A proof that the quadriform organization was extensively employed in ancient Egypt, is furnished by Dr. Wallis Budge's statement that each nome or province was divided into four parts, and had its capital or “nut.” The inference is that each nome constituted a miniature reproduction of the state and that the sign nut represented its theoretical plan. On the other hand, the fact that the triangle constitutes one sign for the nome itself, indicates that, originally, the nome was identified as one of four divisions of the state only and that, like Babylon, Egypt must have been theoretically [pg 372] divided, not only into two main divisions, but also into four regions, corresponding to the
North=Meh-ta, literally North land.
West=Amen-ta, literally Hidden land.
South=Resu.
East=Aba.
In the extracts from the Pyramid texts published by Dr. Wallis Budge (Pyramid of Unas, Fifth dynasty), the following invocation occurs: “O gods of the west, O gods of the east, O gods of the south, O gods of the north, four these, who embrace the four quarters of the earth holy.” These four quarters are represented in hieroglyphics by the sign for land=ta, repeated four times, which thus express, literally, “the four lands” or regions. Allusion is also made in the same inscription, to the “four fields of heaven.”[108]
The four gods, termed by Egyptologists the “genii of the dead,” were Amset or Mestha, Hapi, Tuaumutef and Kebhsenuf, and it was the custom to place the canopic vases representing them under the bier. The canopic vases were, however, also supposed to be under the protection of four sky goddesses, identified with the cardinal points, whose names are usually given as Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Serk-t(?). A particularly interesting instance of the employment of the cross-symbol in connection with the four “gods of the horizon,” as they are termed, is to be found in the Book of the Dead, published by Lepsius and reproduced by Dr. Wallis Budge (Dwellers on the Nile, p. 158). The four gods in mummy form, stand in a line behind a table laden with offerings. A large crux decussata (St. Andrew's cross) is painted on the right shoulder of the foremost god, a fact to which I shall revert and discuss further in dealing with the cross-symbol and swastika in Egypt. Having traced quadruplicate territorial divisions and quaternions of gods, let us next present proofs of an organization of the population into four “races.”
Dr. Wallis Budge, referring to Chabas and Naville, states that “the Egyptians of the later empire believed that Ra-Harmachis, attacked [pg 373] his foes, who fled in all directions from before him. Those who came to the south became the Cushites, those who came to the north became the Amu, those who came to the west the Libyans and those who came to the east the Shasu, and thus were the four races of mankind made” (The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 53).
The fact that the Sphinx has been designated as the image of Ra-Harmachis i. e. Heru-em-chut and of his human representative, and that the distribution of people to the cardinal points and the origin of four races of men is assigned to him, are particularly interesting and suggestive, especially in connection with the familiar table of nations given by Moses, who says “and the sons of Ham, Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan” (Gen. x:6). Dr. Wallis Budge states that Ham or Kham is the same as Khem and is the name Kamt, i. e. black, by which the Egyptians generally called their land. I venture to point out that in the following passages the name Ham seems to be more applicable to a deity such as Amen-Ra or to his human representative a king, than to Egypt itself: “And smote all the firstborn in Egypt and the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham” and again “Wondrous works in the land of Ham.”...
It is well known that Mizraim, the second name given above, was employed by the Hebrews as a designation for Egypt. The inhabitants of the region of Cush are represented on Egyptian monuments and we are told that “at the outset they appear to have had a religion and speech akin to that of the Egyptians. We find Phut most probably, in the Punt of the inscriptions, the land ... situated to the south of Egypt on both sides of the Red sea. The fourth son [of Ham], Canaan, is represented by the original inhabitants of Canaan, who were probably near relations of the Egyptians” (Wallis Budge, The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 52). While tradition and documentary evidence thus associates the four sons of Ham with certain regions and cardinal points, Egyptian monuments exhibit representations of people of four different colors, i. e. red, yellow, black and white.