason, but the promise of a few piastres more, and the use of my firman, silenced their fears. I did not myself conceive that there was the slightest real danger on this account, as I have observed that the crocodile invariably flies from boats or any number of persons together. After landing we had another three quarters of an hour of fatiguing walk to the temple on the eastern side, which (see [General View]) is almost exactly opposite the other. Some parts of our road was over low burning sand-hills, in which we sunk at each step up to our ankles; the heat excessive under a directly vertical sun.

TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

Temple at Semneh. East side of the river.—In the first chamber of this temple the door-posts of the entrance remain, and also two polygonal columns without their capitals, and two square pillars. (See [vignette.]) The lateral walls seem to have joined the latter; both the square pillars and columns were ornamented with hieroglyphics, of which the names of Thothmes III. are now only distinguishable. The names, however, of Amunoph III. and Thothmes II. occur in this temple. The entrance into the next room is filled with rubbish up to the architrave; the latter is ornamented with the winged globe, and a dedicatory tablet of hieroglyphics. There is also another door to the right of this, leading into the interior, with a similar tablet on the architrave. The walls were decorated with sculpture in a good style, but now much defaced. In one place I distinguished the head of Kneph, and elsewhere the same god receiving splendid offerings of vases, fruits, &c. from the King Thothmes, sun, establisher of the world. In another part, the king, with the head-dress of the small globe, two feathers, and horns, is receiving the cross of life from a divinity with a beard and no head-dress, perhaps Amun Ra. Behind this latter figure is the god Kneph again, with his usual attributes of the ram’s head and horns.

PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

These two entrances lead into a long gallery full of sand and rubbish. I excavated below the level of the centre doorway into the gallery, but it is singular that I could discover no entrance into the sanctuary of the temple corresponding with it. The only one I found is on the right side. There are three other rooms, one containing a column. I believe they are marked accurately in the above [Plan;] but, to ascertain very correctly how they are connected, would have required more extensive excavations than my time permitted, nor did I think it worth any sacrifice, for the plan is evidently bad. The sculpture of these rooms is almost buried in the sand. There are slight traces of colour remaining. At a short distance south-east of the temple, on the granite rocks, are some hieroglyphical inscriptions, but very rudely executed. I copied five that were legible; they contain the names of Thothmes III. and Amunoph III.

These rocks are interesting as the last hiding-place of the Arab robber, Isah; and it was in this neighbourhood that daring brigand finally met his fate. Isah was a sheakh of the Karareesh tribe. A katshef, near his residence, having threatened him with the bastinado, unless he submitted to some exorbitant demand, he preferred abandoning his domestic happiness, and the peace and quiet of agricultural life, to such galling and vexatious tyranny. He fled into the fastnesses of the desert, and there, with a few chosen followers, bade defiance to the Pasha’s power. He infested the caravan road from Korosko to Abouhammed; and the Dilet el Doum, or the Valley of the Shade of the Doums, was his favourite resort. He was the terror of all the caravans, like the lion of the desert; only allowing them to pass when they had satisfied his demand: but it was against the government that he was most active, plundering their caravans laden with grain and other produce received as taxes, and seizing the numerous herds of cattle which are sent down to Cairo every year, the spoil of the war on the Bahr el Abiad and the Azruk. He sometimes also succeeded in seizing the supplies of ammunition and arms from Cairo; but, what was very annoying to the Turkish governors, he frequently seized the caravans bringing them supplies of tobacco, coffee, sugar, and other luxuries. For five years this daring outlaw eluded every attempt to seize him. The governors made the most strenuous efforts to obtain his head, and the Pasha engaged the Ababde to hunt him from the great Nubian desert. His troop generally consisted of about twenty; and when, for any important expedition, he required a greater force, Arabs were never wanting to plunder the Turkish caravans. Most of the sheakhs have an immense number of relations; often every individual in their village is a connection; and when their chief is in peril, or requires their services, they consider themselves bound to rally around his standard, at whatever sacrifice or hazard. His wife, like Rob Roy’s, shared her husband’s dangers; and his daughter, Enour, is said to have had as stout a heart as her father, and as much address in throwing the lance as any Arab of her tribe. For five years they shared the perils of this bold brigand; but at last Isah, driven out of the Ababde desert, was betrayed by an Arab sheakh of this neighbourhood, who professed to be his friend. This man, either from fear of the Pasha’s anger, or in the hope of obtaining additional power and wealth by such an essential service, conducted a company of soldiers to the valley where he was secreted, and Isah, while sleeping under the shade of a rock, was shot dead. His death was instantaneous, for it is said that twenty bullets entered his body. His followers fled; but the fidelity of one of them was ultimately rewarded with the hand of his daughter, Enour.

I returned to the ruin on the western bank by the same route, but having passed the river, I fortunately found a donkey, which, though a poor one, afforded me some assistance in ascending to the temple.

These edifices are not remarkable for their architecture; but nothing can be finer than their situation. They are in sight of, and almost opposite to, each other, on eminences commanding one of the finest views in the Batn el Hadjar. This view has been compared by some travellers to Tivoli; but, besides other dissimilarities, there is here no ugly, ill-built, dirty, modern town, that detracts from the beautiful situation of the antiquities. The prospects near the western temple are very magnificent; Signor B.’s view, [Plate XLV.,] will give a just idea of the country: but the magical effect of the desert, contrasted with the surrounding scenery, can be but imperfectly conveyed to the reader’s mind, without a view coloured, as this was, on the spot, exhibiting faithfully the different tints. I regret not being able to publish the numerous views as they were coloured on the spot by Signor B.

Pl. 45.

On stone by W. P. Sherlock from a Drawing by L. Bandoni. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

RUINS OF SEMNEH,
on the East & West Sides of the River.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

The peasants here are of a dark-brown complexion, and wear their hair bushy, but less so than the Ababde. They are poor, but have the character of being honest. Some of them understand and speak the Arabic, but the language of the country is the Nubian.

June 15. We started for Wady Halfah, and, after six hours, halted for the night in the desert. The rocks are of serpentine and granite: this desert consists of immense plains covered with sand-hills, and is quite different from the last we passed over, not being so wild and dreary.

June 16. We started three hours before day, and pushing on our dromedaries, arrived at sunrise at the second cataract. According to the practice of almost every traveller who visits the valley of the Nile, I had made this the limit of my first journey, performed in 1832; but I was not then half so much astonished at the peculiarity and magnificence of this scene. I did not see it at so favourable a season, and, perhaps, I appreciate it the more from the delight I feel that, although I have still a voyage of nearly 1000 miles before I reach Alexandria, my fatigues may now be considered nearly finished, as this day I change the slow and tiresome pace of the caravan for the comparatively luxurious cangia. The effect of the rising sun on the black shining basaltic rocks which project into the river, forming innumerable islands, is very striking, and the picturesque beauty of some of these is heightened by the curious contrast with the stripes of light yellow sand which are mixed with them. These little rocky islands, impeding and compressing the current, increase tenfold its force; and the white foaming river, dashing over the rocks, makes the colour of the dark shining basalt still more remarkable, while the roar of its waters animates the scene. There is also a striking contrast of the black basalt with the white calcareous rock, tinted with red and other hues, which forms the foreground. The beauty of the scene, although peculiar, is not diminished by this contrast, any more than the often lovely form of the dark Abyssinian girl is disfigured by the snow-white veil which covers her.

I have seen the beauties of the Alps, the Apennines, Arcadia, and the Pyrenees; I have surveyed the lakes of Bavaria, England, Italy, Scotland, and Switzerland; I have followed the Rhine from Schaffhausen to the sea, and sailed on the Danube, the Rhone, and many other rivers; but I must confess I never was more moved by any view than this. I mean not to compare it to the landscapes of Europe for magnificence, or what is generally considered picturesque effect. This is a view of an extraordinary and peculiar kind; for, besides the singularities of the landscape already described, there are associations connected with it which cannot but excite the traveller. The very solitude of the scene, where no habitation of man is visible;—the extent of the view beyond the cataract, along an immense desert of yellow sand, extending over the vast continent of Africa;—then the river, forcing its passage through the rocks, that threaten to stop the progress by which it carries to thousands, and even millions, the means of subsistence;—and shall I say nothing of the mystery which hangs over it? On its banks, perhaps, first flourished the arts; its source is hidden in impenetrable obscurity, as is also the greater part of the historical events which the bordering countries have witnessed. The effect of the rising sun gives a magical lustre to the rocks, extremely difficult, if not impossible, to exhibit in a drawing. I made a camera lucida outline of it, and Signor B. made a drawing in colours of the peculiar tints and effects. When the Nile is high, it is more picturesque, as, of course, there are then more islands.

Pl. 50.

On stone by C. Hullmandel from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. Printed by C. Hullmandel.

2D. CATARACT OF THE NILE.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Numerous names of travellers are engraved on the calcareous rock; this place being, as I have said, almost always the limit of their voyage. Some few make an excursion into the Batn el Hadjar; but fatigued with the first two or three days’ journey on camels, they seldom proceed beyond Semneh, and still more rarely, if ever, extend their journey to Solib, one of the most magnificent ruins in the valley of the Nile. The extreme heat of these climates, particularly during this season, is certainly trying to European constitutions. As far as the second cataract, travellers visit the antiquities, comparatively speaking, without any fatigue; in their boats they suffer little from the heat, and they have seldom any distance to walk, as all the ruins are on the banks. I, however, strongly recommend those who are really fond of antiquities, and are possessed of a good constitution, to complete their tour of the Nile. Travellers visit with great fatigue the sites of Sparta, Troy, and even Carthage, where there are no monuments to recompense the toil. It is true that the recollections recalled by such scenes must amply indemnify us; but in the Island of Meroe we have splendid and most interesting works of art, an infinity of sepulchres, which, from their number and extremely elegant architecture, could only have belonged to the metropolis of that ancient kingdom: and what more thrilling, exciting association could the traveller desire, than the circumstance that in that region the arts had their origin?

The antiquities of the Island of Meroe, as will have been seen, are not the only remains to indemnify the traveller for his fatigues. The interesting site of Gibel el Birkel, with its extensive, picturesque, and curious monuments; the pyramids of Nouri, the colossal statues of Argo, and the temples of Solib and Semneh, are all interesting in the extreme; and, besides the antiquities, the traveller cannot but be interested in the manners and customs of a people who have not yet adopted those of their conquerors. A knowledge of the desert life, and the different tribes of Arabs, is only to be acquired by a journey of this description through their different districts.

Some of the views of the desert are, to those unaccustomed to them, somewhat appalling,—boundless oceans of sand; rocks affording little or no shade to the traveller, and covered, sometimes, with hills of light sand, which appear to want only a storm to put them in motion; and it is a dreadful sight to see the road strewed with the bodies of men and animals, victims of the scorching clime and great fatigue.

Often, when the wind has covered with sand the traces of former caravans, we have no other beacon than the small piles of stones which the Arabs occasionally erect on the eminences; but an almost infallible guide to our steps is afforded by the bones which lie bleaching on the road. Yet this is the dark side of the picture: the desert life has its charms, which are only enhanced by these dangers. We are there independent, perfectly free from the restraints of the world, and those passions which agitate man in society.

All feel a pleasure in gazing on the ocean, and (when well) in sailing on its bosom; but the desert life is still more delightful. I feel it difficult to analyse this sentiment, and yet I strongly feel it. At sea we are mere passengers; we take no share in avoiding the dangers which threaten us; our powers are not called into action; we feel a certain excitement, but, of course, less than the captain and sailors, on whom all depends: and is not this a reason why the latter are so attached to that kind of life, notwithstanding the numerous and severe hardships which they have to undergo?

The traveller in the desert is, to a certain degree, similarly situated. As head of the caravan, its safety depends mainly on the prudential measures which he adopts. Appointing a guard in case of danger, encamping in a judicious situation in case of a storm, attention to secure a supply of water, and to prevent the Arabs from consuming, as they would willingly do, two days’ portion in one day, are cares which keep his mind constantly occupied. A judicious choice of camels, drivers, and servants; a just distribution of their labour, and attention to their maintenance, lessen the chance of being detained by illness.

Well supplied with rice, good biscuit, and meat, the traveller may live tolerably well, even in the deserts. Since I left Thebes, four months and a half ago, I have passed two deserts of eight days each, and many small ones, and generally been in a miserable country, yet I have only been one day without fresh meat, and that by accident. To court privations is as great folly as to fear them when they arrive, and not submit to them cheerfully when requisite. I am certain that wine and spirituous liquors are injurious in this climate. During the whole of this journey water has been my only beverage; and, on the whole, I have enjoyed very tolerable health, considering the excessive heat, and the many annoyances and delays, still more injurious in this climate than the fatiguing pace of the camel. The desert life has also another charm; it is gratifying to see how, when treated as men, the Arabs become attached to you. If they have any quarrel between each other, a word from the traveller makes them silent.

At sea, it is a pleasure to observe the colour and motion of the waters; to see the dolphins playing at the ship’s head; and sometimes, as in the Mediterranean, the surface of the waters animated by their singular forms. The Nile has its crocodiles and hippopotami; every desert also presents something new,—lions, panthers, hyenas, wolves, serpents, gazelles, antelopes, giraffes, ostriches, guinea-fowls, wild asses, zebras, &c. The traveller may have seen all these in menageries in Europe; it is, however, a great pleasure to see or hear them in their native haunts. The deserts have also a great charm for the traveller who has any taste for mineralogy, then each rock, each pebble, each step, I may say, is interesting. During a sea voyage, we read, and scarcely look at the water once a day: in the deserts, on the contrary, our attention is continually occupied by the transition of rocks, their formation, the minerals which are disseminated on, and mixed with, the sand.

At sea, it is a pleasure to meet another vessel, to hail her, and demand where she is from, and to what port she is bound; and we often experience delight at finding the passing crew to be countrymen, perhaps relations, or friends: but what pen can describe the meeting of a caravan in the desert? Brothers, who have not seen each other for months, and even years, often meet thus, by accident. The caravan never stops; they have, therefore, only a few moments, and they must part again, and run after their camels. Their hands locked together, they inquire after each other’s health, and after that of their friends. Travellers laugh at the repeated “Taip een salamat, taip een salamat,” of the Arabs. “How do you do?—Good morning! How do you do?—Good morning!” repeated twenty times; and “Taip een abouk? taip een ahouk? taip een omek?” “How is your father? How is your brother? How is your mother?” &c. always repeating the taip een? “how is?” to each person that they name. The indifference with which the Fellaheen, who see each other daily, go through this ceremony, may seem rather ridiculous; but in the deserts, as I have seen them sometimes, even with tears starting from their eyes, affection could not dictate a stronger and more appropriate manner of inquiring rapidly, but particularly and separately, after each relation and friend who is dear to them. Frequently have I observed my Arabs meeting with their friends of other tribes, and even of their own district or village, and witnessed the pure and natural joy which illuminated their countenances; friends who have travelled together, shared the same toils, the same dangers—companions of their youth, of their early voyages, who have not seen each other for years, meet in the solitudes of the wilderness, but for a moment only, and the same period may elapse before they again see each other. Let it not be supposed that, in the interior of Africa, the natives, although ignorant and uncultivated, are destitute of honest affection.

It is, however, true, that sometimes in the desert we trace those violent passions and habits which generally characterise the wandering tribes of Central Africa. The Bishareen, and others, often plunder the caravans; and tribes occasionally meet between whom there have been constant feuds. Under the strong government of the Pasha, they now seldom make use of their arms; but they exchange no salutes: their silent manner of passing each other, the knitted brow, and involuntary firmer grasp of their spears and swords, evince the deadly hatred which still lurks secretly in their breasts.

CHAPTER XIX.

ON THE HISTORY OF MEROE.

OBSCURITY OF HER ANNALS. — HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS NECESSARY TO RENDER A COUNTRY INTERESTING. — WORKS OF ART HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. — LAPIDARY INSCRIPTIONS. — AMUNOPH III. — MEMNON, KING OF ETHIOPIA. — EXPEDITION OF SEMIRAMIS, QUEEN OF ASSYRIA, INTO ETHIOPIA. — ETHIOPIANS IN THE ARMY OF SHISHAK MARCHED TO JERUSALEM. — THE SUKKIIMS OF SCRIPTURE. — EXPEDITION OF ZERAH, THE ETHIOPIAN KING OF THE BIBLE, AND HIS DEFEAT BY THE TRIBES OF JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. — THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY OF KINGS WHO REIGNED OVER EGYPT. — THE TESTIMONY OF THE HISTORIANS PROVED BY LAPIDARY INSCRIPTIONS. — THE NAME OF TIRHAKA, KING OF ETHIOPIA, WHO DEFEATED SENNACHERIB, KING OF ASSYRIA, FOUND BOTH ON THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. — THE NAMES AND TITLES OF THIS DYNASTY OF KINGS. — ACCORDANCE OF THE SCRIPTURAL, MONUMENTAL, AND HISTORICAL EVIDENCES. — THE SETHOS OF HERODOTUS, THE TIRHAKA OF SCRIPTURE, AND OF THE MONUMENTS. — THE SUA, KING OF EGYPT OF THE BIBLE, THE SEVECHUS OF MANETHO, AND THE SHABATOK OF THE MONUMENTS.

The Island of Meroe is a classic region, whose name is familiar to almost every reader, as the cradle of arts and civilisation. The Nile was the source of her prosperity, and an object of adoration to the ancient, and even to the present inhabitants[49]; yet most of the great events which have given celebrity to the countries on its banks, are lost in impenetrable obscurity. The names even of the kings under whom she rose to such a height of greatness and power are almost wholly unknown. So scanty are the materials which can be found in the ancient writings and on the monuments, that it is almost an act of presumption to attempt, in the slightest degree, to penetrate the veil which envelopes her history.

