ENCHORIAL AGREEMENT (C).

¿XXXV? Month.... In the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra his sister, the children of Ptolemy and Cleopatra the Gods Illustrious; and the Priest of Alexander and of the Saviour Gods, of the Brother Gods, of the Beneficent Gods, of the Father loving Gods, of the Illustrious Gods, of the ¿hostile? Paternal God, and of the Mother loving Gods: and the Prize bearer of Berenice the Beneficent, and the [Gold and Silver] Basket bearer of Arsinoe the Brother loving, and the Priest of Arsinoe the Father loving, being [as appointed in the metropolis]: the bargain was made by the men of the family of Alecis: Ammonius the son of Pyrrhius, and Psenamunis the son of Pyrrhius, coming into the temple ... agreed with Pechytes the son of Arsiesis and ¿Oenone? to sell for a sum of money ... ... (14) Royal Street ... month ... time ... . Executed and confirmed. Written by ... clerk to the chief priests of Amonrasonther and the contemplar Gods, the Gods ¿Beneficent? the Father loving Gods and the Gods Illustrious, the ¿hostile? Paternal God, and the Mother loving Gods. Amen.

The name of Eupator appears here to contain, in two different places, the characters which in the Rosetta inscription denote hostile or turbulent; and this circumstance would incline us to prefer the date of the last year of the reign of Philometor: but it is possible that the same epithets may have been intended to mean warlike, in a favourable sense.

There remains a fourth enchorial manuscript, of some importance, at present in the British Museum, but still belonging to Mr. Salt, without whose permission it would be improper to make public its whole contents, even if they were perfectly intelligible. But, in fact, the preamble of this manuscript has been lost, and the registry is nearly illegible, except that the date is clearly XLVII, and the signature of the President at the table of Hermopolis appears to be Dionysius. The names of Horus and Erieus and Arsiesis are also distinguishable in the body of the deed, and the word “two thousand” is written at length, at the end of the registry. Now the year 47 can only belong to the reign of Philadelphus, or to that of Eupator, and the style of the registry too much resembles that of all the other deeds, including Anastasy’s, to allow us to assign it to the former reign: it must, therefore, belong, not to 277, but to 124 B. C. This date will not indeed give us any certain evidence respecting that of Mr. Grey’s deeds; though it might rather incline us to take the later than the earlier, of two periods, equally probable in other respects. On the whole, we can only leave the alternative open for future decision between the dates, as thus contrasted:

Mr. Grey’s enchorial deed(A), XXVIII154 or 143 B. C.
(B), XXIX153142
(C), XXXV147136
Mr. Grey’s Greek Antigraph, or rather the enchorial deed of ParisXXXVI146135
Mr. Salt’s enchorial deedXLVII124
Anastasy’s Greek conveyanceXII-IX106.

The registry of Mr. Grey’s first deed is therefore at least 37, and, on the whole, most probably 48 years more ancient, than any other writing with a pen and ink that exists; and it still remains in the most perfect preservation. Mr. Jomard has compared the manuscript of Anastasy, for its importance, to the pillar of Rosetta: but it can in no respect whatever be put in competition with the Antigraph of Mr. Grey.

SPECIMEN OF MR. GREY’S ENCHORIAL PAPYRUS

CHAPTER VI.
EXTRACTS FROM DIODORUS AND HERODOTUS; RELATING TO MUMMIES.

It is rather as being illustrated by the discovery of Mr. Grey’s Greek papyrus, than as contributing much to its illustration, that I shall here introduce such passages of Diodorus Siculus and of Herodotus, as tend to explain the customs of the Egyptians respecting the honours shown to the dead bodies of their relations.

“The inhabitants of this country,” says Diodorus, Book I. § 51, Wess., in the language of Booth, p. 26, “little value the short time of this present life; but put a high esteem upon the name and reputation of a virtuous life after death; and they call the houses of the living, Inns, because they stay in them but a little while; but the sepulchres of the dead they call Everlasting habitations, because they abide in the graves to infinite generations. Therefore they are not very curious in the building of their houses; but in beautifying their sepulchres they leave nothing undone that [the excess of magnificence can suggest].”

§ 72. W. “What the Egyptians performed, after the deaths of every one of their kings, clearly evidences the great love they bore to them. For honour done to him that cannot possibly know it, in a grateful return of a former benefit, carries along with it a testimony of sincerity, without the least colour of dissimulation.” Booth, p. 37.

