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THE

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EGYPTIANS

BOOK I.

shall divide what I have to say upon the Egyptians into three and acquired it the surname of Hecatompylos, to disparts. The first contains a concise description of the different parts of Egypt, and of what is most remarkable in it; in the tinguish it from the other Thebes in Boetia. Its populasecond I treat of the customs, laws and religion of the Egyption was proportionate to its extent; and according to tians; and in the third I give the history of their kings. history, it could send out at once two hundred chariots and ten thousand fighting men at each of its gates. The Greeks and Romans have celebrated its magnificence and grandeur, though they saw it only in its ruins; so august were the remains of this city.

PART I.

Description of Egypt: with an Account of whatever is

most curious and remarkable in that Country. EGYPT comprehended anciently, within limits of no very great extent, a prodigious number of cities, and an incredible multitude of inhabitants.

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It is bounded on the east by the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez; on the south by Ethiopia, on the west by Libya, and on the north by the Mediterranean. The Nile runs from south to north, through the whole country, about two hundred leagues in length. This country is enclosed on each side with a ridge of mountains, which very often leave, between the foot of the hills and the river Nile, a tract of ground of not above half a day's journey in length, and sometimes less.

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On the west side, the plain grows wider in some places, and extends to twenty-five or thirty leagues. The greatest breadth of Egypt is from Alexandria to Damietta, being about fifty leagues.

Ancient Egypt may be divided into three principal parts: Upper Egypt, otherwise called Thebais, which was the most southern part; Middle Egypt, or Heptanomis, so called from the seven Nomi or districts it contained: Lower Egypt, which included what the Greeks called Delta, and all the country as far as the Red Sea, and along the Mediterranean to Rhinocolura, or mount Casius. Under Sesostris, all Egypt became one kingdom, and was divided into thirty-six governments of Nomi: ten in Thebais, ten in Delta, and sixteen in the country between both.

The cities of Syene and Elephantina divided Egypt from Ethiopia; and in the days of Augustus were the boundaries of the Roman empire; Claustra olim Romani Imperii, Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. cap. 61.

In the Thebaid, now called Said, have been dis

covered temples and palaces which are still almost en tire, adorned with innumerable columns and statues. One palace especially is admired, the remains whereof seem to have existed purely to eclipse the glory of the most pompous edifices. Four walks extending farther than the eye can see, and bounded on each side with sphinxes, composed of materials as rare and extraordinary as their size is remarkable, serve as avenues to four porticoes, whose height is amazing to behold. And even they who have given us the description of this wonderful edifice, had not time to go round it; and are not sure that they saw above half: however, what they had a sight of was astonishing. A hall, which in all appearance stood in the middle of this stately pa lace, was supported by a hundred and twenty pillars six fathoms round, of a proportionable height, and intermixed with obelisks, which so many ages have not been able to demolish. Painting had displayed all her art and magnificence in the edifice. The colours themselves, which soonest feel the injury of time, still remain amidst the ruins of this wonderful structure, and preserve their beauty and lustre ; so happily could the Egyptians imprint a character of immortality on all their works. Strabo, who was on the spot, describes a temple he saw in Egypt, very much resembling that of which I have been speaking.

The same author, describing the curiosities of Thebais, speaks of a very famous statue of Memnon, the

remains whereof he had seen. It is said that this statue, when the beams of the rising sun first shone upon it in the morning, uttered an articulate sound.10 And indeed Strabo himself was an ear-witness of this; but then he doubts whether the sound came from the statue.

CHAPTER I.

THEBAIS.

THEBES, from whence Thebais had its name, might vie with the noblest cities in the universe. Its hundred gates, celebrated by Homer,* are universally known; 1 It is related that under Amasis, there were twenty thousand inhabited cities in Egypt. Herod. l. ii. c. 177. A day's journey is twenty-four eastern, or thirty-three English miles and a quarter.

Strabo, l. xvii. p. 787. Hom. Il. i. ver. 381.
VOL. I-1

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them that of the god Apis, who was honoured here after | a third, which was of a monstrous size. It was made

in the reign of Rameses: it is said that twenty thous and men were employed in the cutting of it. Constantius, more daring than Augustus, caused it to be removed to Rome. Two of these obelisks are still to be

twenty-five fathoms high, and eight cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter. Caius Cæsar, had it brought from Egypt in a ship of so odd a form, that according to Pliny, the like had never been seen.

