CHAPTER IV.

THE KINGDOM OF EGYPT.

PART L-EGYPTIAN ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT.

No part of ancient history is more obscure than that of the first kings of Egypt. Some light has, indeed, been thrown on the general subject by the progress made in deciphering the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the existing monuments in that renowned country; but still there are thick clouds hanging over the history and chronology of this period which cannot be wholly dispersed. All that a writer on this subject, therefore, can do at the present day, is to place before the reader the few genuine fragments preserved by historians, sacred and profane; and the few facts which have been snatched from oblivion by the learned.

According to Egyptian historians and chronologers, first gods, and then demi-gods, or heroes, governed that country sucessively, through a period of more than twenty thousand years. This fable requires no remark: we know from the inspired records of truth, that Egypt was first inhabited by the family of Mizraim, the second son of Ham, Gen. x. 6, about 2613 years B. C. Hence it is, that in the Hebrew Scriptures the country is usually styled, "The land of Mizraim," Gen. xiii. 10, etc.; and that the Egyptians are always called Mizraim, or Mizraites. In the east, to this day, the country is generally known as the "Land of Mizr," which was probably the proper name of the son of Ham; Mizraim being rather the name of the family or people which descended from him; as, "Abel-mizraim," the mourning of the Mizrites, or Egyptians, Gen. 1. 11.

The family of Mizraim, or Mizr, settled first in Upper Egypt, where they built the famous city of Thebes, but in

process of time, they gradually spread into the Lower Egypt, or Delta.

This patriarchal regimen, according to Dr. Hales, subsisted from 2613 to 2412 years B. c.; at which time, either by compulsion or persuasion, Menes first introduced regal government into Egypt. The records of the Egyptian priests, indeed, as handed down to us by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and others, place the era of Menes several years farther back, reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after him, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of their monarchs, and of their wonderful exploits, and other characteristics of confused and mystical tradition: but all inquiries concerning the history of nations before this epoch are founded on mere speculation.

Menes appears to have been a wise prince. He checked the overflowings of the Nile,* by turning its course into a more direct channel, and some historians state, that he founded the city of Memphis upon the former bed of the river. Menes was also a religious prince: he founded the magnificent temple of Hephaistos, or Vulcan in the same city, dedicated to the SUPREME BEING. He was, moreover, the father of his people. Following the advice of his prime minister Thoth, or Hermes, he divided the whole country of Egypt into three lots, which lots were appropriated to the crown, the priesthood, and the soldiery, who each farmed out to the people their respective shares.

Of the immediate successors of Menes, nothing is known: the order of things, however, which he established, subsisted probably till about 2159 years B. C., at which period the legitimate race of kings was succeeded in Lower Egypt by the shepherd dynasty, who invaded and subdued that part of Egypt.

One of the best established facts in the early history of that country, is, that its lowest territories were subjected to a race of pastoral nomades, while the upper country continued subject to the native sovereigns. When, however, this pastoral dominion commenced, and when it terminated, is a matter of controversy among the learned, and which cannot be definitely determined. Mr. Wilkinson, from the state of the earliest monuments in Egypt, and from the information which they afford, conceives that the irruption of the pastors, or shepherds, was anterior to the erection of any building

* That is, this work is ascribed to Menes by the ancient historian; but it appears to exhibit too much scientific knowledge for so early a period.

now existing in Egypt, and before the reign of Osirtasen I.; which king he conceives, was coeval with Joseph. It certainly is remarkable, that, in concluding from the evidence of monuments, that the pastor kings were expelled before the accession of Osirtasen, this author obtains the same conclusion as that to which Hales and Faber arrived, when, on historical data alone, they conceived that this change took place a short time before Joseph was appointed governor or regent of Egypt; the latter fixing it about the year 1899 B. C. The sacred narrative, indeed, seems to evince indirect testimony to this fact. When Joseph governed Egypt, every nomade shepherd was detested at the Egyptian court, in consequence of the oppressive and humiliating dominion which a race of shepherds had exercised in that country; and it was for his sake alone, that his family were allowed to inhabit Goshen during the time of the famine. But it was not so in the days of Abraham, who visited Egypt about 2077 years B. C., and consequently when one of the shepherd kings reigned over Lower Egypt. That patriarch was treated with consideration by the court because he was a pastoral chief. See Gen. xii. It is true that the fact of the then ruling monarch bearing the title of Pharaoh, would seem to subvert this hypothesis; but Manetho intimates that the conquering nomades, while in the occupation of Egypt, gradually adapted themselves to the customs and practices of the native Egyptians, which would account for this circumstance. The term Pharaoh, moreover, which according to Josephus, signified "king" in the Egyptian language, would naturally be taken by any monarch on the throne of Egypt; hence, it is applied to all indiscriminately in Scripture, till after the days of Solomon, as that of Ptolemy was after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander.