§ 73. W. The whole of Egypt being divided into a number of parts, called Nomes by the Greeks, each of these is governed by a Nomarcha, to whom the care of all its public concerns is entrusted. The land being every where divided into three portions, the first is occupied by the priesthood, who are held in the greatest respect by the inhabitants, as being devoted to the worship of the gods, and as possessing the greatest power of understanding, from the superiority of their education: and from the revenues of these lands they perform all sacrifices throughout Egypt, and support the servants of the temples as well as their own families: for they hold that the administration of the honours of the gods ought not to be fluctuating, but to be conducted always by the same persons, and in the same manner: and that those, who are above all their fellow citizens in wisdom and knowledge, ought not to be below any of them in the comforts and conveniences of life: and the priests are in the habit of associating very generally with the kings, partly as counsellors, partly as assistants, and partly as expounders and instructors: foretelling future events by means of astronomy and of augury, and reading the most useful lessons from the past, out of the records of their sacred volumes: for it is not the custom, as in Greece, for one man, or one woman, to be appointed to each priesthood, but there are many who are employed together in the sacrifices and in other ceremonies; and these transmit the same professional occupation to their descendants. The whole of the families of the priests are exempt from taxes, and they come immediately after the king in rank and authority. The second portion of the land is retained in the power of the king for his own revenue, out of which he has to provide for all military expenses, and for the support of his own splendour and dignity, as well as for the liberal remuneration of those who have distinguished themselves by their virtues and their valour: so that being amply supplied from this territory, they are not obliged to burden their subjects with oppressive taxes. The last of the three portions is assigned to the military population, who are subject to the duties attending on a state of warfare: in order that those, who are exposed to danger in battle, may be the more ready to undergo the hazards of the field, from the interest that they feel in the country as occupiers of the soil: for it would be thought absurd to commit the common safety to the care of those, who possessed nothing in the country that was worthy of preservation: and this system had the still greater advantage of acting as an encouragement to population, in order that the country might not be in want of foreign auxiliaries: and their descendants, in like manner, receiving the constitution thus transmitted to them from their forefathers, are excited by the emulation of the valiant deeds of their ancestors, and become invincible by the courage and experience which they acquire.

§ 74. There are also three other classes that enter into the political system of Egypt; those of the Shepherds, the Husbandmen, and the Artisans. The husbandmen, occupying, at a low rent, the arable land belonging to the king, and the priests, and the military, employ their whole time in cultivating it: and being educated from their infancy in agricultural pursuits, they are superior, from their experience, to the husbandmen of other countries: for they are perfectly well acquainted, partly from the knowledge derived from their ancestors, and partly from their own observation, with the nature of the soil, and its irrigation, and with the times and seasons for sowing and reaping, and for collecting all kinds of fruits. The same advantages are possessed by the shepherds, who receive the charge of the flocks from their forefathers as by inheritance, and pass their whole lives in the care of their cattle: and having derived much information from their ancestors, respecting the best modes of treatment and fattening of the different animals, they also add not a little from their own zeal and industry in their occupations: and, what is most remarkable, from their excessive refinement in these pursuits, the poulterers and geese feeders, besides the natural modes of breeding birds, which are common in other countries, have procured an infinite multitude of poultry by their own ingenuity: for they do not hatch their eggs by the incubation of the hens, but, by means of an artificial operation, derived from their own talents and invention, they are enabled to rival, if not to exceed, the activity of nature: and the arts in general are carried to a very elaborate degree of perfection by the Egyptians; for in this country no artist is allowed to meddle either with political affairs, or with any other employment, besides that which he has received from his parents, and to which he is confined by the law: so that neither the jealousy of a master, nor any public business, can ever divert him from the exclusive study of his profession: for in other countries we often observe that an artist is diverted by a variety of pursuits, and is too avaricious to confine himself to his own work; some employing themselves in husbandry, some in commerce, and some in two or three different arts at once; and in democratical countries, many are constantly frequenting popular assemblies, and doing mischief to the government, while they are receiving bribes from the leaders of parties: but among the Egyptians, if any artisan should meddle with politics, or should employ himself in any other concerns besides that in which he has been educated, a severe punishment would be inflicted on him. Such then were the institutions of the ancient Egyptians with regard to their public and private occupations.

§ 75. For the regulation of judicial proceedings, they also took no common pains: since they held that the sentences, pronounced by the legal tribunals, had the greatest possible influence, whether beneficial or injurious, on the concerns of common life: and they saw that the punishment of offenders, and the relief of oppressed persons, were the most effectual remedies for the evils of a state: and that if the terror, that arises from the condemnation of the guilty, were to be superseded by money or by favour, there would be nothing but confusion in all ranks of society: and they attained the end they desired, by the selection of the best men out of the most considerable cities as Common Judges: taking ten from Heliopolis, and the same number from Thebes and from Memphis: and the Bench, thus assembled, did not appear to be inferior either to the Areopagites at Athens, or to the Elders among the Lacedaemonians. When these thirty had met, they proceeded to elect the most distinguished of their number as their President, with the title of Arch judge: and his place among themselves was supplied by another person, sent by the same city. The judges all received allowances from the king, sufficient for their support, and the arch judge received a manifold portion. He was distinguished by wearing round his neck a golden chain, suspending a figure adorned with precious stones, which was called Alethía, or Truth: and the trial began when the arch judge put on this image of Truth. Now the whole of the laws of the country being written in eight books, and these books being placed near the judges, it was the custom for the accuser to write down in detail the offense to be proved, and the manner in which the action was committed, and the estimated amount of the damage or the injury: the accused party then, taking the depositions of his opponents, wrote his answer to each of them, either denying the facts, or maintaining that they were not illegal; or, if they were illegal, that the damages were appreciated too highly: the accuser replied again in writing, and the accused party rejoined: and both having given in their writings to the judges, the thirty proceeded to declare their opinions among themselves; and lastly, the arch judge touched one of the contending parties, who was to be successful, with the figure of Truth which he wore.... And this was done, in order to supersede the influence of artificial eloquence, and the fascination of personal appearance, which too often pervert the distribution of justice....

