LETTERS OF SESOSTRIS TO QUEEN EPIPHIA. (continued 3)

While he was speaking, the impatient pawing of his spirited chariot-horses, restrained with difficulty by three footmen, reminded him that we were delaying at Raamses when we ought to be on our way back to On.

"Come, Sesostris, let us get upon the chariot and return, for I promised to dine with my mother and the Lord Prince Mœris to-day; and it is already past noon by the shadow of that obelisk."

We stood upon the silver-chased chariot, and taking the leopard-skin reins in his left hand, he made a sign to his footmen, who, springing away from the heads of the fretting and frothing horses, let them fly. Away, like the wind, we swept the plain in front of the treasure-city; along the plateau where had stood the palace and gardens of Joseph, the lord of Egypt; past the ruined strangers' fountain, where I had talked with the venerable Ben Isaac and his handsome son; past a well beside which Jacob had his great house, during the seventeen years he lived in Goshen, the ruins of which were visible a little ways off to the east. On we rolled, preceded and followed by the fleet-footed runners, across the plain of the Hebrew brick-makers, who still bent to their labors. Women and children, with dark fine eyes and raven hair, gathering straw by the wayside or in the stubble-fields, were passed in vast numbers. Crossing an open space, I saw before me a black mass on the ground, which, as we advanced, proved to be a crowd of vultures or carrion eagles, that slowly and reluctantly moved aside at our coming; and the next moment our horses shied at the dead body of a man, around which they had been gathered feasting upon the flesh. The long beard and dark hair, the coarse blue loin-cloth, and the pile of bricks at his side, told the whole tale. It was an emaciated Hebrew, who had perished on the road-side under his burden.

I did not look at Remeses. I knew that he saw and felt. He reined up, and sternly commanded two of his footmen to remain and bury the body.

"Sesostris," he said, as we went forward again, "what can be done? Humanity, piety, and every element of the soul call for the deepest commiseration of this unhappy people. I sometimes feel that it would be better to send them in a mass out of Egypt into Arabia, and follow them with an army to see that they went beyond our boundaries, and then establish a cordon of military posts from Ezion-Geber, on the Arabian Sea, to the shores of the Great Sea, north. But how could we provide food for such a host, now amounting to two and a half millions of people? Thousands would perish in the wilderness for want of water and food. Only a miracle of the gods could preserve them, their women and children, from a lingering death. And would not this be more cruel than the edict of Amunophis; only executing it in an indirect way, and on a gigantic scale? I would, were I Pharaoh to-day, give the half of my kingdom to the wise man who could devise a practicable way of freeing Egypt from the Hebrews, without destroying them or suffering them to die in the wilderness. If men are ever deified, such a benefactor would deserve the honor."

These words, my dear mother, were spoken with deep feeling, and showed me that the heart of Remeses is manly and tender, that his sentiments are always elevated and noble, and that the oppression of the Hebrew is not so much the fault of himself or of the queen mother, as it is the irresistible sequence of causes which were in action before they were born; and to the effects of which they must yield, until the gods in their wisdom and power make known to them the way to remove from the land so great an evil: for none but the Deity Supreme is wise enough to solve this intricate problem of Egypt. Certain it is, that if the Hebrews go on multiplying and growing as they now do, in another generation they will outnumber the Egyptians, and will need only a great leader like their warlike ancestor Prince Abram, or the hero king of Philistia, who established the Phœnician dynasty, to enable them to subvert the kingdom, and upon its ruins establish another Syro-Hebraic dynasty. One of their ancestors has already ruled Egypt, and another may yet sit in the very seat of the Pharaohs.

As we re-entered the City of the Sun, we passed by the base of an obelisk which Queen Amense is erecting to mark the era and acts of her long reign. Upon it were sculptured representations of her battles with the Ethiopians, her wars with Libya, and her conquest of Arabia. The work was executed by Phœnician and Egyptian artists; and I am rejoiced to see that the painters of Tyre and the sculptors of Sidon are greatly esteemed for the delicacy and perfection of their work. When these persons saw me, they dropped their pencils and chisels, and with their hands upon their bosoms, manifested every sign of delight. You may suppose I responded with more than usual gratification to the homage thus paid me; for in a foreign land the sight of the humblest of one's own countrymen, refreshes the eye and warms the heart.

But I have too long occupied your time, dearest mother, with one letter.

Your devoted son,

Sesostris

LETTER IX.

Isle of Rhoda, Nile.

