Pl. 9.
| From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. | Printed by C. Hullmandel. |
PYRAMIDS OF MEROE.
Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835.
“The Ethiopians,” says Diodorus, “describe the Egyptians as one of their colonies led into Egypt by Osiris. They pretend, also, that Egypt, at the commencement of the world, was nothing but a morass; and that the inundations of the Nile, carrying down a great quantity of the alluvial soil of Ethiopia, had at length filled it up, and made it a part of the continent; and we see,” he says, “at the mouth of the Nile, a particularity which seems to prove that the formation of Egypt is the work of the river. After the inundation, we remark that the sea has repelled on the shore large masses of the alluvial soil, and that the land is increased.” Many writers on Egypt have confirmed this statement of Diodorus. The gradual increase of the depth of soil around different antiquities enabled the French savants, unassisted by the science of hieroglyphics, to decide, in many instances with tolerable accuracy, the date of their construction. The depth of the alluvial soil has ever been, and still continues, increasing; and as this progressive increase may, in every instance, be ascertained, there must have been a period when there was little or none; when Egypt was a mere morass, or rather a desert. The great population, power, riches, and civilisation of the Egyptians astonish us, particularly as we know that their prosperity was almost entirely derived from agriculture, and that the fertility of the land was produced altogether by the periodical overflowings of the Nile. These spread abundance and happiness over the country, created numberless beautiful islands, and changed into a smiling, luxuriant valley what was originally a morass, or, more properly speaking, an arid desert.
“Et viridem Ægyptum nigrâ fœcundat arenâ.”[17]
The first cause, then, of all this fruitfulness was Ethiopia. No one, I think, will conceive it probable that a country originally possessing such advantages could have been long unselected by the descendants of Noah. Herodotus also calls the Ethiopians aboriginal. Considering, then, the rapidity with which man multiplies in a hot climate where no Malthusian restraints operate, and in the full enjoyment of the ease and abundance which so rich a soil must have secured to them, I think it not unreasonable to conclude that Ethiopia, even before Egypt emerged from the Nile, was peopled by a numerous and powerful race. I cannot conceive that a country possessing such agricultural and other advantages—and probably, on that account, the resort of surrounding and less favoured nations—could long remain poor. Riches would introduce a taste for elegance, and afford encouragement to invention; hence the arts would derive their origin. The population increasing, while the land, owing to the spoliations of the river, diminished in extent and richness, the necessity of emigration became obvious. At the command of their oracle, as was their custom (see Herodotus, ii. 139.), they quitted their homes and proceeded along the course of the river; settling in the lower valley of the Nile: they would plant there the religion, arts, and knowledge of their country. This conclusion is confirmed by the following strong passage from Diodorus, proving historically what is my own conviction from the examination of their monumental remains. “It is from the Ethiopians,” says he, “that the Egyptians learned to honour their kings as gods, to bury their dead with so much pomp; and their sculpture and their writing (hieroglyphics) had their origin in Ethiopia.”[18]
Pl. 10.
