Meroe. (See [Plate X.]) There is a fragment of a figure of a god, with the hieroglyphics before it; this is evidently the god Sebek, which, with the Greek termination, makes the Sevechus of Eusebius; but, although the name in the list and that of Eusebius and Africanus are made thus to agree with the name in the Bible, I have some doubts if Signor Rosellini is correct in the connection he supposes between the name of these hieroglyphics and the god Sevek; for the Ethiopians apparently wrote the name of that deity in the same manner as the Egyptians, and yet not one of the hieroglyphics used in writing the name of the god is employed in that of the king.
[70]Herodotus, lib. ii. 30. Diodorus states the number to have been more than 200,000; and assigns as the reason of their emigration, that in the expedition into Syria the post of honour was given to foreigners.—Lib. iii. vol. i. p. 175.
[71]Herodotus, lib. iii. 17. 20.
[72]Heliodorus, in his history of Ethiopia, or, rather, novel of Theagenes and Cariclia, relates the war of Hydaspes, king of the East and West Ethiopians, with the Egyptians, or rather the Persians, then in possession of Egypt, for the island of Philæ and the emerald mines. He gives also an account of the siege of Syene; and mentions the prisoners being bound with chains of gold, so that one of them, Theagenes, the hero of the tale, laughed, and said, that he was more richly decorated in prison than out.
[73]Heeren’s Afrikanische Völker, vol. i. ch. 3.
[74]Lib. iii. 102.
[75]The following description, extracted from the journal of my first voyage up the Nile, may amuse the reader:—
“April 8. 1832.—Our pilot afforded us a curious exhibition, although not, I believe, uncommon; but to us it was new. He pretended or believed that his saint, to whom he had been addressing his evening devotions, had entered his body, and he immediately fell into the most violent paroxysms, throwing his arms about, rolling his head, and twisting his body in a very outrageous manner: sometimes he held up his hands, and shook, as in the most dreadful convulsions, groaning most piteously, and gabbling forth all sorts of gibberish. The sailors made a circle round him, and continued making low obeisances, calling on Mahomet to assist him, for nearly two hours; they believe that, unless they did this, the saint would never leave him, and he would have probably died. The man, in his madness, seemed to have a great jealousy for his honour; one of the mariners was sleeping on board the boat, while the others were on the banks praying for them; on a sudden he darted into the boat, and, had he not been detained, would have roughly used the drowsy mariner. After all the Mahometans near him had joined the circle to pray for his recovery, he returned, by degrees, to his senses: when the fit was over, he lay for some time apparently quite exhausted. The man is remarkable at other times for the mildness of his manner, and is one of the finest looking Nubians I have seen, being above six feet high, with uncommonly handsome features. The people consider those who are thus possessed as peculiarly favoured, not one in a thousand being so fortunate. After death they are generally considered as saints, and have tombs erected to them by the government, which does this, no doubt, to gain popularity, or conciliate the people: but it is generally believed that the saint has appeared to the Pasha, ordering him to erect it.”
[76]Lib. xvii. p. 820.
[77]Lib. vi. chap. 29.