Royal and beloved Mother:

My preceding letters, dearest mother, have enabled you to form some idea of the Hebrew vassalage, which is one of the peculiarities of Egypt. This subject has deeply interested me. In that oppressed people I behold Syrians and men of my own race, as it were, reduced to such a pitiable and miserable condition. My sympathies are therefore naturally with them. Was not Prince Abram, of Palestine, who conquered the enemy of our ancestor's throne in those days, Chedorlaomer, King of Elam and Tidal, and sovereign of the nations east of the inland sea, the founder of their family; and was not the same Abram the friend of Neathor, the founder or restorer of Tyre upon the Isle? When I recall these facts of past history, and how ably the wise Prince Joseph ruled here, I am deeply moved at their present degradation and suffering.

Since writing to you, I have conversed with the queen upon the subject. I find her ready and willing, with mind and heart and hand, to take any safe steps for putting an end to this bondage. But, as she feelingly says:—

"It is an evil which descended to me with the crown and sceptre of my father; and I know not how to remove it, and yet protect that crown which I am bound to transmit to Remeses!"

Such then, dear mother, is the present condition of Hebrew servitude. When it will terminate, whether by some bold act of Remeses, when he comes to the throne, or by their own act, or by the intervention of the gods, are questions the solution of which lies hidden in the womb of the future.

Not all the Hebrews are employed in the field. It has of late years been a fashion with the nobles, governors, and chief captains of Egypt to have the young captives of both sexes as servants near their persons; their beauty, activity, and trustfulness rendering these Syrian youths particularly fitted for this domestic employment. Thus, I have seen Hebrew pages attending on lords and ladies in their palaces, and Hebrew maidens acting as personal attendants upon the mistress of the family. These young foreigners soon become favorites, and are rewarded for their devotion and usefulness by rich dresses and jewels, which last they all especially delight in, and wear in great quantities. The Egyptians, also, lavishly display them on their fingers, in their ears, and upon their necks. Every lord wears a large signet, on which is carved his cartouch, or shield of arms. To present this to any friend is a mark of the highest confidence and honor. Such an expression of regard, you will remember, the Prince Remeses bestowed upon me. With it I shall seal this letter, that you may see its designs in the hieroglyph representation.

The queen has three Hebrew pages, noble and princely-looking boys, with fine, sparkling, black eyes, and intelligent faces; but there is a fixed air of pensiveness about them all, which is perhaps the result of hereditary oppression. This pensive look I have remarked in Prince Remeses, whose style of face is very strongly Syriac or Hebraic. Indeed, I have seen an old Hebrew bondman, a gardener in the palace garden, by the name of Amram, who is so strikingly like the prince that I can easily see by him, how Remeses himself will look at eighty years of age. But this Syriac countenance of Remeses comes from his grandmother, Ephtha, the daughter of the last Phœnician Pharaoh; yet it is marvellous he has about him nothing of the Egyptian type. The Egyptian or Nilotic race, have a sharp and prominent face, in which a long and straight, or gently aquiline nose forms a principal part. The eye is sometimes oblique; the chin short and retracted; the lips rather full and tumid, so to speak; and the hair, when it is suffered to escape the razor in times of mourning, long and flowing. The head is elongated upward, with a receding forehead. The profile is delicate, rather than strong. This style of features and head is strictly Egyptian, and pertains to every class, from Amense on the throne to the priests and people. I see it sculptured on all the tombs and monuments, and carved on the most ancient sarcophagi. The head of Horus is but a sublimer modification of this type.

On the contrary, the head of the Hebrew is large and round, with full brows, a forehead low in front, and high temples. The nose is strongly eagle-like; the eyes set even, but of an almond-shape—yet large, full, and exceedingly black, and soft in expression. The chin is full; the face oval; the hair short, and inclined to curl in the neck and over the brow. The profile is strong and bold—not unlike the Arabian. The Egyptian is slender and light; the Hebrew usually below the medium height, with broad shoulders and full chest. The Egyptian has a pale reddish-copper complexion—save the women, who are bright olive-colored—while the Hebrew face is a ruddy and finely toned brown. The Egyptian females, when not exposed to the sun and outer door labor, are exceedingly fair. The children of the race are all beautiful. Prince Remeses does not share a single characteristic of this Egyptian national head and face; on the contrary, he resembles the highest type of the Hebrew. Is not this remarkable? That is, is it not wonderful that the Syriac blood, derived from the Queen Ephtha, should descend pure to the third generation, unmingled with the Thebaïd characteristics of Amunophis, his grandfather?