§ 80. The Priests of the Egyptians are allowed to marry but one wife: other persons marry as many as they please: but they are obliged to rear all their children, since a numerous population is esteemed highly conducive to the happiness of every country and state: and none of their children are accounted illegitimate, even if the mother has been purchased as a slave: for the children are supposed to belong more particularly to the father, the mother being considered as little more than a nurse. They feed their children very lightly, and at an incredibly small expense: giving them a little meal of the coarsest and cheapest kind, the pith of the papyrus, baked under the ashes, with the roots and stalks of some marsh weeds, either raw, or boiled, or roasted: and since most of them are brought up, on account of the mildness of the climate, without shoes, and indeed without any other clothing; the whole of the expense, incurred by the parents, till they come to years of maturity, does not exceed about 20 drachmas, or 13 shillings, each. This frugality is the true reason of the great populousness of Egypt, and of the magnificence of the public works, with which the country is adorned.

§ 81. The children of the priests, however, are instructed in two descriptions of literature; the sacred and the more general: and they apply themselves with diligence to geometry and arithmetic: for the river, changing the appearance of the country very materially every year, is the cause of many and various discussions among the neighbouring proprietors: and these it would be difficult for any person to decide, without geometrical reasoning, founded upon actual observation: and for arithmetic they have frequent occasion both in their domestic economy, and in the application of geometrical theorems, besides its utility in the cultivation of astronomical studies: for the orders and motions of the stars are observed at least as industriously by the Egyptians as by any other people whatever: and they keep records of the motions of each for an incredible number of years; the study of this science having been, from the remotest times, an object of national ambition with them: they have also most punctually observed the motions and periods and stations of the planets, as well as the powers which they possess, with respect to the nativities of animals, and what good or evil influences they exert: and they frequently foretel what is to happen to a man throughout his life, and not uncommonly predict a failure of crops, or an abundance, and the occurrence of epidemic diseases among men or beasts: they foresee also earthquakes and floods, and the appearances of comets, and a variety of other things which appear impossible to the multitude. It is said also that the Chaldaeans in Babylon are derived from an Egyptian colony, and have acquired their reputation for astrology by means of the information obtained from the priests in Egypt: but the generality of the common people in Egypt learn only, from their parents or relations, that which is required for the exercise of their peculiar professions, as we have already seen: a few of them only teach them something of literature, especially those who cultivate the more refined of the arts: wrestling and music it is not their custom to practice: for they conceive that, by exercise in the palaestra, young men acquire not solid health, but a temporary increase of strength, which is by no means free from danger; and music they esteem not only useless, but even injurious, as rendering the minds of men effeminate....

§ 83. W. The customs of the Egyptians with regard to their sacred animals are exceedingly surprising, and worthy to be examined; for they venerate some of these animals in an extraordinary degree, not only while they are living, but even after their death: for example, cats, and ichneumons, and dogs; and besides these, the hawk and the ibis; furthermore, wolves and crocodiles, and other beasts of prey.... Now each kind of the animals, that are held sacred, has a piece of ground appropriated to them, affording a rent sufficient for the care and the food that they require: the Egyptians are also in the habit of making vows to some of their divinities on behalf of their children; and if they recover from the disease, they shave off their hair, and counterpoising it with silver or with gold, they give the money to the priests, who have the care of these animals: the priests expend this money in articles of food; and cutting up the meat for the hawks, call out to them with a loud voice, and throw it to them as they fly near: and for the oats and the ichneumons they soften the bread in milk, and lay it before them with the proper calls and signals; or give them some of the fishes of the Nile cut in pieces: and in the same manner they furnish to every other kind of animal its appropriate food: nor do they attempt to perform these services with any degree of privacy, or to avoid the sight of the multitude; but on the contrary they value themselves, as being the ministers of the highest honours of the Gods, and travel through the cities and the country with their appropriate standards: showing obviously at a distance to what deities they are attached; and receiving the universal respect and homage of those who meet them: and when any one of these animals dies, they roll it up in fine linen, and bewail themselves, and beat their breasts, as they carry it to be embalmed: and then they embalm it with resins, and with substances fit to perfume and to preserve it, and bury it in the sacred vaults: and if any one voluntarily destroys one of these animals, he suffers death: with the exception of the cat and the ibis; for if a person kills either of these, even involuntarily, he infallibly loses his life, a multitude immediately collecting and tearing him in pieces, often without any form of trial; so that, for fear of such a calamity, if any one finds one of these animals dead, he stands at a distance, and calls out with a loud voice, lamenting, and protesting that the animal has been found dead. This superstitious regard to the sacred animals is so thoroughly rooted in their minds, and every one of them has his passions so strongly bent upon their honour, that at the time when Ptolemy had not yet been called a king by the Romans, and the people were using every possible effort to flatter the Italians, who were visiting the country as strangers, and studious to avoid every thing that could excite disputes, or lead to war, on account of their dread of the consequences; a Roman having killed a cat, and a crowd being collected about his residence, neither the magistrates, who were sent by the king to appease their rage, nor the general terror of the Roman name, were able to save the offender from vengeance, although he had done it unintentionally: and this we relate, not from the testimony of others, but from what we ourselves had an opportunity of seeing, upon our journey to Egypt.

