Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/755

HISTORY.] EGYPT 731 In Egypt stone implements have been recently discovered. Owing, however, to the abundance of historical monuments, the prehistorical remains have scarcely received due atten tion. We do not yet know whether these implements were used by the Egyptians or by savage tribes who may have made incursions into their territory. We find, however, the use of flint arrow-heads in the historical period from the paintings at Benee-Hasan (Dynasty XII.). It is impossible to conjecture the duration of the prehis toric age in Egypt. M. Ohabas has proposed a space of 4000 years before the First Dynasty as sufficient for the develop ment of the civilization which had already attained maturity in the time- of the Fourth Dynasty (Ant. Hist., 9, 1 0). We are, however, so entirely ignorant of the causes of this civilization, and so unable to decide how far it was native to the soil of Egypt, that it is safer to abstain from any attempt to compute a period of the length of which the historical Egyptians themselves do not appear to have had any idea. With Menes, in Egyptian Mena, the " stable," the history of Egypt begins. It is true that Manetho states cautiously of his successors of the Second Dynasty certain things that are evidently legendary. This must be the natural result of a want of monumental evidence, and a consequent dependence on tradition. At present no monuments are known before the time of the last king of Dynasty III., and this may be the limit at which inscribed contemporary re cords began. It is, however, agreed by all Egyptologists that the founder of the Egyptian state is no legendary per sonage. All we know of him wears the air of history, and is consistent with the conditions in which a state would have been formed. Menes was of Thinis, in Upper Egypt, and consequently the first two dynasties are called Thinite. Thinis, or This, in Egyptian Teui, was perhaps only a quarter of the more famous Abydos. Certainly it was ob scured by the near neighbourhood of the sacred city. Menes, having gained the sovereignty of Egypt, which probably before his time was divided into two states, founded the city of Memphis. In order to gain sufficient room for the site he changed the course of the Nile by constructing a dike, which turned the stream more to the east. M. Linant believes that this dyke is probably represented by that of Kusheysh. The great temple of Ptah, at Memphis, was then founded ; and there can be no doubt that the seat of government was, under Menes, or not much later, removed to the new city. Menes made laws and waged a successful war. After a long reign of sixty-two years he was killed by a hippopotamus. All this has a perfectly historical aspect. Only a legislator and warrior, and so a mighty hunter, could have set upon a stable basis the long-lasting fabric of Egyptian polity. The main qualities of the man who did this could not have been forgotten at Memphis, which was great and nourishing, the chief seat of Egyptian learning and wealth, before the close of the Third Dynasty. The reproach that Menes corrupted the primitive simplicity of the Egyptians is probably a perverted tradition, like that which changed the tyranny of Khufu and Khafra to impiety. In later times Menes was reverenced with other kings, but as far as we know had no special worship, a con dition suitable to his historical character, now universally admitted. Athothis, either Tota or Atot, the first or second succes sor of Menes, is related to have founded the palace at Memphis, and, being a physician, to have written anatomi cal books. A medical papyrus in the Museum of Berlin, composed under Ramses II. (Dynasty XIX.), curiously illus trates the second statement. It contains a portion said to have been copied from a very ancient papyrus discovered in the time of Hesp-ti, or Usaphaidos, a later king of the First Dynasty, and to have been subsequently taken to Senta, or Sethenes, of the next line (Brugsch, Hist., 2 ed., 42). Under Uenephes, the fourth Thinite king, a great famine, the first recorded, ravaged Egypt He is also said to have raised the pyramids near Kochome. As Kakem is the monumental name of the. part of the Memphite necropolis around the Serapeum, and north of the Pyramid of Steps of Sakkarah, Dr Brugsch and others are disposed to consider that pyramid, which is a very archaic structure among pyramids, to be here intended. The use of the plural "pyramids" by Manetho does not stand in the way of the identification, as we know a case in which a small pyramid was built at the same time as a large one. We do not know the original purpose of the monument. Under the early dynasties it was used as the burial-place of the bulls Apis. As, how ever, their worship was introduced under Dynasty II., it may have been at first a royal sepulchre, like all other pyra mids of which we know the use. Under Semempses, the seventh king of the dynasty, Manetho speaks of many wonders and a very great plague. Thus the two chief scourges of Egypt appear in this remote age, suggesting a large population, and consequently the length of the period preceding the accession of Menes. With Boethos, or Butau, the Second Dynasty begins. Manetho relates that in his time a great chasm opened at Bubastis and many perished. Frequent as volcanic shocks are in Egypt, it is long since an earthquake has been experi enced in that country. There are, however, reasons, from the manner in which monuments have fallen and the records of earthquakes in Palestine in antiquity, for supposing that Egypt was anciently more subject to such calamities than in later times. The next king, Kaiechos, Kakau, introduced the worship of the bulls Apis at Memphis, and Mnevis at Heliopolis, and of the Mendesian goat, and his name appears to commemorate these innovations, probably a necessary step owing to the increase of population, for animals locally worshipped were thus restricted in number. We also notice that already Heliopolis and Mendes, besides Thinis, Memphis, and Bubastis had been founded. Under the next king, whose name, Binothris, Baimmter, was pro bably commemorative of the new worship at Mendes, we read that a law was passed that women could hold the sovereign power. This might in a semi-barbarous con dition be a relic of polyandry, bxit in Egypt the civiliza tion of Dynasty IV. forbids such an explanation, and we must rather regard this new law as a proof of advance ment. In consequence we find a few reigns of queens in the Egyptian lists, but only one of them, Sebek-neferu- ra (Dynasty XII.), appears in those of the monuments. Succession through an heiress was, however, carefully respected, and it was perhaps for want of a son that Binothris made this edict. It may be chance, but Manetho calls each king of Dynasty I. after Menes, son of his predecessor, whereas under Dynasty II. he drops this characterization. Nothing more is told of this line but two marvels, that under Manetho s seventh king, Nephercheres, the Nile was fabled to have flowed mixed with honey for eleven days, and that the eighth, Sesochris, was said to have had a height of 5 cubits and 3 palms, which is not improbably a confused account of a colossal statue. The royal house now changed by the accession of Dynasty III., the first of Memphites. Manetho relates how, under its head, Necherophes or Necherochis, the Nebka of the i monumental lists, the Libyans revolted from the Egyptians but returned to their allegiance terrified by a sudden in- i crease of the moon. It is useless to speculate on the character of the phenomenon which, unless it be legendary, was probably an eclipse ; but the glimpse we thus obtain of an Egyptian dominion beyond the Nile valley at this remote age is most valuable. In Genesis the Lehabim, or

Lubim, appear as a race kindred to the Egyptians. In the