I am not aware whether the prince is conscious of his great likeness to this oppressed people, nor would I be so rude as to speak to him of it; for though he has sympathy for them, and tries to improve their condition, yet he possesses that haughty sense of superiority which is natural, in a prince and an Egyptian educated to despise them both as foreigners and slaves of the crown.

The father of Remeses, as I have before said, was the Vicegerent or Prince of Upper Egypt, and one of the royal line of the powerful Theban kings. He had been married but a few months to Pharaoh's daughter, when, being called to repulse an invasion of the warlike Ethiopians, he was slain in battle. Remeses was born not long afterwards, and is, therefore in a twofold degree the heir of the silver crown of the Thebaïd. Had he been willing to leave his mother, she would, when he became thirty years old (which is the age of maturity by the laws of Egypt), have sent him with a splendid retinue to Upper Egypt, and made him Prince of Thebes, as his father had been before him. But he chose to remain with the queen, to whom he appears as much attached as I am to you, my dear mother; and Amense substituted a nephew of her deceased husband, Prince Mœris, and placed him, four years since, on the vicegerent throne of the kingdom of the Upper Nile.

It was this Prince Mœris, with whom Remeses was to dine in the palace on the day we drove to the treasure-city of Raamses. I was also present, dear mother, at the dinner. The Lord Mœris is about the age of Remeses, but altogether a very different person. He is thoroughly Egyptian, both in looks and lineage as well as by prejudice and feeling.

He has a slender, elegant person; delicate straight features; a high, retreating forehead; and a nose slightly aquiline. His mouth is full-lipped and sensual. His retreating chin betrays deficiency of firmness, and an undue proportion of obstinacy. The expression of his oblique, Nubian-looking eye, I did not like. It was sinister and restlessly observant. He was reserved, and while he asked questions from time to time, he never replied to any. His complexion is a bright olive, and he is a handsome man; his rich dress increasing the fine effect of his personal appearance. The uniform he wore was that of Admiral of the Nile; the queen having appointed him commander of the great fleet of war-galleys she has collected near Memphis for the subjugation of Ethiopia. He has, therefore, come down within a few days to take charge of his ships. The character of this man for courage is undoubted, but he has the reputation of great cruelty. He tarries long at the wine-cup, and in his private life is a gross sensualist. He professes great piety to the gods, and sacrifices often, with pomp and display. In Memphis yesterday he burned incense with his own hands to Apis, and to-day he worshipped Mnevis, the sacred ox of On.

He was more communicative with me at the dinner than with Remeses. He expressed the greatest admiration of Phœnicia, praised the brilliancy of your reign, and the rich commerce of the Isle of Tyre. He said he had a great reverence for our deities, Astarte, Hercules, Io, and Isis; for, he asserted that Isis was quite as much a Phœnician as an Egyptian goddess. "Had he not in Thebes," said he, "instituted a procession and a rite in honor of the return of Isis from Phœnicia! We are one in religion, one in commerce, one in glory," he continued, with fulsome enthusiasm. "Are not our kingdoms both ruled by queens? Let us draw closer the bonds of alliance, and together rule the world! You are a free city, your Tyre! never been conquered! Amunophis would have exacted tribute, but your king replied: 'Since the foundation of the earth, and the great Deluge retired from Libanus, Tyre has been free, and will remain free to the end of days.'"

I answered, that I trusted the words of my noble grandsire would remain prophetic forever. He then gave as a toast:—

"Phœnicia and Egypt, twin sisters of Isis, and health to their fair queens!"

This was well received. Mœris was, however, evidently deep in his cups, and soon became quarrelsome towards Remeses, to whom he said, with a sneer—

"You and I, prince, when the queen, my aunt, has departed to the shades of the realm of Osiris, will divide Egypt between us. I will be content with the Thebaïd country, and will defend your borders on that side. Two crowns are too much for one man's head, albeit you have a large one upon your shoulders!"

"Prince Mœris," said Remeses, with a look of indignation, "forget not yourself in my mother's palace!"

Thus speaking, the son of Amense rose from the table, and I followed him to the portico which overlooked the gardens.

"That man, Sesostris," said he to me, after a moment's silence, "would not hesitate to conspire to the whole throne and both crowns of Egypt, if he were hopeful of success."

"He is a man of an evil eye," I said.

"And heart! But he must not be incensed. He is powerful, and as wicked as powerful. In a few days he will be on his way to Upper Egypt; and in this war with Ethiopia, will find an outlet for his restless ambition."