§ 84. If these things appear to many incredible and almost fabulous, what remains to be told will be thought still more extraordinary. In the time of a great famine in Egypt, it is related that many of the inhabitants were compelled by hunger to devour each other, but that nobody was even accused of having touched the flesh of any of the sacred animals. Indeed whenever a dog has died in a house, the whole of the persons, residing in it, shave their whole bodies, and go into mourning: and what is still more remarkable, if there was either wine or corn, or any other provisions, in the house, in which the animal died, they would not dare to make any use of it whatever: and if they lose these animals, while they are absent upon any military expedition, they carry back their cats and their hawks in sorrow to Egypt: this they will do even if they are themselves in want of the means of returning with convenience. The manner in which they treat their Apis in Memphis, and Mneuis in Heliopolis, and the Goat in Mendes, and the Crocodile in the Lake Moeris, and the Lion that is kept at Leontopolis, with many other things of the same kind, is easily narrated, but not easily credited, except by an eye witness: for all these animals are kept in sacred inclosures, and attended by many of the most respectable persons, who supply them with the most delicate food; fine flour or prepared corn, boiled in milk, and all kinds of cakes mixed with honey, and geese, either boiled or roasted, are continually provided for them; and for those which are carnivorous, various birds are caught, and given to them alive: and their whole establishments are arranged on a very expensive scale, for they are furnished with warm baths, and anointed with the finest ointments, and the choicest perfumes are burned before them: they have also rich carpets and ornamented furniture, and care is taken to provide them with female companions of the greatest beauty, who are also fed in the most luxurious manner: and when they die, they are lamented like favourite children, and are buried not according to the means of their attendants only, but often much more magnificently: for after the death of Alexander, when Ptolemy the son of Lagus had lately become King of Egypt, the Apis at Memphis happened to die of old age; and the person, who had the care of him, not only spent the whole of the allowances, which were very considerable, upon the funeral, but borrowed also fifty talents, or twelve thousand pounds, more of Ptolemy, to defray the expense: and within our own memory it has happened, that the guardians of these animals have spent not less than a hundred talents at their funeral.

§ 85. Besides these ceremonies, there are many other customs at the death of the sacred bull named Apis; for after he has been splendidly interred, the priests seek for a calf who is marked as nearly as possible in the same manner: and having found him, they release the public from their mourning, and the appointed persons carry the calf first to Nilopolis, where they feed him for forty days; and then embarking him on board of a yacht with a gilded cabin, they conduct him as a god to the sacred grove of Vulcan, at Memphis. In these forty days only, he is allowed to be seen by women, who perform certain evolutions before him, which are probably more amusing to his attendants than to himself: and at no other time are women allowed to see him. The reason of the honours paid to him is said to be, that at the death of Osiris, his soul transmigrated into this animal, and that it is continually transferred to his successors, when he dies: others however inform us, that when Osiris was killed by Typhon, his limbs were collected by Isis, and thrown into a wooden cow, covered with cotton cloths, and that the city was thence called Busiris. [It seems however that this must have been a Grecian fiction, for in Egyptian BUSIRIS must have meant the tomb of Osiris, and not the cow.] For the deification of the other animals, as well as of their kings, a variety of reasons are assigned[; all as uninteresting as they are absurd; except the story of a hawk having brought, to the priest at Thebes, a book of laws and religious observances, tied up with purple; and that hence the Hierogrammates, or sacred scribes, were distinguished by a purple sash, and by wearing a hawk’s feather on their heads: that the crocodile is said to be venerated as the watchman of the Nile, preventing the predatory excursions, which would be undertaken, if the thieves could swim across the river in safety; and that the diversity of deities, worshipped in neighbouring parts of the country, is supposed by some to have originated in a political contrivance of the government, to keep the people in subjection, by preventing their too intimate union].

