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reliefs around and in the porticos represent religious processions and military subjects. The spectacle of all these ruins produced on the author a grand impression. "I felt," says he, "that I was indubitably in the vicinity of a once rich and flourishing country." The pyramids may be ascended with some difficulty, their height in most cases being between thirty and sixty feet. There are about fourteen pyramids at Gibel el Birkel; about thirty-five at Nuri on the opposite side of the river, and, the latter being the most dilapidated, the author reckons them among the most ancient monuments. The subjects described on the entablatures leaves no doubt that they were mausolea of kings and queens.

On the 3rd of April the author embarked at Meroë for his return, descended the Nile and on the 10th arrived at Dongolah, of which place he gives much information concerning the inhabitants, their manners, customs, etc. He then continued his journey down the river to the Island of Argo, which he visited in order to see and describe its antiquities. These consist of two prostrate colossal statues of grey granite: the faces are Egyptian, but the sculpture Ethiopian. They appear never to have been entirely finished. The author having been here informed that a revolt had broken out in the province of Mahas, which he must needs pass through, as he thus found it impossible to continue his journey in this direction he was compelled to return to Dongola; and it was not till after the suppression of the insurrection that he thought safe to undertake his journey, which he finally accomplished, partly upon the Nile itself, chiefly along its left bank. As already mentioned his diary ends with his arrival at the second cataract or Wady Halfa.

Four more chapters follow: the first two on the history of Meroë, the next on its trade and the last two on its art. The history of Meroë is gathered from those passages of ancient history, sacred and profane which mention that city; with the assistance, however, in this case of the inscriptions in the temples (as the names and titles of the Pharaohs in the hieroglyphic writings which the author saw and copied are uniformly added), at the same time especial use being made of the accounts of Rossellini of whose work the author has a very high opinion. Here, also, the author opens up a wide field for investigation and discussion upon various points, as for example, when he identifies the Sethos of Herodotus with Tirhako and finds the names of the three Ethiopic-Egyptian dynasts namely, Sabacus, Seuechus and Tirhako inscribed upon a temple at Gibel el Birkel. It appears more than probable that he, sus

pecting those inscriptions meant these three names, arbitrarily gave them a meaning which their originals did not bear. The author is of the opinion that Meroë was the parent country of the worship of Ammon as well as of the general civilization of the valley of the Nile and largely of the surrounding countries of Africa in which opinion he concurs with the reviewer.

Particularly worthy of notice are the plates with which this work is embellished and which are in various ways interesting and instructive. This is especially so of the colored portraits of the races of those regions, whose complexions may be here distinctly recognized. The vignettes generally represent landscapes, and are largely executed with the camera lucida. The larger sheets which exhibit drawings of the monuments give partly the general plans, partly the ruins in their present and some of them in their former

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The five races of men known to the Ancient Egyptians. state, as far as this can still be recognized. At the end of the work there is a drawing upon four large sheets, representing a grand procession in one of the royal sepulchres of Thebes (acc. to the author, Tuthmosis III, 1500 B. C.) on which are delineated the three races, namely, the red or brown, the black and the white; besides which it exhibits various species of animals, even the giraffe and the elephant, and many varieties of monkeys; other objects

pertaining to trade are also represented, concerning which the author has given a commentary. The large map annexed comprehends the whole region of the Nile with it tributaries, from 15° 30′ N. Lat. to its deboucheure.

As to Egyptian History.

The history of Egypt, arranged according to the thirty-one dynasties of Manetho, is divided, as regards its sources, into two periods, one of these comprising the first seventeen dynasties, the other the eighteenth to the thirty-first. It is only of this latter period that any monuments remain. The history of the Egyptian Empire of Menes begins with the 18th dynasty. This, with the two dynasties following, embraces the real history of all that apparently preceded. The 18th dynasty is that which is connected with the question of the Shepherd kings who were called by the Egyptian name of Hyksos, Hykshasu or Shasu. This is the Greek name Xoites, which is Chat or Chit (in Chitim) with the plural ending u. These, as the authorities say, dominated, for a longer or a shorter time, all Egypt. If they were a people descended from Menes, as has occurred to me might have been the case, then it would indicate Menes, whoever he was, to have been of a race of Shepherds, whether African or Asiatic. It has been supposed that those people with beards and long garments appearing on the monuments with their flocks are referable to the Shepherds; but this is likely a mistake; for,. doubtless, these latter refer to people in altogether different circumstances than the Egyptian Shepherds. The Arabs are largely Shepherds and an expression of Josephus in speaking of them

"They have been variously pronounced to be Assyrians, Scythians, Cushites or Ethiopians of Asia, Phoenicians or Arabians. Manetho calls them Phoenicians and shows them not to have been from Assyria, when he says they took precautions against 'the increasing power of the Assyrians;' and the character of shepherds accords far better with that of the people of Arabia. Indeed, the name Hykshos may be translated shepherd or Arab kings, Hyk being the common title king or ruler, given even to the Pharaohs on the monuments, and Shos signify. ing shepherd or answering to Shasu, Arabs. How any of the Arabians had sufficient power to invade and obtain a footing in Egypt it is difficult to explain; but it is well known that a people from Arabia called Phoenicians or the red race, who were originally settled on the Persian Gulf, invaded Syria and took possession of the coast; and similar successes may have afterwards attended their invasion of Egypt, especially if aided by the alliance of some of its princes. The statement of Amos (ix:7) that the Philistines of Syria came from Caphtor, which was a name applied to Egypt, may relate to the subsequent passage of another body of Phoenicians into Syria after their expulsion from Egypt." Rawlinson's Hist. Herod. App. Vol. II, p. 351.