"Suppose (the gods guarding your gracious mother, the queen) you should come to the throne; what, Remeses, would you do with or for your cousin, your father's nephew? Would you suffer so dangerous a man to hold the viceroyalty of Upper Nile?"

"I should wear both crowns, Sesostris," answered Remeses, quietly and steadily.

While we were thus conversing, a Hebrew page came, and said:

"My lord prince, her majesty is taken ill, and desires to have you come to her."

"My mother ill!" he exclaimed, with deadly pallor covering his face. "Pardon me, prince, I must leave you and go to her." And in a moment he hastened to the wing of the palace occupied by his mother and the ladies of her retinue.

The queen had left the table some time before Prince Mœris began to converse with me, excusing herself on the plea of slight fatigue and indisposition; for she had passed an hour that day in giving directions to the chief architect, to whom was intrusted the erection of her obelisk, outside of the gate of the Temple of the Sun. Remeses had been gone but a few moments, when I beheld Prince Mœris borne across the terrace by his servants to his chariot, in a state of helpless intoxication.

The illness of the queen was not of an alarming nature, and the next day she appeared in the saloon, but was very pale. The result is, the court physicians have advised her to go to her palace on the isle of Rhoda, in the Nile, as a more salubrious spot than the interior of a vast city. Remeses accompanied her thither, and the date of my letter, my dear mother, shows you that I am also still one of the queen's favored household. Her health continues doubtful, but she is much improved in appearance by the change. Remeses, with beautiful filial devotion, passes with her every hour he can spare from the various pressing duties which demand his personal attention; and preparations for the Ethiopian war call for all his time as general of the armies.

Opposite the palace in which I write to you, the plain between the river and the pyramids is covered with a vast army assembled there within three days, preparatory to their southern march; while the bosom of the Nile, for half a league above this palace-covered island, is almost concealed by war-galleys, which, to the number of one thousand and upward, are at anchor ready to ascend the river.

From the lofty west wing of the propylon of the gate of this island-palace of the Pharaohs, I command not only a prospect of the fleet, but of the plain of the pyramids outside of Memphis. I have but to turn slowly round from that elevation, to see On with its three hundred and sixty temples—its gardens and towers; and Raamses, the treasure-city, to the east: to the south, the Nile, studded with barges and gay vessels having silken and colored sails, filled with citizens, come to look at the fleet of war-ships; the immense squadron itself, gay with the variegated flags of its different divisions and captains; with towers, temples, obelisks, and propyla on the two shores terminating the perspective: and on the west, Jizeh, with its sphinxes and colossi, its terraced gardens and amphitheatre of the gods; and still farther off, Memphis united to the Nile by a magnificent aqueduct; and the pyramids of Cheops and of his daughter. Between the city and these mysterious mausolea, stands alone, amid gardens, the red granite temple of Pthah and Athor, the two chief divinities of Memphis: for Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, is not a divinity, properly, but only a visible incarnation of Osiris, the emblem and type of the power and strength of the Supreme Creator Imagine this vast and varied scene of architectural and naval glory, interspersed with verdure of the brightest green, with palm, orange, and fig trees, garden linked to garden, grove to grove, and villas half seen through the foliage; and lastly, the mighty river flowing with shining waves amid the inimitable landscape, and you have before you a scene of grandeur and beauty such as Egypt alone can produce. Add the myriads of human beings, the crowded galleys, the thronged shores, the eighty thousand soldiers encamped on the west plain, the army of chariots drawn up on the east bank, and farther up, opposite the aqueduct of Pharaoh Apophis, a battalion of twelve thousand cavalry manœuvering, and the scene which I, an hour since, beheld from the top of the gateway, is before you.

Since I wrote the last sentence, I have witnessed a naval review, with a sham battle. The Prince Mœris, in a gorgeous galley decorated with all the emblems of the cities and nomes of Egypt, after displaying the skill of his one hundred oarsmen, and the swiftness of his vessel in front of the palace, before the eyes of the queen, moved among his ships, and gave orders for their division into lines of battle. The greater number of these galleys had only a single mast with a long swallow-winged sail; and were propelled by forty rowers. But the ships of the captains were larger and more imposing. All the galleys were handsomely painted, and the whole fleet together made a splendid moving spectacle, which was heightened by the thousand bannerets fluttering in the wind, and the ten thousand shields and spears gleaming in the sun, as they were held in the hands of the soldiers upon their decks.