Professor Rosellini, in his extensive and admirable work on the antiquities of Egypt, has made many valuable observations on the dynasty of Ethiopian kings who reigned in that country, which have facilitated my researches; and I gladly testify, that the ruins in Ethiopia, in many instances, confirm the conclusions which that learned traveller drew from his examination of the monuments of Egypt. Availing myself of the inquiries of the learned Italian, I shall also put together the most important fragments contained in history, and the valuable lapidary inscriptions I have been able to copy from the antiquities. A country is always interesting, to which we feel ourselves indebted for inventions from which we now derive any important benefit; and as a nation thus rises in our estimation, we become anxious to form an acquaintance with its historical records. There is a charm even in its name, when it recalls to our memory heroic deeds and other important associations.

It is not merely the wonders of art, surprising as they are, which enchant the traveller at Rome and Athens. It is not the vast pile of the Coliseum, the triumphal arches and temples in the Forum, the exquisitely chaste architecture of the Temple of Theseus and of the edifices on the Acropolis, but the crowd of thrilling recollections of the heroism, genius, philosophy, and art, by which these scenes were illustrated, that render them for ever classic and hallowed in our eyes. Had there been no records of the history of Athens, we should have wanted no other evidence of her civilisation and knowledge than the splendid architectural monuments with which her site is adorned. The Parthenon itself speaks volumes, and the most eloquent pages of her greatest historians do not bear more conclusive testimony to her civilisation, than the treasures of Grecian art and taste in the museums of Europe. Had all the written records of her valour and patriotism perished, our knowledge of Athens would have been very nearly what it now is in regard to Ethiopia. The labours of the historians of her land are lost; the brilliant deeds which adorned her annals are enveloped in a cloud of mystery. The history of her neighbours affords only a few scanty gleams, sufficient to make us deplore the general darkness. So changed is the kingdom of Meroe from what it must once have been, that I myself should have almost doubted the short but important passages preserved in the Greek and Latin authors, were they not triumphantly confirmed by the monuments existing at Meroe and Gibel el Birkel.

The reader will, I trust, find in this and the following chapters, that Ethiopia was not unjustly celebrated for civilisation, and as the birth-place of many arts which now contribute highly to our welfare and enjoyment; and the few fragments we have been enabled to glean will prove that she had also her kings and heroes, and that her history was diversified by the usual vicissitudes of triumphs and reverses. I am obliged to refrain from publishing, on the present occasion, all the names of the kings and inscriptions which I found on the edifices of Meroe, Gibel el Birkel, Solib, Semneh, Toumbos, and Amarah.

Pl. 53.

Printed by C. Hullmandel.

GREAT TEMPLE, GIBEL EL BIRKEL.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Pl. 54.

Inscriptions at Meroe.

Inscriptions at Gibel el Birkel.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Printed by C. Hullmandel.

For the benefit of the learned, who peculiarly apply themselves to this study, I give, however, a few of those inscriptions, which, mutilated and imperfect as some of them are, the initiated in the recent discoveries in hieroglyphics will immediately perceive to be of the greatest importance, as the earliest undoubted records of Ethiopian history. The inscriptions in Plates [LII.] and [LIII.,] the hieroglyphics of the Plates [X.] [XI.] and [XII.] of sculpture of Meroe, and also many I am unable to publish, are curious, not only for the names, but for the singular titles which they contain, for the mythology, the variations in the appellations of the divinities, the names of places, and other valuable historical matter.[50] Many scientific men have urged me to publish the whole of these inscriptions; and Signor Rosellini informed me that he should add another volume to his work from these materials. I hope this able writer will not forget his promise, and will excuse my employing it as an apology for not undertaking the interpretation of any portion of them myself; as such an attempt, on my part, would only be unsatisfactory to the learned, and tiresome to the general reader.

“Non nostrum tantas componere lites.”

The monuments of Egypt afford historical evidence of the wars between that country and Ethiopia, during the 18th dynasty; that is, from about the 13th to the 16th century before Christ. In the topographical description I stated that the temples of Semneh were built by the Egyptian king Thothmes III. I have been told that scarabæi have been found, with the name of this king, opposite Gibel el Birkel.[51] Amunoph III., the Memnon of the Greeks, has also left, as a monument of his victories still farther in Ethiopia, the splendid Temple of Solib. I thought, at first, that this was the Amunoph mentioned by Josephus, who, at the second invasion of the Shepherds, took refuge in Ethiopia until he had collected an army, and his son Sethos, or Rameses, was of a sufficient age to lead it against the insurgents: but both Eusebius and Africanus agree in calling Sethos the first king of the 19th dynasty: therefore, as the Temple of Solib bears the name of Amunoph, with the prænomen of Ⲣⲏ-ⲛⲉⲃ-ⲛⲧⲙⲉ, “Sun, Lord of Truth,” it is of the eighth king of the 18th dynasty, and not the last: besides, the representations of the countries conquered by that king are still preserved, and prove, by some of them having the features of negroes, that the splendid Temple of Solib was erected as a monument of his victory and long possession of the country, and not of a mere alliance with the King of Ethiopia.[52]

The successor of Amunoph III., Amulek, or, perhaps, more correctly, Horus, as Eusebius and Africanus call him, must, I conceive, from an inscription I saw at Turin, have also carried his arms into the interior of Africa; but Herodotus[53] states, that only Rameses II. (Sesostris) made himself master of Ethiopia; and it is singular, as I have stated in the account of the ruins of Gibel el Birkel, that the only fragment of the name of an Egyptian king which I saw, either there or at Meroe, was half of the name of Rameses II., which I found, by accident, in the Arab burial-ground at the former place. This is an extraordinary corroboration of the testimony of the historian; for that conqueror must have possessed that Ethiopian city for a sufficient length of time to erect or restore a temple; otherwise I should not have found his name.

Diodorus mentions that, when Egypt was suffering under the dominion of Amasis, a violent, proud, and arrogant man, Aktisanes, king of Ethiopia, profiting by the discontent of the people, invaded Egypt, and had little difficulty in overthrowing the tyrant, and taking possession of the country, as the greater number of his subjects were weary of his oppression, and rebelled against him. Aktisanes, he adds, was a great prince, and built a city, called Rhinocolura, on the confines of Syria and Egypt, and detained there the thieves whom he had punished with the loss of their noses; from which circumstance Rhinocolura had its name. Eusebius, Africanus, and Herodotus do not mention this king. Diodorus’s account is difficult to explain; for his Amasis cannot be the Amasis of Manetho, the first of the 18th dynasty; as Diodorus places his Amasis several reigns after Sesostris or Rameses II. As there are no traces of the name of this king on the monuments either of Ethiopia or Egypt, I see no reason why we should receive the testimony of Diodorus, to the prejudice of other historians; and, doubting, as I do, whether such a king ever reigned in Egypt, I think it unnecessary to enter into any discussion about the period of his reign.

We have also, about this time, an account of another king, whose name is familiar to the classical scholar,—Memnon, the son of Aurora, who killed Antilochus[54] in the Trojan war; and again, in the same poem[55], he is called the most beautiful of warriors, the brother of Priam; and Hesiod calls him the son of Aurora, and the king of the Ethiopians. Monsieur Letronne, in his learned work on the vocal statue of Memnon, has treated the whole story as a romance; but though we may refuse our credence to the embellishments of the Greek poets, tragic writers, and historians, I must confess myself of the opinion of those who believe in the possibility that the statement of a king of Ethiopia of that name having gone to the assistance of Troy may, perhaps, not be without foundation. The distance was certainly very great; but navigation by the Nile, or the Red Sea, would obviate, in a great measure, that difficulty; and it is not much more extraordinary to read of an Ethiopian king going to the relief of Troy in the 13th century before the Christian era, than, in the tenth century, to read of a king, called Zerah, who, with a host of a thousand thousand, went unto Maresha; and, in the 8th century, we find that Tirhaka assisted the King of Israel against Sennacherib, which event I will presently relate. History, both ancient and modern, affords many instances of wars between very distant states, and of expeditions sent against remote kingdoms, often even from continent to continent. I think, therefore, that it is not very surprising that the Ethiopian king, Memnon, should go with his troops from Meroe to Troy, either to assist his relation, or, at the instigation of some neighbour, to join in the common defence against the Greek invasion.[56]

In the 11th century before the Christian era, Semiramis, the celebrated queen of Assyria, fearless of those deserts in which, according to the fable, she was exposed when an infant, invaded Ethiopia. Notwithstanding the celebrity of the Assyrian heroine for cutting through mountains, filling up valleys, and conveying water, by costly aqueducts, to unfruitful plains and vast deserts, it does not seem that her success in subduing Ethiopia was very great. Diodorus only mentions her admiration of a wonderful lake, 160 feet square, of a vermilion colour, which sent forth a delicious smell, not unlike old wine, and of such wonderful efficacy, that whoever drank of it acknowledged the sins which he had long since secretly committed and forgotten. That the kingdom of Meroe was the part of Ethiopia invaded by her is not improbable. Her mortified vanity at not having succeeded in her enterprise, the reflections caused by the dangers and solitudes of the deserts, or the influence of the religion of Ammon, may have been the monitors that awakened the guilty conscience of the Assyrian queen.

The next occasion on which we find mention made of an Ethiopian army is the expedition of Shishak against Jerusalem, in 971 A.C. That monarch is represented as bringing 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen; and “the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, and the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.”[57] The Ethiopians and Lubims are called a “huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen.”[58] These Ethiopians may have come from a district of their country which was subject to Shishak, as we see, recorded on the monuments at Thebes, not only the invasion of Judea, mentioned in the Bible, but also victories achieved by that warlike king over various other nations. It is not, however, improbable that the Ethiopians were merely assisting the Egyptians. The Sukkiims are considered by many to be the ancient Troglodytes, the ancestors, perhaps, of the present Bishareen; there is certainly a curious resemblance between the name of the present capital of the latter tribe, Souakim, and their Scripture title, Sukkiim.

Sixteen years only after this event we have an account of another invasion of the Ethiopians. “So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.” “And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian, with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God.”[59] “So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves.”[60]

I conceive that the army of Zerah, like that of Memnon, and those, perhaps, who assisted Shishak, may have been transported from their own country, by the navigation of the Red Sea. It has been objected by some, that Zerah could not have been king of Ethiopia above Egypt, without being master of the latter country: but not only was the way by the Red Sea shorter, and much more convenient, but the kings of Meroe at that time may have possessed a part of Arabia, and he may thus have marched his army through the peninsula. We may, however, reasonably suppose, that he would not have undertaken such an important war against the people of Judah, if he had apprehended any impediment to his progress, from such near and powerful neighbours as the Egyptians and Arabians. I see no more reason to doubt that this Zerah was a king of Meroe, than that Tirhaka was such, who bears the same title in Scripture, of king of Ethiopia. The monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia, fortunately, confirm the correctness of the title of the latter, and show us that Tirhaka, called king of Ethiopia, in the Bible, was also king of Meroe; but because no vestiges of edifices constructed by Zerah have survived the almost complete destruction of Ethiopian monuments, there is no reason why we should conceive that the Ethiopia of which he is called king is not the same country which Tirhaka afterwards ruled.

The army of Zerah, which is stated in the Bible at a thousand thousand, that is, a million of men, may seem enormous; and, perhaps, this is only a vague expression of an almost innumerable host; but we must consider, that the tribe of Judah raised an army of 300,000, and that of Benjamin 280,000, to oppose him. The obligation, still customary, for every one who could bear arms to join the array of their king, accounts for the magnitude of their forces. Their duty, as vassals, would oblige the Ethiopians to join the standards of their chiefs, and the same cause, joined to the more noble motives of zeal and devotedness for their country and religion, would draw from their more peaceful avocations the sons of Judah and Benjamin. The latter are described as armed with targets, spears, shields, and bows: such would be precisely the equipment of an army in the centre of Africa at the present day; but the Ethiopian had also three hundred chariots, which at once denotes a people to a certain degree advanced in the art of war. Whatever might be the circumstances which enabled Zerah to collect together this immense army, we could not have a more striking proof of the extent and the affluent condition of the kingdom of Meroe, when we consider that she was able to support the expense of such a vast and distant expedition, and dispense, for so long a period, with the services of so many of her sons.

The events hitherto mentioned as connected with the history of Meroe have been important, as showing her political importance at a very early period. We have seen her successfully repelling the invasions of Semiramis, and of her powerful neighbours the Egyptians, and carrying her arms to the succour of the Trojans, and to attack the people of Judah.

We come now to that glorious epoch in the annals of Ethiopia, when her kings reigned not only over their native country, but over the entire valley of the Nile, including the whole of Egypt. We shall see that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, felt their power. Their dominion embraced nations of every variety of colour and character, from Memphis to the interior of Africa. It is highly satisfactory to know, that the account of this dynasty of Ethiopian kings who reigned over Egypt is not only transmitted to us by the joint testimony of sacred and profane history, but also is amply confirmed by the monuments of both countries.

The lists of Eusebius and Africanus, extracted from Manetho, agree perfectly with the names of the three Ethiopian kings who reigned over Egypt, from 732 to 688 before the Christian era. The following table shows that they do not exactly correspond, either as to particular reigns, or the entire length of the dynasty, which Africanus makes 40 years, and Eusebius 44; but the difference is very slight.

Africanus.Eusebius.
Sabbakon8Sabbakon12
Sevechus, his son14Sevechus12
Tarkus18Tarakus20
4044

Herodotus says[61], that after Asychis, who erected the brick pyramid, a certain blind man was said to have reigned in the city of Anysis. During his sway, a large force of Ethiopians, under Sabachus, their king, invaded Egypt. The blind king escaped by flight into the mountains, and the Ethiopian reigned in Egypt fifty years. At the end of that period, according to Herodotus[62], a vision appeared to Sabachus, commanding him to assemble the priests together, and destroy them. Rather than be guilty of such a sacrilege, he preferred returning into his country, particularly as the fifty years, which the oracle usually consulted by the Ethiopians had stated to be the term of their sojourn in Egypt, was expired. Diodorus gives a narrative of this event, agreeing with that of Herodotus, except that he does not state the name of the king to whom Sabachus succeeded. He speaks of a king Bucchoris, of a vile appearance, who exceeded all his predecessors in talent and prudence, and says this king reigned some time before Sabachus. Both Eusebius and Africanus agree that Sabachus ascended the throne, after making prisoner a king called Bocchoris, or Bonchoris. When we consider the loose accounts which both Herodotus and Diodorus have, in every instance, given of the Egyptian kings, it is only extraordinary that the time assigned by them as the duration of the Ethiopian dominion in Egypt should differ only by six years from that stated by Eusebius. They have preserved few names of any of the dynasties, and these so generally differ from Manetho and the monuments, that it is not surprising to find them describe the Ethiopian dynasty as the reign of one monarch. We may consider it fortunate that the name of that king agrees so exactly with the always more correct orthography in the lists of Eusebius and Africanus. The accuracy, however, of the list of Eusebius is confirmed by testimony which cannot be disputed, namely, the evidence of lapidary inscriptions on the monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia. I will first mention to the reader the names and titles of those kings, with the places where they were found recorded; and will afterwards show him that the third king of this dynasty is the same Tirhaka whose name is connected with one of the most interesting historical events narrated in the sacred writings.

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲉⲛ (Ⲣⲏ ⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ (ⲛ̀) ⲕⲁ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ϣⲃⲕ). “The King (Sun Beneficent of Oblations), Son of the Sun (Shabak).” This is undoubtedly the first of this list of kings. The name is not found upon any of the monuments of Ethiopia, but that is not surprising, so few of the temples there being preserved; but we have undoubted evidence of this king having, as the historians say, reigned over Egypt, for we find his name upon a gate of the temple of Karnak, and also the portrait of the king in his Ethiopian dress, with the same titles, on the interior of the door of the great propylon of the Temple of Luxor, which he repaired. Signor Rosellini states, that he found a date of the twelfth year of his reign; which corroborates the statement of Eusebius, that he reigned twelve years, and not eight only, according to Africanus. I saw at Berlin a scarabæus containing the name of this king, with the uræus on each side, and above the oval a lion couchant: the latter is curious, as it tallies with the singular title I observed above the names at Amarah, of “King of Kings,” represented by the reed and half circle, as king (ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ), and a lion, emblematical of king, with the sign of the plural number. Signor Rosellini mentions, also, that this name is on two amulets he purchased for the Museum at Florence, and on a statue in the Villa Albani at Rome. I think the latter must be removed, as I could not find it there, nor do I recollect having seen any other instance of the name of Sciabak or Sabachus, in the splendid collections of Egyptian antiquities at Turin, Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, Naples, Vienna, Munich, &c., except in an inscription on an alabaster Canopian vase at Paris.

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ.....) ⲡⲓⲕⲁ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲙⲛⲙ (ⲁⲓ) Ϣⲃⲧⲕ), “King (Sun ..... of the Offerings), Son of the Sun, (the beloved of Amun Shabatok).” This name is evidently different from the preceding, there being not only a change in the prænomen, but also in the other oval. Besides the title of Beloved of Amun, the addition of the third hieroglyphic, the phonetic sign for T, changes completely the sound. There is as much difference in the names of Shabako and Shabatok, who therefore are as clearly two persons, as the Sabbakon and Sevechus of Eusebius. The Venetian edition of Eusebius calls the latter king Sebichos. When we consider the remote period, the difference of the dialect, the errors of copyists, &c., it is not surprising that so much discrepancy should exist. This name is found on the ruins to the south-east of the great temple at Carnak; and that the king was an Ethiopian is evident from his costume. The style is similar to that of Shabak; but the drawings of Signor Rosellini, which I could have wished to insert, are clearly the portraits of two different kings. I will presently state the learned Italian’s reasons for supposing that both these names allude to the god Seb or Sevek.