§ 91. The customs of the Egyptians, with regard to their funerals, are not the least wonderful of their peculiar institutions. For when any one dies among them, the whole of his family and all his friends cover their heads with clay, and go about the city lamenting, until the body is buried; partaking neither of baths, nor of wine, nor of any abundant food, nor putting on rich clothing. The funerals are conducted upon three different scales, the most expensive, the moderate, and the humblest: the first costs a talent of silver [£250]; the second twenty minae [£60]; the third is extremely cheap. Now the persons, that undertake this office, are artists, who exercise the profession from generation to generation: and they bring to the friends of the deceased an estimate of the expenses of the funeral, and ask them in what manner they wish that it should be performed. When the agreement is made, the operations are commenced by the proper persons: and first the scribe marks out how the dissection is to be performed, upon the left side of the body; the dissector then cuts it with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and immediately betakes himself to flight, and is pursued and beaten, as if he had committed an inhuman action; the embalmers, on the contrary, are held in all honour and respect, associating with the priests, and having free access to the temples, as sacred persons: these embalmers commence their office by removing such parts as are most susceptible of decay, and, washing the rest with palm wine, and spices, apply various kinds of resins for more than thirty days, and then impregnate the whole with myrrh and cinnamon, and other substances calculated not only to preserve it, but to communicate to it an agreeable smell: and finally they return the body to the relations, so perfectly preserved in every part, that even the hairs of the eyelids and eyebrows remain undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is unchanged, and the features are capable of being recognised: so that the Egyptians, very commonly, keeping the bodies of their ancestors in magnificent apartments, are able to see the very faces of those, who have died several generations before them: each of whom being distinguishable, not only by his height, and the outline of his figure, but even by the character of his countenance, they enjoy a wonderful gratification, as if they lived in the society of those whom they see before them. [It is indeed related by Damascenus, Orat. 1, that they placed them on seats at their tables, as if they wished to eat and drink in their society: and Lucian, in his Essay on Grief, declares, that he has been an eye witness of the custom. Wessel. It is not however probable that such a practice should have been continued in the times of the Ptolemies: although Lucian, who had an appointment in Egypt under Marcus Aurelius, may be considered as pretty good authority, when he speaks seriously.]

§ 92. But when the body is about to be finally buried, the relations announce the appointed day to the judges, and to all the friends of the deceased, declaring that he is about to pass the lake of the Nome: and forty two judges being collected, and placed in a semicircle, which is prepared beyond the lake, a boat is brought up, which had been provided for the purpose, conducted by a boatman who is called, in their language, Charon, [the Silent]: whence they say that Orpheus, in former times, having travelled into Egypt, and seen this custom, invented the fable of Hades, partly from imitating what he saw, and partly from his own imagination: but when the boat was brought into the lake, before the coffin with the dead body was put on board, it was lawful, for any person who thought proper, to bring forwards his accusation against the deceased: and if he showed that the deceased had led an evil life, the judges declared accordingly, and the body was deprived of the accustomed sepulture: but if the accuser failed of establishing what he advanced, he was subject to very heavy penalties. When there had been no accuser, or when the accusation had been repelled as unjust, the relations, laying aside their mourning, pronounced encomiums on the deceased: not enlarging upon his descent, as is usual among the Greeks, for they hold that all the Egyptians are equally noble: but relating his earliest education and the course of his studies, and then his piety and justice in manhood, and his temperance, and the other virtues that he possessed, they supplicated the infernal deities to receive him as a companion of the pious: the multitude in the mean time applauded, and joined in extolling the glory of the deceased, as being about to remain to eternity with the virtuous in the regions of Hades. The body is then placed, by those who have family catacombs already prepared, in the compartment allotted to it: those who are not possessed of catacombs construct a new apartment for the purpose, in their own houses, and set the coffin upright against the firmest of the walls. Those who are debarred of the rites of burial, on account of the accusation which has been brought forwards against them, or on account of debts which they have contracted, are placed in their own houses: and then, if their children’s children happen to be prosperous, they are frequently released from the impediments of their creditors and their accusers, and at length obtain the ceremony of a magnificent funeral.

§ 93. It is most solemnly established in Egypt, to pay a more marked respect to their parents and their ancestors, when they are removed to their everlasting habitations. It is also usual among them to deposit the bodies of their deceased parents, as pledges for the payment of money that they borrow: and those who do not redeem these pledges are subject to the heaviest disgrace, and are deprived of burial after their death....

§ 96. We must now enumerate such of the Greeks as have visited Egypt in ancient times, for the acquirement of knowledge and wisdom. The priests of the Egyptians relate, from the records preserved in their sacred volumes, that they were visited by Orpheus and Musaeus, and Melampus and Daedalus; by Homer, the poet, and Lycurgus, the Spartan: by Solon, the Athenian, and Plato, the philosopher: and that Pythagoras, of Samos, also came there, and the mathematician Eudoxus: and Democritus of Abdera, and Oenopides of Chius. All these they identify by some distinct marks, either portraits, or appellations derived from their residences or their works: and they produce evidence from the branches of knowledge, which they respectively cultivated, that they had only borrowed, from the Egyptians, all that acquired them the admiration of their countrymen. That Orpheus had learned of them the greatest part of his mystical ceremonies, and the orgies that celebrate the wanderings [of Ceres], and the mythology of the shades below: for that the rites of Osiris and of Bacchus are the same: and those of Isis extremely resemble those of Ceres, with the change of name only: and the punishments of the impious in Tartarus, and the Elysian plains of the virtuous, and the common imagery of fiction, were all copied from the ceremonies of the Egyptian funerals: that Hermes, the conductor of souls, was, according to the old institution of Egypt, to convey the body of Apis to an appointed place, where it was received by a man wearing the mask of Cerberus, [probably the Cteristes of the temporary nomenclature;] and that Orpheus having related this among the Greeks, the fable was adopted by Homer, who makes the Cyllenian Hermes call forth the souls of the suitors, holding his staff in his hand:

Cyllenius now to Pluto’s dreary reign

Conveys the dead, a lamentable train!

