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The frequent alteration of terms by nations using different languages has produced considerable obscurity in geographical details, as well as a most inconvenient variety in the spelling of proper names. The cities which flourished during the different periods of the Persian, Grecian, Roman, and Saracenic dynasties were not only erected on the sites of more ancient edifices, but under the Turkish and Mamlouk domination, their positions have been partially changed; and thus, splendid towns celebrated in history have been buried in their own ruins, and the traveller searches for them in vain within the circuit of their ancient walls.

Nor is this vicissitude confined to the works of human art. Even the great lineaments of nature undergo a gradual change, and thereby render the, descriptions of early authors almost unintelligible to the modern traveller. The mouths of the Nile, for example, have often deserted their channels, and the river has entered the sea at different points. The seven estuaries known to the ancients were : -1. The Canopic mouth, corresponding to the present outlet from the Lake Etko, or, according to others, that of the Lake of Aboukir or Maadée; but it is probable that, at one time, it had communications with the sea at both these

places. 2. The Bolbitine mouth at Rosetta. 3. The Sebenitic, probably the opening into the present Lake Burlos. 4. The Phatnitic or Bucolic at Damietta. 5. The Mendesian, which is lost in the Lake Menzaleh, the mouth of which is represented by that of Debeh. 6. The Tanitic or Saitic, which seems to have some traces of its termination to the east of the Lake Menzaleh, under the modern appellation of Om-Faridjé. The branch of the Nile which conveyed its waters to the sea corresponds to the canal of Moez, which now loses itself in the lake. 7. The Pelusiac, which seems to be represented by what is now the most easterly mouth of Lake Menzaleh, where the ruins of Pelusium are still visible.*

Of these communications with the sea, the Nile, it is well known, maintains at the present day only the second and the fourth, the others having been long choked up with mud, or with the earth which falls from the crumbling banks. The cultivation of the Delta has been contracted in a similar proportion; for in Egypt, wherever the water of the river is withheld, the desert extends or resumes its dominion, covering the finest fields with barren sand and useless shrubs.

Our description of the physical aspect of this singular country would not be complete did we fail to mention the Valley of the Natron Lakes, and that of the Waterless River. In the former of these there is a series of six basins, bounded on the one side by a lofty ridge of secondary rocks, which perhaps proves the means of concentrating the saline deposite which has given celebrity to the place. The banks and the waters are covered with crystallizations, consisting of muriate of soda or sea-salt, and of natron or carbonate of soda. When a volume of water contains both these salts, the muriate of soda is the first to crystallize, and the carbonate is then deposited in a separate layer. But in some instances, the two crystallizations are observed to choose, without any assignable cause, distinct localities in different parts of the same lake.

The Waterless River, called by the Arabs Bahr-belaMaieh, presents itself in a valley which runs parallel to the one just described, and is separated from it only by a line

* Malte Brun, vol. iv. p. 23; Mém. sur l'Egypte, vol. i. p. 165; Mém. sur les Bouches du Nil, par Dubois-Aymé.

of elevated ground. It has been traced from the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean through the desert country which stretches to the westward of Fayoum. In the sand with which its channel is every where covered, trunks of trees have been found in a state of complete petrifaction, and also the vertebral bone of a large fish. Jasper, quartz, and petrosilex have likewise been observed scattered over the surface; and hence some learned persons have thought that these fragments of rock, which do not belong to the contiguous hills, have been conveyed thither by a branch of the Nile, which it is more than probable once passed in this direction, and discharged itself into the sea at some distance to the westward of Alexandria. But this question, which belongs more properly to a subsequent part of our volume, will be discussed at some length in connexion with the opinions of those writers who have most recently examined the borders of Lake Moris.*

CHAPTER III.

Civil History of Ancient Egypt.

Obscurity of Egyptian Annals-Variety of Hypotheses-Reign of Menes determined; his Actions-Account of Osymandias; his Palace and Tomb-Chronological Tables-Invasion of the Shepherds-Quotation from Manetho-Mistake as to the Israelites-Indian Tradition in regard to the Conquest of Egypt by Pastoral Chiefs-The Origin of the Pyramids-Hatred of Shepherds entertained by the Egyptians in time of Joseph-The Reign of Maris-Accession of Sesostris; his Exploits; Proofs of his warlike Expedition; the Magnificence of his Buildings; his Epitaph-Invasion by Sabaco the Ethiopian or Abyssinian-By Sennacherib-By Nebuchadnezzar-By Cyrus-And complete Subjugation by Cambyses-The Persian Government-Conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great-Ancient Dynasties-The PtolemiesThe Romans-The Saracens.