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ-Ⲁⲧⲙⲟⲩⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, ⲱϥⲉ ⲥⲓⲣⲏ) (Ⲧϩⲣⲕ), “King Sun Atmou beneficent, Corrector, Son of the Sun (Tirhaka).” The name of this king is found on the columns and sides of the temple excavated out of the rock at Gibel el Birkel: it occurs ten times in the inscriptions which I copied there. It is also on the small altar in the great temple; but Major Felix[63] appears to me mistaken in supposing that Tirhaka built that splendid edifice, for his name occurs in that instance only. Whereas the name of ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ Ⲡⲓⲱⲛϩⲉⲓ, “King Pionchei (the living),” is on the large altar, and also a fragment of it on the western wall of the temple; but the claim even of the latter may be disputed, for [Vignette A.] is the prænomen on the only column which is now standing; and the name on the pillars is usually that of the king who erected the edifice. We have the authority, then, of the monuments of Ethiopia, that Tirhaka was king over that country, and his name, fortunately, still remains on a pylon of a temple at Medenet Abou, and other places at Thebes, to corroborate the testimony of Manetho, that he was also King of Egypt. In the latter instance, his name is written exactly as I have given it, except that the two last hieroglyphics of the prænomen are represented, figuratively I conceive, by an arm and a lash in the hand. I found, also the name of his queen, in the first chamber excavated out of the temple of Gibel el Birkel ([Vignette A]). ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀-ϩⲓⲙⲉ Ⲁⲙⲛϯⲕϯϩ,, “royal bride, Amentakatah.” Mr. Wilkinson found two princesses of this family: the first, B, is ⲧⲛⲣ ⲥⲓⲟⲩ, or ⲧ. ⲧⲏⲣ Ⲁⲙⲛⲁⲧⲥ, “the Divine Star, or the Divine Amenates;” and C, is ⲧⲏⲣ ϩⲓⲙⲉ ⲦⲙⲁⲩϢⲛⲓⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, “the Divine Bride, Mutsheninofra, the Mother, Mistress of Good.” Signor Rosellini states, that there is a date, at Gibel el Birkel, of the year XX. of this king’s reign, confirming the accuracy of Eusebius. I did not perceive it, though, I believe, I copied every hieroglyphic which remains there.

The third king of this dynasty is the Tirhaka of Holy Writ: the narrative there given, is, I conceive, of sufficient importance to justify my noticing it somewhat in detail.[64]

In the third year of King Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz began to reign; and, for his zeal in rooting out the idolatry of his people, he was described as one who “trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.” Hezekiah rebelled against the Assyrians, and smote the Philistines; and in the fourth year of his reign, the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, besieged Samaria, and, after three years, took it, and carried away the Israelites prisoners. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, who had succeeded to Shalmaneser, went up against all the “fenced cities of Judah, and took them.” Hezekiah agreed to purchase a peace for three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold; and gave to him, for that purpose, all the treasures in the temples and palaces; but Sennacherib, faithless to this agreement, sent up a great host against Jerusalem, and the three chiefs of the army of the king of Assyria, Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, had a conference with three of the officers of Hezekiah-Eliakim, who was over the household of Judah, Shebni, the scribe, and Joab the son of Asaph the recorder. Rabshakeh asked him, “Now, on whom doest thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?” and taunted them with trusting upon Egypt. “Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.” And he begged them to give pledges to the King of Assyria, and not trust on Egypt for chariots or for horsemen. Hezekiah was comforted by the prophet Isaiah, and Rabshakeh returned and told Sennacherib that Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, was coming up to fight against him. The titles which are given to Tirhaka, in these passages, are most important. In 2 Kings, xix. 9., he is called king of Ethiopia, and in xviii. 21. and 24., Pharaoh of Egypt, which is exactly saying that he was ruler over both countries, as we have seen that Manetho and the monuments prove him to have been.

This name, according to Signor Rosellini, is written in Hebrew (תרחקח םלך־כוש) “Tarhaka, Melek Cush,” translated correctly Θαρακα Βασιλευς Αιθιοπων, “Tarhaka, king of the Ethiopians.” The perfect resemblance of the name, which neither upon the monuments nor in the lists is given to any other king of Egypt; the correspondence of the epoch, and the title of king of Ethiopia, given to a sovereign of an Ethiopian dynasty, who by force of arms had annexed Egypt to their paternal kingdom, are circumstances which prove, beyond all doubt, as the learned Italian[65] says, the identity of the Tarhaka of the monuments, with the Tirhaka of holy writ. If, according to Eusebius, we allow 163 years for the 26th dynasty, that is, the one which succeeded to the Ethiopians in Egypt, that number, added to the date of the invasion by Cambyses, 525, will make 688, which, added to the 20 years’ reign of Tirhaka, would make the accession of that king to the throne to be in 708, nearly the exact time assigned by the Scripture chronologists for the relief of Hezekiah and Tirhaka; but Signor Rosellini, principally on the authority of a stela which he obtained at Alexandria, makes the total of the reigns of that dynasty 150 years, which would cause the accession of Tirhaka to the dominion of the Nile to happen in 695. Following exactly the chronology of Scripture, it must have been in the first year of the king’s reign that the destruction of the Assyrian army took place. “Then the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword.”[66]

I will here introduce an event related by Herodotus[67], which, notwithstanding many discrepancies, is evidently the same:—“After Sabaco, the Ethiopian, returned into the country, and the blind king Anysis was dead, there reigned,” he says, “a priest of Vulcan, named Sethos. This king treated with contempt the warriors of Egypt, despising them, as if he never would have occasion for them; and, besides other injuries he committed against them, deprived them of the ground which, under the preceding kings, had been granted to each, in portions of twelve fields of a hundred cubits. But afterwards Sennacherib, king of the Arabs and of the Assyrians, having invaded Egypt with a great host, none of the warriors were willing to assist him: then the priest, reduced to extremity, entered into the sanctuary, bewailed before the figure of the divinity the danger to which he was exposed. Thus weeping, he fell asleep, and the divinity appeared unto him in a vision, and exhorted him to take courage, for he would have nothing to dread in going against the army of the Arabians, since he himself would send assistance. Animated by this dream, and having assembled those Egyptians who were willing to follow him, he fixed his camp in Pelusium, since that city forms the entrance into the country. He was followed by none of the warriors, but only by merchants, artificers, and labourers. When they were arrived there, a multitude of field mice were scattered among their adversaries, ate the bands of their armour, of their bows and shields, so that, next day, naked and disarmed, they fled, and many perished.”

This Sethos is evidently the Ethiopian Tirhaka. The latter was the successor of an Ethiopian, as Sethos is represented to have been, and it was natural that the Ethiopian should despise the soldiers of Egypt, whom his predecessor had conquered. His depriving them of their land, and consequently of their political importance, was the natural policy of a king who reigned over them by right of conquest; but, as he was a good and beneficent monarch, who had encouraged the arts and internal prosperity of the country, of which we have a proof in his restoring and embellishing the temples, the merchants, artificers, and labourers hastened to his support, being attached to his person by the advantages they had derived from his government. The title of priest is not inappropriate to an Ethiopian king, who was chosen from that order. Diodorus also informs us how much they were under the influence of their priests, submitting even to death itself at their command. Besides the coincidence of the time in the list of Manetho, there is no mention of a king called Sethos, except the first of the 19th dynasty, which was long previous. These circumstances alone almost prove that the Sethos of Herodotus and the Ethiopian Tirhaka are the same; but we have still stronger evidence. The king against whom both marched was the same Sennacherib, King of Assyria, and they are both delivered in the same manner; that is, by a miracle. Herodotus states Pelusium, not Jerusalem, as the scene of their discomfiture. This circumstance made me at first imagine that Sennacherib might have been defeated at both places; but I conceive it more reasonable to attribute these differences of name, place, and the nature of the miracle to the usual confusion of Herodotus, who did not compile his work, like Manetho, from the sacred registers preserved in the temples, but from verbal communications with the priests; perhaps the story of the mice was invented by Herodotus, or his informers, or, at all events, arose in the lapse of time, to explain the manner in which the Deity interfered in their behalf.

The Tirhaka, then, of the monuments and of Manetho, is the Sethos of Herodotus, and the Tirhaka who assisted Hezekiah against Sennacherib. From these various accounts, and by separating, in the narrative of Herodotus, the probable from the marvellous, we may conclude that the monarch was pious, since he bore the title of priest, and applied to the divinity for support before he set out on the expedition; that he was powerful, since he was not only able to hold in subjection the entire valley of the Nile, but also to carry his arms to the assistance of his neighbours. He appears, also, to have been an enlightened and an able legislator, since he encouraged the arts; and although a foreigner, had so ingratiated himself with his people, that, strong in their affections, he was not only able to destroy the military despotism of the soldiery, but raise another army, to wage war against the powerful king of Assyria. Eratosthenes (see Strabo[68],) states that this conqueror proceeded as far as the Pillars of Hercules.

There is another king mentioned in the Bible, as reigning in Egypt twelve years before the defeat of Sennacherib. It is agreed, almost by all, that he is the Shabatok or Sevechus of the lists; but this is so learnedly and ingeniously discussed by Signor Rosellini, that I make no apology for enriching this chapter with a translation of his remarks. At the seventeenth chapter of 2 Kings, it is related that Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, subdued and made tributary Hoshea, king of Israel. That prince having wished to rebel, and having sent for aid to So, king of Egypt, Shalmaneser besieged, conquered, and made him prisoner. The reign of Hoshea over Israel lasted nine years; so that it appears to have happened in his sixth year, that, to throw off the Assyrian yoke, he demanded assistance from the king of Egypt. Therefore, as Shalmaneser besieged and took Samaria in that year, which was the last of Hoshea, Hezekiah began to reign over Judah in the third year of Hoshea; and in the 14th year of Hezekiah occurred the discomfiture of Sennacherib, in which the Pharaoh Tirhaka took part, as the ally of the king of Judah. The sixth year of Hoshea (in which he demanded aid of So, king of Egypt,) corresponds to the third year of the reign of Hezekiah; and since this latter king, in the 14th year of his reign, made a treaty with Tirhaka, it follows that the Pharaoh, called So in the Bible, preceded Tirhaka by an interval of not less than eleven years. But So is called king of Egypt, and Tirhaka was the same; therefore we ought to seek the Pharaoh So among the kings of this Ethiopian dynasty. And since he preceded Tirhaka by an interval of eleven years, we must necessarily recognise him as the immediate predecessor of Tirhaka, who is called by Manetho Sevechus, or Sebichus, and, according to Eusebius, reigned twelve years. Not less manifest than the coincidence of the years is the correspondence of the name in Manetho and the Bible, if we correct the pronunciation according to the true sound of the Egyptian language. I have already mentioned, that the name of Shabatok (so the Sevechus of Manetho is written upon the monuments) may truly, indeed, be considered as a peculiar word of the Ethiopian dialect, which corresponds to the Egyptian Sevek. Sevek is, in the Egyptian mythology, a god, who has attributes relative to the Nile, and is generally represented under the sacred symbol of a crocodile. In this form its name is usually written

ⲥ ⲃ ⲕ “Sebek, Sevek;” but when it is represented under a human form, then it is written simply

or

ⲥ ⲃ “Seb, Sewe.” The titles, attributes, and forms of those two names, Sewe and Sebek, are promiscuous; and we are certain, that, however it is written or pronounced, it means the same divinity.[69]

Let us take, therefore, from the Hebrew text, the name of the king of Egypt, to whom Hoshea sent for help. It is written סוא: disregarding (particularly in a foreign language) the corrupt pronunciation given to it by Masorete, and the other interpreters, who read So or Soa, and Sua, let the least learned in the languages of the East judge, if the natural pronunciation of these Hebrew elements be not Sewa or Sewe. This is sufficient to show, that the author of the second book of Kings wrote that name with those characters which could give the pronunciation of the Egyptian name Sewe. It is probable that the same name, written upon the monuments in the Ethiopian manner, Shabatok, was commonly called by the Egyptians, Sewe; and, perhaps, they pronounced it also, indifferently, Sewek, since both these words were the designation of the same divinity, to which that name belongs. In fact, Manetho wrote in his history, Sevechus, and, cutting off the Greek termination, it remains Sevek, retaining, from the Ethiopian Shabatok, the pronunciation used in Egypt. Thus the text of the Bible, also, in relating this Egyptian name, maintains that possible orthographic exactness which it has followed in writing all the other Egyptian names. The original monuments, therefore, and the lists of Manetho concur in attesting that the dynasty of the Ethiopians was composed of three kings, whose names I have mentioned, and thus correct the Greek historians who have assigned it to Sabaco only.

CHAPTER XX.

THE EMIGRATION OF EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS AT THE TIME OF PSAMMITICHUS. — EXPEDITION OF CAMBYSES. — MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. OF THE MACROBIANS, ETC. — CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE ETHIOPIANS. — ERGAMENES, THE ETHIOPIAN KING’S, CONQUESTS IN LOWER NUBIA. — ATARRAMON AND SILCO, ETHIOPIAN KINGS. — EXPEDITION OF PETRONIUS. — QUEEN CANDACE. — CHRISTIANITY FIRST INTRODUCED INTO ETHIOPIA. — ITS DURATION. — NAPATA, CAPITAL OF CANDACE. — BLEMMYES AND THE NUBIANS.

Under the reign of Psammitichus, whom Africanus states to have reigned twenty-one years, Eusebius thirty-three, and Herodotus fifteen, after the Ethiopian dynasty, the historian of Halicarnassus informs us (and his account is confirmed by Diodorus), that 240,000 Egyptian soldiers were in garrison at Elephantine against the Ethiopians, at Pelusium against the Arabs and Assyrians, and others, in Marea, opposite Africa. These soldiers having been three years thus in garrison, without being relieved, resolved to go over together from Psammitichus into Ethiopia. Regardless of the entreaties of that king, they engaged themselves to the king of that country, who employed them in subduing some of his discontented subjects, whose land he gave them as a reward. It is added, that the Ethiopians became more civilised, imbibing the customs of Egypt.

Herodotus states[70], that part of these soldiers were in garrison at Pelusium, against the Assyrians; probably an attack from that nation was anticipated, in revenge of the defeat of Sennacherib. According to that author, there were forty days of land journey, and sixteen of navigation, between Elephantina and Meroe, besides a space near Taconso. He says, the distance is the same from there to the country of the Automali, otherwise called Ascami, a term which means “Assistants at the left hand of the king;” by which, according to him, the Egyptian warriors are designated. Whether this last fifty-six days’ journey extends along the Bahr el Abiad, in the direction of Axum, or on the Bahr el Azruk, cannot, with certainty, be decided; but I will presently state my reasons for conceiving the former opinion to be not improbable. The inhabitants of a part of Ethiopia, at such an immense distance from the metropolis, would naturally become more civilised by this Egyptian colony. This passage, at all events, communicates the highly important fact, that the kingdom of Meroe reached more than fifty-six days’ journey, both north and south, from the metropolis; or, in other words, that it was altogether about 1500 miles in length at that period. This accounts for the great power of the king of Ethiopia, but for which it is evident, that a body of 240,000 men would not have been satisfied with having assigned to them a distant and uncivilised portion of his kingdom, but would have been easily able to take possession of the whole.

The next important event I shall allude to is the celebrated expedition of the first king of the Persian dynasty in Egypt.

Cambyses determined to make war upon three different powers,—the Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and the Egyptian Macrobians. But, before commencing the expedition into Ethiopia, he resolved to send spies into the country, and, for this purpose, sent to the island of Elephantine for some of the Ichthyophagi, who were acquainted with the Ethiopian language. Cambyses, having instructed these ambassadors what they should say, gave them, as presents for the king, a robe of purple, necklaces and bracelets of gold, an alabaster vase of ointment, and another vase of palm wine. The Ichthyophagi having arrived, and having been introduced to the king, presented their offerings, and addressed him thus:—“Cambyses, King of the Persians, desirous of being your friend and ally, sent us to you with these gifts, in the use of which he takes great delight.”[71]

The Ethiopian king, knowing well that they came as spies, answered,—“It is not that the King of the Persians esteems so much my friendship, that he has sent you to me with gifts; neither do you speak truly, for you have come to spy out my kingdom. Neither is he a just man, for if he were just, he would not covet the country of another, nor wish to make slaves of those who have in no way offended him. Present to him this bow, and tell him that the King of the Ethiopians gives this advice to the King of the Persians. When he is able to manage such large bows with as much facility as I do, then let him conduct an army against the Egyptian Macrobians, but one superior to them in number. In the mean time, thank the gods for not putting it into the mind of the Egyptians to usurp the states of others.”

Having said this, he unbent the bow, and gave it to them, and having taken the vest of purple into his hand, he asked them what it was, and how it was made? The Ichthyophagi having told him the truth of the purple and the colouring, he said that they were deceivers, and their garments deceitful. Having inquired about the necklace and bracelets of gold, and the Ichthyophagi having answered that they were ornaments, he laughed, conceiving them to be chains, and said, that he had much stronger ones. Lastly, inquiring of the ointment, and being shown how it should be worked with the hand, and used, he said of it the same as he had done of the vest. He then learned how the wine was made, and its use; and being much pleased with the trial he made of it, he asked on what things they lived, and what was the longest period of the life of a Persian? They answered, that the King lived on bread, explaining to him the nature of corn, and told him that the space of eighty years was the greatest length of the life of a Persian. The Ethiopian answered, that he was not surprised that, subsisting on mud, they should live so few years; that neither would they live so long, was it not for the wine, and added, “for in this only are the Persians superior to the Ethiopians.”

