portions into which the wealth was divided. The most fertile part of Egypt is the Said;102 and it is precisely there that we find the greatest display of skill and knowledge, the splendid remains of Thebes, Carnac, Luxor, Dendera, and Edfou. 103 It is also in the Said, or as it is often called the Thebaid, that a food is used which multiplies itself even more rapidly than either dates or rice. This is the dhourra, which until recently was confined to Upper Egypt, 104 and of which the reproductive power is so remarkable, that it yields to the labourer a return of two hundred and forty for one. 105 In Lower Egypt the dhourra was formerly unknown; but, in addition to dates, the people made a sort of bread from the lotos, which sprang spontaneously out of the rich soil of the Nile.106 This must have been a very cheap and accessible food; while to it there was joined a profusion of other plants and herbs, on which the Egyptians chiefly lived. 107 deed, so inexhaustible was the supply, that at the time of the In 102 On the remarkable fertility of the Said, see Abd-Allatif, Relation de l'Egypte, p. 3. 103 The superiority of the ruins in Southern Egypt over those in the northern part is noticed by Heeren (African Nations, vol. ii. p. 69), and must, indeed, be obvious to whoever has studied the monuments. In the Said, the Coptic was preserved longer than in Lower Egpyt, and is known to philologists by the name of Misr. See Quatremère Recherches sur la Langue de l'Egypte, pp. 20, 41, 42. See also on the Saidie, pp. 134-140, and some good remarks by Dr. Prichard (Physical Hist. vol. ii. p. 202); who, however, adopts the paradoxical opinion of Georgi respecting the origin of the language of the Thebaid. 104 Abd-Allatif (Relation de l'Egypte, p. 32) says, that in his time it was only cultivated in the Said. This curious work by Abd-Allatif was written in A. D. 1203. Relation, p. 423. Meiners thinks that Herodotus and other ancient writers refer to the dhourra without mentioning it: "diese Durra muss daher im Herodot, wei in andern alten Schriftstellern vorzüglich verstanden werden, wenn von hundert, zwey hundert, und mehrfältigen Früchten, welche die Erde trage, die Rede ist."___ Meiners, Fruchtbarkeit der Länder, vol. i. p. 139. According to Volney, it is the Holcus Arundinaceus of Linnæus, and appears to be similar to millet; and though that accurate traveller distinguishes between them, I observe that Captain Haines, in a recent memoir, speaks of them as being the same. Compare Haines in Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. xv. p. 118, with Volney, Voyage en Egypte, vol. i. p. 195. ios“The return is in general not less than 240 for one; and the average price is about 3s. 9d. the ardeb, which is scarcely 3d. per bushel." Hamilton's Egyptiaca, p. 420. In Upper Egypt "the doura constitutes almost the whole subsistence of the peasantry." p. 419. At p. 96, Hamilton says, "I have frequently counted 3000 grains in one ear of doura, and each stalk has in general four or five ears." For an account of the dhourra bread, see Volney, Voyage en Egypte, vol. i. p. 161. 106 Επεὰν πλήρης γένηται ὁ ποταμὸς, καὶ τὰ πεδία πελαγίσῃ, φύεται ἐν τῷ ὕδατι κρίνεα πολλὰ, τὰ Αἰγύπτιοι καλέουσι λωτόν· ταῦτα ἐπεὰν δρέψωσι, αὐαίνουσι πρὸς ἥλιον· και ἔπειτα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ μέσου τοῦ λωτοῦ τῇ μήκωνι ἐὰν ἐμφερές, πτίσαντες ποιεῦνται ἐξ auтоù ǎртOUS OTтоùs Tuрí. Herodot. ii. 92, vol. i. p. 688. 107 Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. pp. 370-372, 400, vol. iv. p. 59. Abd-Allatif gives a curious account of the different vegetables grown in Egypt early in the thirteenth century. Relation, pp. 16-36, and the notes of De Sacy, pp. 37134. On the kúauos of Herodotus there are some botanical remarks worth reading in the Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith, vol. ii. pp. 224-232; but I doubt the assertion, p. 227, that Herodotus "knew nothing of any other kind of kúauos in Egypt than that of the ordinary bean." Mohammedan invasion there were, in the single city of Alexandria, no less than four thousand persons occupied in selling vegetables to the people. 