[88]Isaiah (xlv. 14.) also mentions the “merchandise of Ethiopia.”
[89]Euterpe, 110.
[90]Plin. lib. vi. cap. xxix.
[91]Destruction of the library at Alexandria.
[92]No. CVI. p. 350.
[93]Euterpe, xv.
[94]This is no new doctrine of my own: Champollion, Rosellini, Heeren, and many other first-rate authorities have the same idea. I had expressed no opinion on the subject before going into the country; and, therefore, without prejudice, examined the evidence afforded by the monuments. At the same time that I deeply regret, that many learned travellers and geographers differ with me on this important point, I have not feared to express my own opinion; and I trust it will be candidly allowed, that in my topographical description I have not omitted any observation that might militate against my argument. I have stated, that in the latitude of Shendy it occasionally rains, (but Cailliaud is mistaken in supposing that it rains there three months in the year,) and that such rain would have a certain effect even on the solid mass of a pyramid. I have mentioned, also, that the stones are smaller, and often of a softer material, than the sandstone of Egypt; but we must consider that the pyramids are also smaller, that they have no rooms in the interior, and that the material of the least durable is harder than that of many of the pyramids of Memphis. Mr. Waddington did not reach the wonderful cemetery of the metropolis of Meroe, but the result of his comparison of the other pyramids of Ethiopia with those of Egypt agrees with mine, that is to say, as regards their relative antiquity; but from the discoveries in hieroglyphics, Mr. W. is found to be wrong in the dates he assigns to the monuments of Memphis and Thebes. But I cannot conclude this subject better than with an extract from his work.
He says (Journal of a Visit to some Parts of Ethiopia, p. 184), “Now, the utter destruction and shapelessness of many of the pyramids at Birkel and El Bellal (Nouri), attest their antiquity; while those of Egypt do not appear to have been erected above eleven or twelve hundred years before Christ, when that country had been frequently overrun by the Ethiopians;”—alluding to the statement of Herodotus, that eighteen of the kings of Egypt were Ethiopians; but Manethon and the monuments do not confirm this account, and, therefore, I have not mentioned it before. “The pyramids are of a later date than the ruins of Thebes. Thebes, which is known to have been founded by a colony of Ethiopians[a], was called Ammon No, Diospolis, or the city of Ammon. It follows, then, I think, very clearly, from the concurrence of these observations on the antiquities of Ethiopia, with the conclusions derived from historical evidence, that the origin of the Egyptian divinities, as well as that of their temples and their tombs, and of the sculptures, figures, and symbols, may be traced to Ethiopia. In the magnitude of their edifices, the imitators have, indeed, surpassed their masters; but, as far as we could judge from the granite and other sculptures at Argo and Gibel el Birkel, that art seems to have been as well understood, and carried to as high perfection, as it was afterwards by their scholars at Thebes and at Memphis.
[a]Bruce’s Travels, vol. i. p. 380. The words of Bruce are,—“We know that Thebes was a colony of Ethiopians, and probably from Meroe; but whether directly or not we are not certain.” There is, I believe, no passage distinctly stating this; but Bruce very correctly inferred it from the statements of Diodorus and Herodotus.
[95]Ludolf, lib. iii. chap. 2.