Every part of Egypt abounded with this kind of obelisks; they were for the most part cut in the quarries of Upper Egypt, where some are now to be seen half finished. But the most wonderful circumstance is, that the ancient Egyptians should have had the art and contrivance to dig even in the very quarry a canal, through which the water of the Nile ran in the time of its inundation; from whence they afterwards raised up the columns, obelisks, and statues, on rafts proportioned to their weight, in order to convey them into Lower Egypt. And as the country was intersected every where with canals, there were few places to which those huge bodies might not be carried with ease; although their weight would have broken every other kind of engine.

a particular manner. I shall speak of it hereafter, as well as of the pyramids which stood in the neighbourhood of this place, and rendered it so famous. Memphis was situated on the west side of the Nile. Grand Cairo,' which seems to have succeeded Mem-seen there, as well as another a hundred cubits, or phis, is built on the other side of that river. The castle of Cairo is one of the greatest curiosities in Egypt. It stands on the hill without the city, has a rock for its foundation, and is surrounded with walls of a vast height and solidity. You go up to the castle by a way hewn out of the rock, and which is so easy of ascent, that loaded horses and camels get up without difficulty. The greatest rarity in this castle is Joseph's well, so called, either because the Egyptians are pleased with ascribing what is most remarkable among them to that great man, or because such a tradition has been preserved in the country. This is a proof, at least, that the work in question is very ancient; and it is certainly worthy the magnificence of the most powerful kings of Egypt. This well has, as it were, two stories, cut out of the solid rock to a prodigious depth. The descent to the reservoir of water, between the two wells, is by a staircase seven or eight feet broad, consisting of two hundred and twenty steps, and so contrived, that the oxen employed to throw up the water, go down with all imaginable ease, the descent being scarcely perceptible. The well is supplied from a spring, which is almost the only one in the whole country. The oxen are continually turning a wheel with a rope, to which a number of buckets is fastened. The water thus drawn from the first and lowermost well is conveyed by a little canal into a reservoir, which forms the second well; from whence it is drawn to the top in the same manner, and then conveyed by pipes to all parts of the castle. As this well is supposed by the inhabitants of the country to be of great antiquity, and has indeed much of the antique manner of the Egyptians, I thought it might deserve a place among the curiosities of ancient Egypt.

Strabo speaks of a similar engine, which, by wheels and pulleys, threw up the water of the Nile to the top of a a very high hill; with this difference, that, instead of oxen, a hundred and fifty slaves were employed to turn these wheels.

The part of Egypt of which we now speak, is famous for several rarities, each of which deserves a particular examination. I shall mention only the principal, such as the obelisks, the pyramids, the labyrinth, the lake of Maris, and the Nile.

SECTION I.-THE OBELISKS.

EGYPT seemed to place its chief glory in raising monuments for posterity. Its obelisks form at this day, on account of their beauty as well as height, the principal ornament of Rome; and the Roman power despairing to equal the Egyptians, thought it honour enough to borrow the monuments of their kings.

An obelisk is a quadrangular, taper, high'spire, or pyramid, raised perpendicularly, and terminating in a point, to serve as an ornament to some open square; and is very often covered with inscriptions or hieroglyphics, that is, with mystical characters or symbols used by the Egyptians to conceal and disguise their sacred things, and the mysteries of their theology.

Sesostris erected in the city of Heliopolis two obelisks of extreme hard stone, brought from the quarries of Syene, at the extremity of Egypt. They were each one hundred and twenty cubits high, that is, thirty fathoms, or one hundred and eighty feet. The emperor Augustus, having made Egypt a province of the empire, caused these two obelisks to be transported to Rome, one whereof was afterwards broken to pieces. He dared not venture to make the same attempt upon

SECTION II.—THE PYRAMIDS.

A PYRAMID is a solid or hollow body, having a large and generally a square base, and terminating in a point. There were three pyramids in Egypt more famous than the rest, one whereof was justly ranked among the seven wonders of the world; they stood not very far from the city of Memphis. I shall take notice here only of the largest of the three. This pyramid, like the rest, was built on a rock, having a square base, cut on the outside as so many steps, and decreasing gradually quite to the summit. It was built with stones of a prodigious size, the least of which were thirty feet, wrought with wonderful art, and covered with hieroglyphics. According to several ancient authors, each side was eight hundred feet broad, and as many high. The summit of the pyramid, which to those who viewed it from below, seemed a point, was a fine platform, composed of ten or twelve massy stones, and each side of that platform sixteen or eigh teen feet long.