When the signal was given for the two parties to combat, the air was filled by a loud shout, and a hundred galleys charged each other, just as did the battalions of chariots in the review I have already described. The vessels, set in motion by the rowers, were driven towards each other with terrific velocity. The Abyssinian soldiers upon the bows, and the bowmen in the tops, shot off flights of arrows, which sounded like a storm of wind, as they hurtled through the air. The Libyan spearmen, on the lofty poops, brandished their spears with wild cries; while the Nubians, amidships, struck their triangular shields with battle-axes of iron, producing a sound like crashing thunders. The war bugles and hollow drums beaten on board each vessel increased the loud confusion, and added to the terror of the scene. The fall of thousands of oars, the rush of waters from the cleaving bows, the shouts of the captains, the warlike spirit and battle-fierceness of the whole, presented a spectacle of sublimity unequalled. Nor was it without an element of terror. Such was the excited manner of the simulating combatants, I believed that no earthly power could prevent a real collision and hand-to-hand conflict in hot blood, when, at a signal from the Prince Mœris, the rowers of the leading galleys turned suddenly, as they came within touch of each other's sweeps, and so, one after another wheeling in line, both divisions passed down the river, until they moved in parallel columns. The whole manœuvre was one of the most wonderful exhibitions of naval discipline and generalship. Ere the shouts of the people on the shores and in the numerous pleasure barges had died away, the two columns, at a signal from the mast of the ship of their admiral, came side by side, and a battle between the soldiers on opposite decks commenced—one party attempting to board, the other repelling them. Not less than six thousand combatants were engaged at once, above the heads of the banks of rowers. The clash of swords and spears and battle-axes, and other offensive and defensive weapons, produced a noise so terrible and grand that I believe there is no other sound on earth, as well calculated to quicken the pulse and bring out all the enthusiasm of the soul of a man. I can compare these metallic and iron tones, only to what might be the sound of the brazen voice of Mars himself rolling his war-cry along the battle-ranks of his foes. Suddenly the iron din of war ceased, and separating, one of the divisions commenced a flight, and the other a pursuit. This scene was the most exciting of all. The chase was in a direction down the east side of the island, opposite the queen's window; for all these exhibitions were given in her honor, and, though by no means well, she remained upon the terrace during the whole; and it was, perhaps, the consciousness of their monarch's eye being upon them, that caused these demi-barbaric soldiers, gathered from all the provinces and tributary countries of Egypt, to surpass themselves, being ready even, at her nod, to convert the mock battle into a real one.

The two fleets, flying and pursuing, moved past the island like a sirocco. Their lion or eagle-headed prows tossed high in the air clouds of white spray. The roar of the waters as the vessels ploughed through them, the dash of the banks of oars, the cries of pursuit, the whizzing and shrieks of arrows cleaving the air, the shouts of the contending thousands, and the velocity with which they moved, brought color to the queen's cheek, and the light of interest to her eyes. It was now an actual and real trial for mastery in speed; and the contest partook of all the realities of a war-chase. The two divisions, rounding the lower end of the island, were hidden by the Temple of Isis, which crowns it, but soon reappeared on the west arm of the river, ascending. When they came opposite to the queen, having passed entirely round the island, they resumed their former line, two or three with broken banks of oars, and shattered poops or prows from collision.

Prince Mœris came on shore to receive the compliments of the queen, and dined with us. Remeses was not present, being with the cohorts of cavalry; for he is visiting and inspecting every arm of the service, as it is intended this shall be the most formidable host that has ever been sent into Ethiopia.

Adieu, dearest mother, and believe me

Your truly devoted son,

Sesostris

LETTER X.

Island Palace of Rhoda.

My dearest Mother:

It is with heartfelt pleasure I assure you of the recovery of the queen. The heart of the noble and devoted Remeses is lightened of a heavy weight of solicitude. Smiles once more revisit his features, and cheerfulness replaces his late depression.

"Sesostris," said he to me this morning, as we were returning in his galley from a visit to the pyramids and vast city of tombs that stretch between Memphis and the Libyan hills, "if my excellent and dear mother had died, I should have been made one of the most unhappy of men. I shall to-morrow, in testimony of my gratitude, offer in the Temple of Osiris a libation and incense to the God of Health and Life, wherever in his illimitable universe such a Being may dwell."

"Then you would not, my dear Remeses, offer it to Osiris himself?" I said.

