WORD " CHEMIA^^ OR " CHEMISTRY." 115 



We may go a little further, namely into the hills east of 

 Coptos, and see where chemistry was practised by the 

 workmen. Probably Coptos was another place devoted to 

 Chem, or, rather, in a district of Chem. Chem was the 

 " land of Coptos ;" and we learn that there was a road 

 from Coptos to the Red Sea among the mountains where 

 the valley of Hammamat is, and where the Egyptians 

 obtained stones for building as well as gold- and silver-ore. 

 I suppose the word " Hammamat " to have also to do with 

 heat (I am told that it sounds as if an Arabic inflexion) ; and 

 if the ores were treated near or at the mines, there would 

 be no wonder. The heat of the district would perhaps 

 suffice to give the name — although there are many hot 

 places east and west of Egypt, and the probability rather 

 is that the Arabic form has merely grown out of the old 

 Egyptian, the root being the same. 



The god Chem is called "the master of the tribes 

 which inhabit this valley," and " the lord protector of the 

 mountain/' and Brugsch-Bey also tells us that the traveller 

 said his prayers to him, and cut out '' in tablet and holy 

 characters his reverence for the ffod.^' 



We learn in the rock-inscription of Hammamat that the 

 Arabian desert and the coast adjoining it was called the 

 " land of the gods ;" and to this the valley led. 



As an incident in connexion with this, it is interesting 

 to read of a journey made by king Seti to see the mines 

 in the fourteenth century b.c. : — " After he had mounted 

 up many miles, he made a halt to take counsel with himself 

 and to come to a conclusion upon the information he had 

 received, that the want of water made the road almost im- 

 passable, and that travellers by it died of thirst in the hot 

 season of the year." 



From the monuments we learn, still following Brugsch- 

 Bey : — " He had the well bored for them. Such a thiu'' 



I 2 