M. de Chazelles, of the Academy of Sciences, who went purposely on the spot in 1693, gives us the following dimensions:

The side of the square base
The fronts are equilateral trian-
gles, and therefore the super-
ficies of the base is
The perpendicular height
The solid contents

110 fathoms. 12,100 square fathoms.

77 fathoms.

313,590 cubical fathoms.

A hundred thousand men were constantly employed about this work, and were relieved every three months by the same number. Ten complete years were spent in hewing out the stones, either in Arabia or Ethiopia, and in conveying them to Egypt; and twenty years more in building this immense edifice, the inside of which contained numberless rooms and apartments. There were expressed on the pyramid, in Egyptian characters, the sums it cost only for garlic, leeks, onions, and other vegetables of this description, for the workmen; and the whole amounted to sixteen hundred talents of silver, that is, four millions five hundred thousand French livres; from whence it was easy to conjecture what a vast sum the whole expense must have amounted to.

Such were the famous Egyptian pyramids, which by their figure, as well as size, have triumphed over the injuries of time and the Barbarians. But what Plin. l. xxxvi. c. 8, 9. • Plin. l. xxxvi. c. 9. Rafts are pieces of flat timber put together, to carry 1 Thevenot. Lib. xvii. p. 807. Diod. lib. i. p. 37. goods on rivers, It is proper to observe, once for all, that an Egyptian Diod. 1. i. p. 39.-41. Plin. cubit, according to Mr. Greaves, was one foot nine inches lii. and about of our measure.

Herod. l. i. c. 124, &c.
xxxvi. c. 12.
About 200,0001. sterling.

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efforts soever men may make, their nothingness will always appear. These pyramids were tombs; and there is still to be seen, in the middle of the largest, an empty sepulchre, cut of one entire stone, about three feet deep and broad, and a little above six feet long. Thus all this bustle, all this expense, and all the labours of so many thousand men for so many years, ended in procuring for a prince, in this vast and almost boundless pile of building, a little vault six feet in length. Besides, the kings who built these pyramids had it not in their power to be buried in them; and so did not enjoy the sepulchre they had built. The public hatred which they incurred, by reason of their unheard of cruelties to their subjects, in laying such heavy tasks upon them, occasioned their being interred in some obscure place, to prevent their bodies from being exposed to the fury and vengeance of the populace. This last circumstance, which historians have taken particular notice of, teaches us what judgment we ought to pass on these edifices, so much boasted of by the ancients. It is but just to remark and esteem the noble genius which the Egyptians had for architecture; a genius that prompted them from the earliest times, and before they could have any models to imitate, to aim in all things at the grand and magnificent; and to be intent on real beauties, without deviating in the least from a noble simplicity, in which the highest perfection of the art consists. But what idea ought we to form of those princes, who considered as something grand, the raising by a multitude of hands, and by the help of money, immense structures, with the sole view of rendering their names immortal; and who did not scruple to destroy thousands of their subjects to satisfy their vain glory! They differed very much from the Romans, who sought to immortalize themselves by works of a magnificent kind, but, at the same time, of public utility.

Pliny gives us in few words, a just idea of these pyramids, when he calls them a foolish and useless ostentation of the wealth of the Egyptian kings; Regum pecunia otiosa ac stulta ostentatio: and adds, that by a just punishment their memory is buried in oblivion; the historians not agreeing among themselves about the names of those who first raised those vain monuments; Inter eos non constat à quibus factæ sint, justissimo casu obliteratis tantæ vanitatis auctoribus. In a word, according to the judicious remark of Diodorus, the industry of the architects of those pyramids is no less valuable and praise-worthy, than the design of the Egyptian kings is contemptible and ridiculous.

But what we should most admire in these ancient monuments, is, the true and standing evidence they give of the skill of the Egyptians in astronomy; that Is, in a science which seems incapable of being brought to perfection, but by a long series of years, and a great number of observations. M. de Chazelles, when he measured the great pyramid in question, found that the four sides of it were turned exactly to the four quarters of the world; and consequently showed the true meridian of that place. Now, as so exact a situation was in all probability purposely pitched upon by those who piled up this huge mass of stones above three thousand years ago, it follows, that during so long a space of time, there has been no alteration in the heavens in that respect, or (which amounts to the same thing) in the poles of the earth or the meridians. This is M. de Fontenelle's remark in his eulogium of M. de Chazelles.