"You have heard, my friend," he replied, "my views of these mysteries of faith: that I look, through all material and vicarious representatives, onward and upward to the Infinite and Supreme Essence of Life—the Generator, Upholder, and Guide of the worlds and all that dwell upon them. From a child I have never entered, as my dear mother does, into the heart and spirit of our worship. There is something within me which tells me that we consist of a twofold being—a soul within a body. The soul must have had a Soul as its creator; therefore, O Sesostris, do I believe in a Supreme Soul of the universe—the Fountain of all souls; a Being of thought, invisibility, intelligence, and reason, each supreme and eternal; for I can conceive no creator of a Soul, nor end of its existence. Before all things that actually exist, and before all beings, there is One Being whom I would designate, for want of another term, God of gods, prior to the first god or king of earth, remaining unmoved and unapproachable in the singleness of His own unity. He is greater than, as He was prior to, all material things, of which He is the sole fountain; and He is also the foundation of things conceived by the intellect, and from His intellect spring the spirits of the gods and the souls of men."

"Then," said I to the prince, to whom I had listened with surprise and pleasure—for, mother, similar to these are the deep mysteries taught by our most sacred priests of Io, into which I was initiated when I became twenty-five years of age—"then you believe that God is Intellect conceiving itself, and that the creation of man was but the beginning of an infinite series of resistless conceptions of Himself?"

"Not resistless, but voluntary. Finding Himself existing, He multiplied Himself, for His own glory and delight primarily; and secondly, for the happiness of the offspring of His Intellect."

"We are then His offspring, that is, our souls?"

"Without doubt, if my theories be founded in truth," he answered contemplatively. We were then in mid-river, and the forty-four rowers of our gilded barge were slowly dipping their brazen-mounted oars into the glassy water, while with gentle motion we were borne towards the isle of palaces and terraces. Our heads were shaded from the sun by a silken pavilion stretched above the stern of the galley, under which we reclined upon sumptuous cushions as we conversed. Remeses, however, is by no means a voluntary seeker of luxurious ease; but in Egypt, where splendor and voluptuous furniture everywhere invite to indulgence, one must either deprive himself of all comforts, for the sake of enduring hardship, or yield unchallenging to the countless seductive forms of couches, lounges, chairs, and sofas, which everywhere, on the galleys and in houses, offer themselves to his use.

The air was balmy and soft, and fanned our faces; while the beautiful shores, lined with villas of the chief men of the court, afforded a grateful picture to the eye. Our rowers let their sweeps fall and rise to the low and harmonious time of a river chant, which, while it inspired conversation between the prince and myself, did not disturb, but rather veiled our subdued voices.

"Do you believe there are lesser gods?" I asked.

"Do you mean, Sesostris, beings higher in rank than men, and so created, to whom the Supreme Intellect of the Universe delegates a part of His authority and power over man and nature? Such, in its purity, is our Egyptian idea of gods."

"Such is not the Phœnician," I answered, hesitatingly; for I felt how far in advance of the hero demigods of our Assyrio-Median mythology was the Egyptian theological conception of a god, while the still sublimer idea held by Remeses, that they are celestial princes under the Supreme Prince, created as his servants, yet so far above men as to be as gods to us, took fast hold of my imagination, and commended itself to my intellect.

"What, my dear Sesostris, is the mythology of your country?" he asked, with a look of deep interest. "I have read some of your sacred books, and from them I perceive we obtain our myths of Isis, Mars, Hercules, Vulcan, and even Venus, who is your Astarte and our Athor. We owe much of our religion and learning to you Tyrians, my Sesostris."

"The recipient has become mightier than the giver," I replied. "Without doubt you have received from us the great invention of the phonetic alphabet, which your scholars are already making use of, though I learn the priests oppose it as an invasion upon the sacred writing of the hieroglyphic representations. I have seen here many rolls of papyrus written in our Phœnician letter, in the vernacular Koptic words, and executed with taste and beauty."

"It is not pictorial, and therefore the priests, who are all artists and lovers of colors, reject it. It will be slowly introduced. Upon obelisks and tombs the brilliant and varied hieroglyphic writing will continue, even though the records and rolls may by and by be written with the Tyrian alphabet. You have seen my Chaldaic letter, which I have formed partly on the model of your great Kadmus, and partly on the sacred characters, reducing forms of things to outlines and strokes of the stylus. This I invented, hoping to introduce it into Egypt, if the Tyrian letter is opposed by our priests, on the score of being foreign cabalistic signs; for such do they see fit to regard them, and speak of them. But, my Sesostris, let me learn of you something of your mythology."

