[20] This is called “The Virgin’s Tree.” The sycamore, or gimmis, bears a coarse kind of fig, and is therefore sometimes spoken of as a fig-tree. The trunk of the tree grows to the dimensions of twenty or thirty feet in diameter, and its wood is remarkable for its durability; hence it was used for the construction of mummy-cases, and also for that of gun-carriages and water-wheels.—McCoan.
[21] Murray’s Hand-book, 1875; p. 158.
[22] Apappus was a Pharaoh of gigantic build, and a successful general; he carried his wars into Ethiopia and Asia. He is said to have been nine feet high, and he lived to the age of 100 years.—The story of Queen Nitocris, the “belle with the rosy cheeks,” as Manetho calls her, is, that her brother having been assassinated, she assembled together at a banquet all whom she thought to be accomplices in the crime; and when the hilarity of the evening was at its zenith, she let in upon them the waters of the Nile, so that they were all drowned.
[23] Sir Gardner Wilkinson writes:—“Of the fixed festivals, one of the most remarkable was the celebration of the grand assemblies, or panegyries, held in the great halls of the principal temples, at which the king presided in person. That they were of the greatest importance is abundantly proved by the frequent mention of them in the sculptures; and that the post of president of the assemblies was the highest possible honour, may be inferred as well from its being enjoyed by the sovereign alone, of all men, as from its being assigned to the deity himself in these legends:—‘Phra (Pharaoh), lord of the panegyries, like Ra,’ or, ‘like his father Ptha.’”
[24] Moses is said to have been eighty years old at the time of the exodus.
[25] It is a curious fact that the crocodile is rarely met with now, even in Upper Egypt, but requires to be sought after higher up the river—namely, in Nubia. It is said to be a timid creature, and the steam-boat and rifle have scared it from its ancient haunts. Mr. A. C. Smith, who is a zealous ornithologist, identifies the bird that ventures into the mouth of the crocodile in search of leeches—the crocodile bird—as the spur-winged plover (charadrius spinosus), the Zic-Zac of the Arabs, which has constituted itself the professional toothpicker of the crocodile.
[26] Professor Flower mentions that the voyage from Cairo and back occupies from eight to ten weeks; while that to and from the second cataract requires a month longer.
[27] Murray.
[28] Miss Edwards remarks, that there is preserved in the Egyptian room of the Glyptothek Museum at Munich, a statue of the chief architect of the Ramessian period, Bak-en-khonzu, who, “having obtained the dignity of High Priest and First Prophet of Ammon, during the reign of Seti I., became chief architect of the Thebaid under Rameses II., and received a royal commission to superintend the embellishment of the temples. When Rameses II. erected a monument to his divine father Ammon-Ra,” Bak-en-khonzu “made the sacred edifice in the upper gate of the abode of Ammon. He erected obelisks of granite. He made golden flag-staffs. He added very, very great colonnades.”
[29] Murray’s “Hand-book.”