The Ichthyophagi having, in their turn, inquired of the King about his people’s food, and manner of life, he answered, that they lived on meat and milk; that the greatest part of them lived to the age of 120 years, and some even longer. The ambassadors having expressed their surprise at this, the King conducted them to a fountain, after washing in which they became more vigorous, and shining, as with oil; and it sent forth an odour as of violet. And the Ichthyophagi said that this water was so light, that neither wood, nor even lighter substances, would swim on the surface; but that every thing went to the bottom; and that the constant use of this water was the reason why the Ethiopians lived so long.

Cambyses, enraged at this reception of the Ethiopians, set out without preparing any store of provisions, and without reflecting that it was the extremity of the world to which he was carrying his arms. Before he had marched a fifth part of the route from Thebes, the want of provisions was felt; yet he madly determined to proceed. The soldiers fed on grass as long as any could be found; at length, when they arrived in the deserts, they were obliged to cast lots, to eat one in ten; which finally induced Cambyses to return to Thebes with the remains of his army.—The defeat of this monarch is also mentioned by Diodorus.

If this account be at all correct, the country of the Macrobians must have been at some distance from Meroe, otherwise they could not have been ignorant of the use of necklaces and bracelets, since the figures on the walls of the sepulchres of that metropolis are represented with those ornaments. The fountain mentioned by the Ichthyophagi is almost as wonderful as the lake which Diodorus reports as seen by Semiramis; but, discarding what bears the stamp of fiction in this narrative, we can easily recognise, in this account of the Macrobians, a powerful nomad tribe, in possession of the gold country which was the great attraction to Cambyses. Their degree of strength and longevity, probably exaggerated, might be gained by the habits of frugality and temperance usual among the nomad tribes. Their food (meat and milk) is exactly that of the Bishareen and other tribes of the desert at the present day. Their not understanding the nature of the ointment, may have been from its being very superior to their own; all that is probable in the description of the fountain is, that it consisted of oil. The Arab tribes are now in the habit of anointing their bodies, conceiving this custom to be in the highest degree salubrious, and indeed necessary, to mitigate the parching effects of a vertical sun and the hot winds of the desert. I tried this custom, and found it very beneficial; and am persuaded I should have suffered less from the heat had I used it more frequently; but the smell of the ointment they now use is not like the violet, as the Ichthyophagi describe that of the Macrobians. It is not, therefore, surprising that a powerful tribe, doubtless less barbarous than at the present day, being in connection with states then more civilised, should have a bath of prepared oil, suited to the pressing wants of the country. A nomad tribe might, very probably, be ignorant how the purple colour was produced; for, with the exception of some shawls worn by the chiefs, none of the Arabs of the present day use any thing but white cotton and linen cloths. The Melek Nazr e’ Deen (see [Plate III.]), is almost the only exception I have met with. Sheakh Sayd, the chief of all the Ababdes, did not know how the indigo plant (which his country produces) was made into a dye, till he went with me through the manufactory at Berber. I suspect that the account of their contempt for gold, is an embellishment of the Greek historian, or an exaggeration of the ambassadors; for they must have learnt its value by exchanging it with their more civilised neighbours. It is not, however, impossible that they may have used it for chains, as they might not have possessed other metals, or if they did, might not have had skill to work them into chains so easily as they could gold; or, from their greater rarity, they might have been equally as valuable.[72]

Herodotus calls them Egyptian Macrobians, and afterwards Egyptians. I am almost inclined to believe that they may have been a nomad race, blended with the 240,000 soldiers, who, according to Herodotus, deserted from Psammitichus, and had a territory assigned to them, among a people about sixty days’ journey distant from Meroe. It is certain that the Egyptians would marry native wives. They might, as Herodotus says, have improved the manners of the people; but, being warriors, and not mechanics or artificers, and accustomed to a rigid distinction of castes, they might not have introduced a knowledge of the arts, and even what they taught might, in a century and a half, be forgotten by a tribe whose habits would give them little taste for such acquirements. I cannot agree with those who consider the country of the Macrobians to be on or near the Arabian Gulf, in the territory of the present Soumalies, or, as Professor Heeren[73] has placed them, beyond Cape Guardefui; for, mad as Cambyses is represented to have been, he surely could not have been so infatuated as to have attempted to penetrate to so vast a distance, across the immense deserts and inhospitable regions of the interior, the whole population of which would be hostile to his progress, particularly when a far shorter and easier way was open to him by the Arabian Gulf and the Straits of Babelmandel. It may be stated that the Persians were, perhaps, unskilled and averse to navigation; but even if not navigators themselves, they might easily have procured transports. I think the Macrobians should be placed more in the interior; probably on the Bahr el Abiad. Pausanias (lib. iv.) says, that Meroe and the Ethiopian plains are inhabited by the Macrobians, the most just people of the earth: but that they have not in the country any sea, nor any other river but the Nile. This statement, which merits attention, being from one so deeply versed in Egyptian subjects, proves what I have stated,—that the Macrobians did not occupy the territory of the present Soumalies, near the sea; but at the same time brings them nearer to Meroe than we can admit from their state of civilisation, or the testimony of Herodotus, who describes them as being on the southern side of Africa.

I have now to mention an historical fact, connected with some curious Ethiopian customs, which might have been rejected as a fable, but for the evidence of a lapidary inscription, which records the name of the king connected with it. This gives to it an authentic character, and affords another proof of the general accuracy of the Sicilian historian’s account of the Ethiopians.

“The Ethiopians,” says Diodorus[74], “have many laws differing from those of other nations, particularly as regards the choice of their kings. The priests choose the most respectable of their order, and form them into a circle; and he who by chance is taken hold of by the priest, who enters into the circle, walking and leaping like a satyr, is declared king upon the spot; and all the people worship him, as a man charged with the government by Divine Providence. The king lives after the manner prescribed to him by the law. In all things he follows the customs of the country, neither punishing nor recompensing but according to the laws established since the origin of the nation. It is not permitted to the king to cause any of his subjects to be executed, even when they shall have been judged worthy of death; but he sends to the guilty person an officer, who carries to him the signal of death; and immediately the criminal shuts himself in his house, and executes justice on himself. It is not permitted to him to fly into a neighbouring kingdom, and change the pain of death into banishment, as they do in Greece. They relate that a certain man, having received an order of death, which had been sent to him by the king, thought of flying out of Ethiopia. His mother, who suspected his design, passed her girdle around his neck, without his attempting to defend himself, and strangled him, lest, as she said, her son should bring increased disgrace upon his family by his flight.”

We perceive, by these passages, that the Ethiopians had regular laws, to which not only the people but the king submitted. The kings, it seems, were chosen from the priests, and therefore it is not extraordinary that they were so completely under their power as we shall shortly see; for probably, like the cardinals at Rome, they did not select always the most talented, but often the most manageable, as their chief. The satyr-like gambols of the priest, which were the cause of his being elected, remind me somewhat of the impositions, or, rather, workings of the spirit, which the Arab fakeers and sheakhs sometimes exhibit.[75]

“The death of the kings,” says Diodorus, “is still more extraordinary. The priests at Meroe have acquired great power. When they form the resolution, they send a courier to the king, with an order for him to die. They tell him that the gods (or oracles) had thus decreed, and that he would be guilty of a crime if he violated an order from them. They added many other reasons, which would easily influence a simple man, aware of the ancient custom, and who had not strength of mind sufficient to resist such an unjust command. The first kings submitted to this cruel sentence. Ergamenes, who reigned at the time of the second Ptolemy, and who was instructed in the philosophy of Greece, was the first who dared to throw off this ridiculous yoke. He went with his army to the place difficult to get to, or (εἰς τὸ ἄβατον) fortress, where was formerly the temple of gold of the Ethiopians, and caused all the priests to be massacred, and instituted himself a new religion.” Signor Rosellini found the name of this king on the door of the sanctuary of Dacker. ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲁⲙⲛⲧⲟⲧ ⲱⲛϩ, Ⲣⲏ-ⲱⲧⲡ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲉⲣⲕⲁⲙⲛ ⲱⲛϩ ϫⲧⲧ, Ⲓⲥⲏⲙⲁⲓ). “King Amentot (hand of Amun), the living, devoted to Phre (Son of the Sun), Erkamon, always living, beloved of Isis.”—Vol. ii. 321.

The discovery of the name is of the greatest importance; as the evidence of this lapidary inscription, that there was a king called Ergamenes, or, to give him his proper name, Erkamenes, is strongly corroborative of the whole narrative of Diodorus. He could not have been an Egyptian king, for there is no mention in any of the lists of a king of that name. We may, therefore, with certainty conclude, that it is the Ethiopian monarch Erkamenes. Philæ was generally considered the boundary of Egypt, but we have the indubitable testimony of a long train of splendid monuments, from that island to Solib, that the rulers of Egypt, from the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty until the time of the Cæsars, possessed at all events, at different intervals, that part of Ethiopia.

From there being there no Ethiopian edifices, but all Egyptian temples, from the first to the second cataract, it is probable that the Egyptians were generally in possession of that part of the valley of the Nile; but the name of this Ethiopian king having been found on this Ptolemaic edifice, can only be accounted for by his having been in possession of the country. The style of the architecture and sculpture of the temple of Dacker is certainly like that of the Ptolemies. I therefore do not conceive that the temple was built by Erkamenes, but perhaps that conqueror celebrated his victories by religious functions, a representation of which he had sculptured on the temple at the limit of his conquests.

Besides Erkamenes, we have accounts of another Ethiopian monarch, whose name Signor Rosellini found on the temple of Deboud, in Lower Nubia, and which he conceives (I think very correctly), to be also of an Ethiopian king of about the same period. ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ ⲛ̀ ⲱⲧⲡ, ⲥⲱⲧⲛ̀ ⲛ̀ⲛⲓⲧⲏⲣ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲧⲣⲣⲁⲙⲛ, ⲱⲡϩ ϫⲧⲧ) “King (Son of Perfection, approved by the gods), Son of the Sun (Atarramon, always living.)” This, therefore, is an Ethiopian king, whose conquests extended to within a few miles of Philæ.

A Greek inscription at Kalabshy mentions the victories of Silco, king of all the Ethiopians, over the Blemmyes. No other Ethiopian names are found in Lower Nubia, except some prisoners represented on the walls of the temple of Rameses at Kalabshy.

Strabo[76] gives us a highly important narrative of an event that took place in his time. It is peculiarly interesting, as it accounts for the ruin of the towns and temples which once adorned that part of the valley of the Nile. “The Ethiopians,” says he, “taking advantage of Ælius Gallus having taken away the garrison of Syene, to prosecute his expedition into Arabia, by a sudden and unforeseen attack took possession of Syene, Elephanta, and Philæ; made the inhabitants prisoners, overthrew the statues of Cæsar Augustus; but Petronius, with 10,000 foot and 800 cavalry, attacked their army, composed of 30,000 men, and forced them to fly to Pselchis, an Ethiopian city: he sent ambassadors to them there, to demand what they had taken, and to know what reason they had to complain of the governors. They required three days to consider, and as, after that time, Petronius did not obtain satisfaction, he attacked them, forced them to give battle, and had no difficulty in putting to flight men ill disciplined and ill armed, having only large shields of unmanufactured ox-hide, hatchets, spears, and sabres. Some threw themselves into the town, others fled into the desert. Some gained a neighbouring town by swimming across the river; among the number were the generals of Candace, who reigned over the Ethiopians. This queen, whose courage was beyond her sex, was deprived of one eye.

“Petronius crossed the river upon rafts and boats, and made prisoners all those who were in the island, and sent them immediately to Alexandria; afterwards they attacked Pselchis, and took it by assault. From Pselchis, Petronius, crossing the downs of sand where the army of Cambyses had been swallowed up by the winds, reached Premnis, a town in a strong situation, gained it at the first attack, and advanced afterwards on Napata, the capital of the kingdom of Candace, where her son was then residing. Candace occupied a neighbouring place, whence she sent to demand peace, offering to restore the prisoners who had been brought from Syene, and the statues which they had carried off; but Petronius, regardless of these propositions, attacked Napata, which the queen and her son had abandoned, razed the town, and led away the inhabitants captive.

“He returned with his booty, judging the road beyond to be too difficult. He took, however, the precaution to fortify Premnis better, leaving there a garrison of 400 men, with provisions for two years. Candace advanced, with a considerable force, against Premnis, but Petronius came to its relief, and succeeded in throwing himself into the town before the arrival of the queen, and provided various means of defence for the safety of the place. Candace sent ambassadors to Petronius, who ordered them to go to Cæsar (Augustus); and as they pretended not to know who Cæsar was, and which way they must go, he gave them an escort. These ambassadors arrived at Samos, where Cæsar then was. He granted all that they desired, and even freed them from the tribute which he had imposed upon them.”

We perceive from this account the superiority of the Roman arms. The discipline of those celebrated troops would have made them irresistible, whatever might have been the inferiority of their number, against such wretched soldiers as Strabo represents the Ethiopians: but Petronius, when at Napata, would scarcely have refrained from proceeding to Meroe, nor eventually would he have shut himself up in Premnis, whatever might have been the force of Candace, had it consisted of the undisciplined, ill-armed people he describes. Augustus does not seem to have despised them, since he concluded a peace on their own terms. In my [account] of the arts of Meroe, I will mention the probable effects of this destructive invasion of Petronius. Pliny also mentions this expedition[77], and states that, after Pselchis and Premnis, he took also the cities of Aboccis, Phthuris, Cambusis, Attenan, and Stadisis, and afterwards Napata; but he adds, it was not only the Roman arms which made a wilderness of this part of Ethiopia, but the wars with Egypt, alternately ruling over, and subject to, that country.

The year of the expedition of Petronius has never been exactly ascertained[78], but according to Dion Cassius (lxiv. s. 7.), Augustus went into the East in the year of Rome 734. Therefore, as the ambassadors of the Ethiopians found him at Samos, on his way into Syria, the expedition of Petronius can only have taken place a very short time before that period, that is, about twenty years before Christ.

An event of the greatest importance is recorded in the Gospel, as having taken place A.D. 33. An eunuch, a man of great authority under Candace, who had the charge of all her treasure, was converted by Philip.[79] The time at which Philip met the eunuch was subsequent to that of Ergamenes, when, as we have seen, a taste for Greek literature was spread in Ethiopia; therefore, the Greek language was, without doubt, sufficiently known to enable them to read the Old Testament, which was then translated into that language. It is not extraordinary, that a man who may be supposed to have raised himself to his high station of chief eunuch, by superior talent, should have perceived the superiority of the Jewish religion to that of Amun, nor is it unreasonable to presume that many of the Jews visited Ethiopia, and contributed to his conversion. We find him, therefore, as a believer in the Jewish religion, undertaking a journey of nearly 2000 miles to worship at the holy temple of Jerusalem, and engaged, when Philip met him, in studying the promises held out to the chosen people. We have no reason, I think, to assume that, because the sacred writings have only recorded this solitary instance, there were not other Ethiopians who had embraced the Jewish religion. It is well known that, in the East, through every age, the chief eunuch has always been one of the most powerful officers at the court; and it is not unreasonable, I think, to presume that his influence, joined to the persuasive truth of the doctrines of Christianity, may have induced many to forsake the ancient worship of the country, which had then, perhaps, degenerated, as in Egypt, into gross polytheism. Unless we assign a reign of more than fifty years to the Candace of the Gospel, she cannot be the sovereign who reigned at the time of the expedition of Petronius; but Pliny informs us that several queens who reigned in Ethiopia assumed this appellation. Philip met the eunuch, riding in his chariot, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is a desert tract. Those deserts, which the traveller is now obliged to cross on the fatiguing camel, exposed to the hot sun and parching winds, the eunuch, it seems, rode over comfortably in his chariot. About the year 330, when Athanasius was Patriarch of Alexandria, according to Ludolf[80], Christianity was introduced into Abyssinia, by two youths, Frumentius and Ædisius, who were shipwrecked on the coast of the Red Sea; but it was not until the time of Theodosius that the Nubians were converted; and, according to the Arab writer, Sheref el Edrese, A.D. 1153, they were still Christians.

I shall not attempt the laborious, and almost useless, task, of endeavouring to trace the history of this country from the time of the Romans until the present day. My object has been to lay before the reader the most important fragments of history connected with the kingdom of Meroe. The capital of Candace was Napata, and not Meroe. The latter celebrated metropolis seems to have existed until the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and at the time of Nero, Pliny describes Napata as of no importance. Oppidum id parvum inter prædicta solum. After this sad decline of the glory of the Ethiopians, we find the wild tribes, whose power was formerly absorbed in the superior greatness of Meroe, now acting the principal part. The wars of the Blemmyes and the Nubians with each other, and against the Roman power, are the most important events afterwards transmitted to us; but, as these tribes have left no monuments of their civilisation, their names, victories, and defeats, have little connection with the history of Meroe. It might be interesting to trace the wasting away of that lamp of civilisation which had shone once so bright; but such an inquiry would exceed my limits, as well as the object prescribed to myself, which was, to show the once great political importance of the Ethiopians of Meroe. I have said, in my topographical description, that my examination of the existing monuments led me to adopt the opinion of those who believe the statement of Diodorus, that Meroe was the cradle of the arts. I shall, in the following chapters, bring forward additional arguments to prove that statement. The establishment of this fact will give an additional interest to that classical land, which we have seen to be the country of Memnon, Zerah, Tirhaka, Ergamenes, &c., and against which the efforts of Semiramis, Cambyses, and the Egyptian Pharaohs[81], were vainly directed.