I was about to reply, when my attention was attracted to a "procession of the dead" crossing the river just above us, the body being placed in a gorgeous car which stood in a richly painted and gilded baris, with a curved prow carved with the head of Osiris. It was tied to a barge, with twenty rowers, which moved to a slow and solemn strain of music that came wildly floating across the waters to our ears, mingled with the wails of mourners who crowded the deck of the galley; chiefly women with long dishevelled hair and naked breasts, which they beat frantically at times, with piercing cries. Through a small window in the ark or car I could see the painted visage upon the head of the mummy case.

It soon landed, and we resumed our conversation.

"You are aware, O prince," I said, turning to him, "that Phœnicia was settled among the first of the nations, after Typhon sent the flood of waters to destroy Osiris upon earth. Of course you Egyptians believe in the universal inundation of the earth?"

"The tradition is well-founded," he answered. "We believe that mighty nations existed aforetime, beyond the history of any kingdom, and that for their evils the Divine Creator of men brought upon them as punishment a mighty unknown sea, which drowned the world: that Menes, a great and good king, also called Noe-Menes, was spared by the gods, he with all his family being saved in a ship of the old world, which sailed to the mountains of Arabia Deserta, where, guided by a dove, they landed and sacrificed to the gods. This Menes, descending from the mountain, founded Egypt, first building This, or Thebis, and then Memphthis, dividing Egypt into the Thinite and Memphite provinces; and so from Egypt all the world was repeopled.

"Such is our tradition, O Remeses," I said, smiling, "only instead of a mountain in Arabia, it was Libanus, in Syria, to which his galley was guided, not by a dove, but by a raven; and that his name was Ammon, or Hammun; and that the first city built was Sidon, and the next the city of the Island of Tyre."

Remeses returned my smile and said, "No doubt there was a disposition in all our forefathers to give the honor of being the oldest nation to their own. Hammun is also a person in our Egyptian tradition, but is called the son of Menes; who, rebelling against his father, was driven from This or Thebis into Africa, where he founded Libya, and erected to himself, as a god, the ancient temple and worship of Ammon. From him come the Nubians and Ethiopians."

"Then I will claim no traditionary alliance with him," I answered good-humoredly. "Our Ammon was called also Hercules, and the first temple of the earth was built to him on the rocky isle of ancient Tyre. Then Belus, the hero and warrior-god, and founder of Babylon, became the patron of Tyre; and a noble temple was also erected to Nimrod, who slew the wild beasts that swarmed in ancient Syria, and who became the protector of shepherds and agriculture. Thus came our first gods, being men deified; while yours are but attributes, or created celestial powers, high above men; or animated forms representing the Deity incarnate and comprehensible to the senses. Baalbec was a city built to Bel or Belus, who, like your Osiris, is the symbol of the sun, which, of burnished gold, he displayed upon his shield in battle. In Phœnicia we call him 'the Lord of the Sun,' and the 'Sun-God.' We pay him divine honors by sacrifices, libations, and offerings of incense. And this recalls a discovery I recently made in On, that the true meaning of Re and of On is not 'the City of the Sun,' but the 'Lord of the Sun's' city; that is, the city of Osiris, who is the lord of the sun. This meaning of the name at once removes from On the impression which was at first made upon my mind, that you, and the queen, and your whole court, worshipped the sun as the Persic and Parthian nations do; whereas it is Osiris, the Lord of the Sun, that is the Supreme god, generator, producer, and creator of the sun and all things that are. No sooner had I made this discovery, which I did by conversing with the high-priest of On, than I perceived that whatsoever grossness may be found in the religion of the lower castes of the people, who seldom see beyond the symbol, the theology of the wise and great is free from idolatry."

"I am glad you justify us in this matter, dear Sesostris," answered the prince. "We are not idolaters like the Persian and Barbara kings. Our sacred books teach an intellectual and spiritual theology. But, as I have before said to you, the Invisible is so veiled from the people, by the visible forms under which he is offered to them by the priesthood, that while we adore the God of power and strength in Apis, they worship the bull himself: while we in the form of Horus, with his uræus and disk, adore Him who made him a benefactor to men and a pursuer of evil, they bow down to the hawk-headed statue of porphyry and worship the sculptured colossus of stone. But I interrupt you. Proceed, if you please, with the account of the origin of your country's religion."

"I have not much more to add of interest," I answered, "save of Adonis and Astarte."

"Are not these your Osiris and Isis?" asked the prince readily.

