80 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



Negro tribes as far inland as the Monomoisy : is mentioned by Hellanicus (Ruel ii. 18) ; in the days 

 of Strabo xv. was cultivated in Bactriana, Suziana, Babylonia, and Syria, having already reached the 

 Mediterranean ; the " oruza " is mentioned also by Dioscorides, and Galen ; the " eleiogenes oruza " 

 by Hesychius ; and the " oryza " by 'Horace satir. 2. 3. 155, and Pliny : O. sativa was observed by 

 Delile under cultivation in Egypt ; by Fraas, in Greece ; and by Lenz, in Italy. By European colo- 

 nists, was carried to America, where it continues extensively cultivated in the marshes of our South- 

 ern States. 



" Fiftieth year of Nuantef II.," in a tablet in the Assasif at Thebes — (Birch). 



The coffin of Nuantef II. was discovered in tombs of kings of this dynasty in the Gurna quarter 

 of Thebes ; and is perhaps the earliest evidence of the existence of this city. — The next or Eleventh 

 dynasty, is the earliest Theban dynasty mentioned by Manetho. 



In the ornamental work on this coffin, ivory is enumerated by Birch (Glid. otia Eg.) ; procured in 

 all probability on the Upper Nile from the African elcpliant : 



Also obsidian; brought from some distant country, there being no volcanic district immediately 

 around Egypt : 



And bronze. — The art of forming this compound metal, known from other evidence to have pre- 

 ceded the historical records uf Greece (see Sm. diet. gr. and rom. antiq.). 



The iin required was probably at first procured in the East, the metal occurring in Drangiana or 

 Eastern Persia — (Strab. xv. 2. 10) ; its Sanscrit name " kastira" appears to have given rise to the 

 Arabic " kasdir," and Greek "kassitSros " (see Cassiterides) : tin is besides enumerated in the Chou- 

 King (Pauth. 48) among the products of China. On the other hand, no evidence has been discov- 

 ered of the transportation of tin across Switzerland during the Stone period (compare Troyon 



P- 2 54)- 



Ornamental gilding on the same coffin, — enumerated by Birch : the Egyptian name of gold is 

 given as "nouv " or " nouf " (Sept., and ms. Borg.) ; the word " nkbt " meaning gold-washing, occurs 

 in hieroglyphic characters under or before the Twelfth dynasty (Rosselini) ; the terms in which the 

 gold of Havilah is mentioned in Genesis ii. 12, imply a knowledge in the narrator of gold from other 

 sources ; and gold mines worked by ancient Egyptian kings in the mountains along the Red sea 

 South of the Kosseir road, are described in detail by Agatharchides, Edrisi, Abulfeda, Makrizi, and 

 Wilkinson (geogr. soc. Lond. ii. p. 47). 



Ervthrina Abvssiniea ? of the Upper Nile. A tree abounding in the Abyssinian province of 

 Kuara, also in Fazoglo, Nuba, and Guba, its seeds used from the earliest times by the Shangalla as 

 a weight for gold — and called " carats," giving rise to the carats of gold dealers (Bruce vii. pi. 19). 

 The " kardh " is described by Abu Hanifa as a large Leguminous tree whose seeds are used for 

 weights (Abd-allat.). 



The lining of the coffin presents inscriptions in hieratic writing — (Birch) : known to be cursive 

 hieroglyphics, bearing the same relation to hieroglyphic characters as handwriting does to printed 

 letters. 



The name of king Muntuhotep occurs at Assuan ; — also, in the chamber of kings 

 I at Karnak, and apparently the same name in the series at Gurna (Leps. d. ii. pi. 149, 

 and k. pi. it and 20). This name may therefore have occupied one of the six vacant 

 places preceding the Twelfth dynasty in the tablet at Abydos. 



Davonus or Oaonus, a shepherd of Pantibiblis, reigning at Babylon — (Berosus in 

 Alex. Polyhist., Euseb., and Syncell.). 



Fiftv-eighth generation. May 1st, 2367, mostly beyond youth : 



" 2366 B. C. (— 1st year of Ti-tchi," Chinese chron. table ; but clearly too early for his accession). 

 Edoranchus or Euedorachus, of Pantibiblis, reigning at Babylon. — (Berosus in Alex. Polyhist., 

 Euseb., and Syncell ) 



The name of king Nuantef III. has been found on contemporaneous monuments — 

 (Leps. k. pi. u ). 



" 2357 B. C. (= 1st year of Tliang-yao or Yao " in the Chinese chronological table ; 

 Du Halde i. 131 further states, that "from the reign of Yau beginning in 2357,'' Chi- 

 nese history is regarded as certain : the date is clearly too early for the accession of 

 Yao, but) may mark the founding of a new dynasty by Hoang-ti : who guided by a car " indicating 

 the South," obtained success in military expeditions and extended his empire Southward as far as 

 the river Kiang (Pauth. p. 21;). That the magnetic needle was first discovered by the Chinese, is re- 

 garded by Amyot and writers generally as certain. 



"In the reign of Hoang-ti" (topog. Cant., and Pauth. p. 472), arrival in China of a stranger 

 "from the South, journeying upon a white deer and offering as tribute a cup and skins " (a descrip- 

 tion agreeing better with a stranger from the North, with reindeer and furs) : —in the region North 

 of the Altaian mountains, the "Mecri" (according to Marco Polo 71) " chavauclient lesT ccrf " use 



