Symbolical Writing. The Egyptians, even the most ancient of them, were acquainted with the signs of the Zodiac. Their monuments, which are known to be of the earliest antiquity, are covered with figures, among which those of the crab and the wild goat, of the balance and the scorpion, of the ram and the bull, of the kid, the lion, the virgin, and the rest, are frequently found. The twelve symbolical names, which signify the twelve portions, both of the year and the heavens, were a prodigious help towards regulating the beginnings of sowing, mowing, harvest, and the other works of mankind. It was found very convenient, to expose in public a small figure, or a single letter, to notify the exact time when certain general works were to be begun in common, and when certain feasts were to be celebrated. The use of these figures appeared so convenient, that they by degrees extended it to more things than the order of the calendar. Several symbols, fit to inform the people of certain truths, by some analogy or relation between the figure and the thing they had a mind to have understood, were devised. This method of saying or showing one thing, to intimate others, is what induced among the eastern nations the taste of allegories. They preserved, for a long time, the method of teaching every thing under symbols, calculated, by a mysterious outside, to excite curiosity, which was afterwards recompensed by the satisfaction of having discovered the truths which they concealed. Pythagoras, who had travelled among the eastern nations, thence brought that custom to Italy. Ham, and those of his descendants who came to inhabit the banks of the Nile, and the whole Lower Egypt, first tried to cultivate the earth according to the order of the year, and in the manner used in other countries; but no sooner were they ready to cut down their harvest, in the driest season of the year, and without the least appearance of rain,* but the river swelled, to their great amazement: it flowed on a sudden over its banks, and took from them those provisions which they thought themselves already sure of. The waters continued to rise to the height of twelve, fourteen, or even sixteen cubits,† covered all the plains, Never does it rain in the Delta, (Lower Egypt,) in the sunimer, and but rarely and in small quantities during the whole course of the year.- Volney's Travels.-Edit. + In the time of Herodotus, sixteen cubits were necessary, or at least fifteen, to overflow the Delta. The same number was sufficient in the time of the Romans. Before the time of Petronius, says Strabo, plenty was not known in the Delta, unless the Nile rose to fourteen cubits.-Ibid. (Edit.) the plains, carried away their cattle, and even the inhabitants themThe inundation lasted ten or eleven weeks, and oftentimes selves. more. It is true, the overflowing left on the land a mud which improved it; but, the difficulty of obtaining a harvest, since the summer the only time proper for it, brought the storm and the inundation, caused Ham to quit both the lower and the middle Egypt, and retire to the higher. He there founded the city of Thebes, originally called Ammon-no, Ammon's abode. But many, finding it inconvenient to remove from lower Egypt, which after the retiring of the waters, was throughout the remaining part of the year like a beautiful garden, and a delightful place to dwell in, endeavored to fortify themselves against the return of the waters. They observed from one year to another, that the overflowing was always preceded by an Etesian (annual) wind, which blowing from north to south, about the time of the passage of the sun under the stars of the crab, drove the vapors towards the south, and gathered them in the middle of the country, (Ethiopia, now Nubia and Abysinia) whence the Nile came; which there caused plentiful rains, that swelled the waters of the river, and brought on the inundation of lower Egypt. But they wanted the means of knowing exactly the time when it should be necessary for them to be prepared for the inundation. The flowing of the river beyond its banks happened some days sooner or later, when the sun was under the stars of the lion. Near the stars of Cancer, though pretty far from the band of the zodiac towards the south, and a few weeks after their rising, they see in the morning one of the most brilliant, if not the largest star of the whole heaven, ascending the horizon. It appeared a little before the rising of the sun, which had rendered it almost invisible for a month or two before. The Egyptians then pitched upon the rising of this magnificent star as the infallible sign of the sun's passing under the stars of Leo, and of the beginning of the inundation. That star became the public mark, on which every one was to keep a watchful eye, not to miss the instant of retiring to the higher grounds. As it was seen but a very little time above the hori zon, towards the dawning of the aurora, which becoming every instant clearer, soon made it disappear, it seemed to show itself to the Egyp‐ tians, merely to warn them of the overflowing, which soon followed. They then gave this star two names having a very natural relation to the helps they borrowed therefrom. It warned them of the danger; whereupon they called it Thaaut or Tayaut, the dog; they called it also the barker, the monitor, in Egyptian, Anubis; in Phenician, Han nobeach; which, by-the-by, shows the analogy there was between these two languages, notwithstanding the diversity of many words, though chiefly in the pronunciation, which made them appear quite different. The connection of this star and the rising of the river, caused the people to call it commonly the Nile-star, or barely the Nile. In Egyptian and in Hebrew, Sihor; in Greek, Seirios; in Latin, Sirius. The Egyptians gave it besides, but in latter times, the name of Sothis or Thotes, which is the same with his other name, Thot, the dog, with a different pronunciation. The inhabitants, retiring into their towns on the warning of the northern wind and the dog-star, remained idle for two months or more, till the waters were perfectly drained. Therefore, the prudence of the Egyptians, before the overflowing, chiefly consisted in observing the termination of the vernal winds, the return of the northerly which began with the summer, and at last the rising of the dog-star, which circumstance was to them the most remarkable point of the heavens. During their inaction, after the rising of the river beyond its banks, their attention was directed to the observance of the return of the southerly winds, more moderate than those of the spring, and which facilitated the flowing of the river towards the Mediterranean, by the conformity of their blowing with its direction, which is from south to north;* and also to measuring the depth of the river, in order to regulate their husbandry according to the quantity of mud, which was always proportioned to the degree of the