The queen has three Hebrew pages, noble and princely-looking boys, with fine, sparkling, black eyes, and intelligent faces; but there is a fixed air of pensiveness about them all, which is perhaps the result of hereditary oppression. This pensive look I have remarked in Prince Remeses, whose style of face is very strongly Syriac or Hebraic. Indeed, I have seen an old Hebrew bondman, a gardener in the palace garden, by the name of Amram, who is so strikingly like the prince that I can easily see by him, how Remeses himself will look at eighty years of age. But this Syriac countenance of Remeses comes from his grandmother, Ephtha, the daughter of the last Phœnician Pharaoh; yet it is marvellous he has about him nothing of the Egyptian type. The Egyptian or Nilotic race, have a sharp and prominent face, in which a long and straight, or gently aquiline nose forms a principal part. The eye is sometimes oblique; the chin short and retracted; the lips rather full and tumid, so to speak; and the hair, when it is suffered to escape the razor in times of mourning, long and flowing. The head is elongated upward, with a receding forehead. The profile is delicate, rather than strong. This style of features and head is strictly Egyptian, and pertains to every class, from Amense on the throne to the priests and people. I see it sculptured on all the tombs and monuments, and carved on the most ancient sarcophagi. The head of Horus is but a sublimer modification of this type.
On the contrary, the head of the Hebrew is large and round, with full brows, a forehead low in front, and high temples. The nose is strongly eagle-like; the eyes set even, but of an almond-shape—yet large, full, and exceedingly black, and soft in expression. The chin is full; the face oval; the hair short, and inclined to curl in the neck and over the brow. The profile is strong and bold—not unlike the Arabian. The Egyptian is slender and light; the Hebrew usually below the medium height, with broad shoulders and full chest. The Egyptian has a pale reddish-copper complexion—save the women, who are bright olive-colored—while the Hebrew face is a ruddy and finely toned brown. The Egyptian females, when not exposed to the sun and outer door labor, are exceedingly fair. The children of the race are all beautiful. Prince Remeses does not share a single characteristic of this Egyptian national head and face; on the contrary, he resembles the highest type of the Hebrew. Is not this remarkable? That is, is it not wonderful that the Syriac blood, derived from the Queen Ephtha, should descend pure to the third generation, unmingled with the Thebaïd characteristics of Amunophis, his grandfather?
I am not aware whether the prince is conscious of his great likeness to this oppressed people, nor would I be so rude as to speak to him of it; for though he has sympathy for them, and tries to improve their condition, yet he possesses that haughty sense of superiority which is natural, in a prince and an Egyptian educated to despise them both as foreigners and slaves of the crown.
The father of Remeses, as I have before said, was the Vicegerent or Prince of Upper Egypt, and one of the royal line of the powerful Theban kings. He had been married but a few months to Pharaoh's daughter, when, being called to repulse an invasion of the warlike Ethiopians, he was slain in battle. Remeses was born not long afterwards, and is, therefore in a twofold degree the heir of the silver crown of the Thebaïd. Had he been willing to leave his mother, she would, when he became thirty years old (which is the age of maturity by the laws of Egypt), have sent him with a splendid retinue to Upper Egypt, and made him Prince of Thebes, as his father had been before him. But he chose to remain with the queen, to whom he appears as much attached as I am to you, my dear mother; and Amense substituted a nephew of her deceased husband, Prince Mœris, and placed him, four years since, on the vicegerent throne of the kingdom of the Upper Nile.
It was this Prince Mœris, with whom Remeses was to dine in the palace on the day we drove to the treasure-city of Raamses. I was also present, dear mother, at the dinner. The Lord Mœris is about the age of Remeses, but altogether a very different person. He is thoroughly Egyptian, both in looks and lineage as well as by prejudice and feeling.
He has a slender, elegant person; delicate straight features; a high, retreating forehead; and a nose slightly aquiline. His mouth is full-lipped and sensual. His retreating chin betrays deficiency of firmness, and an undue proportion of obstinacy. The expression of his oblique, Nubian-looking eye, I did not like. It was sinister and restlessly observant. He was reserved, and while he asked questions from time to time, he never replied to any. His complexion is a bright olive, and he is a handsome man; his rich dress increasing the fine effect of his personal appearance. The uniform he wore was that of Admiral of the Nile; the queen having appointed him commander of the great fleet of war-galleys she has collected near Memphis for the subjugation of Ethiopia. He has, therefore, come down within a few days to take charge of his ships. The character of this man for courage is undoubted, but he has the reputation of great cruelty. He tarries long at the wine-cup, and in his private life is a gross sensualist. He professes great piety to the gods, and sacrifices often, with pomp and display. In Memphis yesterday he burned incense with his own hands to Apis, and to-day he worshipped Mnevis, the sacred ox of On.
He was more communicative with me at the dinner than with Remeses. He expressed the greatest admiration of Phœnicia, praised the brilliancy of your reign, and the rich commerce of the Isle of Tyre. He said he had a great reverence for our deities, Astarte, Hercules, Io, and Isis; for, he asserted that Isis was quite as much a Phœnician as an Egyptian goddess. "Had he not in Thebes," said he, "instituted a procession and a rite in honor of the return of Isis from Phœnicia! We are one in religion, one in commerce, one in glory," he continued, with fulsome enthusiasm. "Are not our kingdoms both ruled by queens? Let us draw closer the bonds of alliance, and together rule the world! You are a free city, your Tyre! never been conquered! Amunophis would have exacted tribute, but your king replied: 'Since the foundation of the earth, and the great Deluge retired from Libanus, Tyre has been free, and will remain free to the end of days.'"
I answered, that I trusted the words of my noble grandsire would remain prophetic forever. He then gave as a toast:—
"Phœnicia and Egypt, twin sisters of Isis, and health to their fair queens!"
This was well received. Mœris was, however, evidently deep in his cups, and soon became quarrelsome towards Remeses, to whom he said, with a sneer—