108 From this abundance of the national food, there resulted a train of events strictly analogous to those which took place in India. In Africa generally, the growth of population, though on the one hand stimulated by the heat of the climate, was on the other hand checked by the poverty of the soil. But on the banks of the Nile this restraint no longer existed, 109 and therefore the laws already noticed came into uncontrolled operation. By virtue of those laws, the Egyptians were not only satisfied with a cheap food, but they required that food in comparatively small quantities; thus by a double process, increasing the limit to which their numbers could extend. At the same time, the lower orders were able to rear their offspring with the greater ease, because, owing to the high rate of temperature, another considerable source of expense was avoided; the heat being such that, even for adults, the necessary clothes were few and slight, while the children of the working-classes went entirely naked; affording a striking contrast to those colder countries where, to preserve ordinary health, a supply of warmer and more costly covering is essential. Diodorus Siculus, who travelled in Egypt nineteen centuries ago, says, that to bring up a child to manhood did not cost more than twenty drachmas, scarcely thirteen shillings English money; a circumstance which he justly notices as a cause of the populousness of the country.110 To compress into a single sentence the preceding remarks, it may be said that in Egypt the people multiplied rapidly, because while the soil increased their supplies, the climate lessened their wants. The result was, that Egypt was not only far more thick 108 "When Alexandria was taken by Amer, the lieutenant of the Caliph Omer, no less than 4000 persons were engaged in selling vegetables in that city." Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 372, and see vol. i. p. 277, vol. iv. p. 60. Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 136) says, that the neighbourhood of Alexandria is so fertile, that "le froment y rend le centuple." See also, on its rich vegetation, Matter, Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. i. p. 52. 109 The encouragement given to the increase of population by the fertility arising from the inundation of the Nile, is observed by many writers, but by none so judiciously as Malthus; Essay on Population, vol. i. pp. 161-163. This great work, the principles of which have been grossly misrepresented, is still the best which has been written on the important subject of population; though the author, from a want of sufficient reading, often errs in his illustrations; while he, unfortunately, had no acquaintance with those branches of physical knowledge which are intimately connected with economical inquiries. 110 Τρέφουσι δὲ τὰ παιδία μετά τινος εὐχερείας ἀδαπάνου, καὶ παντελῶς ἀπίστου. . ἀνυποδέτων δὲ τῶν πλείστων καὶ γυμνῶν τρεφομένων διὰ τὴν εὐκρασίαν τῶν τόπων, τὴν πᾶσαν δαπάνην οἱ γονεῖς, ἄχρις ἂν εἰς ἡλικίαν ἔλθῃ τὸ τέκνον, οὐ πλείω ποιοῦσι δραχμῶν εἴκοσι. δὶ ἃς αἰτίας μάλιστα τὴν Αἴγυπτον συμβαίνει πολυανθρωπίᾳ διαφέρειν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πλείστας ἔχειν μεγάλων ἔργων κατασκευάς. Bibliothec. Hist. book i. chap. lxxx. vol. i. p. 238. ly peopled than any other country in Africa, but probably more so than any in the ancient world. Our information upon this point is indeed somewhat scanty, but it is derived from sources of unquestioned credibility. Herodotus, who the more he is understood, the more accurate he is found to be,111 states that in the reign of Amasis there were said to have been twenty thousand inhabited cities.112 This may, perhaps, be considered an exaggeration; but what is very observable is, that Diodorus Siculus, who travelled in Egypt four centuries after Herodotus, and whose jealousy of the reputation of his great predecessor made him anxious to discredit his statements, 113 does nevertheless, on this important point, confirm them. For he not only remarks that Egypt was at that time as densely inhabited as any existing country, but he adds, on the authority of records which were then extant, that it was formerly the most populous in the world, having contained, he says, upwards of eighteen thousand cities.114 These were the only two ancient writers who, from personal knowledge, were well acquainted with the state of Egypt;115 and their testimony is the more valuable because it was evidently drawn from different sources; the information of Herodotus be Frederick Schlegel (Philos. of Hist. p. 247, London, 1846) truly says, "The deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the moderns have been on ancient history, the more have their regard and esteem for Herodotus increased." His minute information respecting Egypt and Asia Minor is now admitted by all competent geographers; and I may add, that a recent and very able traveller has given some curious proofs of his knowledge even of the western parts of Siberia. See Erman's valuable work, Travels in Siberia, vol. i. pp. 211, 297-301. 112 Επ ̓ Αμάσιος δὲ βασιλέος λέγεται Αἴγυπτος μάλιστα δὴ τότε εὐδαιμο ῆσαι, καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ τῇ χώρῃ γινόμενα, καὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς χώρης τοῖσι ἀνθρώποισι. καὶ πόλις ἐν αὐτῇ γενέσθαι τὰς ἁπάσας τότε δισμυρίας τὰς οἰκεομένας. Herodot. book. ii. chap. clxxvii. vol. i. pp. 881, 882. 