CHAPTER XXI.

REQUISITES FOR A STATE ENJOYING EXTENSIVE COMMERCE. — ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF MEROE. — PROBABLE EXTENT OF HER COMMERCE. — THE FACILITY AFFORDED TO ITS EXTENSION BY MEANS OF THE CAMEL. — COMMERCE OF ARABIA AND INDIA. — ABUNDANCE OF GOLD. — IRON AND GUM. — ETHIOPIAN TRIBUTE TO EGYPT. — DESCRIPTION OF A SPLENDID ETHIOPIAN PROCESSION AT THEBES. — COMMERCE OF THE INTERIOR. — CAUSES OF THE DECLINE OF MEROE. — DIMINUTION OF HER AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. — EXHAUSTION OF MINES. — RIVALRY OF EGYPT. — WARS WITH EGYPT. — ARAB CONQUEST. — PRESENT COMMERCE.

Commerce of Meroe.—The history of nations, and particularly of cities, clearly evinces the extraordinary effects of commerce. Those countries which have attained to any high degree of power and prosperity have been, in a great measure, indebted for them to that source of wealth. A wise government, anxious for the welfare of its subjects, always affords the utmost encouragement and protection to commerce, guarding it against those accidents which endanger its security, and when, from unavoidable circumstances, one branch is closed, seeks to open other channels to its successful activity. In order that a state may carry on extensive commerce, it ought to possess an advantageous position, contiguous to other rich countries, with the opportunity of becoming an emporium for their commodities, and of supplying them with those in which they are deficient. She ought also to enjoy abundant internal resources, derived from agriculture, manufactures, and mines.

A slight examination of the map of this part of Africa will satisfy us that there could not have been a situation, on that immense continent, more admirably adapted for commercial intercourse than Meroe. Placed at a short distance only from the conflux of the Astaboras and the Nile, she was connected, by the former, with that part of Ethiopia now called Abyssinia; and, by the latter, now denominated the Bahr el Azruk, or Blue River, with the provinces of Sennaar, Fazoukl, and, perhaps, with regions still further to the south. It is also highly probable that, by the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, the true Nile, she communicated extensively with vast districts in the interior of Africa. The distance from these rivers, particularly from the Astaboras, to the present ports of Massoua (the ancient Adule) and Souakim, on the Red Sea, whence she received, perhaps, the productions of Arabia and the Indies, was by no means great. Nature seems to have facilitated the intercourse by providing her with the ship of the desert—the camel. By its means, probably, the commerce of Meroe may have been widely diffused into the centre of Africa; to the countries now called Kordofan and Darfour, which are only at a short distance from the Nile; nor is it improbable that a powerful and enterprising nation, such as the Ethiopians then appear to have been, may have extended their caravan trade to the kingdoms of Soudan, Bornou, &c., and possibly even to the now impervious Timbuctoo.

It may be asked, if the profit which the merchants of Meroe could derive from such distant expeditions would repay the cost and hazard; but an examination of the expense of transporting merchandise on camels will remove that objection. In the estimate which I am about to make, of the expenses of sea and land carriage, the rates must, of course, be those of the present day; this, however, will be to the disadvantage of my argument, as navigation, at that remote period, was in a much more imperfect state, and consequently more tedious and expensive, than it now is. I shall select wool, as a bulky article, and, therefore, more difficult to transport by land. I shall suppose a vessel, laden with 1000 bags of wool, of 450 lbs. each, and that its average passage was thirty days, for which the owners received a freight of 1d. per lb., which, I believe, is about the usual rate for a voyage of that length. Supposing, also, that the average sailing of the vessel, allowing for detentions from contrary winds, and for the time occupied in loading and reloading, be fifty miles per day, making thus 1500 miles. Now, the usual load for a camel is 500 lbs., sometimes 600 lbs., so that 450 lbs. is a very moderate calculation; and at the rate the merchandise of the Pasha is now carried down to Cairo, not more than sixty days would be necessary to accomplish the above distance. They charged me eighteen shillings for twenty days, averaging about twenty-five miles per day; therefore the expense of the sixty days, at present, would not exceed two pounds fourteen shillings; about sixteen shillings more than by water.

In ancient times the expense of labour and camels was not likely to differ materially from what it now is; but that of maritime conveyance must have been much larger. We know the number of men that were necessary to impel the boats, and their system of following all the sinuosities of the coasts. Hence the time taken to accomplish a voyage of any extent must have been very long. The period required by Solomon’s vessels to reach the country of Ophir is a proof of the dilatory, and consequently expensive, navigation in that age. As I have stated in my account of Dongolah, 2500 loads of gum, of 450 rotols each, are carried down to Cairo, that is, a distance of about 1800 miles, for 2l., including all expenses; being thirteen per cent. on the value.

This calculation proves, that the cost of land carriage, particularly for the short journeys to the Red Sea, Kordofan, and Darfour, would be only a slight inconvenience; and even the expense of a regular trade to Fezzan and Bornou, by the route which the Mamelukes took, would have been no very heavy burden on the articles. That on which I have chosen to make this calculation, was, as already observed, one of the most disadvantageous that could have been selected. The expense of 18s. (and I, as a traveller, of course paid the highest price), on conveying, for a journey of twenty days, 500 pounds weight of rich Indian stuffs, or of Arabian spices, must have been quite trifling.

Meroe, therefore, enjoyed the advantage, not only of a direct water communication by the Nile, Bahr el Abiad, Bahr el Azruk, and the Astoboras, to an extent of several thousand miles of the vast continent of Africa, but also, by means of the ship of the desert, had an intercourse with her ports on the Red Sea, and could thence open a communication with Arabia, and through it, perhaps, with India. Thus, also, she could exchange her merchandise or the rich natural productions of the centre of Africa. The circumstance mentioned in my topographical description ([page 200.]), that in the reign of the fourth caliph after Mahomet, this country was overrun by a powerful tribe from Yemen, and not from the Hedjas, as was generally supposed, renders it very probable, that that part of Arabia in particular had been deeply engaged in the commerce of Meroe. The knowledge thus obtained of its former wealth and power, its then entirely decayed condition, and the facilities afforded by its ports to invaders, were likely to induce a nation, then in full power, and inflamed by religious zeal, to invade and lay waste that country to which it was formerly, perhaps, tributary, or even subject.

A glance at the map is sufficient to show, that the commerce of the Indies must have been much more easily carried on with Meroe than with Egypt; for, whether the Ethiopians navigated directly to India, or received the produce of that rich country, by the caravans and vessels of the Arabians; in either case, she possessed superior local advantages over Egypt. Her ports on the Red Sea were better, the distance far shorter, and the dangerous navigation of that sea in a great measure avoided.

Adule, supposed, by some, to be near the present Arkeko, latitude 15° 30′ N., is called, by Pliny (vi. 29.) the very great emporium of the Troglodytes and the Ethiopians, and the commerce chiefly consisted in ivory, horns of the rhinoceros, hides of the hippopotamus, shells of the tortoise, sphinxes, and slaves.[82] According to Bruce, there are, at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf, the ruins of a place, from which, to Arabia Felix, the passage only requires a few hours. The direct commerce with Arabia, and sale of her manufactures in that populous peninsula, must also have been very great; but the commerce of Africa was, doubtless, the principal source of the power of Meroe.

The superfluity of gold, which Herodotus (in his account of the Ichthyophagi sent as ambassadors, or rather spies, by Cambyses to the king of Ethiopia), describes as being applied to such common purposes, that even the prisoners were bound in chains of that metal, may, perhaps, have been a Greek mode of hyperbolically expressing its great abundance. I believe the supply of this metal to have been drawn chiefly from the interior. Diodorus says (lib. i. 29.), and Strabo repeats the passage, without acknowledging his author, “that island contains mines of gold, silver, iron, copper, and great abundance of ebony, and various kinds of precious stone, και μέταλλα χρυσου τε και αργύρου, &c., but the search of the Pasha after them has been fruitless. She may have derived a certain portion from mines in her own territories, and even in the island, which are now exhausted; but, from the limited traces of such mines hitherto discovered, I conceive it more probable that she obtained that abundance of the precious metals, not only from the now exhausted mines in the Great Nubian desert[83] (see pages [23.] and [28.]), but principally from the centre or the south of Africa. The Turkish governors now, when they make their expeditions into the Habeesh and the negro countries, frequently amass an immense quantity of gold; it is said, as much as 2000 or 3000 ounces; and before the conquest of the Pasha, I am informed that every peasant girl wore gold ornaments to a large amount. The inhabitants of the countries south of Sennaar are described to me as still possessing great abundance of gold, which must, in fact, be the case, for many merchants have told me that there is always plenty in the markets.

The exclusive commerce which Meroe must have long enjoyed with so considerable a portion of that vast continent, was quite sufficient to raise her to a great height of opulence. The countries of the interior, if not really conquered by her, would, at all events, gladly exchange their gold, and other natural productions, for her manufactures and merchandise, which, doubtless, far exceeded in quality what they made themselves, or could procure elsewhere, being the production of a people more advanced in civilisation and the arts; while they, isolated by immense deserts from the rest of the world, would be little visited, except by the caravans from the metropolis. Gold was, probably, not the only return these countries afforded to Meroe. Brown has given an account of the productions of Darfour, and, as I have said before, 2500 camel loads of gum are sent yearly from Kordofan to Cairo. Iron mines have been found both in Kordofan and Darfour. I have specimens of this metal from the latter country, which is current in the bazaars, like money.[84] I may here remark, that, not improbably, the Ethiopian stone, mentioned by Herodotus as employed to make incisions in the bodies, for the purpose of embalming and forming them into mummies, was iron procured from that country by the Egyptians, who had no mines of their own. Ivory is still found abundantly in Abyssinia, and also in the province of Fazoukl; and elephants are always found in the territory of the Bugara tribe, behind Kordofan. Probably Meroe received many other commodities, with which an imperfect knowledge of those remote regions prevents us from being acquainted; besides others, perhaps, which are no longer produced.

Herodotus (Thalia, 97.) says,—“The Ethiopians on the confines of Egypt, whom Cambyses subdued in his expedition, and those who inhabit the sacred island of Nysa, celebrate festivals to Bacchus. These Ethiopians and their neighbours bring, according to my memory, two half measures of pure gold, two hundred (φάλαγγας) long round pieces of ebony, five Ethiopian children, and twenty-large elephants’ teeth.” This passage reminds me of that magnificent procession in a tomb at Thebes, of the time of Thothmes III. Fifty figures are represented, exclusive of the Egyptians, painted red; six are black, and four of a dark brown, but apparently of the same country. These people, not having the Egyptian dress, are doubtless Ethiopian, and most of them are so called by the hieroglyphics. The splendid presents which they are presenting to the royal owner of the tomb, almost exactly correspond with the account just quoted from Herodotus.

They consist of ivory, ebony, a most beautiful collection of vases, and a variety of animals,—horses, cows, the giraffe, capricorn, leopards, cynocephali, greyhounds, &c. Among a gorgeous pile of offerings appear heaps of gold and silver, skins, precious wood, and indigo. In the same procession are also thirty-seven white people, with very nearly the features of Jews, although many, from the hieroglyphics, consider them to be Scythians. Some of the latter are leading a chariot and horses, an elephant, young children, and one of them a bear; they are also carrying a variety of elegant vases. I conceive these presents, with the exception, perhaps, of the bear, to be chiefly from Ethiopia, and from the richness and elegance of the form of the vases, the abundance of gold and silver, and the curious manner in which the latter is wrought into the form of the heads of animals, we have the very strongest proofs of the exquisite taste, knowledge, and wealth of the Ethiopians: but as this procession is so extremely interesting, so intimately connected with Ethiopia, and is, at the same time, one of the most gorgeous and magnificent paintings that adorn the walls of Thebes, I have selected it from my Egyptian portfolio, conceiving that it will give great additional value to this work to publish it with all the colours, which still exist, almost quite fresh. The hieroglyphics are unfortunately very much defaced, but sufficient remain to distinguish in several instances the names of the people and that of the King, Thothmes III., who reigned about 1500 B.C.

Parts [I.] [II.] [III.] and [IV.] form the whole of this procession; they are drawn to a scale of two inches to a foot, so that the reader may join them together, if he thinks proper. I will give a detailed description of them according to the plates. The first figure in [Part I.] has in one hand an ornamented vase, containing perhaps dates or some other dried fruit, in the other, apparently, an ivory club, and a string of precious stones hanging from his arm. The second figure has a couple of feathers in one hand, which are evidently those of the ostrich, from the circumstance of the vase he carries in the other containing the eggs. The third and fourth in this row bear a tree. The fifth carries a bowl, apparently of dates, in one hand, and in the other a couple of ostrich feathers, and a cord to which a leopard is attached. The sixth man has a gold or gilded vase in his hand, and has also charge of a monkey. The seventh bears a log of ebony on his shoulder, and is also leading a capricorn, an animal which abounds near Mount Sinai, and also, I believe, in the Bahiouda desert. The eighth has a log of ebony on his shoulder. The ninth, tenth, and last, are negroes, which may be distinguished from their colour and features. They have blue skull caps[85] and cinctures, with blue and red borders around their waists. The two last are carrying elephants’ teeth, and one of them has a string of precious stones, and the other the skin of a leopard turned inside out. The other negro is carrying a log of ebony, and, as will be observed, the light-coloured veins in that wood are distinctly marked.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr.

GRAND PROCESSION.PART 1.

From a Tomb at Thebes.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Printed in Colours by C. Hullmandel.

The second row of figures in this plate are still more curious. They are called Ethiopians. The cinctures and boots of each individual are of a different pattern, rivalling in variety and elegance the chintz morning dresses of our modern belles. These Ethiopians have their hair dressed in curls above their foreheads, and ringlets hanging down on their shoulders. The first is carrying a piece of an elephant’s tooth and a vase in his hand; the others, eleven in number, are bearing elegant descriptions of vases, apparently of gold and silver; these, although unadorned with figures and mythological subjects, are most exquisite in form, and I am sure the reader will admit their decorations to be most beautiful. Those carried by the third, fifth, and tenth figures of the second row of this plate, apparently contain flowers; whether these are artificial decorations of the vases, or really represent plants,—varieties, perhaps, of the lotus peculiar to Ethiopia—is a question I cannot decide. The necklaces which the third figure is bearing are very elegant, apparently of lapis lazuli and gold. The elegant vase the seventh figure is carrying, is either of ivory or silver.

The third row in this plate contains a most interesting group of Ethiopians. The first figure, bearing a log of ebony and a monkey on his shoulder, is conducting a drove of seven oxen. I might have taken the liberty to restore the forms of the latter; but, as will be seen by the plate, the heads and fore-legs only are still remaining, showing the curious and beautiful manner in which the Egyptians grouped their cattle. Above the oxen is a curious group of dogs, not very unlike the greyhounds that at present exist in Ethiopia. The next group is very interesting; two Ethiopians are conducting a giraffe, admirably drawn. A mischievous monkey is climbing up its neck. The way in which he is conducted, with cords attached to his feet, is curious, and the cincture of the Ethiopians leading him is formed apparently of the skin of a giraffe, they being, perhaps, inhabitants of the deserts where the animal is found. The next, or fourth figure, is leading a monkey, and bearing a vase full of ostrich eggs and feathers. The fifth figure is a negro, carrying a tooth of an elephant and skins; he has a blue cap. I do not believe that such caps were then worn, but that their hair is represented blue, to distinguish it from the colour of their faces, which was black; otherwise, from the same colours joining, it would have appeared as if they wore no hair at all. The Egyptian border is a great finish to the painting. The broad blue streak above the top-line represents the heavens. The ground colour, which is exactly the tint of the original, adds to the richness of the painting, and throws out the white.

[Part II.] is a continuation of the three rows last described. The four figures in the top row are dark-coloured, but not quite black. This is one of the very few instances in which the Egyptians preserved any degree of difference between the usual red colour and the black of the negroes. The pile of gorgeous offerings in the centre of this plate is magnificent; the first row contains two obelisks, perhaps of granite, beautifully decorated vases containing rings, which, from the hieroglyphics, we find are of gold, sealed bags of the same, and precious stones, and heaps of grain, and apparently fruit. The second row contains still richer offerings: in the first line are two very prettily decorated vases, laden with ingots of silver, and an elegant tray, on which are rings, which, from their hieroglyphics, must be also of silver; and another vase, containing, I think, indigo. The second line comprises some very elegant vases, apparently of gold and silver, and one blue glass bottle: the streaks of yellow in the latter are curious. The third line includes beautifully-shaped vases, which, from the hieroglyphics, are either full of silver and gold, or actually made of those precious metals; and, what is very remarkable in this line, there are several heads of animals, which, from the hieroglyphics, and also from the colouring, are evidently of silver and gold. There is the head of a capricorn, in gold; one of an antelope, and another of a jackall, in silver; and one of a leopard, and of a curious description of bird, apparently a cock, in gold.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr.

GRAND PROCESSION.PART 2.

From a Tomb at Thebes.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Printed in Colours by C. Hullmandel.

The third row is equally rich. In the first line there are rings of gold, and bags, which the reader will remark in the plate, are also sealed; ostrich feathers, logs of ebony, and a cynocephalus, perched comically in the centre. The lower line contains elephants’ teeth, a beautiful skin of a leopard, ingots and rings of gold, and sealed bags of precious stones. At the end of each row is a scribe, writing in his book with his pen an inventory of the different offerings; behind the latter are gentlemen, perhaps of the household of the king, with their white wands of office. All the hieroglyphics above the figure are in the original of a blue colour, as represented, with the exception of the two lines of large hieroglyphics in this plate, forming part of the tablet before a figure of the king, seated; but, as his majesty, in this instance, is very plainly attired, I have not considered it necessary to give a drawing of him.

