MERGE MERSEBURG. 



783 



of Ptolemy II., in Eg-ypt, first made himself indepen- 

 dent of this oppressive priesthood by murdering the 

 priests in the golden temple. Meroe was the centre 

 of the great caravan trade between Ethiopia, Egypt, 

 Arabia, Northern Africa, and India. Several colo- 

 nies went from Meroe, and the first civilized state in 

 Egypt, that of Thebes, which, as a resort for the 

 caravans, always remained intimately connected with 

 Meroe, and was governed by priests, must have 

 originated thence. The priests were of a lighter 

 complexion than the others, and were probably de- 

 scended from India, from which, generally speaking, 

 Meroe and the Ethiopian coasts must have received 

 their first inhabitants. Ammonium (see Amman, and 

 Oasis) also was a small priestly state, with a king, 

 founded by Egyptians and by Ethiopians from Meroe. 

 Meroe and Axum (in Abyssinia) which appears to 

 have been also a colony from Meroe, remained the 

 centre of the southern commerce till the time of the 

 Arabians. The existing monuments of their archi- 

 tecture, and many other vestiges of them, prove 

 their early religious and social cultivation. Frederic 

 Cailliaud of Nantes has given us the latest accounts 

 oi these memorials of Indian and Ethiopian antiquity 

 in his Voyage d Meroe, au Fleuve Blanc, &c., en 

 1819 22 (Paris, 1824, in 3 parts, with engravings 

 and maps, 2 vols., folio). Cailliaud took advantage 

 of the Nubian campaign of Ismail, the son of the 

 pacha of Egypt, in 1821, to ascend the Nile farther 

 than his predecessors had done. Gau (q. v.) reached 

 only the second cataract ; Browne, in 1793, went 

 only to Cobbe, in Darfour (lat. 16 N.); Bruce went 

 from Sennaar to the coast of the Red sea, as far as 

 13 Q 30' ; but Cailliaud penetrated into southern 

 Ethiopia, following the principal branch of the Nile 

 to 10 north, 100 leagues above Sennaar, and 300 

 leagues farther from the southern boundary of Egypt, 

 than Gau, into a new country hitherto unknown 

 to the geographers. He made observations and 

 collections illustrating the physical geography and 

 natural history, besides obtaining materials for 

 an authentic map of the country through which he 

 passed ; but he attended particularly to the monu- 

 ments and ruins of the most ancient architecture. 

 His work, edited by Jomard, therefore forms a sequel 

 to that of Gau, since Cailliaud begins where Gau 

 finished. Cailliaud was well prepared for this second 

 journey, and kept an accurate journal. With his 

 companion Letorzec he settled more than fifty points 

 astronomically, collected plants, animals, and min- 

 erals, and particularly took drawings of the remains 

 of temples, pyramids, colossuses, bass-reliefs, and 

 Greek and hieroglyphic inscriptions. He described 

 and sketched about 100 ancient monuments, and dis- 

 covered, on his way to Meroe, nearly eighty pyrami- 

 dal sepulchres. The most remarkable are the temples 

 of Naga and Soleb, the ruins of Subah (lat. 15 N.), 

 the pyramids at Parkal and Shendy (Chandy), where 

 the ancient Meroe was probably situated. Here he 

 also found the beetle worshipped by the Egyptians 

 (Scarabaeus, or Atenchus sacer), a gold beetle, from 

 which it may be concluded that the Egyptians derived 

 their worship from the Ethiopians. The latter still 

 wear about their necks the image of the Scarabaus. 

 Cailliaud also found in the region of the ancient 

 Meroe the hump-backed ox, and the true ibis, as it 

 is delineated on the Egyptian monuments. Among 

 the more recent travellers to Nubia are the Prussian 

 naturalists doctor Ehrenberg and doctor Hemprich, 

 who, in 1823 et seq. , under royal patronage, examined 

 the coasts of the Red sea as far as Nubia and Sennaar. 