These intruders into Egypt appear to have been a tribe of Cushite shepherds from Arabia, and to have cruelly enslaved the whole country under a dynasty of six kings, who were called Hycsos, or King-shepherds. The first of these was named,

SALATIS, SILITES OR NIRMARYADA.

Manetho says, he resided in Memphis, and imposed a tribute on the Upper and Lower Egypt, and put garrisons in the most important places. But chiefly he secured the eastern parts of the country, foreseeing that the Assyrians, who

were then most powerful, would be tempted to invade the country likewise. Finding, therefore, in the Saite nome, a city situated most conveniently on the north side of the Bubastic channel [of the Nile] which was called Avaris, or Abaris, [the pass,] in an ancient theological book, he rebuilt and fortified it most strongly, and garrisoned it with 240,000 soldiers. Hither he used to come in summer to furnish them with corn and pay, and he carefully disciplined them for a terror to foreigners. He died after he had reigned nineteen years. Of the second king in this dynasty, nothing is recorded, except that he reigned forty-four years. After him succeeded

APACHNAS, PACHNAN, OR RUCMA,

in whose reign it is supposed Abraham visited Egypt, and the first pyramid was commenced. Concerning this king, Dr. Hales says, that the third king was surnamed Rucma, from his immense wealth, which he collected by oppressing the Egyptians, though "he tenderly loved his own people," the shepherds; and, wishing either to extripate the natives, or to break down their spirits by hard and incessant labour, he employed them in constructing those stupendous monuments of ancient ostentation and tyranny, the pryamids, which are evidently the factitious mountains meant in the Hindu records, originally cased with yellow, white, or spotted marbles, brought from the quarries of Arabia, though built of the Libyan stone on the spot.

These stupendous monuments are certainly of the remotest antiquity, and the Hindu record seems to be correct in ascribing the first and greatest pyramid to Apachnas, the third of the shepherd-kings, and the rest to his successors. It is, indeed, confirmed by the tradition of the native Egyptians, as related by Herodotus. This tradition says, they were built by one Philitis, a shepherd, who kept his cattle in these parts, and whose memory was held in such abhorrence that the inhabitants would not even repeat his name. The time employed in building the first pyramid, according to Herodotus, was thirty-two years and six months, which ranges within the reign of Apachnas of thirty-seven years and seven months,

* Here, as in some other places, the numbers stated by ancient historians are given without affixing any remark on the great probability of their being exaggerations or over-statements. That they are erroneous, generally there is little doubt; but they are given only on the authority of ancient writers, who were too fond of the marvellous.

according to Manetho. The three great pyramids, Pliny says, were built in the space of seventy-eight years and four months; if, therefore, the first was erected by Apachnas, the others must have been built by his two immediate successors, concerning whom we have no precise information. At length, under the sixth king,

ASSIS, APOPHIS, OR APHOBIS,*

the Egyptians, wearied out with such long continued tyranny, and insupportable labours, rebelled; and after a war of thirty years, succeeded in obliging their oppressors to withdraw from their country, after they had enslaved it upwards of 250 years. Those who survived this warfare withdrew, it would appear, to Palestine, where they became the Philistines, a name that is derived from Philitis, "shepherds," which comes from the Sanscrit, Pali, "shepherd." Manetho's account is clear on this point; though, at first view, an ambiguity is produced by his confounding them with another race of shepherds, the Israelites, who arrived not very long after the departure of the shepherds, and who, after a stay of almost equal duration, departed to the same country. That the Philistines came from Egypt is very generally agreed. Scripture states repeatedly that they came from the country of Caphtor, and that this signifies Lower Egypt, is now generally believed.

This race of shepherd-kings was succeeded by a dynasty of native kings; but of the history and chronology of the kings of this period little is known. One, whom the Scriptures introduce to our notice in the interesting narrative of Joseph, is supposed by Mr. Wilkinson to be Osirtasen I., of whom he says, that if the name of this monarch was not ennobled by military exploits equal to those of Rameses, the encouragement given to the arts of peace, and the flourishing state of Egypt during his rule, evince his wisdom; and his pacific character satisfactorily accords with that of the Pharaoh who so generously rewarded the talents and fidelity of a Hebrew stranger. But this author's data differ from the Scriptural dates of Hales, which appear to be clearly established, thereby involving a grave difficulty which cannot be overcome in any other way than by supposing he has lost the century which is wanting to make the time Joseph of and Osir

* Aphoph signifies a giant.