808 



EGYPT. 



ouins, the wandering tribes of the deserts), and Turks, 

 the ruling people. The Mamelukes liave been 

 driven out of the country, and nearly exterminated. 

 Besides these, there are Jews, Greeks, Armenians, 

 &c. The Egyptian generally has a strong, active 

 frame, tawny complexion, gay disposition, and a 

 good heart, and is not devoid of capacity. He is 

 temperate and religious, but superstitious. The 

 prevailing religion is tliat of Moliammed. The pre- 

 vailing language is the Arabic. At Cairo, the 

 capital, resides the patriarch of the Eastern Chris- 

 tiaiis. The inhabitants devote themselves to agricul- 

 ture, the raising of bees and poultry, the preparation 

 of rose-water and sal-ammoniac, the manufacturing 

 of leather, flax, hemp, silk, and cotton, of carpets, 

 glass, potters' ware, and carry on an important 

 commerce. Constantinople is supplied with grain 

 from Egypt, which, when a Roman province, was 

 called the granary of Rome. The coasting trade is 

 considerable. Alexandria, Damietta ana Suez are 

 the principal harbours, and much inland traffic is 

 carried on, chiefly with Syria, Arabia, and Western 

 Africa. 



Egypt was once the theatre of enterprise, civiliza- 

 tion, and science. An ancient astronomical observa- 

 tion authenticates the tradition, that, about 3362 

 B. C., the Babylonian Hermes (Thoth), the hero of 

 mythological antiquity, went to Ethiopia (as, subse- 

 quently, Cecrops, from Sais, on the Nile, went to 

 Attica), and founded this state on the model of that 

 to which he himself belonged. The Ethiopians and 

 Babylonians were the first nations enlightened by 

 Indian civilization. The organization of Ethiopia 

 was probably soon followed by the migration of an 

 Ethiopia n colony to Upper Egypt, then inhabited by 

 Nomadic, pastoral tribes. Subsequently, the Egyp- 

 tians became the third among the nations of anti- 

 quity ; distinguished for a high degree of cultiva- 

 tion. The similarity of the inhabitants and their 

 language increases almost to certainty the probability 

 that Egypt received her first civilized inhabitants 

 from Ethiopia. This agrees with the Mosaic ac- 

 count, that, after the flood, the descendants of Ham 

 settled in Upper Egypt. Even the Israelites, under 

 Joseph, belonged to the Nomades, living on the 

 frontiers, till they migrated again, under the conduct 

 of Moses. 



Although Egypt had Babylon and Ethiopia for 

 models, society in this country made but slow advances 

 towards perfection. The general division of the 

 people into hereditary castes, and the influence of 

 the priesthood, checked the spirit of the Egyptians. 

 Before the time of the enterprising Sesostris, they 

 had but b'ttle commerce, especially by sea, and, con- 

 sequently, few of the collisions with foreign nations 

 which spring from an active trade. This was another 

 reason of the slow progress of Egypt in intellectual 

 culture. The first important impulse was received 

 when the Egyptians were subdued by foreign nations. 

 Previously to this, however, there were astronomers 

 in the country. The Egyptian solar year contained 

 twelve months and five supplementary days, like the 

 republican calendar of the French. The form of the 

 earth was known to Egyptian scholars ; solar and 

 lunar eclipses were calculated ; the moon they re- 

 garded as another earth ; the fixed stars as burning 

 torches; sun-dials and water-clocks were not unknown 

 among them : the immense ring of Osymandyas seems 

 to have been used for this purpose, and they appear 

 to have been acquainted with the quadrant. They 

 must, therefore, have made considerable progress in 

 arithmetic. The arithmetical figures (the same that 

 we call Arabic) they wrote from right to left. The 

 overflowing of the Nile rendered geometry necessary 

 to them; and their acquaintance with mathematics 



is evident from the instruments for measuring th 

 height of the Nile at Syene, Memphis, and oilier 

 places on the river, from their use of the water- 

 screw, from their canals, and the sluices of lake 

 Morris, which presuppose a knowledge of mechanic*, 

 hydraulics, and hydrostatics. 



The Egyptian music is the basis of the Hebrew, 

 Greek, and Roman. The first musical instrument 

 the three-stringed lyre (see Lyre) was invented 

 among them by Hermes. But this discovery was 

 soon secluded among the secrets of the priests, and 

 further perfected under their mystic veil. In this 

 circumstance, and in the serious, gloomy character of 

 the nation, is to be found the reason why music was 

 only used at funerals, and the public worship of the 

 gods. Besides the lyre above mentioned, they had a 

 dichord, two kinds of flutes, the sistrum, the kettle- 

 drum, the trumpet, and the triangular lyre. Musical 

 notation seems not to have been known to them. 

 Their short, simple songs were committed to memory. 



Their knowledge of natural history was confined 

 to their native country and its productions. They 

 penetrated farther in chemistry and mineralogy: their 

 metallic encaustics, their artificial emerald, the in- 

 laying of silver with a blue colour, display science 

 and skill. They probably made much progress in 

 the art of healing. Every disease had its particular 

 physician. Osiris, Isis, and Hermes were the gods 

 of health. The Pastophori (a class of priests) were 

 the physicians. The king, as well as the lowest 

 peasant, was subjected to the regimen prescribed by 

 them. Their dietetics became celebrated in other 

 countries. Care of the skin, a thorough cleanliness, 

 preserved by frequent bathing, and the practice of 

 circumcision, were their principal prescriptions. 

 From their skill in embalming the dead, we may 

 judge of the anatomical knowledge of the Egyptians. 

 Their natural philosophy was mystical; they ascribed 

 everything to the immediate operation of the gods: 

 on this depended their system of magic. 



In the arts, their proficiency was various. Their 

 sculpture has an insufferable dryness, stiffness, and 

 uniformity ; their painting was limited to covering 

 stones, wood, cloths, &c., with a single colour, or, at 

 the most, to illuminating their hieroglyphics, variegat- 

 ing them with colours laid on without taste. The 

 celestial planispheres on the ceiling of the sepulchre 

 of Osymandyas, and the figures on the ancient tombs 

 of the kings of Thebes, exhibit the utmost stretch of 

 the Egyptian pencil. Their architecture is more 

 remarkable : its characteristic is solidity rather than 

 beauty, as appears from their labyrinths, pyramids, 

 obelisks, temples, mausoleums, &c. See Architec- 

 ture, History of.* 



Robert Vaugondy, in his Essai sur VHistoire de 

 la Geographic, says of the geography of the Egyp- 

 tians, that they made the first maps (in the reign of 

 Sesostris). Gatterer endeavours to prove the exist- 

 ence of geographical delineations in the time of 



Champollioo, the famous explorer of Egyptian antiqui- 

 ties, uses the following language at the end of hU fifteenth 

 letter, dated Thebes: " It is evident to me, as it must be 

 to all who have thoroughly examined Egypt, or have an 

 accurate knowledge of the Egyptian monuments existing 

 in Europe, that the arts commenced in Greece by a servile 

 imitation of the arts of Egypt, much more advanced than ig 

 vulgarly believed, at the period at which the first Egyptian 

 colonies came in contact with the savage inhabitants of 

 Attica or the Peloponnesus. Without Egypt, Greece would 

 probably never have become the classical land of the fine 

 arts. Such is my entire belief on this great problem. I 



ere the li reeks doing tnen t 



The sculptures of the monument of El Asaffif are ascer- 

 tained to be more than 3500 years old. 



