—Horat. De Arte Poet., Francis’ Trans.
[131]. Horat. Carm. i. 9. One of the best versions of this ode is that of Allan Ramsay, in the Scotch dialect.
[132]. Gave is the general name of these mountain streams.
[133]. V. Le Rédempteur et la Vie Future, dans les Civilisations Primitives. Par M. l’Abbé Ancessi. Paris: Leroux.
[134]. The Catholic World, Nov., 1876, p. 213.
[135]. Job viii. 2. Take, for instance, the description of the papyrus (Job viii. 11); the allusion to the rush-boats which are used on the Nile (ch. ix. 26), and to the hippopotamus, under the name of Behemoth, the Hebrew translation of the Egyptian pihémout, or river-horse, and which is described as “sleeping in the shadow of the lotus, in the covert of the reeds, and in the marshes;... compassed about by the willows of the brook” (Job xl. 16). Again, in ch. xxviii. 1-11, there may be an allusion to the mines worked by the Egyptians on Mt. Sinai, where also are numerous inscriptions left by that people on the rocks.
[136]. Job iii. 13-15. In the papyri of Neb-Qed in the Louvre, in a gallery parallel to the great hall where the sarcophagus is placed, we see a coffer, a mirror, a collyrium-case, a pair of sandals, a cane, a vase for unguent, another for ablutions, a third for perfumes. The kings and queens took with them into the tomb also their jewels and richest garments, so sure were they of their resurrection. The ordinary dwellings of the Egyptians were small, built of wood or unbaked bricks, but their tombs, the “Eternal Abodes,” were of granite. Not a house, not a palace of ancient Egypt is now standing, but their tombs and sepulchral pyramids will probably last as long as our planet. The Hebrews, after the example of the Egyptians, appear to have had treasure buried with them. Josephus relates that Herod, being in want of money, made a nocturnal descent into the tomb of King David. He found there no money, but “aurea ornamenta multumque supellectilis prætiosæ, quæ omnia abstulit.”—Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. cap. vii. p. 724, Ed. Oxford.
[137]. The faithful in the middle ages were frequently interred with their profession of faith, the Credo and Confiteor, or sometimes also the very text from the Book of Job which we are about to consider.
[138]. Bunsen, Egypt’s Place in Universal History, vol. v. p. 110.
[139]. Catalogues des MSS. Egyptiens, p. 51.