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.