[Part III.] contains two rows of figures immediately underneath the three rows of [Part I.] The people represented in the first row of this plate are all white, with blue eyes, red hair, and pointed beards: they are dressed in long robes, open in front, like the caftans of the Turks. The first group is curious, exhibiting one of these men leading a bear, and having on his shoulders a tooth of an elephant, while behind him is a representation of that animal. The features of these figures resemble those of the Jews: their complexion, and one of them having a long glove in his hand, certainly indicate their coming from a cold country. The elephant must be from Ethiopia: if, therefore, they are the Scythians, as some suppose, they must be employed as slaves bearing the produce of Ethiopia. It is possible that they are natives of the mountains of Abyssinia, who are now so much whiter than the natives of the valley of the Nile of the same latitude; but I think it far more probable that they are white slaves of the king of Ethiopia, sent to the Egyptian king as the most acceptable present. The same people are leading an elegant car and a pair of horses. The plate will show their beautiful manner of drawing that animal, almost equal to the Grecian. The lowest row represents the Egyptians leading two rows of another race of white men. They are without beards, have blue hair and eyes, and are dressed in long gowns: from their position, they must be either strings of prisoners, or recruits drilling for the army: behind them are their wives, curiously dressed, carrying and leading their children. The latter are painted red, as if born in Ethiopia, whither their parents had been brought prisoners. The Egyptian border at the bottom of this plate heightens considerably the effect of the painting.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr.

GRAND PROCESSION.PART 3.

From a Tomb at Thebes.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Printed in Colours by C. Hullmandel.

[Part IV.,] the last compartment of this grand procession, represents, in the upper row, five of the Jewish-looking figures, with their aquiline noses, bearing large vases. The second bears an elegant bow and quiver full of arrows; the third has a long glove in his hand; and the fourth, perhaps, an ivory bottle. The offerings in the centre are almost similar to those I have described before. There are some bundles of reeds, and two vases of a blue article, perhaps indigo. The lowest row contains a group of seven male Ethiopian slaves, recruits I conceive for the army; behind them are their wives and children; one of the latter in a pannier suspended from the head of its mother. The figures in this row are not, like those above, bearing presents; the Egyptian scribe at the end is, however, represented, as in the other instances, writing on his scroll, which confirms the idea that they are slaves forming part of the tribute to the great Egyptian king.

Athenæus (see lib. v.), in his description of the festival given by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the Alexandrians, mentions, that in the procession there was a number of Ethiopians, carrying the teeth of 600 elephants. Others bore two thousand blocks of ebony, and some were loaded with vessels of gold and silver, containing the finest gold. Besides these, there were 2,400 dogs, men bearing trees, and a number of animals, both beasts and birds, parroquets, and other birds of Ethiopia, carried in cages; 130 Ethiopian sheep, 300 Arabian, and 20 from the island of Nubia; 26 Indian buffaloes, white as snow, and 8 from Ethiopia; three brown bears, and a white one, 14 leopards, 16 panthers, 4 lynxes, 1 giraffe, and a rhinoceros of Ethiopia. The reader has only to refer to my drawings to perceive how admirably the procession, represented on the walls of this tomb, erected at the time of Thothmes III., considering it also as a pictorial representation, agrees with the one described by Athenæus, and the tribute mentioned by Herodotus as paid to the Persians 1000 years after the reign of Thothmes.

In the voyage of Scylax round the world mention is made of the Ethiopians. Although the account is rather confused, particularly as to their situation, the description agrees so remarkably, in many instances, with the people represented in these plates, that I cannot refrain from giving part of it. “The nation whom they traffic with are the Ethiopians, who sell them skins of stags and lions, precious stones, skins and teeth of elephants, and droves of domestic animals. The richest furniture of these Ethiopians consists in carved vases, and of bottles of ivory. They wear beards and long hair; they are the most beautiful men on the earth: he who has the finest figure is chosen their chief. They are excellent horsemen, and very skilful archers. They drink milk, but also wine, which they make in great quantities from the vines that they cultivate. They have a large town, where the Phœnicians carry their merchandise. Some pretend that the Ethiopians inhabit a vast territory, extending from Egypt to the sea.” The skins, precious stones, ivory, herds of cattle, carved vases, ivory bottles, long hair, use of the bow and arrows, agree in an extraordinary manner with the representations in these plates. The large town, to which the Phœnicians traded, was, perhaps, Meroe.

This grand procession may perhaps be merely a representation of an amicable present made on the part of the Ethiopians to the king Thothmes; but as that Egyptian monarch waged war against Ethiopia, built the temple of Semneh, and left his name in an inscription on the rocks at Toumbos, this painting (particularly as it is depicted in the most conspicuous part of his tomb) may reasonably be supposed to represent either a tribute from the conquered regions, or the price at which Ethiopia obtained a peace.

From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr.

GRAND PROCESSION.PART 4.

From a Tomb at Thebes.

Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.

Printed in Colours by C. Hullmandel.

When Egypt grew into importance, before the commencement of those wars which were so fatal to the prosperity of the kingdom of Meroe, her colonies in that country would be a great source of wealth; receiving the manufactures of the mother country, and sending back in return the rich productions of the more northern valley of the Nile. The Bahr el Abiad and the Bahr el Azruk would enable her merchants to carry their manufactures among the wild natives of the interior. It is now impossible to say how far that commerce extended in that direction. The difference of religion, supposing it to have existed, was probably not very great, nor does history lead us to suppose, that there existed the same bigotry which now separates the Mahometan from the Pagan. The former religion, particularly at its commencement, was most intolerant; its believers being almost bound to propagate it with the sword. This will account for the little communication which, according to the tradition of the country, has existed for several centuries between the present inhabitants of Shendy, that is, Meroe, and the still wilder tribes of the interior. The Arab princes of this country made excursions into the interior, not as merchants, to exchange the produce of the land, and diffuse the seeds of knowledge and civilisation, but with arms in their hands, to force their weaker neighbours to embrace their faith, and, in later times, to drag their children into captivity; but we cannot suppose that a wise and civilised people could have adopted so impolitic a course. The account given by the historians of the different sects which existed, even in the kingdom of Meroe, prove that toleration was then allowed.

Meroe, therefore, possessed local advantages far greater than have been enjoyed by many great commercial states; and I now hope to show, that her internal resources, until exhausted or decayed, were sufficient to insure a continuation of that prosperity. Her great superiority over other states would consist, not only in the productions of the soil, but principally in her standing singly pre-eminent in civilisation. That science and knowledge of the arts, when applied to commerce, enriched her citizens, and enabled them to indulge their taste for luxury, for architectural ornament, and to encourage her artists. What was of greater importance, it would afford to many the means of devoting their lives to the pursuit of literature; the same activity would, of course, to a certain degree, be applied to the improvement of her manufactures, and the production of useful and ornamental articles, for which the natives of the interior would gladly give in exchange that precious metal, which is only valuable for what it procures.

My article on the state of the arts at Meroe will show the skill and science possessed by her inhabitants; which, with their wealth and commercial habits, would be employed in useful and elegant inventions, with their monopoly of which their uncivilised neighbours would be unable to interfere. I have stated in my topographical description of the pyramids of Meroe, how the evidence of all travellers—that a great part of the soil of Egypt, and the whole of the Delta, has been brought down from Ethiopia by the Nile,—agrees with the testimony of the historians, particularly of Diodorus, and the information they received in a country, the natives of which were more likely to conceal than invent such an account.

The first great source of the power of Meroe was probably the extreme fertility of her soil, and the abundance of her harvests. Those banks, which are now in a great many instances entirely covered by the sands of the desert, were doubtless then overspread with that rich soil which astonishes the traveller in Egypt, and her country was resorted to perhaps by the natives of less favoured climes, as the richest under the sun.[86] With regard to her mines, notwithstanding what Diodorus says, I suspect, as formerly stated, that this great source of her wealth was derived more from the centre of Africa; but it is true that the interior of the island has never yet been fully explored. If any remains of those riches now exist, access to them is almost impossible, at all events for an individual, in consequence of the number of ferocious and terrible animals with which that tract is infested.

I have described Meroe, such as she must have been in the zenith of her greatness,—the emporium of the commerce of interior Africa, the cradle and early seat of arts, science, and civilisation. Such was she in the height of her prosperity; but, as the sun which rises must set, and nation must succeed nation in the career of improvement, I must now endeavour to account for her gradual decline, and the chain of circumstances which finally caused her name to be erased from the list of kingdoms. The first cause perhaps was the failure of her internal resources, in consequence of the Nile carrying down yearly to Egypt a portion of her richest soil, and the deserts encroaching on her plains. She thus became dependent on foreign countries for an adequate supply of those necessaries, of which her territory perhaps formerly produced a superfluity. Those mines also, whether on her own territory or farther in the interior, which furnished such an abundance of the precious metal, would in course of time become exhausted; or accidental circumstances might interrupt her commercial intercourse with the countries which supplied them. Her inhabitants, finding the soil swept away by the Nile, would follow the course of the river, and establish themselves in Egypt. The latter country, besides the extraordinary advantages afforded by it to the cultivators, would, by instructions received from these Ethiopian colonies, almost immediately rise to an equal rank of civilisation and knowledge. We have seen that the same religion, the same mysteries, the same writing, and the same style of architecture, existed in the two countries. The land of Egypt would increase every year in fertility, and the tree of knowledge, planted in that genial soil, would spread wide its branches. The activity too of a more northern region, and the energies of a less corrupted nation, would raise the people of Egypt above those of Ethiopia, then perhaps become more luxurious, and consequently more indolent.

In the earliest ages, Meroe might have profited by a commerce with her Egyptian colonies; the markets of the latter country might, for a short time, have been supplied with produce and manufactures of Arabia and the Indies, from the mother country; but it is not to be supposed that the Egyptians would have been so deficient in intelligence, and the Arabians in common sense, as not to perceive the advantage of a direct communication.[87] The Egyptian ports of Myos Hormos and Berenice, and others, possessed also the advantage of being less distant from the river, and afforded to the Arabians the means of supplying rich and populous Egypt with the productions of the Indies and the peninsula. Philostratus (2 de Vitâ Apollonii, l. iii. c. 35.) says, that a certain prince named Eythus (who is supposed by some, but, I conceive, erroneously, to be Esau) dispossessed the Egyptians of their trade in the Red Sea, making a law, that they should not navigate that sea with more than one merchant ship at a time; but the Egyptians built one of immense size, to supply the place of several. Their trade at that time could not have been very extensive, if it could be carried on by any one vessel; but perhaps, as in the time of Joseph, who (see Genesis xxxvii. 25.) was sold by his brethren to a company of Ishmaelites, the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, 1730 B.C., travelling from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spices and myrrh for the Egyptian market, they had a considerable land commerce with the Arabians: the caravan I have just alluded to must, by the nature of the produce, have come from Arabia.

The Jews, in the time of Solomon, carried on a great trade in the Red Sea, and imported gold from Ophir. “And Huram sent him, by the hands of his servants, ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence 450 talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.” (2 Chron. viii. 18.)—“And the Queen of Sheba (chap. ix. 9.) gave King Solomon 120 talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones.” And in the same chapter, 13th and 14th verses, we find that Solomon received, “in one year, 666 talents of gold, beside that which chapmen and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia brought gold and silver to Solomon.” These passages are important, as showing one particular district of Ethiopia, where gold was found in abundance. The gold brought by the chiefs of Arabia, I conceive not to have been the natural production of that country, but the fruit of their industry and commerce with the Ethiopians. As Solomon was son-in-law to the Pharaoh of Egypt, the latter was, probably, not excluded from the commerce. Ezekiel mentions Ethiopia as one of the upholders of Egypt; and (chapter xxx. verse 9.) he says, “In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt.” The expression “careless,” I conceive, alludes to the security which they, no doubt, felt in their power, and the natural protection their rocky cataracts afforded them for resisting an invader. Their being afraid of ships almost leads me to suppose that they could have had little or no navy, or wherefore that apprehension? for there is no doubt that their land army, even in the most distant times, was very great. I have shown, in my historical chapter, that Zerah, the Ethiopian, marched with a host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots.

But these remarks regard chiefly the navigation, for whether the produce was brought in the vessels of Eythus (whom I conceive to have been an Arabian king), of the Jews, or of the Tyrians (Strabo, c. 16.), or Syrians (Id. 17.), and eventually by the ships of the Ptolemies and Cæsars, little affects the question, as Egypt was, in every case, the emporium of the merchandise. That enterprising spirit and activity which always characterise a rising nation, would lead the Egyptians into the markets of the centre of Africa, and thus inflict another blow on the prosperity of Meroe. We know what Alexandria became, from the immense commerce with the East which it continued to enjoy, notwithstanding the impediments occasioned by the ignorance and barbarism of its governments, until the Portuguese discovery of the passage by the Cape. After that event, which led the commerce of the Indies into another channel, Alexandria and Kosseer dwindled into obscurity, having lost, as Meroe had previously done, that great source of wealth.

Strabo says, quoting from Cicero, that Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, drew from Egypt 12,500 talents, more than two millions and a half sterling. Diodorus only calculated the revenue at half that sum. The observations which Strabo afterwards makes are important. “If,” says he, “the revenue was so considerable, under the negligent and bad rule of that prince, what will it be now that it is governed with so much care, and that the commerce of the Indies and of the country of the Troglodites is increased so much; for formerly,” said he, “they counted only twenty vessels, who dared to advance beyond the entrance of the Arabian Gulf, whilst now considerable fleets sail to the Indies and to the extremities of Ethiopia, whence the most precious merchandise is brought into Egypt, and thence sent into other countries. In this manner they have a double tax on the imports and exports, in proportion to the value of the merchandise;” and he adds, that “Alexandria is the principal depôt for their merchandise, and the place of commerce which furnishes other countries with it in great abundance.” This account is curious, as it shows that, until the time of Strabo, the Egyptian trade with the Indians was not very extensive: its increase would naturally diminish the commercial relations of Meroe.[88]

It is also remarkable, that about the time when Meroe began to decline, Egypt was most famous for her commerce. Psammetichus, who reigned six centuries and a half before our era, almost immediately after the expulsion or retirement of the Ethiopian dynasty, gained great wealth by trade before he was King of Egypt. The richest and most magnificent tombs of private individuals, now remaining at Thebes, belong chiefly to that era, proving a degree of opulence unequalled at any other period.

I have shown, in my historical chapter, that, notwithstanding the diminution of the trade of Meroe with India and Arabia, she was still able to resist the armies of the Egyptians. The pyramids of Geezah and the tombs of Beni Hassan are proofs of the great wealth and power of the latter, even so early as the 16th dynasty; and during the 18th dynasty the Kings Thothmes, Amunoph, &c. invaded Ethiopia. Yet, notwithstanding the power of those princes, it seems, according to the evidence of Herodotus[89], and of the monuments themselves, that Rameses II. was the only Egyptian king who subdued Ethiopia; but a hero sprang up in the 8th century, who, in return, conquered Egypt. Shabak, and his successors Shabatok and Tahraka, reigned over that country forty-four years. The power of Meroe must have been very great, even at that period, to have enabled her armies to make such an important conquest, and extend her sway from Meroe to the Mediterranean. It is also wonderful that it should have been so little impaired by the diminution of her commerce, and the decline of her internal resources. I have described the power of the priests, whose influence was so great at the time of Ergamenes, who was contemporary to Ptolemy, that that prince, who had received a liberal education, had recourse to the violent measure of attacking and slaying them at their altars. The chief cause of the decline of Meroe was probably the injury this theocratic government had inflicted on the country; for we cannot suppose that the people would have submitted to the destruction of the ministers of their religion, had there not been some deep causes of complaint, and a general consciousness that their mismanagement and bigotry had plunged the country into distress. The lamentable decline of the arts at this period proves that the resources of the country were entirely occupied in maintaining a force sufficient to defend it from invasion, and its diminished commerce and wealth offered less means of encouragement to artists. War, not the fine arts and intellectual cultivation, was become the necessary occupation of the nation. The resources of Meroe, even for some time afterwards, must have been considerable, that their Queen Candace could check the Roman arms; but the expedition of Petronius, already described, ruining all the country between Syene and Napata, and destroying the cities which had escaped from the previous desolating war between the Ethiopians and the Egyptians, must have inflicted a deep blow on the prosperity of Meroe. That queen, indeed, followed the Roman army in its retreat, and finally, drove them from Premnis; but the long series of wars would, of course, hasten the decline of a country whose internal resources had long been gradually diminishing. Pliny says[90], that at the time of Candace, which name for many years the Ethiopian queens had assumed, there were few edifices in the city of Meroe; but, after mentioning the holy shrine of Hammon, and the small temple and chapels on the road, bearing testimony to the power of the Ethiopians, he describes the island as once of great renown, having an army of 250,000 men, and 400,000 artificers. The number of artificers, supposing even that in that class are comprised artists, craftsmen, manufacturers, and all labourers not agriculturists, is enormous, and proves a vast degree of industry and civilisation.