The golden wand that causes sleep to fly,

Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye,

That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day,

Points out the long, uncomfortable way.

Trembling the spectres glide, and plaintive vent

Thin, hollow screams, along the deep descent ...

And now they reached the Earth’s remotest ends.

And now the gates where evening Sol descends,

And Leucas’ rock, and Ocean’s utmost streams,

And now pervade the dusky land of dreams;

And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell

In ever flowery meads of Asphodel,

The empty forms of men inhabit there,

Impassive semblance, images of air!

Pope.

The river he calls Ocean, as they say, because the Egyptians call the Nile Oceanus in their own language [??]: the gates of the Sun are derived from Heliopolis: and the meadow is so called, from the lake which is named Acherusian, and which is near Memphis, being surrounded by beautiful meadows, and canals, with lotus and flowering rushes: and that it is consistent with the imitation to make the deceased inhabit these places: because the greater number and the most considerable of the Egyptian catacombs are there, the bodies being ferried over the river and the Acherusian lake, and the mummies being deposited in the catacombs there situated. And the rest of the Grecian mythology respecting Hades agrees also with the present practice in Egypt: the boat which carries over the bodies, and is called BARIS; and the penny that is given for the fare to the boatman, who is called CHARON in the language of the country. They say there is also, in the neighbourhood of the same place, a temple of the nocturnal Hecate, with the gates of Cocytus and of Lethe, fastened with brazen bars; and that there are, besides, other gates of Truth; and near them a figure of Justice without a head.

§ 97. In the city of Acanthae, on the Libyan side of the Nile, 120 stadia from Memphis, they say there is a barrel pierced with holes, to which 360 of the priests carry water from the Nile: and that a mystery is acted in an assembly in that neighbourhood, in which a man is made to twist one end of a long rope, while other persons untwist the other end; an allusion to which has become proverbial in Greece. Melampus, they say, brought from Egypt the mysteries of Bacchus, and the stories of Saturn, and the battles of the Titans: and Daedalus imitated the Egyptian labyrinth, in that which he built for king Minos: the Egyptian labyrinth having been constructed by Mendes, or by Marus, an ancient king, many years before his time; and that the style of the ancient statues in Egypt is the same with that of the statues sculptured in Greece: but that the very fine Propylon of Vulcan in Memphis was the work of Daedalus as an architect: and that being admired for this work, he had the honour of obtaining a place, in the same temple, for a wooden statue of himself, which was the work of his own hands: that his talents and inventive faculties at last acquired him even divine honours, and that there is to this day a temple of Daedalus, on one of the islands near Memphis, which is honoured by the neighbouring inhabitants. That Homer had been in Egypt, they argue, among other reasons, from the administration of the Nepenthes by Helen to Telemachus, which occasioned a forgetfulness of the evils that had befallen him: for he seems to have perfectly understood the nature of this remedy, which he says Helen received in the Egyptian Thebes, of Polydamne the wife of Thon, for that the women of the same place still make use of it, for a similar purpose, and it is only among the Diospolitan women, that it is known as a remedy for anger and for sorrow, and that Diospolis is the Thebes of the ancients; and that Venus is called golden by its inhabitants from an old tradition, and that there is a field belonging to the golden Venus in the neighbourhood of Momemphis: and that he has copied from them the history of the embraces of Jupiter and Juno, and of Jove’s absence in Ethiopia: for that they have an annual ceremony, in which the temple or shrine of Jupiter is carried across the river into Libya, and is brought back in a few days, as if the deity returned from Ethiopia: and that the embraces of the deities are found (§ 346) in their assemblies, when both of their shrines are carried to a mountain which is strewed by the priest with flowers. [Analogies all too slight to be admitted as any thing like evidence.]