SECTION III.—THE LABYRINTH. WHAT has been said concerning the judgment we ought to form of the pyramids, may also be applied to the labyrinth, which Herodotus, who saw it, assures us was still more surprising than the pyramids. It was built at the southern extremity of the lake of Moris,

1 Strabo mentions the sepulchre, lib. xvii. p. 808. * Diod. lib. i. p. 40.

Lib. xxxvi. cap. 12. Herod. I. ii. c. 148. Diod. 1. i. p. 42. Plin. I. xxxvi. 13. Strab. 1. xvii. p. 811.

whereof mention will be made presently, near the town of Crocodiles, the same with Arsinoe. It was not so much one single palace, as a magnificent pile composed of twelve palaces, regularly disposed, which had a communication with each other. Fifteen hundred rooms, interspersed with terraces, were ranged round twelve halls, and discovered no outlet to such as went to see them. There was the like number of buildings under ground. These subterraneous structures were designed for the burying-place of the kings, and also (who can speak this without confusion, and without deploring the blindness of man!) for keeping the sacred crocodiles, which a nation, so wise in other respects, worshipped as gods.

In order to visit the rooms and halls of the labyrinth, it was necessary, as the reader will naturally suppose, for people to take the same precaution as Ariadne made Theseus use, when he was obliged to go and fight the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. Virgil describes it in this manner:

Ut quondam Cretâ fertur labyrinthus in alta
Parietibus textum cæcis iter ancipitemque
Mille viis habuisse dolum, quà signa sequendi.
Falleret indeprensus et irremeabilis error. 5
Hic labor ille domûs, et inextricabilis error.
Dædalus, ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,
Caca regens filo vestiga. 6

And as the Cretan labyrinth of old,

With wand'ring ways, and many a winding fola,
Involved the weary feet without redress,
In a round error, which deny'd recess :
Not far from thence he graved the wondrous maze;
A thousand doors, a thousand winding ways.

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THE noblest and most wonderful of all the structures or works of the kings of Egypt, was the lake of Moris: accordingly, Herodotus considers it as vastly superior to the pyramids and labyrinth. As Egypt was more or less fruitful in proportion to the inundations of the Nile; and as in these floods, the too great or too little rise of the waters was equally fatal to the lands, king Maris, to prevent these two inconveniences, and to correct, as far as lay in his power, the irre gularities of the Nile, thought proper to call art to the assistance of nature; and so caused the lake to be dug, which afterwards went by his name. This lake was in circumference about three thousand six hundred stadia, that is, about one hundred and eighty French leagues, and three hundred feet deep. Two pyramids, on each of which was placed a colossal statue, seated on a throne, raised their heads to the height of three hundred feet, in the midst of the lake, whilst their foundations took up the same space under the water; a proof that they were erected before the cavity was filled, and a demonstration that a lake of such vast extent was the work of man's hands in one prince's reign. This is what several historians have related concerning the lake Maris, on the testimony of the inhabitants of the country. And M. Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, in his discourse on universal history, relates the whole as fact. For my part, I will confess that I do not see the least probability in it. Is it possible to conceive, that a lake of a hundred and eighty leagues in circumference, could have been dug in the reign of one prince? In what manner, and where, could the earth taken from it be conveyed? What should prompt the Egyptians to lose the surface of so much land? By what arts could they fill this vast tract with the superfluous waters of the Nile? Many other objections might be made. In my opinion, therefore, we ought to follow Pomponius Mela, an ancient geographer; especially as his account is confirmed by several modern travellers. According to that author, this lake is but twenty thousand paces, that is, seven or eight French leagues in circumference. Maris, ⚫ Æneid, 1. v. ver. 588, &c. Eneid, 1. vi. ver. 27, &c. Herod. l. ii. c. 140. Strabo, l. xvii. p. 787. Diod. l. ii. p. 47. Plin. l. v. c. 9. Pomp. Mela, l. i. Vide Herod. et Diod.

Pliny agrees almost with them.

4
aliquando campus, nunc lacus, viginti millia passuum in
circumu patens.

2

This lake had a communication with the Nile, by a great canal, more than four leagues long, and fifty feet broad. Great sluices either opened or shut the canal and lake, as there was occasion.