Ir is our intention in this chapter to give an outline of Egyptian history from the earliest times down to the accession of the Saracenic princes,-an epoch at which the

* Belzoni, vol. ii. p. 183; Denon, vol i. p. 224.

power and splendour of the more ancient governments were oppressed by a weight of barbarism which has not yet been removed.

In regard to this interesting subject, we may confidently assert that there is no portion of the remoter annals of the human race more obscure from the want of authentic records, or more perplexed by groundless conjecture and bold speculation. He who begins his inquiries with the establishment of the Egyptian monarchy, and proposes to sail down the stream of time accompanied and guided by the old historians, soon discovers the numerous obstacles which must impede his course. The ancient authors from whom he seeks information require of him to carry back his imagination to an era many thousand years prior to the existence of all written deeds; and they then gravely introduce him to the gods and demigods who had once condescended to dwell on the banks of the Nile, and to govern the fancied inhabitants of that fertile region.

If, impatient of the fables related to him respecting supernatural personages, the inquirer should ask who was the first human sovereign who reigned over Egypt, he is encouraged by being told that his name was Menes, and that his history is not altogether unknown. But he soon finds out that the exploits of this prince greatly resemble the achievements of the god Osiris, and that the limits between mythology and the simple annals of a mortal race are not yet fully established. Fatigued with vain conjectures, and still unable to separate facts from fiction, he may resolve to change his plan, and flatter himself with the hope of being able to thread his way through the dark labyrinth of Egyptian chronology. Adopting the philosophical rule, he determines to proceed from the known to the unknown; and, selecting some comparatively recent and well-attested fact, of which the date is considered as certain, he obtains possession of one end of the chain, which he trusts he may succeed in tracing, link after link, until he shall arrive at the other extremity.

But this method, however ingeniously conceived, has not hitherto been attended with a corresponding success. The chronologer pursues his way, trusting now to one guide, and at another time to a second, who appears to have opened the path under a clearer light; but, unfortunately,

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he soon becomes convinced that the authorities who oppose him, in whatever direction he may choose to proceed, are more numerous than those who favour him with their aid, and on whose reputation he had thought it safe to rely. As he advances, he is further dismayed by the unwelcome discovery that all his guides become more and more ignorant, and also that their confidence increases in proportion to the obscurity in which they are enveloped. Their statements abound with fictions sufficient to stagger the strongest belief. He is now satisfied that absolute truth cannot be obtained on such uncertain ground, and therefore consents to imitate all those who have gone before him,-to build conjectures instead of establishing facts; to admit what is probable where he cannot find demonstration; and, finally, to allow what is possible where he cannot reach unquestionable evidence. His difficulties augment as he removes farther from the point whence he had originally started. Like the traveller who sets out upon a journey when the day is closing, the light grows more feeble at every step he takes, and the shades of night fall blacker and thicker around him, until he is at length shrouded in total darkness.*

But to a certain extent, at least, the history of ancient Egypt can be placed on credible grounds, and even be rendered capable of throwing light upon the condition of contemporary kingdoms. We must at once relinquish the regal gods and the thirty-six thousand years of their government, as only the indication perhaps of some physical principle, or, more probably, the expression of a vast astronomical cycle. The sun, moon, and other leaders of the celestial host may, according to the ancient mythology, be supposed to have ruled over Egypt before it became fit for the habitation of mortals; or the authors of this hypothesis may be thought to have had nothing more serious in view than the gratification of their fancy in the wilds of that terra incognita, which, in every quarter of the globe, stretches far beyond the boundaries of authentic history.

But as the reign of Menes marks the limits of legitimate inquiry in this interesting field, and as all correct notions of Egyptian chronology must rest upon the determination of

* See "Origines," by Sir William Drummond, vol. ii. p 250

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