113 Diodorus, who, though an honest and painstaking man, was in every respect inferior to Herodotus, says, impertinently enough, ὅσα μὲν οὖν Ηρόδοτος καί τινες τῶν τὰς Αἰγυπτίων πράξεις συνταξαμένων ἐσχεδιάκασιν, ἑκουσίως προκρίναντες τῆς ἀληθείας τὸ παραδοξολογεῖν, καὶ μύθους πλάττειν ψυχαγωγίας ἕνεκα, παρήσομεν. Biblioth. Hist. book i. chap. Ixix. vol. i. p. 207. In other places he alludes to Herodotus in the same tone, without actually mentioning him. 114 Πολυανθρωπία δὲ τὸ μὲν παλαιὸν πολὺ προέσχε πάντων τῶν γνωριζομένων τόπων κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ καθ' ἡμᾶς δὲ οὐδενὸς τῶν ἄλλων δοκεῖ λείπεσθαι. ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἀρχαίων χρόνων ἔσχε κώμας αξιολόγους, καὶ πόλεις πλείους τῶν μυρίων καὶ ὀκτακισχιλίων, ὡς ἐν ταῖς ἀναγραφαῖς ὁρᾶν ἐστι κατακεχωρισμένον. Diod. Sic. Biblioth. Hist. book i. chap. xxxi. vol. i. p. 89. 116 Nothwithstanding the positive assertions of M. Matter (Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. ii. p. 285; compare Hist. du Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 48), there is no good evidence for the supposed travels in Egypt of the earlier Greeks, and it is even questionable if Plato ever visited that country. (“Whether he ever was in Egypt is doubtful." Bunsen's Egypt, vol. i. p. 60.) The Romans took little interest in the subject (Bunsen, vol. i. pp. 152-158); and, says M. Bunsen, p. 152, "with Diodorus all systematic inquiry into the history of Egypt ceases, not only on the part of the Greeks, but of the ancients in general." Mr. Leake, in an essay on the Quorra, arrives at the conclusion, that after the time of Ptolemy, the ancients made no additions to their knowledge of African geography. Journal of Geographical Society, vol. ii. p. 9. ing chiefly collected at Memphis, that of Diodorus at Thebes, 116 And whatever discrepancies there may be between these two accounts, they are both agreed respecting the rapid increase of the people, and the servile condition into which they had fallen. Indeed, the mere appearance of those huge and costly buildings, which are still standing, are a proof of the state of the nation that erected them. To raise structures so stupendous, 17 and yet so useless,118 there must have been tyranny on the part of the rulers, and slavery on the part of the people. No wealth, however great, no expenditure, however lavish, could meet the expense which would have been incurred, if they had been the work of free men, who received for their labour a fair and honest reward. 119 But in Egypt, as in India, such considerations were disregarded, because every thing tended to favour the upper ranks of society, and depress the lower. Between the two there was an immense and impassable gap. 120 If a member of the industrious classes changed his usual employment, or was known to pay attention to political matters, he was severely punished ;121 and under no circumstances was the possession of land allowed to an agricultural labourer, to a mechanic, or indeed to any one except the king, the clergy, and the army. 122 The people at large were little better than beasts of burden; and all that was 118 See on this some good remarks in Heeren's African Nations, vol. ii. pp. 202207; and as to the difference between the traditions of Thebes and Memphis, see Matter, Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. i. p. 7. The power and importance of the two cities fluctuated, both being at different periods the capital. Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 54, 55, 244, 445, 446; Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. iii. pp. 27, 100; Sharpe's History of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 9, 19, 24, 34, 167, 185. Sir John Herschel (Disc. on Natural Philosophy, p. 60) calculates that the great pyramid weighs twelve thousand seven hundred and sixty million pounds. Compare Lyell's Principles of Geology, p. 459, where the still larger estimate of six million tons is given. But according to Perring, the present quantity of masonry is 6,316,000 tons, 82,110,000 cubic feet. See Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 155, London, 1854, and Vyse on the Pyramids, 1840, vol. ii. p. 113. 118 Many fanciful hypotheses have been put forward as to the purpose for which the pyramids were built; but it is now admitted that they were neither more nor less than tombs for the Egyptian kings! See Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. pp. xvii. 88, 105, 372, 389; and Sharpe's History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 21. 