“You are of course aware, Bertha,” continued she, “that Pharaoh was the title of all the Egyptian sovereigns at that ancient period; the Pharaoh who had favoured Joseph was dead, and his successors were ill-disposed towards the Israelites, who had increased so much, that the Egyptian kings began to fear them, for they still recollected the thraldom in which they had for a long time been held by the Cushite or Shepherd invaders. And besides, Egypt was still subject to incursions from the Arabians, on that very side where the Israelites dwelled; which accounts at once both for their jealousy of the Israelites, who had the power of betraying them, by admitting the invaders, and also for the fear expressed by Pharaoh, lest they should ‘get them up out of the land;’ because, as long as they were in Goshen, they were, if faithful, a sort of defence to his kingdom, by being thus situated on its frontiers.
“But to return to the history of Moses—the ark of rushes which his mother ‘took for him,’ was a little vessel or basket, made of reeds, and daubed with slime or pitch, to keep out the water; it was probably of the form of one of those boats, with which the river was always covered, and made, like them, of ‘bulrushes,’ by which is meant the papyrus of which the Egyptians made their paper, and which grew in abundance on the banks of the Nile. This papyrus was strong enough to resist the water, and well adapted by its lightness to swim with a child’s weight. The vessels of bulrushes mentioned in both sacred and profane history were made in the same manner on a larger scale. Bruce, the traveller, saw them in common use in Abyssinia; and even at this day they are to be seen on the Nile; though the introduction of plank and stronger materials has caused them to be laid aside in a great degree.
“It was customary for the Egyptian females to express their veneration for the Nile, by plunging into it, when it began to overflow the country; and it is probable, that when the daughter of Pharaoh bathed, it was in compliance with some such custom. Modern travellers tell us, that a ceremony is still observed by the Egyptian females, of going to solemnize with songs, and dance, and bathing, the first visible rise of the Nile.
“Observe here, my dear children,” continued my aunt, “the chain of small circumstances by which God leads mankind to the accomplishment of his high decrees. When the daughter of Pharaoh goes to celebrate a heathen ceremony—when she finds the babe, and calls the Hebrew woman to be his nurse, and when that nurse turns out to be his own mother—what a singular concurrence of events, simple and obvious in themselves, but wonderful in their combinations!
“Josephus, the Jewish historian, states that Pharaoh’s daughter was married but had no children, and therefore adopted Moses, and gave him a princely education; that he became a man of eminence amongst the Egyptians, was made a general and leader of their armies, and fought some battles with success. While he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he was taught at home a knowledge of God; his father Amram imparted to him the promised redemption of Israel, and his mother fixed the true faith in his heart; so that it became the guide and the principle of all his actions.
“The land of Midian, to which Moses fled when he killed the Egyptian in defence of the ill-treated Israelite, was a part of Arabia Petræa, where some of Abraham’s posterity were settled; it lay upon the further side of the Red Sea, to the east of the wilderness of Sin. During his long absence from Egypt, Moses never forgot that he was separated from his family and his nation; and to mark his feelings he called his son Gershom, a desolate stranger. While he was thus an exile, he was trained in the school of adversity; his faith was strengthened, so that it prepared him for the arduous mission which he was born to undertake; and he became ‘meek above all the men which were on the face of the earth.’ No man, indeed, had greater trials—but about them and the important part he afterwards performed, I will take some other opportunity of conversing with you.”
14th.—I had so many questions to ask about papyrus, that I thought it better not to interrupt my aunt yesterday, when Moses was more particularly the subject of our conversation. This morning, however, I begged of her to tell me some particulars about the paper made from that plant, and I will now put down here the substance of what she told me.
“The papyrus, or Egyptian reed, as it is called, grows in the marshy ground, caused by the overflowing of the Nile, and rises to the height of six or seven cubits above the water. The stalk is triangular, and terminates in a crown of small filaments, resembling hair, which the ancients used to compare to a thyrsus.—It was very useful to the inhabitants of the country where it grew, for the stem not only served for building small boats, but was likewise used for making cups and other utensils. The pith of the plant was eaten as food, and the root, being full of a sweet juice, was frequently chewed.
“But the manufacture of paper was the most important of all its uses; for I need not tell you, Bertha, that before mankind had some means of noting events, the recollection of them was either lost, or became so mixed with error, in being preserved by mere oral tradition, that we have no records of the ancient transactions of the inhabitants of the globe; except those contained in the Bible, which were, you know, written by Moses retrospectively. Before the invention of letters, mankind may be said to have been perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of one age or country generally died with their inventors.
“When the outer skin or bark of the stem of the papyrus,” continued my aunt, “was taken off, several slender films or pellicles were found one within the other. These pellicles were carefully separated with a pointed instrument, and spread on a table so that the thickest parts were all ranged together. On these, another layer of pellicles was then transversely placed in a similar manner, and moistened with Nile water; the whole was heavily pressed, and when dried in the sun, formed a smooth substance well fitted for writing upon with pens made of hollow reeds, through which a coloured liquid was allowed to flow. The saccharine juice in the bark helped to make the adhesion perfect, but sometimes a thin coat of gum was laid upon the first layer. Thus large sheets were prepared for writing, and when formed into books, the boards or covers, we learn from some of the early Greek writers, were made from the woody parts of the same plant.