Even in the eighth century, after the country had become Christian, her monarchs were so powerful, that it was asserted, about the year 737, that the kings of Nubia and Ethiopia could bring into the field 100,000 horse, and as many camels. When Christianity was spread over Ethiopia, the painter’s and sculptor’s skill would be no longer necessary to make representations of their gods but the ministers of the gospel at that time were more occupied in schismatical disputes, and in making converts to their peculiar and often fanciful tenets, than in propagating the pure principles of their religion, dispelling the darkness of superstition, and advancing the civilisation and prosperity of the kingdom.

According to the tradition which I learned at Dongolah, in the reign of the fourth caliph after Mahomet this country was conquered by the Arabs, and the inhabitants blended with the conquerors, who forced them to become Mussulmen, or drove them out of the country, probably into Abyssinia.

After all that has been said, those who view the present rude and degraded state of this territory may feel a difficulty in believing that it ever could be so enlightened and flourishing as I have now described it. They ought, however, to consider, that it is not more surprising that Meroe, under the uncivilised and ignorant dominion of the Arabs, would lose all knowledge of the arts, than that the little island of Rhodes, once eminent for power, civilisation, and commerce, should now, although not, like Meroe, deprived of her rich soil, be equally ignorant and barbarous. Syracuse, from the same cause, had risen to such a height of civilisation and power, as to be able to resist the vast efforts of the Athenians; and finally, with little assistance, inflict a deadly blow on the prosperity of the city of Minerva. What is Tunis, compared to Carthage? Where are Tyre and Sidon, the cities of Phœnicia? If it was necessary, numerous similar examples might be adduced, of the vicissitudes to which kingdoms and cities are liable. Sufficient reasons have been assigned for the downfall of Meroe. The failure of her commerce; her rich soil carried away, or swallowed up by the deserts, and the consequent diminution of her population; her mines exhausted, and the active rivalry of a nation finally more powerful; the long and ruinous wars with Egypt; and at last the Arabian conquest, swept away every trace of her affluence and civilisation: the invaders, with a brand in one hand, burning her libraries[91] and edifices, and in the other the sword, forcing her subjects to embrace a different faith, and renounce the arts and knowledge of their ancestors.

In a country where the arts are now totally unknown, and which is become little better than a desert, it is not surprising to find commerce reduced to the mere exchange of the most absolute necessaries of life, and a few trifling superfluities. Small caravans occasionally go from Shendy to Abyssinia. Sometimes the rulers of the latter country do not permit them to enter their dominions, and civil wars not unfrequently put an entire stop to the trade; but when, as is generally the case, the merchants succeed in procuring an entrance, they inform me that the profits on their Cairo goods are enormous. They receive in exchange a little ivory; gold, the value of which is several dollars per ounce lower there than in Egypt; a very fine species of cotton scarf, much esteemed and worn by the Abyssinian women in the Turkish harems, and the Abyssinian coffee; which, although not equal to the Mocha, is almost the only kind drunk in Nubia: but their chief return is in slaves. The wars which generally distract that unfortunate country furnish to each state abundance of these victims, which, like cattle, are exchanged with the merchant for the luxuries of Egypt: few are the Turks who have not Abyssinian girls in their harems, and I have seen numerous eunuchs brought from that country. It is horrid to think that beings called Christians should be guilty of such enormities; but there is no doubt of the fact. The slaves, whether girls or boys, by compulsion or inclination, invariably become Mahometans.

A caravan also occasionally goes to Souakim, where they get India stuffs, Mocha coffee, and a great part of the spices, the use of which is so general. Small caravans also go to Kordofan and Darfour. In the former of these countries the Pasha of Egypt monopolises the richest produce, as gum, ivory, and ostrich feathers; but Kordofan is the chief mart of the negro slaves. The jealousy of the King of Darfour against any persons going or coming from the dominions of the Pasha of Egypt, at whose power he trembles, prevents that commerce being now very extensive. The merchants are very illiterate, and in general extremely debauched. Even their interest does not check their dissoluteness, or protect the honour of their poor Abyssinian female slaves. The supply of gold is very much diminished: some, however, is still found, and of the finest quality; but in every direction the caravans regard slaves as the most advantageous exchange for their goods. They drive them like cattle over the burning sands, and, what I have been an eye-witness to, over the bones of their brethren which lie bleaching in the desert. The ingenuity of their masters seems to be exercised, not in alleviating their pains, but in devising how to economise their own purses, by discovering on how little and how coarse food their victims can exist, and what extent of fatigue and suffering they can endure, and still remain saleable. In the district which we have seen to have been once the emporium of the East, there remains only this miserable traffic. Instead of palaces and splendid edifices, there are now only rude and miserable huts. Of the power, civilisation, and wealth of Meroe, not a vestige remains to corroborate the testimony of the historians but a few small temples, and the splendid sepulchres of her departed kings.

CHAPTER XXII.

ON THE ARTS OF MEROE.

AFFLUENCE WOULD INTRODUCE A TASTE FOR THE ARTS. — THE HEAT OF THE CLIMATE FAVOURABLE TO SEDENTARY PURSUITS. — PRIVATE EMULATION WOULD AFFORD FURTHER ENCOURAGEMENT. — DESIRE OF DISTINGUISHING THEMSELVES BY INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS. — TESTIMONY OF DIODORUS THAT KNOWLEDGE WAS VERY GENERALLY DIFFUSED IN ETHIOPIA. — THE PYRAMIDS OF MEROE THE OLDEST SPECIMENS OF ETHIOPIAN ART. — CIVILISATION OF THE ETHIOPIANS PROVED BY THEIR MONUMENTAL EDIFICES. — THE ETHIOPIANS INVENTORS OF THE ARCH. — EGYPTIAN ARCHES. — ETHIOPIAN SCULPTURE. — PROBABLE CAUSE OF THEIR PECULIAR STYLE. — REASONS FOR PRESERVING IT. — DEFERENCE OF THE PTOLEMIES AND ROMANS FOR THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS. — PLEASING EFFECT OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ETHIOPIAN SCULPTURE. — ADMIRABLE MANNER OF DRAWING ANIMALS, HIEROGLYPHICS, AND THEIR TASTE IN ORNAMENTS. — COLOURING ON ETHIOPIAN SCULPTURE. — THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ARTS DESCENDED FROM ETHIOPIA. — COMPLEXION OF THE ANCIENT AND PRESENT INHABITANTS. — ACCURACY OF DIODORUS’ ACCOUNT PROVED BY THE MONUMENTS. — TASTE FOR THE ARTS IN A NATION INSEPARABLE FROM OTHER INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS. — WORKS OF THE ETHIOPIAN KING TIRHAKA. — REVIEW OF THE ANTIQUITIES IN ETHIOPIA. — FOLLY OF COMPARING THE PRESENT WITH THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE VALLEY OF THE NILE.

It has appeared in the preceding chapters, that the kingdom of Meroe was the emporium of the interior of Africa, and from her rich productions, and the abundance of her precious metals, was resorted to by the inhabitants of the regions in her vicinity. This influx of population would naturally oblige many to employ their capital and talent in other pursuits besides commerce. Every branch of industry would gradually improve; a rich and luxurious people would constantly desire new objects to please the fancy, and contribute to the enjoyment of life. The son of the merchant, who had earned great wealth, would, as in our days, be able to reap the fruits of that industry. Some might indulge in foolish extravagance; but others would place their enjoyment in the encouragement of the arts, or in those studies which gratify and enrich the mind, and, at the same time, tend to improve and civilise society.

In so fertile a country, a great proportion of the principal landed proprietors, besides those who had realised large fortunes by commerce, must have been able to pass their lives in literary leisure, and employ their fortune in the encouragement of the arts, and the propagation of science. Even the heat of the climate would contribute to the advancement of civilisation. In Europe, particularly in its northern districts, how many consume a great portion of their time and fortune in the healthy, but rough, amusement of the chase; but in the tropics, the greatest luxury is repose. I have remarked repeatedly, that the rich natives of the climates of the East rarely expose themselves to the heat of the sun, except when necessity absolutely requires it, as on a journey; and even then as little as possible. It is considered one of the greatest advantages of rank and fortune, that its possessors can enjoy the luxury of shade during the whole day, while their less fortunate brethren are obliged to toil under a burning sun.

The same natural causes, operating equally in ancient times, would give to the Ethiopians an inclination for sedentary pursuits, which would be advantageous to their advancement in the different branches of science, as soon as their taste for them had been unfolded. That rivalry which always arises among bodies of men, would urge to the improvement of the arts. The great and wealthy would endeavour to surpass each other in the beauty and magnificence of their palaces, and they would emulously display their piety to the gods, by contributing to the building and decorating the temples, and their munificence and generosity, by the construction of edifices of public utility.

This is not an imaginary picture. Let the reader look at the drawings of Meroe, and candidly say whether, in a country containing architects able to construct such chaste and beautiful monuments, men could have spent the superfluity of wealth, derived from commerce, in mere sensual indulgence? Was the knowledge of architecture, sculpture, and painting, exclusively employed in the construction of the sepulchres of her monarchs and the temples of the gods? Can it be supposed that those who must have had the means, would content themselves with wretched huts, when their wealth enabled them to employ their skilful architects in erecting commodious and elegant habitations, suitable to their rank? Can we imagine that the gentry of a kingdom, famous in antiquity for its civilisation, would spend their time, like the Turks, in listless indolence, and would not seek to distinguish themselves by studies and learning? But Diodorus, speaking of the language of hieroglyphics, says, that, in Egypt, the priests only were acquainted with them, whilst, in Ethiopia, they were generally understood. This shows that civilisation was widely diffused among the people, who apparently were not content, like their neighbours, to view without understanding the tablets of writing and sculpture which ornamented the walls of their temples.

Unfortunately, the remains of pure Ethiopian art, at all events, those of the earliest period, are but few. The pyramids of Nouri, but particularly those of Meroe, must have been built many ages before the temples of Gibel el Birkel, especially the one finished by Tirhaka: the style of the sculpture differs so widely, that a slight examination only is necessary to prove that a long period must have intervened before, in a country like this, the style could have so materially changed. I place, then, the pyramids of Meroe among the earliest specimens now existing of the skill of the Ethiopians. In my description of those ruins, I have extolled the beautiful simplicity of the architecture, imposing, and, at the same time, elegant, in a superior degree to the immense pyramids of Geezah. The sepulchres of Meroe delight us by evincing the greatest purity of taste, while they are not, like the Egyptian pyramids, monuments of the tyranny and oppression of their kings.

The different plates I have given of the sculpture in the porticoes of Meroe, at Gibel el Birkel (see Plates [X.,] [XI.,] and [XII.,] and particularly Plate XI., which contains a number of vases,) display a great degree of elegance, and, perhaps, a refined simplicity, equal to what we find in Egyptian sculpture.

The offerings (see [Plate XXIX.]) are the animals of the country and surrounding deserts. The group with branches of the palm tree, is quite Ethiopian, and very beautiful; but the splendid procession alluded to, in treating of the commerce, as existing in a tomb at Thebes, is particularly instructive: the Ethiopians are there represented carrying presents to a great man at the time of Thothmes. Besides the ivory, ebony, gold, silver, skins, and animals, enumerated in my last chapter, they are also represented bearing different kinds of vases. These evince a degree of elegance and refinement which has never been surpassed. They are not ornamented with figures like the Phœnician, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman vases, but in taste and elegant simplicity of form they are not surpassed by those of any nation. Such discoveries as these afford the strongest evidence of the civilisation of a people. No learning or profound knowledge of the arts is required to understand, that a nation, among whom have been wrought such rich and magnificent vases as are now to be found in London, could be barbarians.

When a people have attained a certain degree of taste, such knowledge is never confined to one branch. The cultivated minds, which could appreciate such works of art as the pyramids of Meroe, and were accustomed to such a degree of elegance in their domestic ornaments, could not, I conceive, have been uncivilised, generally speaking. These vases, like the chairs and furniture represented on the walls of Thebes, admit us at once to a knowledge of the private life of the people. We cannot doubt the luxury and refinement of the private life of the Egyptians, when we find represented, in one of the tombs of the kings at Thebes, more beautiful patterns of chairs, cushions, &c. than are now to be found in Europe. As little can we imagine, that apartments, ornamented with such elegant vases as the Ethiopians are represented offering to the Egyptians, would not in every other respect be furnished with equal taste. I think, then, that I am not too bold in asserting, that the people who had skill to devise, and ability to execute, such beautiful works of art, are entitled to a very high rank in the scale of civilisation. To the other proofs that they are Ethiopian, I should add, their long curly hair, their peculiar dress, differing from the Egyptian, the similarity with the few vases which I found sculptured on the walls at Meroe, (see [Plate XI.]) and, most of all, the hieroglyphics written over the procession, which state them to be from the land of Ethiopia.

Another important proof of the extensive architectural skill of the Ethiopians is their knowledge and employment of the arch. In my narrative, I have described that which exists in one of the porticoes of Meroe, having the form of the segment of a circle, and have mentioned also the pointed arch in a pyramid at Gibel el Berkel. Both are constructed on the true principle of being supported only by lateral pressure. The pyramids of Meroe being the oldest, we may say that the earliest specimen of the arch now existing is on the site of the capital of Ethiopia. I conceive it very likely, that the necessity of finding some method of resisting the tropical rains led the Ethiopians to the invention of the arch; as of course, slight even as they are here, they would be obliged to pay more attention to their roofs than in Egypt, where, with few exceptions, sometimes, especially in Upper Egypt, not exceeding once in the year, it may almost be said never to rain. The rains which fall at Shendy are, however, rarely heavy. As I have noticed in my topographical description ([page 156.]), the only specimens of the arch in Egypt belong to that period when wars existed between the two countries, and the Egyptians would have the opportunity of learning that invention from the Ethiopians. It is also singular, that there is not a stone arch in Egypt regularly constructed, except one, before mentioned, of the time of Psammitichus, who reigned after the Ethiopian dynasty. The only specimens which show the Egyptians to have been acquainted with the true mode of forming one, is a brick arch, erected at the time of Amunoph, and another of the time of Thothmes III. They are formed of crude bricks; the size of which is seven inches by five. (See [Vignettes.]) Is it not singular, that although these and other brick arches at Thebes are regularly constructed, the specimens there and elsewhere in stone, lead us to infer, that they were acquainted with the beauty of the arch as an architectural ornament, but not with its great utility? I refer to that arch near to the temple excavated out of the rock, in the valley of Hassaseef, at Thebes, of the time of Amunoph, which is formed by approaching stones (see [Vignette]), and numerous excavations in the valley of the Nile, where the roofs are hollowed slightly into the arched form. As, therefore, no specimen of even a brick arch exists before the reign of those kings who carried their arms into Ethiopia; and as the pyramids of Ethiopia are evidently so very ancient, it seems highly probable that this important discovery had there its origin.

STONE ARCH AT THEBES.

The tomb in which the elliptical arch (see [Vignette]) exists, is near the valley of the Sepulchre of the Queens, at Thebes. It is almost filled up to the ceiling with mummies, which occasioned great difficulty to get at the spring of the arch. It is a painted tomb, and the roof is plastered; and over the plaster, along the centre, is a line of hieroglyphics, containing the name of Amunoph I.; proving the existence of the knowledge of the arch in Egypt, about fifteen centuries and a half before the Christian era. It is also very remarkable, that this arch is not a segment of a circle, but elliptical. A part of the ceiling being broken, discovered the space between the ceiling and the rock.

BRICK ARCH IN A TOMB AT THEBES.

On the road from the Memnonium to the valley of the Hassaseef, a little elevated on a rock, is a very small painted tomb, which is also vaulted. The [vignette] represents the arch of the roof resting on the rock, and the inner arch of a recess at the end. This recess, as likewise the whole tomb, is covered with a coating of plaster; and on one of the jambs of the recess are the titles and prænomen of Thothmes III., “Sun, Establisher of the World,” fifth king of the eighteenth dynasty, who reigned about fifteen centuries before the Christian era. The present access to this tomb is through a hole in the ceiling, from the floor of another tomb. This fracture discovers satisfactorily the construction of the arch. The sections, therefore, of the pointed arch at Gibel el Birkel (see [Plate XXVIII.]), of the circular one at the site of the metropolis of Ethiopia (see [Plate VII.]), and this elliptical and circular arch at Thebes, will, I think, satisfy the most sceptical, that the Romans were not the first who were acquainted with the power and principle of the arch. We have here, undoubtedly, the geometrical forms; and in answer to the cui bono of the learned author of the able article in the last Quarterly Review[92], I must state that the Ethiopian arches were obviously invented to resist the rains; as the peasants of Sennaar have conical roofs to their cottages for the same purpose. The brick arches at Thebes, I conceive to have been erected not merely as ornaments, but, as regards the one of the time of Amunoph III., for the purpose of protecting it from the partial decomposition of the calcareous rock, which happens to be there less solid, while the tomb of the time of Thothmes III., being immediately beneath another, suggested the utility, if not necessity, of strengthening the roof with an arch.

BRICK ARCH IN A TOMB AT THEBES.

The Ethiopian sculpture has the same defects as the Egyptian, as to the manner of representing the profile of the face, but the bodies have a roundness which distinguishes them entirely from the Egyptian. The latter is more graceful and pleasing to the eye, when the traveller is accustomed to that peculiarity of style, but I do conceive the Ethiopian to be, in some respects, more true to nature.

It may be asked why, advanced as the Ethiopians were in the arts, they did not draw the human figure better, and more in accordance with nature. It is difficult, and, I must confess, almost impossible, to explain quite satisfactorily this circumstance. The Egyptians, as I have said, had a style still more unnatural, yet few can doubt their high degree of civilisation. The general form of the figures gives one the idea of their being very early efforts of art. It seems to me very possible, that the invention of the sculptor and painter may have been first exercised on the walls of some celebrated temple; and this defective representation may, from the sacredness of the place, have become the conventional style of the country. The bigotted veneration which the people would naturally feel for those forms under which their divinities were first represented, may have made them consider it lawful, indeed, to improve the delineation, but criminal to attempt to change it entirely.