The charge of opening or shutting them amounted to fifty talents, that is, fifty thousand French crowns. The fishing of this lake brought the monarch immense sums; but its chief utility related to the overflowing of the Nile. When it rose too high, and was like to be attended, with fatal consequences, the sluices were opened, and the waters, having a free passage into the lake, covered the lands no longer than was necessary to enrich them. On the contrary, when the inundation was too low, and threatened a famine, a sufficient quantity of water, by the help of drains, was let out of the lake, to water the lands. In this manner the irregularities of the Nile were corrected; and Strabo remarks, that, in his time, under Petronius, a governor of Egypt, when the inundation of the Nile was twelve cubits, a very great plenty ensued; and even when it rose but to eight cubits, the dearth was scarce felt in the country; doubtless because the waters of the lake made up for those of the inundation, by the help of canals and drains.

SECTION V.—THE INUNDATIONS OF THE NILE.

THE Nile is the greatest wonder of Egypt. As it seldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole country by its regular inundations, supplies that defect, by bringing, as a yearly tribute, the rains of other countries; which made a poet say ingeniously, The Egyptian pastures, how great soever the drought may be, never implore Jupiter for rain:

Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres
Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Jovi. 4.

This

2. The Cataracts of the Nile. This name is given to some parts of the Nile, where the water falls down from the steep rocks. river, which at first glided smoothly along the vast deserts of Ethiopia, before it enters Egypt, passes by the cataracts. Then growing on a sudden, contrary to its nature, raging and violent in those places where it is pent up and restrained; after having at last broken through all obstacles in its way, it precipitates itself from the top of some rocks to the bottom, with so loud a noise, that it is heard three leagues off. The inhabitants of the country, accustomed by long practice to this sport, exhibit here a spectacle to travellers that is more terrifying than diverting. Two of them go into a little boat, the one to guide it, the other to throw out the water. After having long sustained the violence of the raging waves by managing their little boat very dexterously, they suffer themselves to be carried away with the impetuous torrent as swift as an arrow. The affrighted spectator imagines they are going to be swallowed up in the precipice down which they fall; when the Nile, restored to its natural course, discovers them again, at a considerable distance, on its smooth and calm waters. This is Seneca's account, which is confirmed by our modern travellers.

3. Causes of the Inundations of the Nile. The ancients have invented many subtile reasons for the Nile's great increase, as may be seen in Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Seneca. But it is now no longer a matter of dispute, it being almost universally allowed, that the inundations of the Nile are owing to the great rains which fall in Ethiopia, from whence this river flows. These rains swell it to such a degree, that Ethiopia first, and then Egypt, are overflowed; and that which at first was but a large river, rises like a sea, and overspreads the whole country.

Strabo observes that the ancients only guessed To multiply so beneficent a river, Egypt was cut into that the inundations of the Nile were owing to the numberless canals, of a length and breadth proportioned rains which fall in great abundance in Ethiopia; but to the different situations and wants of the lands. The adds, that several travellers have since been eye-witNile brought fertility every where with its salutary nesses of it; Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was very custreams; united cities one with another, and the Me-rious in all things relating to arts and sciences, having diterranean with the Red Sea; maintained trade at home and abroad, and fortified the kingdom against the enemy; so that it was at once the nourisher and protector of Egypt.

The fields were delivered up to it; but the cities that were raised with immense labour, and stood like islands in the midst of the waters, looked down with joy on the plains which were overflowed, and at the same time enriched, by the Nile.

sent thither able persons, purposely to examine this matter, and to ascertain the cause of so uncommon and remarkable an effect.

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4. The Time and Continuance of the Inundations. Herodotus, and after him Diodorus Siculus, and several other authors, declare, that the Nile begins to swell in Egypt at the summer solstice, that is, about This is a general idea of the nature and effects of the end of June, and continues to rise till the end of September; and then decreases gradually during the this river, so famous among the ancients. But a won-months of October and November; after which it reder so astonishing in itself, and which has been the turns to its channel, and resumes its wonted course. object of the curiosity and admiration of the learned in This account agrees very nearly with the relations of all ages, seems to require a more particular description, all the moderns, and is founded in reality on the nain which I shall be as concise as possible.

