274 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



very ancient, and commonly entertained. We find 

 in Genesis, that " the evening and the morning 

 were the first day ;" which is retained to the pre- 

 sent time by the Arabs, in the expression layl oo 

 nahi\ " night and day." 



*' The Egyptians," says Damascins, "celebrated 

 unknown darkness as the one principle of the 

 universe.*" According to Hesiod, from chaos 

 arose Erebus and black night : from night, ^ther 

 and dayt:" and Aristotle tells us, '' the theolo- 

 gians consider all things to be born from night." t 

 Aristophanes makes " chaos, night, Erebus, and 

 Tartarus the first ;" and in the Orphean Fragments 

 we find, ** I will sing of Night, the genitor of Gods 

 and men ; Night the genesis of all things." The 

 Anglo-Saxons also, like Eastern nations, began their 

 computations of time from night, and the year from 

 that day corresponding with our Christmas, which 

 they cailed *' Mother Night § ; " and '' the Otahei- 

 tans refer the existence of their ])rincipal Deities 

 to a state of darkness, which they consider the 

 origin of all things." 



This darkness was not, however, the same as 

 night, or evening, in the ordinary acceptation of 

 the word, when the Sun withdraws its light from 

 the earth, but that primaeval night, or darkness, 

 from whicli all created nature had its commence- 

 ment. And if Buto represented darkness the 



* Vide Cory, p. 320. 



•|- Hosioil. Thcogon. V. 123. Vide supra, |i.21«, 

 j /7(/(' Metapli. xii. (J. ; ami Aiistuph. Birds, 

 *) Vide Cory, p. 320. 