§ 98. They say also that Lycurgus and Plato and Solon transferred many of the customs of the Egyptians into their own establishments. And that Pythagoras learned in Egypt both his divinity and his geometrical theorems, and his arithmetic, and the transmigration of the soul into all kinds of animals. They believe too that Democritus spent five years among them, and was taught by them many things relating to astronomy. And that Oenopides [of Chius] in the same way, by living with their priests and astronomers, learned of them, among many other things, the position of the sun’s orbit, that it moved obliquely, and in a direction contrary to that of the other stars. And that Eudoxus, in the same manner, gained great reputation among his countrymen, by having studied astronomy among them, and made known many of their useful discoveries among the Greeks: and the most celebrated of the ancient statuaries had lived among them, Telecles and Theodorus, the sons of Rhoecus, who made for the Samians the image of the Pythian Apollo: for it is said that one half of the image was executed in Samos by Telecles, and the other half at Ephesus by his brother Theodorus; and that both parts, when put together, agreed so well with each other, as to appear precisely as if they had been the work of one person: and that this kind of workmanship was never practised by the Greeks, but was very common among the Egyptians: for that with them it was not usual to judge of the symmetry of a figure by the sight of the whole, as with the Greeks; but that when the stones were quarried and properly cut out, they then proceeded by proportion from the smallest to the greatest; and dividing the whole fabric of the body into one and twenty parts, and a quarter, they arranged the whole symmetry, accordingly: and hence, when their artists consult with each other about the magnitude of any figure, although separated from each other, they still make the results agree so well, that this peculiarity of their practice excites the greatest astonishment: and that the image in Samos, according to this refinement of the Egyptians, being divided from the summit of the head, and as far as the middle, is still perfectly consistent with itself, and in all parts alike: they also observe that it extremely resembles the Egyptian figures as having the hands stretched out, and the legs separated, as in walking. And enough has now been said of what is most celebrated and remarkable in the country and customs of the Egyptians: [the greater part of which is of much more value, as occasionally furnishing anecdotes from the arguments that were advanced by the priests in their discussions, than as by any means rendered fully credible by the application of these anecdotes.]

The process of embalming is described very nearly in the same manner by Herodotus. “Their customs,” he says, Book II. §. 85, “relating to mourning and to funerals are these. When any person of consequence dies, the females of his family cover their heads and faces with clay, and leaving the dead body at home, wander through the city, beating themselves, wearing a close girdle, and having their bosoms bare, accompanied by all their intimate friends: the men also make similar lamentations in a separate company: they then proceed to embalm the body.

“(86). This service is performed by persons appointed to exercise the art, as their business: and when a dead body is brought to them, they show their patterns of mummies in wood, imitated by sculpture: and the most elaborate of these they say belongs to the character of [Osiris] one, whose name I do not think it pious to mention on such an occasion: the second, that they show, is simpler and less costly: the third, the cheapest of all: and having shown them these, they inquire in which way the service shall be performed: the parties then make their agreement, and the body is left for preparation. The interior soft parts being removed both from the head and from the trunk, the cavities are washed with palm wine and fragrant gums, and partly filled up with myrrh and cassia and other spices; the whole is then steeped in a solution of soda for seventy days, which is the longest time permitted; and then, having been washed, the body is rolled up with bandages of cotton cloth, being first smeared with gum, instead of glue. The relations then, receiving the body, procure a wooden case for it in a human shape, and inclose the dead body in it: and when thus inclosed, they treasure it up in an appropriate building or apartment, placing it upright against the wall. And this is the most expensive mode of preparation.

“(87). For those who prefer the middle class, in order to avoid expense, the process is simplified by omitting the actual removal of the interior parts, and introducing a corrosive liquid to melt them down: the soda consumes the flesh, so that skin and bone only is left, when the body is restored to the friends.

“(88). The third and simplest process is merely to cleanse the body well, within and without, by means of some vegetable decoctions, and to keep it in the alkaline solution for the seventy days, without further precautions.”

It is difficult to say, according to these statements, what part of the ceremony might be considered as actually constituting the burial. But we find in a Greek inscription on the coffin of a mummy, found by Mr. Grey, which he has had the goodness to communicate to me, “The tomb of Tphuto (or Tphus) the daughter of Heracléus Soter and Sarapus. She was born in the Vth year of Adrian our Lord, the 2d Athyr [III], and died in the XIth year, Tybi [V] the 10th. Aged six years, two months, and eight days. She was buried in the XIIth year, the 12th of Athyr.” So that here the burial took place a full year after the death; and there was time enough for every imaginable luxury of the embalmer’s art. The coffin is not, in this instance, made in imitation “of the human form,” as the coffins of the more ancient mummies, but it is merely an oblong trunk, with an arched cover, and a pillar rising a little at each angle. We have no precise account of the liturgies, or services, performed to these canonized personages, but they were probably some forms of adoration, combined with offerings of flowers and fruit, which were placed before or beside them, and it is well known that some corn and some cakes have been found still standing in baskets, in some of the catacombs lately opened; and that specimens of them have been brought to the British Museum.

To administer these rites, and to renew these offerings, at least as often as could be required, was apparently the duty of the priests, and they were no doubt amply remunerated for their attentions, by the families of the deceased, in the form of the “collections,” which are the objects of sale in Mr. Grey’s papyrus. The deed was registered 19 days after its execution.

CHAPTER VII.
EXTRACTS FROM STRABO; ALPHABET OF CHAMPOLLION; HIEROGLYPHICAL AND ENCHORIAL NAMES.

The manner in which the Hieroglyphical alphabet was employed, in the time of the Roman emperors, may be understood from the examination of the specimens inserted in this chapter; they comprehend an example of each of the names and titles, which Mr. Champollion has included in his catalogue. In order to illustrate the veneration paid to the Roman emperors in Egypt, I shall subjoin an extract from Strabo, relating to the administration of that country, in the days of the earlier Caesars, for he was a contemporary and a subject of Tiberius.