119 For an estimate of the expense at which one of the pyramids could be built in our time by European workmen, see Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. ii. p. 268. On account, however, of the number of disturbing causes, such calculations have little value. 120 Those who complain that in Europe this interval is still too great, may derive a species of satisfaction from studying the old extra-European civilizations. 121 Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. pp. 8-9. "Nor was any one permitted to meddle with political affairs, or to hold any civil office in the state." .. . . "If any artizan meddled with political affairs, or engaged in any other employment than the one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was instantly inflicted upon him." Compare Diod. Sic. Bibliothec. Hist. book i. chap. lxxiv. vol. i. p. 223. 122 Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol, i. p. 263, vol. ii. p. 2; Sharpe's History of Egypt, vol. ii. p. 24. VOL. I.-5 123 expected from them was an unremitting and unrequited labour. If they neglected their work, they were flogged; and the same punishment was frequently inflicted upon domestic servants, and even upon women. These and similar regulations were well conceived; they were admirably suited to that vast social system, which, because it was based on despotism, could only be upheld by cruelty. Hence it was that, the industry of the whole nation. being at the absolute command of a small part of it, there arose the possibility of rearing those vast edifices, which inconsiderate observers admire as a proof of civilization, 124 but which, in reality, are evidence of a state of things altogether depraved and unhealthy; a state in which the skill and the arts of an imperfect refinement injured those whom they ought to have benefited; so that the very resources which the people had created were turned against the people themselves. That in such a society as this, much regard should be paid to human suffering, it would indeed be idle to expect. 125 Still, we are startled by the reckless prodigality with which, in Egypt, the upper classes squandered away the labour and the lives of the people. In this respect, as the monuments yet remaining abundantly prove, they stand alone and without a rival. We may form some idea of the almost incredible waste, when we hear that two thousand men were occupied for three years in carrying a single stone from Elephantine to Sais;126 that the Canal of the Red Sea alone, cost the lives of a hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians ;127 and that to build one of the pyramids required 123 Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, vol. iii. p. 69, vol. iv. p. 131. Compare Ammianus Marcellinus, in Hamilton's Egyptiaca, p. 309. 124 Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. i. p. 61, vol. ii. p. 92. 175"Ein König ahmte den andern nach, oder suchte ihn zu übertreffen; indess das gutmüthige Volk seine Lebenstage am Baue dieser Monumente verzehren musste. So entstanden wahrscheinlich die Pyramiden und Obelisken Ægyptens. Nur in den ältesten Zeiten wurden sie gebauet: denn die spätere Zeit und jede Nation, die ein nützlicher Gewerbe treiben lernte, bauete keine Pyramiden mehr. Weit gefehlt also, dass Pyramiden ein Kennzeichen von der Glückseligkeit und Aufklärung des alten Egyptens seyn sollten, sind sie ein unwidersprechliches Denkmal von dem Aberglauben und der Gedankenlosigkeit sowohl der Armen, die da baueten, als der Ehr geizigen, die den Bau befahlen." Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte, vol. iii. pp. 103, 104: see also p. 293, and some admirable remarks in Volney's Voyage en Egypte, vol. i. pp. 240, 241. Even M. Bunsen, notwithstanding his admiration, says of one of the pyramids, "the misery of the people, already grievously oppressed, was aggravated by the construction of this gigantic building. . . . . The bones of the oppressors of the people who for two whole generations harassed hundreds of thousands from day to day," &c. Bunsen's Egypt, vol. ii. p. 176, a learned and enthusiastic work. 126 Καὶ τοῦτο ἐκόμιζον μὲν ἐπ ̓ ἔτεα τρία, δισχίλιοι δέ οἱ προσετετάχατο άνδρες ȧywyées. Herodot, book ii. chap. clxxv. vol. i. p. 879. On the enormous weight of the stones which the Egyptians sometimes carried, see Bunsen's Egypt, vol. i. p. 379; and as to the machines employed, and the use of inclined roads for the transit, see Vyse on the Pyramids, vol. i. p. 197, vol. iii. pp. 14, 38. Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 70: but this learned writer is un willing to believe a statement so adverse to his favourite Egyptians. It is likely |