That the Hikshasu were, definitively, Phoenicians has been the opinion of investigators who have had the greatest opportunities of going thoroughly into the subject and of knowing how it was in reality.

is as follows: "Some say that they are Arabs." Manetho and Syncellus call them Phœnicians, a denomination which was to some extent applied to the neighboring tribes of Syria and Arabia. M. Rossellini, however, one of the most distinguished investigators into the Egyptian and Ethiopian antiquities, takes them for Scythjans. He founds his assertion etymologically upon their generic name according to him, Scios, which he concludes to be the same as Scythes. In this he may have followed a correct thought, for Gaelic history evidently indicates the Phoenicians or Edomites to have descended from the Scythians; and their Nial, the son of Phoenius (i.e., the Phoenician race), might represent the race of those Scythians called, in the valley of the Nile, Scios or Hyksos. These appear to have the held the government of Egypt for a good number of centuries; long enough, indeed, for them to have become fairly Africanized, and for their race in the valley to have received the name of Nile (Nial). On the eastern borders of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf these people had received the name of Phoenicians, which is the same as Edomites, redish men (Phoenix, purple; the Red Sea). But would the invasion and occupation of Egypt during that long course of ages by these Hyksos, or shepherd kings, have been merely a variety of the real historic Biblical representation of the Israelites going down into Egypt and living there for, according to the Bible, an indefinite period, the life of shepherds? Manetho, the Egyptian priest-historian, in the time of the Ptolemies, says that the shepherd race when expelled by Tuthmosis in 1542 B. C., went up and built the city, Jerusalem. Although from that time to the era of Solomon, say 1000 B. C., the history of the Israelites be obscure, you, nevertheless, see how the going down of the Israelites into Egypt, and their coming up thence, in due time, and founding Jerusalem and occupying Palestine (i.e., the land of the Palai or shepherds), may be understood of the nation of the Israelites and so as real and bona fide history.*

If we take a review of what we have thus far advanced, we find we can deduce from it the following conclusions:

1st. It appears that in the early ages a commercial intercourse existed between the countries of southern Asia and Africa, between

* But in regard to the whole question of the Israelites in Egypt Mr. Brugsch Bey says: "The inscriptions do not mention one syllable about the Israelites. We must suppose that the captives were included in the general name of foreigners of whom the documents make such frequent mention. The hope, however, is not completely excluded that some hidden papyrus may still give us information about them as unexpected as it would be welcome." Egypt un. der the Pharaohs, vol. II., p. 99. And at page 210 of the same volume, he says: "As to the mention of the Fenekhe (Phoenicians), I have a presentiment that we shall one day discover the evidence of their most intimate relationship with the Jews."

India and Arabia, Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt, which was founded upon their mutual necessities and was instrumental in the civilization of those peoples.

2nd. The principal seat for Africa of this international intercourse was Meroë, and the principal route is still pointed out by a chain of ruins, extending from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. Adule, Azab, or Saba, and Axum are links in this chain between Arabia Felix and Meroë; Thebes and Ammonium between Meroë, Egypt and Carthage.

3rd. The chief places of this trade were likewise establishments of the priest-caste, who, as a dominant race, had their principal seat at Meroë, whence they sent out colonies, which in their turn founded other colonies, became the founders of States and likewise the builders of cities and temples.

No doubt then can exist concerning the close connection here between commerce and religion, nor regarding the manner in which many States became formed in the interior of Africa, in very ancient times. But though this caste by sending out colonies guided the course of trade, it did not itself in general directly participate in it. It would, indeed, have been altogether contrary to the manners of the East, for a cast of priests to have become a tribe of merchants; nevertheless, without directly following trade, they contrived to obtain a share of its benefits, and the consideration which this cast obtained through it was very great; partly from the oracles; partly from the number and variety of the merchants; and partly from the peaceful security which their religious institutions afforded them.

In illustration of this I give a passage from Burkhardt's Travels in Nubia, p. 326, etc. Here we read of a priestly establishment at Damer, a town of five hundred houses, seated on the south shore of the Tacazze or Mogrew, just before its junction with the Nile, therefore in the isle of Meroë. In this small but independent State the authority is in the hands of a high priest, called El Faky El Kebir, who is their real chief and oracle giver. The office is hereditary in one family. The Faky El Kebir, or great Faky, lives the life of a hermit, shut up in his chamber all the morning till about three o'clock in the afternoon, after which he transacts business till after sunset. He occupies a small building, one part of which is a chapel and the other, a room about twelve feet square, in which he constantly resides day and night. He is a venerable looking figure, clothed in a long white robe. There are many Fakys under him of

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