1. The Sources of the Nile.

The ancients placed the sources of the Nile in the mountains of the moon (as they are commonly called,) in the tenth degree of south latitude. But our modern travellers have discovered that they lie in the twelfth degree of north latitude; and by that means they cut off about four or five hundred leagues of the course which the ancients gave that river. It rises at the foot of a great mountain in the kingdom of Gojam in Abyssynia, from two springs, or eyes, to speak in the language of the country, the same word in Arabic signifying eye and fountain. These springs are thirty paces from one another, each as large as one of our wells or a coach-wheel. The Nile is increased with many rivulets which run into it; and after passing through Ethiopia in a very winding course, flows at last into Egypt.

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$ Excipiunt eum (Nilum) cataractæ, nobilis insigni spectaculo locus.-Illic excitatis primùm aquis, quas sine tumultu leni alveo duxerat, viloentus et torrens per malignos transitus prosilit, dissimilis sibi-tandemque eluctatus obstantia, in vastam altitudinem subitò destitutus cadit, cum ingenti circumjacentium regionum strepitu; quem perferre gens ibi à Persis collocata non potuit, obtusis assiduo fragore auribus, et ob hoc sedibus ad quietiora translatis. Inter miracula fluminis incredibilem incolarum audacium accepi. Bini parvula navigia conscendunt, quorem alter navem regit, alter exhaurit. Deinde multim inter rapidam insaniam Nili et reciprocus fluctus volutati, tandem tenuissimos canales tenent, per quosiangusta rupium effugiant: et cum toto flumine effusi navigium ruens manu temperant, magnoque spectantium metu in caput nixi, cùm jam adplo raveris, mersosque atque obrutus tantâ mole credideris, longè ab eo in quem ceciderant loco navigant, tormenti modo missi. Nec mergit cadens unda, sed planis aquis tradit. Senec. Nat. Quæst. 1. iv. c. 2.

Herod. l. ii. c. 19-27. Diod. l. i. p. 35-39. Slenec.
Nat. Quæst. 1. iv. c. 1 & 2.
Lib. xvii. p. 789
Herod. l. ii. c. 19. Diod. l. i.

p.

32.

tural cause of the inundation, viz. the rains which fall in Ethiopia. Now, according to the constant testimony of those who have been on the spot, these rains begin to fall in the month of April, and continue, during five months, till the end of August and beginning of September. The Nile's increase in Egypt must, consequently, begin three weeks or a month after the rains have begun to fall in Abyssinia; and accordingly travellers observe, that the Nile begins to rise in the month of May, but so slowly at the first, that it probably does not yet overflow its banks. The inundation happens not till about the end of June, and lasts the three following months, according to Herodotus.

The heathens ascribed the inundation of the Nile to their god Serapis ; and the pillar on which was marked the increase, was preserved religiously in the temple of that idol. The emperor Constantine having ordered it to be removed into the church of Alexandria, the Egyptians spread a report, that the Nile would rise no more by reason of the wrath of Serapis ; but the river overflowed and increased as usual the following years. Julian the apostate, a zealous protector of idolatry, caused this pillar to be replaced in the same temple, out of which it was again removed by the command of Theodosius.

6. The Canals of the Nile and Spiral Pumps. Egypt, did not thereby intend that the inhabitants of Divine Providence, in giving so beneficent a river to it should be idle, and enjoy so great a blessing without taking any pains. One may naturally suppose, that as the Nile could not of itself cover the whole country, great labour was to be used to facilitate the overflowing of the lands; and numberless canals cut, in order to convey the waters to all parts. The villages, which stand very thick on the banks of the Nile on

I must point out to such as consult the originals, a contradiction in this place between Herodotus and Diodorus on one side; and between Strabo, Pliny, and Solinus, on the other. These last shorten very much the continuance of the inundation; and suppose the Nile to draw off from the lands in three months or a hundred days. And what adds to the difficulty, is, that Pliny seems to ground his opinion on the testimony of Herodotus: In totum autem revocatur Nilus intra ripus in Librâ, ut tradit Herodotus, centesimo die. I leave to the learned the reconciling of this contradic-eminences, have each their canals, which are opened

tion.

5. The Height of the Inundations. The just height of the inundation, according to Pliny, is sixteen cubits. When it rises but to twelve or thirteen, a famine is threatened; and when it exceeds sixteen, there is danger. It must be remembered, that a cubit is a foot and a half. The emperor Julian takes notice, in a letter to Ecdicius, prefect of Egypt, that the height of the Nile's overflowing was fifteen cubits, the 20th of September, in 362. The ancients do not agree entirely with one another, nor with the moderns, with regard to the height of the inundation; but the difference is not very considerable, and may proceed, 1. from the disparity between the ancient and modern measures, which it is hard to estimate on a fixed and certain foot; 2. from the carelessness of the observers and historians; 3. from the real difference of the Nile's increase, which was not so great the nearer it approached the sea.

