28 CHRONOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



lion, PL 167), may be compared with the lucerne (Medicago sativa). — = 

 Pliny states, that the "medica" or lucerne, was "brought from Media 

 into Greece during the wars of Darius :" the plant is also noticed by 

 Aristotle, Theophrastus viii. 8, and Virgil ; and was seen in Egypt by 

 Clot-Bey and Figari, cultivated for feeding cattle. 



On the walls of the tomb of Meneptha Sethos, the people of the 

 North (Champollion-Figeac, PL 1) have black nut-gall markings on the 

 skin. I found this custom still extant in Yemen, the material being 

 doubtless derived from the oaks of Syria and the country around the 

 sources of the Euphrates. — The oak (Quercus) is mentioned in the 

 Books of Moses ; and is said to be indigenous as far south as Pales- 

 tine : trees have been planted even at Thebes, as appears from Theo- 

 phrastus ; but the grove had become extinct in the time of Pliny ; 

 and oaks are now so rare in Egypt, that I met with them only in 

 the Botanic Garden at Cairo. 



In the original painting in the tomb, there is an appearance of fur, 

 or perhaps of downy feathers, upon the cloaks of these people of the 

 North. 



This tomb was opened by Belzoni, and among the movable articles 

 found therein, were wooden statues coated with bitumen : mentioned 

 by Birch, as the earliest evidence hitherto discovered of the use of 

 bitumen in embalming. This material is supposed to have been brought 

 by land from the valley of the Euphrates. 



Ramses II., the third king of the Nineteenth Dynasty, conducted 

 military campaigns both in Asia and on the Upper Nile. His con- 

 structions are more numerous than those of any other king, and are 

 scattered all over Egypt and Nubia : but notwithstanding the vast 

 size and costliness of many of them, a Decline of the Arts is manifest; 

 strikingly parallel to that which took place at a later period of the 

 World's history under the Romans. 



Ramses II. has left several important historical documents; and 

 especially, the Genealogical Tablet at Abydos. His campaigns are 

 narrated in a poetical form in the Sallier Papyrus. His name has 

 been found as far up the Nile as Barkal, in Dongola ; and the date of 

 the sixty-second year of his reign is inscribed on a stela, now in the 

 Museum at Florence. A finely executed portrait of this king in 

 polished syenite, is in the possession of Mr. Francis C. Lowell, of 

 Boston. 



A remark of Manetho respecting names, deserves notice in this 



