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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and Abraham. All we know from Herodotus 

 and Manetho, all the evidence from the circum- 

 stances connected with the religion of the pyra- 

 mid-kings, and the astronomical evidence given 

 by the pyramids themselves, tends to assure us 

 that members of that particular branch of the 

 Chaldean family which went out from Ur of the 

 Chaldees because they would not worship the 

 gods of the Chaldeans, extended their wander- 

 ings to Egypt, and eventually superintended the 

 erection of the Great Pyramid so far as astronom- 

 ical and mathematical relations were concerned. 



But not only have we already decided that 

 the pyramids were not intended solely or chiefly 

 to subserve the purpose of astronomical observa- 

 tories, but it is certain that Cheops would not 

 have been personally much iuterested in any as- 

 tronomical information which these visitors might 

 be able to communicate. Unless he saw clearly 

 that something was to be gained from the lore 

 of his visitors, he would not have undertaken to 

 erect any astronomical buildings at their sugges- 

 tion, even if he had cared enough for their 

 knowledge to pay any attention to them whatev- 

 er. Most probably the reply Cheops would have 

 made to any communications respecting mere 

 astronomy would have run much in the style of 

 the reply made by the Turkish cadi, Imaum AH 

 Zade, to a friend of Layard's who had apparent- 

 ly bored him about double stars and comets : 

 " my soul ! my lamb ! " said All Zade, " seek 

 not after the things which concern thee not. 

 Thou earnest unto us, and we welcomed thee : go 

 in peace. Of a truth thou hast spoken many 

 words ; and there is no harm done, for the speak- 

 er is one and the listener is another. After the 

 fashion of thy people, thou hast wandered from 

 one place to another until thou art happy and 

 content in none. Listen, my son ! There is 

 no wisdom equal unto the belief in God ! He 

 created the world ; and shall we liken ourselves 

 unto him in seeking to penetrate into the mys- 

 teries of his creation ? Shall we say, ' Behold 

 this star spinneth round that star, and this other 

 star with a tail goeth and cometh in so many 

 years ? ' Let it go ! He from whose hand it came 

 will guide and direct it. But thou wilt say unto 

 me, ' Stand aside, man ! for I am more learned 

 than thou art, and have seen more things.' If 

 thou thinkest that thou art in this respect better 

 than I am, thou art welcome. I praise God that 

 I seek not that which I require not. Thou art 

 learned in the things I care not, for ; and, as for 

 that which thou hast seen, I defile it. Will 

 much knowledge create thee a double belly, or 



wilt thou seek paradise with thine eyes ? " Such, 

 omitting the refereuces to the Creator, would 

 probably have been the reply of Cheops to his 

 visitors, had they only had astronomical facts to 

 present him with. Or, in the plenitude of his 

 kingly power, he might have more decisively re- 

 jected their teaching by removing their heads. 



But the shepherd-astronomers had knowledge 

 more attractive to offer than a mere series of as- 

 tronomical discoveries. Their ancestors had — 



" Watched from the centres of their sleeping flocks 

 Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move 

 Carrying- through ether in perpetual round 

 Decrees and resolutions of the gods ; " 



and, though the visitors of King Cheops had 

 themselves rejected the Sabaistic polytheism of 

 their kinsmen, they had not rejected the doctrine 

 that the stars in their courses affect the fortunes 

 of men. AVe know that among the Jews, prob- 

 ably the direct descendants of the shepherd- 

 chiefs who visited Cheops, and certainly close 

 kinsmen of theirs, and akin to them also in their 

 monotheism, the belief in astrology was never 

 regarded as a superstition. In fact, we pan trace 

 very clearly in the books relating to this people 

 that they believed confidently in the influences 

 of the heavenly bodies. Doubtless the visitors 

 of King Cheops shared the belief of their Chal- 

 dean kinsmen that astrology is a true science, 

 "founded," indeed (as Bacon expresses their 

 views), " not in reason and physical contempla- 

 tions, but in the direct experience and observa- 

 tion of past ages." Josephus records the Jew- 

 ish tradition (though not as a tradition, but as a 

 fact) that " our first father, Adam, was instructed 

 in astrology by divine inspiration," and that Scth 

 so excelled in the science that, " foreseeing the 

 Flood and the destruction of the world thereby, 

 he engraved the fundamental principles of his 

 art (astrology) in hieroglyphical emblems, for the 

 benefit of after-ages, on two pillars of brick and 

 stone." He says, farther on, that the patriarch 

 Abraham, " having learned the art in Chaldea, 

 when he journeyed into Egypt taught the Egyp- 

 tians the sciences of arithmetic and astrology." 

 Indeed, the stranger called Philitis by Herodotus 

 may, for aught that appears, have been Abraham 

 himself; for it is generally agreed that the word 

 Philitis indicated the race and country of the 

 visitors, regarded by the Egyptians as of Philis- 

 tine descent and arriving from Palestine. How- 

 ever, I am in no way concerned to show that the 

 shepherd - astronomers who induced Cheops to 

 build the Great Pyramid were even contempora- 

 ries of Abraham and Melchizedek. What seems 