As the riches of Egypt depended on the inundation of the Nile, all the circumstances and different degrees of its increase had been carefully considered; and by a long series of regular observations, made during many years, the inundation itself discovered what kind of harvest the ensuing year was likely to produce. The kings had placed at Memphis a measure on which these different increases were remarked; and from thence notice was given to all the rest of Egypt, the inhabitants of which knew, by that means, beforehand, what they might fear or promise themselves from the harvest. Strabo speaks of a well on the banks of the Nile near the town of Syene, made for that purpose.

The same custom is observed to this day at Grand Cairo. In the court of a mosque there stands a pillar, on which are marked the degrees of the Nile's increase; and common criers every day proclaim in all parts of the city, how high it is risen. The tribute paid to the Grand Seignior for the lands, is regulated by the inundation. The day on which it rises to a certain height, is kept as a grand festival, and solemnized with fire-works, feastings, and all the demonstrations of public rejoicing; and in the remotest ages, the overflowing of the Nile was always attended with a universal joy throughout all Egypt, that being the fountain of its happiness.

1 Justum incrementum est cubitorum xvi. Minores equæ non omnia rigant: ampliores detinent tardiùs rededendo. Hæ serendi tempora absumunt solo madente; illæ non dant sitiente. Utrumque reputat provincia. In duodecim cubitis famem sentit, in tredecim etiamnum esurit; quatuordecim cubita hilaritatem efferunt, quindecim securitatem, sexdecim delicias. Plin. l. v. c. 9.

2 Jul. Epist. 50. Lih, xvii. p. 817.

• Diod. 1. i. p. 33.

at proper times, to let the water into the country. The more distant villages have theirs also, even to the extremities of the kingdom. Thus the waters are successively conveyed to the most remote places. Persons are not permitted to cut the trenches to receive the waters, till the river is at a certain height; nor to open them all at once; because otherwise some lands would be too much overflowed, and others not covered enough. They begin with opening them in Upper, and afterwards in Lower Egypt, according to the rules prescribed in a roll or book, in which all the measures are exactly set down. By this means the water is husbanded with such care, that it spreads itself over all the lands. The countries overflowed by the Nile are so extensive, and lie so low, and the number of canals so great, that of all the waters which flow into Egypt during the months of June, July, and August, it is believed that not a tenth part of them reaches the

sea.

But as, notwithstanding all these canals, there are still abundance of high lands which oannot receive the benefit of the Nile's overflowing; this want is supplied by spiral pumps, which are turned by oxen, in order to bring the water into pipes, which convey it to these lands. Diodorus speaks of a similar engine invented by Archimedes in his travels into Egypt, which is called Cochlea Ægyptia.

7. The Fertility caused by the Nile. There is no country in the world where the soil is more fruitful than in Egypt; which is owing entirely to the Nile. For whereas other rivers, when they overflow lands, wash away and exhaust their vivific moisture; the Nile, on the contrary, by the excellent slime it brings along with it, fattens and enriches them the foregoing harvest had impaired. The husbandin such a manner, as sufficiently compensates for what man, in this country, never tires himself with holding the plough, or breaking the clods of earth. As soon the earth, and temper it with a little sand, in order to as the Nile retires, he has nothing to do but to turn up lessen its rankness; after which he sows it with great ease, and with little or no expense. Two months after it is covered with all sorts of corn and pulse. The Egyptians generally sow in October and November, according as the waters draw off: and their harvest is in March and April.

The same land bears, in one year, three or four dif ferent kinds of crops. Lettuces and cucumbers are sown first; then corn; and, after harvest, several sorts

5 Socrat. l. i. c. 19. Sozom. 1. v. c. 3. • Lib. i. p. 30. and lib. v. p. 213.

Cùm cæteri amnes abluant terras et eviscerent; Nilus adeo nihil exedit nec abradit, ut contrà adjiciat vires.-Ita juvat agros duabus ex causis, et quòd inundat, et quòd oblimat. Senec, Nat. Quæst. 1. iv. c. 2.

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