Book XVII. “The whole of Egypt was divided into Nomes, the Thebaid containing ten, the Delta ten, and the intermediate parts sixteen, making in all 36.... The nomes were generally divided into Toparchiae, or local governments: and these again into other portions.... At Alexandria, the Necropolis is a separate suburb, containing gardens, and sepulchres, and subterraneous passages, employed for preserving the dead.”

“After the death of Julius Caesar, and after the battle of Philippi, Antony went into Asia, and paid extravagant honours to Cleopatra, even making her his wife, and having several children by her. He carried on, in concert with her, the war that was terminated at Actium, and accompanied her, as is well known, in her flight. Augustus following them, destroyed them both, and set Egypt at rest from the revels of a drunkard. It is now governed as a province, or an Eparchia, paying considerable taxes, but being always administered by moderate men, who are sent as Governors, and who hold the rank of a king. Under the governor is the Dicaeodotes, that is the lawgiver, or chancellor: another officer is called the Privy purse, or private accountant, whose business it is to take charge of every thing which is left without an owner, and which falls of right to the Emperor. These two are also attended by Freedmen and Stewards of Caesar, who are intrusted with affairs of greater or less magnitude. There are also three battalions of soldiers, one in the city of Alexandria, the others in the country. Besides these, there are nine companies of Romans; three in the city, three in garrison at Syene, upon the frontiers of Ethiopia, and three in other parts of the country. There are also three regiments of cavalry, similarly distributed, among the fittest places. But of the natives, who are employed in the government of the different cities, the principal are the Exegétes, or Expounder, who is dressed in purple, and is honoured according to the usages of the country, and takes care of what is necessary for the welfare of the city; and the Register, or writer of commentaries; and the Archidicastes, or chief judge; and fourthly, the Captain of the Night. These same magistracies existed in the time of the kings: but the kings governed so ill, that the welfare of the state was disturbed by all kinds of irregularities. Polybius, who was in Egypt, expresses his horror of the condition of the country at that time: he says there were three kinds of inhabitants in Alexandria; the Egyptians, or the people of the country, a keen and civilised race, and the mercenary troops, who were numerous and turbulent; for it was the custom to keep foreign soldiers in their pay, who, having arms in their hands, were more ready to govern than to obey: the third description of people were the Alexandrians, not very decidedly tractable, for similar reasons, but still, better than the last: for those, who had mixed with them, were originally Greeks, and remembered the habits of their country. This part of the population was however then dwindling away, more especially through Evergetes Physcon, in whose reign Polybius came to Alexandria: for on several occasions, when there had been some seditious proceedings he attacked this plebeian multitude with his troops, and destroyed great numbers of them. Polybius could not therefore help exclaiming, that he had “To Egypt come, a long and weary way,” with but little pleasure or comfort. The subsequent sovereigns administered their governments as ill, or still worse. The Romans may be said to have effected a great reformation in many respects, and to have regulated the city very effectually; and in the country they appointed persons as Commanders, and Monarchae, and Ethnarchae, that is, masters of single places, and of districts, without very extensive powers.... With respect to the revenues of the country, we may judge of them from Cicero, who mentions, in one of his orations, that Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, had an income, from the taxes, of twelve thousand five hundred talents, [between three and four millions sterling]. If then a king, who administered his government in the worst and most negligent manner possible, received so large a revenue, what are we to suppose it must be at present, when it is managed with so much care, and when it has been so much increased by the enlargement of the Indian and African commerce? In former times, there were not twenty vessels, that ventured to navigate the Red Sea, so as to pass out of the Straights: but now there are great fleets, that make the voyage to India, and to the remotest parts of Ethiopia, returning, laden with very valuable cargos, to Egypt, whence they are distributed to other parts; so that they are subjected to a double duty, first upon importation, and then upon exportation: and the customs upon these valuable articles are themselves proportionally valuable; besides that they have the advantages of a monopoly: since Alexandria alone is so situated, as to afford, in general, the only warehouse for receiving them, and for supplying other places with them.”

From a comparison of the Enchorial names, which are here inserted, we may confidently add to the alphabet a semicircle, open above, as a form of the P; we have also several variations of the T, and perhaps of the TH; and the character, which is sometimes represented by Z, and sometimes by S, must, in all probability, be the Coptic SH; so that ZMINIS ought rather to be written SHMINIS, meaning Octavius, from SHMEN, eight. The same character is found in the phrase of the Pillar of Rosetta, “who has received the kingdom from his father;” and may probably have belonged to the word SHEP, if it is allowable to pursue the analogy so far: it is also remarkable, that the hieroglyphic, which corresponds to this character, has very nearly the same form with that, to which Mr. Champollion attributes the power of SH or X in the name of Xerxes. His Enchorial form of the CH is wholly unsupported by any of these names.

ALPHABET OF CHAMPOLLION.

Α
Β*
Κ, Γ
Τ, Δ*
Ε
Ι, Η*
Λ*
Μ*
Ν*
Ω, Ο*
Φ, Π*
Ρ
Σ*
ΤΟ

*Y: †B.