The Egyptians and the Ethiopians were equally ignorant of perspective. When Egypt was under the dominion of the Greeks and Romans, we perceive that policy and respect for the prejudices of the people prevented those nations from making any innovations in the national style. The differences between the sculpture, at those periods, and during the eighteenth dynasty, cannot be called so much changes, as marks of the great decline of the pure Egyptian art. No figures, on the walls of the temples, are sculptured or painted in the pure Greek or Roman style. Those rulers of Egypt, though of course acquainted with the latter, continued to follow the Egyptian style in all the edifices that they erected. The only instances in which they seem to have deviated at all from this rule, are in some few portraits found on Greek mummies. This renders it probable that there existed a strong religious prejudice on the subject, and that the Ethiopians and Egyptians were as tenacious of the forms and costumes of their divinities, as religious sects, in more recent times, have shown themselves about the dress and appearance of their ministers.

There is, therefore, no reason to suppose, that the Ethiopians were unable to draw figures correctly, because, from reverence to the antiquity of their religion, and the superstition of the people, they did not improve the forms of their divinities. Faulty, however, as that style is, both in design and colour, it has still its attractions, though, in saying so, I may be accused of being an admirer of deformity. Their formality is not inappropriate to sacred edifices. Travellers daily become reconciled to its defects, and at last admire what at first appeared to them so strange. No one can have visited the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, without an enthusiastic admiration of the beautiful and rich harmony of the colouring, the taste displayed in the ornaments, the spirited execution of the animals and hieroglyphics, and the magical effect of the decorations. We see, in the fragments which still exist, that the Ethiopians drew animals, and also ornaments, very beautifully. We may therefore consider it almost certain, that they could have drawn the human figure better had they been permitted.

There are few traces of colour remaining on any Ethiopian edifice, yet I found sufficient in one of the porticoes of the pyramids of Gibel el Birkel, to enable me to ascertain the important fact, that the colouring was similar to the Egyptian. That of the human body is of the same red tint; and is it not singular that man is represented of the same complexion in Ethiopia as in every part of Egypt? Such a coincidence could only arise from the circumstance of the one people having derived their knowledge of the arts from the other. The colouring of the Ethiopians and Egyptians was of course, like the form of the figure, conventional. Now, I ask the reader, Where is it most probable that this colour was first established? Was it in a country where the inhabitants must have been nearly of that dark tint represented in these sculptures, or was it in one, 1700 miles farther north, where the people must have been, as they are now, yellow, or, comparatively speaking, white. The first colonies which introduced the arts into Egypt would naturally represent their divinities under the same appearance as in the mother country, and the first kings, and other persons making offerings, would of course be the colonists. Impressed with reverence for the first models presented to them, the Egyptians would continue to use this colour, tacitly acknowledging, by this circumstance, that they derived the knowledge of the arts from Ethiopia. There are several representations in Egypt of black men and black queens, but these almost invariably bear the negro features. Even if they were intended to represent Ethiopians, that colour could only be a mark of distinction, afterwards introduced, as of a blacker nation than themselves; for we find the Ethiopians, on their own edifices, represented as exactly of the same tint as the Egyptians of Thebes and Memphis.

If the artist were to paint them of one of the six colours with which they were acquainted,—white, red, green, blue, yellow, or black, the one approaching nearest to what was probably the real Ethiopian complexion, would certainly be the red. We shall be confirmed in this conclusion, if we consider the latitude and the colour of the present cultivators of the soil. Though they speak the Arabic language, they are most probably (and the tradition I heard at Dongolah confirms the supposition) descended from the race of the true Ethiopians, obliged, by force, to adopt the language and religion of their conquerors. That people, from their climate, could not have been white, and, had they been black, they would have so represented themselves. The Copts, the descendants of the Egyptians, are fairer than the Fellaheen, yet the latter look white in Ethiopia, contrasted with the present inhabitants of that country. It must also be considered that the Arab conquerors, being from the southern part of their country, and therefore darkened by the climate and the desert life they led, would, to a certain extent, give a darker tint to the Ethiopians; nevertheless, I have given views of some Berbers whose complexions are decidedly lighter than they are represented on the walls. (See [Plate XVI.]) We must recollect also that it has ever been a custom of the Orientals to represent themselves and their mistresses as beautifully fair. The present Ethiopians esteem nothing more than a light complexion. Before they were accustomed to Europeans, they looked with horror on what they considered their unnatural whiteness; but if an Ethiopian is celebrating in a song the charms of his mistress, he dwells with the greatest rapture on her fair skin. The petty kings seek wives of equal rank with themselves, chiefly on account of their fair complexion, which the daughters of the meleks acquire by being generally confined to the house; particularly as all mixture with the negro blood is carefully shunned. The colour most approaching to nature, if this conventional one had originated in Egypt, would certainly have been the white, or rather light yellow. Such must have been the colour of the Egyptians; and we cannot suppose that they would pay themselves so bad a compliment as to represent their complexion so many shades darker than it must really have been. Here then we have another great proof that civilisation and art descended the river. I have mentioned, in my topographical description, the passages of Diodorus which state shortly, but explicitly, that the Ethiopians stated the Egyptians to have derived all their knowledge from them. The inquiries of that intelligent traveller penetrated through the veil which the pride of the Egyptians, jealous, and anxious to magnify their antiquity, had thrown over the origin of their institutions; and when to this national propensity we add the obstinate wars, which would naturally eradicate every attachment to their parent land, and induce them to conceal their obligations to Ethiopia, it appears surprising how that intelligent traveller should have been able to ascertain the fact, that civilisation descended from Meroe. Diodorus had no object in inventing that account; and if the Ethiopians gave it to him in Egypt, he had there the means of ascertaining the truth from the priests and other learned men, who, no doubt, were acquainted with the fact; and would have contradicted it if he had not believed it. Herodotus apparently heard a similar account. He visited Egypt during the time of the Persian dynasty, while Diodorus was in that country little more than half a century (sixty years) before Christ, when the philosophy of the Greeks may have penetrated through the pride and false pretensions of the Egyptian priests. Herodotus states that the Egyptians believed themselves to be from where the race of man first existed (ἐξ οὗ ἄνθρωπον γένος ἐγένετο). He mentions that the Thebaid was Egypt before the formation of the Delta[93]: the increase of population forced them to spread themselves down the valleys, emigrating from the Thebaid to the Delta, in the same way, no doubt, as they originally emigrated from Meroe. There is one question connected with this subject, which, I must confess, is an important one; namely, by what language the hieroglyphics of both countries are to be interpreted. Is it by a common one, as emanating from the same origin, or by a different one in the two countries? I shall not now commit myself by a discussion and hasty opinion on a subject which I hope to be better able to treat, as I extend my acquaintance with hieroglyphics, and with the Coptic and the Ethiopian languages. It seems to me, however, that if the Egyptians derived their knowledge of hieroglyphics from Ethiopia, they would, of course, receive from the same source the language by which they were explained.

With regard to the early literature and science of the Ethiopians, we know them only by the monuments; but we may rest satisfied, that they could not have been neglected in a country where, as Diodorus says, the language of hieroglyphics was generally understood. The existence of these on the walls of the porticoes of the pyramids, is a proof that some at least were acquainted with them. It is a very remarkable circumstance, which, even at the hazard of repetition, I must impress upon the reader, that notwithstanding the little sculpture and the few monuments that remain, there is sufficient to corroborate the very words of Diodorus. The reader who has examined my drawings will agree with him, that the Ethiopians buried their dead with as much pomp as the Egyptians; the processions were the same; and although there is some little difference in the style of the sculpture and hieroglyphics, it certainly is my conviction, that the Egyptian style had, as he very correctly expresses himself, its origin in Ethiopia.[94]

History affords no example, at least that I know, of a people being so advanced in the fine arts, without at the same time having applied themselves to the cultivation of the sciences, of history and philosophy. Their religion, as I may show on another occasion, evinces their acquaintance with metaphysics, not being a gross mythology, but the worship, under different forms, of the one great Divinity, whose attributes are manifested in the wonders of the creation. A people who had evidently so much taste for the arts, must have been sensible to the charms of study. Those who had the means would naturally wish to distinguish themselves, or at least their children, by various literary acquirements. Individuals seeking to elevate themselves above the common level would rise together, and what was at first an extraordinary attainment would become necessary to secure admittance into society.

The remarks which I have hitherto made on the arts of Ethiopia are chiefly applicable to their earliest period. In my narrative I have mentioned, that there are still the remains and traces of 80 pyramids at Meroe, 42 at Nouri, and 17 at Gibel el Birkel. In the few which are now nearly entire, the porticoes are decorated with figures sculptured in the round and bulky Ethiopian style. It is impossible now to determine positively whether these are representations of private individuals, of kings, or of members of different royal families. They represent in several instances, two persons,—a king and his wife, and there is one instance of a queen only. The tombs which we can ascertain, from the hieroglyphics, to be those of kings and queens, being not of superior, or even equal magnitude with many of the others, I think it not unreasonable to conclude, that every one of them was erected for a sovereign or some members of a royal family. If they were each of a king or queen who had reigned alone, the immense number which can even now be traced, independent of the many which the desert has swallowed up, would carry us back to an earlier era than can be admitted, for it is evident, from the style of the sculpture, and other appearances of the monuments, that they were erected long previous to the time of Tirhaka, (730 years B.C.)

That Ethiopian king, who reigned over Egypt, constructed a magnificent temple at Gibel el Birkel, which city, if not the place of his birth, and at one time the seat of his empire, was at all events peculiarly favoured by him; for we do not see his name on any Ethiopian edifice, except on an altar in the great temple, and on the walls and columns of the temple of Athor at Birkel.

Part of the temple of Tirhaka is excavated out of the rock, either in imitation of those he had seen in Egypt, or it may perhaps be a more ancient temple, added to and decorated by that king. The style of sculpture at that time was tolerably good, very like the Egyptian, but by no means equal to the best at Thebes. The architecture, however, seems to have then very much declined. The columns of Athor and the deformed Pthah in the temple built by Tirhaka, are very inferior to the fragment we have at Abou Naga, and the great temple at Gibel el Birkel, built, perhaps, by Pionchei, probably a much more ancient king. That edifice, for magnificence, may be compared to any in the valley of the Nile. I may here also remark, that, notwithstanding the great pecuniary resources which Tirhaka must have possessed, as king of two such rich and powerful countries as Egypt and Ethiopia, still the temple erected by him is not to be compared to the splendid edifice of his predecessor.

It is singular, that, with the exception of the remains of this large temple, and some other less important vestiges of smaller edifices there, the colossal statues of Argo, the Ethiopian temple of Amarah, the fragment of an Ethiopian ruin at Naga, on the Nile, and the Ethiopian temples at Mecaurat or Naga, in the desert (see Cailliaud), there are no remains of any sacred edifice of an earlier period than Tirhaka, or indeed of a later, except the ruins at Wady el Owataib. The sepulchres of the kings only are standing. The temples which remain in the best state of preservation above the second cataract are those of Semneh, built by Thothmes III., an Egyptian king, and the magnificent temple of Solib, built by Amunoph III., also an Egyptian monarch. Petronius, in his hatred for every thing that was Ethiopian, probably destroyed all the edifices which had escaped from the ravages of previous wars.

If Gibel el Birkel was Napata (as it is considered by many), the temples might have been destroyed by Petronius, but I have before stated, that I cannot conceive it to be that town. We must therefore attribute its destruction to an earlier era, or to the Christians or Arabs. The great temple of Gibel el Birkel must have required great labour to demolish it so utterly. The immense and massive columns and thick walls would have lasted for ages, had they not been destroyed by violence. As no attempts have apparently been made to restore these edifices, the place was perhaps deserted, and the name erased from among the list of cities. My drawings, plans, &c. of the temples of Semneh, Solib, and the small temple at Gibel el Birkel, will show that they are exceedingly ruined, yet not with the same dreadful destruction as the large temple at the latter place, and others, of which scarcely a vestige remains.

Some of the pyramids of Gibel el Birkel and Meroe bear evidence of the greatest violence having been employed to destroy them, whereas others seem injured only by time. The demolition of the former, may, I conceive, be entirely attributed to the avarice of the Mahometans. The very nature of the construction of the pyramids would certainly present greater difficulties in destroying them, but this could not have been the motive in forbearing from the attempt; for all events it would have been easy for the levellers of whole rows of immense and lofty columns to demolish entirely every portico. That respect for the sepulchres of the dead, which has existed in every age, among civilised and uncivilised nations, prevented probably the devastators from violating the pyramids of Meroe and Nouri, whilst, at both those places, every trace of the temples has been obliterated. Religious bigotry must have been the cause of this violence. The invaders, while they respected the habitations of the dead, the sepulchres of ancient kings, might consider the destruction of the sanctuaries to be the surest mode of eradicating every trace of the idolatrous worship of Ammon.

The monuments of Ethiopia present unfortunately no regular series of edifices by which we might trace the progressive rise and subsequent decline of the arts. There is as wide a difference between the most ancient sculpture and architecture of Meroe and that of the time of Tirhaka, as between the latter and the far more modern edifice, the ruins of which are now called Wady el Owataib. In my description of the latter, (see narrative, [Chapter VIII.]) I have stated my belief that it was erected during the last stage of the arts. The confused and extremely defective plan, and the wretched style of the sculpture, are proofs that it must have been built very long after the reign of Tirhaka. I have mentioned also that, from the design, and from a certain affectation of Greek ornaments, particularly in the fluting of the columns, I conceive it not improbable, that this, and also, perhaps, the Greek edifice at Mecaurat, were erected by the Ethiopian king Ergamenes, who had a Greek education, and was contemporary with Ptolemy Philadelphus.

It will be remarked, that there is a vast difference between these monuments in Ethiopia, and the magnificent architectural edifices erected at that period in Egypt; but we must recollect, that the dynasty of the Ptolemies infused fresh vigour into every pursuit connected with the prosperity of the country. The first kings of that dynasty occupied themselves almost exclusively in promoting the commerce and encouraging the literature and arts of the country. The sculpture indeed was then very inferior to the pure Egyptian; but their temples, notwithstanding this inferiority, may rank among the most splendid edifices which ornament the banks of the Nile, or even any part of the world. But Meroe did not enjoy the same advantage. The extended commerce of her rival would of course diminish more and more her own prosperity. Her territory declining continually in richness and affluence, and her commerce impaired, her kings, instead of occupying themselves in encouraging the arts, would require all the resources of the state to save them from becoming the prey of their more powerful neighbour.

The next and only additional edifice which I have now to notice, as marking the last epoch in the history of the arts of Meroe, is the Christian church opposite Gibel el Birkel. As we have no certain ground to suppose that Christianity was much spread in Ethiopia before the year 330[95], a later date cannot be assigned to that structure. I conceive it to be one of the earliest Christian edifices erected in that country, as I have remarked, in my description of it, that it is ornamented with the Ethiopian cornice and beading. This is the most modern architectural construction that now remains in Ethiopia.

The Arabs at their invasion do not seem to have brought with them the talent and means to erect any of those splendid mosques which they have reared in honour of their prophet in other climes. I have elsewhere described the dwellings of the present inhabitants. They are miserable mud and straw huts, some of the latter having conical roofs, a remnant of the knowledge of the arch. The fortified castles of the chiefs are superior to these, but necessity only has taught them to build towers and thick walls for their protection: nothing can be more barbarous and rude than their internal structure. For the man who has made himself independent, or is ignorant, of the luxuries, elegancies, and comforts of life, they are perhaps sufficient, since they afford shelter against the summer heat, the occasional showers of rain, and the winter cold; but it is impossible to have a more striking evidence of the effects of civilisation, than the contrast between the wretched abodes of the present inhabitants of Ethiopia, and the magnificent sepulchres of her departed kings.

Some writers even of ability affect to doubt the civilisation and great power of the Ethiopians and Egyptians, particularly the latter. They reason on the present condition of the country, without reflecting on the great changes it has undergone. I may add, that they display little knowledge of Egyptian subjects, and even of the history of the arts in general. They would otherwise be aware of the time necessary for a nation to acquire the degree of taste, knowledge, and affluence, necessary for the construction of such edifices as those still existing in the valley of the Nile. Setting aside altogether the authority of historians, let us only compare the present inhabitants, who are almost destitute of any ideas or information, incapable even of rearing for themselves a suitable abode, with a nation whose architectural proficiency has never been surpassed, and whose advancement in so many branches of science and civilisation is established by the indisputable evidence of lapidary inscriptions. It were vain to expect to find at the present day in this part of Ethiopia, an individual capable of constructing such edifices as we have seen existing at Meroe. I do not hesitate to say, that were it possible to transport one of the pyramids of Meroe entire to London, it would be considered one of the most chaste and beautiful ornaments of our metropolis. Though constructed more perhaps than three thousand years ago, it might, even now, be studied with advantage by our artists and architects.

When such observations are applied to Egypt, the answer is still more easily made. Where in Europe is there an edifice like the great temple at Karnak, one hall of which contains 140 columns, 36 feet in circumference, dimensions rarely to be found in Europe, and every portion of that splendid court covered with carefully finished and painted sculptures? Having, however, trespassed so long on the reader’s patience, I must not now allow myself to enter on the subject of Egyptian art. I will only say, in conclusion, that the materials used in the pyramids of Memphis are sufficient to construct a city, and that no palaces of Europe are comparable in splendour to the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes.

THE END.

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