increase. I will here remark, that the Anubis or Dog-Star, so useful to the ancient Egyptians, is the Blazing-Star of masonry; and, although the craft are ignorant of its origin as a masonic symbol, they are actually taught the moral drawn from its original emblematical use. "The blazing-star represents that prudence which ought to appear conspicuous in the conduct of every mason; but is more especially commemorative of the star which appeared in the east, to guide the wise men of Bethlehem, to proclaim the birth and the presence of the Son of God." (Allyn, p. 47.) What connection can possibly exist between a star and prudence, except allegorically in reference to the caution that was indicated to the Egyptians by the first appearance of this star, which warned them of approaching danger? Mr. Converse, in his explanations of the intention of this emblem in his Symbolical Chart, observes, "Approaching evil is frequently averted by a friendly admonition." Pluche, in a part of his work not quoted above, says, "The names given to this public sign were Anubis the barker, the giver of advices, or Tahaut the dog." The meaning then that has been handed down to masons of their blazing-star, completely identifies it with Anubis the dog-star. * See Plutarch de Isid. and Osiris.; also M. De Mallet's description of Egypt. The advice given to the ancient Egyptians by this star was undoubtedly very important to them, but it cannot be of the least advantage to the masons of Europe or America. As to the allusion to the star that guided the wise men to Bethlehem, every intelligent and candid mason will acknowledge its absurdity; because he must know, that the principles and dogmas of freemasonry, contained in the ancient mysteries from which it is derived, existed long before the birth of Jesus Christ. Webb, in his "Monitor," says, "The Mosaic pavement is emblematic of human life, chequered with good and evil; the beautiful border which surrounds it, those blessings and comforts which surround us, and which we hope to obtain by a faithful reliance on divine providence, which is hieroglyphically represented by the blazing-star in the center." This symbol is peculiarly, if not exclusively, applicable to the Egyptians who inhabited the Delta, who by placing a reliance on the warning providentially given by this star, and in consequence retiring to the high ground with the produce of their agriculture, might enjoy the comforts that surrounded them. The same necessity which rendered the Egyptians astronomers, made them also painters and writers. The inspection of the heavens had taught them at last how to regulate their tillage, so strangely crossed by that disposition which was peculiar to Egypt. The custom of giving symbolical names to the objects that served them as rules, most naturally led them to delineate in a rude manner the figures of these symbols, in order to inform the nation of the works in common to be done, and of the annual events with regard to which it was dangerous to misreckon. This service was performed by a number of persons appointed for that purpose and maintained at the public expense, whose duty it was to study the revolutions and aspects of the heavenly bodies, and to communicate the necessary information to the people. Such is the original of the sacerdotal order so ancient in Egypt; the chief functions of which always were the study of the heavens and the inspection of the motions of the air. Such is the origin of the famous tower where that company was lodged, and where the characters of the several works and the symbols of the public regulations were carefully delineated. Which symbols appeared in time very mysterious, when the meaning of them was forgotten. That tower, the structure of which has caused so much criticism, was at that time, without any affectation of mystery, called the Labyrinth, that is, the tower, the palace. Now, if we would in a reasonable manner unriddle some of the most usual of the Egyptian symbols, we ought to consult the wants of the Egyptian colony. It is there we are naturally to look for the meaning of the figures which were exposed to the eyes of the whole nation assembled. The hawk and the hoop were the names and the symbolical figures given the two winds, the return whereof the Egyptians were most concerned to observe. The hawk signified the Etesian northerly wind, ated the in the beginning of the summer, drives the vapors towards the south, and which covering Ethiopia with thick clouds, there resolves "long its course. The them into rains, and makes the Nile swell ana hoop, on the contrary, signified the southerly wind which promo draining of the waters, and the return of which proclaimed the measuring of the lands and the time of sowing. I must here produce some analogy and some peculiar resemblance, between a hawk and a northerly, a hoop and a southerly wind. Naturalists observe, that the hawk delights in the north; but that at the return of mild weather, and when she casts her feathers, she makes southward with her wings spread, and looks towards the place whence a warm air comes, which may assist the falling of her own feathers, and restore her the beauties of youth. In times of the remotest antiquity, and even before Moses, the Arabians, who were the neighbors and allies of the Egyptians, had an idea of the hawk in all respects like that which naturalists give us. In the conversation which God had with Job, and in which he shows, that it is not man, but the Creator, who, by a special providence, has varied all the parts of nature, and to good purpose has regulated the inclinations of animals: Does the hawk, says he to him, by thy wisdom shake her old feathers, to get rid of them, and stretch her wings towards the south? (Job, 39. 29.) This bird then, on account of the direction of its flight at the return of the heats, was the most natural emblem of the annual wind, which blows from north to south about the summer solstice, and which on account of the effects of this direction was of so great importance to the Egyptians. The hoop on the contrary makes her way from south to north. She lives upon the small worms, an infinite nnmber of which are hatched in the mud of the Nile. (Diod. Sic. Biblioth. lib. 1.) She takes her flight from Ethiopia into Higher Egypt, and from thence towards Memphis, where the Nile divides. She always follows the course of the Nile as it retires within its banks, qite down to the sea. From this method of hers, she was perfectly fit to characterize the direction of the south wind.* A passage in Shakspeare's Hamlet seems evidently to allude to the hawk and hoop, or hoopoe, of Egypt. Hamlet says, "my uncle-father, and aunt-mother are deceived. G. "In what my lord ?" Ham. "I am but mad north-north west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw." Thomas Capell, editor of the Oxford edition of Shakspeare, changes handsaw to hernshaw, which renders the passage intel |