SSO On Vessels made of the Papyrus. 



ceeded by the more solid and durable materials, timber, iron, 

 canvass, hempen ropes, and such like modern equipments. 



The curious mosaic pavement discovered in the celebrated 

 temple of Fortune at Prseneste, now in the Barberini palace 

 at Rome, represents numerous objects relative to the manners, 

 customs, and natural history of Egypt and of Ethiopia. It is 

 engraved and described in the 14th volume of Montfaucon's 

 Antiquities, Of the above engravingSj Jigs, 88. 90, 91, 92. 

 exhibit some of the different forms of the ancient Egyptian 

 vessels, taken from that pavement. Figs. 90, 91, 92. are 

 three canoes or skiffs made of papyrus ; fig, 91., in particular, 

 bears a near resemblance to the bundles of reeds atj'f^. 89., and 

 is tied together with bands in a similar way. These boats are 

 of the kind called by the Greeks vuvg u[x^i7rpviJiVQc, by the Ro- 

 mans, navis hiprora, two prowed, having both ends alike; and 

 are of the shape of a crescent, or half-moon, [^Y|voel^s. Fig. 88. 

 most probably is meant for the ship Baris, as described by 

 HerodotuSr Vessels of the same form and nature with these 

 may be seen in the hieroglyphics, sculptures, gems, intaglios, 

 and drawings of the ancient Egyptians ; and, according to 

 Bruce, " this is the only boat they still have in Abyssinia, 

 which they call Tancoa, and from the use of them it is that 

 Isaiah describes the nations, probably the Egyptians, upon 

 whom the vengeance of God was speedily to fall." {Travels, 

 vol. V. p. 6.) 



The passage alluded to here is this {Isaiah, ch. xviii.v. 1,2.): 

 " Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the 

 rivers of Ethiopia : that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even 

 in vessels of bulrushes, upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift 

 messengers, to a nation scattered, and peeled ; to a people ter- 

 rible from their beginning hitherto ; a nation meted out and 

 trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled." 



" The vessels of bulrushes," in vasis Goma, here mentioned, 

 Symmachus, with Aquila and Theodotion, have well trans- 

 lated — sv g-kb6s<h ^i^Kis, 8/a crxeucov TraTrvpivMV, ev (rxs6s(ri Tra- 

 ■vrvpov, (See Celsii Hierobot,, vol. ii. p. 146.) 



Likewise, Bishop Lowth remarks, " it is well known that 

 the Egyptians commonly used, on the Nile, a light sort of 

 ships, or boats, made of the reed papyrus." 



" ' Go, ye swift messengers ; ' for the papyrine boats were 

 admirably light. Achilles Tatius relates that they were not 

 larger than what a person could carry each of them. If they 

 had been of any other kind, they would stick fast by remaining 

 in the mud : wherefore it was sufficient for them to have small 

 and light vessels, and a little quantity of water, so that, if it 

 ever happened there was no water, they convey the skiff* on 