 Hemprich died at Massuah, the principal port oi 

 Abyssinia, June 30, 1825. Ehrenberg returned, in 

 1827, to Berlin. Edward Riippel, a native of Frank- 

 fort on the Maine, in 1823, penetrated as farasDon- 



gola, in the upper part of Nubia, and, in 1825, 

 returned to Cairo from an excursion in Nigritia. He 

 then visited the coasts of the Red sea, went thence 

 to Abyssinia, and, in June, 1827, again returned to 

 Cairo. A Russian by the name of Ssenkowskey, who, 

 since 1820, has travelled over some parts of the East 

 and Africa, returned to St Petersburg in 1822, and 

 published his travels in the Russian language, which, 

 among many other things, probably contain good ac- 

 counts of Nubia. 



MEROPE ; the daughter of Cypselus, king of 

 Arcadia, and the wife of Cresphontes, king of Mes- 

 sene. She bore him many children, of whom the 

 youngest was ^Epytus (according to some, Telephon- 

 ies). Cresphontes having made many changes in 

 favour of the common people, the nobles conspired, 

 and slew him, with all his children except ^Epytus, 

 whom Merope concealed, and afterwards sent to her 

 father, by whom he was secretly educated. Poly- 

 phontes, who assumed the government in Messene^ 

 caused a search to be made for him everywhere in 

 vain, and offered a reward to whoever should kill 

 him. As soon as the youth was grown up, he went 

 secretly to Messene, with the determination of reveng- 

 ing his father's death. He there demanded of Poly- 

 phontes the price which was set upon his own life, 

 pretending that he had killed ^Epytus. Merope, 

 expecting a change in the government, had already 

 sent a messenger to bring back her son. The mes- 

 senger returned with the report that ^Epytus had 

 disappeared. She did not therefore doubt that the 

 stranger was actually the murderer of her son, and 

 she determined to kill him while he was asleep. She 

 was on the point of executing her design, when she 

 recognised her son, and concerted measures with him 

 to take vengeance on Polyphonies. She pretended a 

 reconciliation with him, and promised to reciprocate 

 his love. Polyphonies immediately prepared a sacri- 

 fice ; but, while he was at the altar, JSpytus killed 

 him, and ascended his paternal throne. This story 

 has been dramatised by Voltaire, Maffei, Alfieri, &c. 



MEROVINGIANS ; the first dynasty of Prankish 

 kings, which ruled in the northern part of Gaul, since 

 called France. They derived their name from Mero- 

 wig (Meroveus), the grandfather of Hlodowig (Clovis). 

 They ruled from 496 till 752, when they were sup- 

 planted by the Karolingians (Carlovingians). Thierry 

 (Lettres sur VHistoire de France) has shown that this 

 revolution was a national change, the second dynasty 

 being eastern Franks (Australians), who had become 

 predominant over the Neustrians, or Western Franks, 

 to whom the Merovingians belonged. See France. 



MERSCH, VAN DER, leader of the Brabant patriots, 

 in 1789, was born at Menin, and entered the French 

 service, in which he acquired the title of the brave 

 Fleming. He afterwards served in the Austrian 

 army, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant- 

 colonel. In the beginning of the opposition to Aus- 

 tria in the Low Countries, the command of a hastily 

 raised body of troops was given to him, with which, 

 though undisciplined and inferior to the enemy, he 

 made a successful attack on the imperial forces at 

 Hoogstraaten, near Antwerp. After some other suc- 

 cessful operations, which placed Ghent and Brussels 

 in his hands, the chief command of the Belgian 

 troops was intrusted to him. Party divisions soon, 

 however, found their way into the government, and 

 the enemies of Van der Mersch succeeded, by their 

 intrigues, in removing him from his command, and, 

 although they could prove nothing against him, threw 

 him into prison. He remained in confinement until 

 the Austrians recovered possession of the country, 

 and died at Menin, in 1792, esteemed and regretted. 



MERSEBURG ; on the Saal, over which is a stone 

 bridge, seat of government of a circle of the same 