"I will first explain," said I, not immediately answering his question, "what we in Phœnicia think of Isis. The priests teach that the identity of the goddess Io, who is worshipped with rites unusually imposing at Byblos, is one with Isis."

"What is your opinion, Sesostris?"

"There is," I answered, "a close resemblance between the rites which relate to the death and revival of Adonis at Byblos, and of your divinity Osiris in Egypt. Indeed the priests at Byblos claim to have the sepulchre of Osiris among them, and maintain that all the rites which are commonly referred to Adonis properly relate to Osiris."

"Then Egypt derives Osiris from Phœnicia?" remarked Remeses, with a slight movement of the brows, and a smile.

"Without doubt," I replied. "In Tyre we call Egypt the daughter of Phœnicia."

"The daughter has out-grown the mother, dear Sesostris. We are proud of our parentage. We bow to Phœnicia as the mistress of letters and queen of the merchants of the earth. But what think the priests of Baalbec of Osiris and Isis?"

"It is the tradition of those haughty priests that they are distinct persons," I replied. "The ceremonies and rites with which they worship these deities are truly magnificent, and are invested with every form of the beautiful and gorgeous. Ours, as I have said, in some points resemble your Egyptian rites in honoring Osiris and Isis; but while you Egyptians, Remeses, adore only an abstract attribute of the deity, we adore the hero and the heroic woman—Adonis and Astarte. We rise not beyond them. We elevate them to the heavens and to the moon, and call them our gods. Truly, in the presence of the sublimer, purer myth which is the element of your faith, O Remeses, I feel that I am not far above the Barbara kings of Southern Africa, who deify each his predecessor. The priests of Isis, when they were in Phœnicia, attempted to elevate our worship; but we are still idolaters, that is, mere men-worshippers. Or, where we do not pay them divine honors, we offer them to the sun, and moon, and stars. I must be initiated, O Remeses, into the profounder intellectual mysteries of your spiritual myth, now that I am in Egypt."

"You shall have your wish gratified. The high priest of On shall receive orders to open to you (what is closed to all strangers) the sacred and mystic rites of our faith."

"I have alluded to the mysteries of the temple at Tyre," I added. "Initiated thereinto, I was taught that religion had a higher object than human heroes, and that in Astarte is worshipped the daughter of Heaven and Light, who is life, and that Adonis, her son by the Earth, signifies Truth. Thus, from heaven spring Light, Life, and Truth. These three, say the mystic books which I studied, constitute the Trinity of God, who consists and subsists only in this undivided Trinity as a unit; not Light alone, not Life alone, nor Truth alone; but One in Three. That these three are not three deities, just as in geometry the three sides and three angles are not three triangles, but one triangle. That in order to bring this mystery to a level with the minds of men, light was symbolized by the sun, life by Astarte, truth by Adonis. In the temple of Bel-Pheor, in Cœle-Syria, the sun itself is worshipped as light, life, and truth in one; his rays representing light, his heat life, his material disk or body truth."

"This is interesting to me, Sesostris," said Remeses. "It explains to me what I did not before understand, why the Syrians worship the sun. To them it is the majestic symbol of the trinity of deity. But I fear that in Egypt he is worshipped as an idol; for he, doubtless, is worshipped by many, and in many cities are temples to him. But this material worship, which separates the symbol from the truth behind it, was introduced by the Palestinian dynasty, and it is almost the only trace it has left in Egypt of its presence. The worship of Osiris, rightly understood, is the worship of the deity, as revealed in our sacred books. But the mystery of his trinity is unknown to our theology. Have you many temples of the sun in Tyre?"

"One only," was my answer, "but worthy, if I may so say, from its splendor, to stand in your city of 'the Lord of the Sun,' as I must call it."

"Is there not a city of your kingdom called Baal-phegor, in which is a famous sun-temple?"

"You mean Baalbec, the same words, only changed slightly. This city deserves its great fame, so grand are its fanes, so noble its palaces, so imposing the worship of the sun before its altars, so gorgeous the interiors of its temples, so rich the apparel of its priests, so sublime its choral worship. It is in Syrio-Euphrates, and is so shaded by palms that it has the aspect, in approaching it across the desert, of being an oasis filled with temples."

"Is not Phœnicia a lovely land, Sesostris?" he asked, at the same time returning the salutation of the admiral, Pathromenes, who passed in his war-galley, on his way to join the Prince Mœris, whose fleet sails to-morrow on its expedition. I was glad, also, to behold again my courteous friend of the Pelusian coast, and cordially received and answered his polite and pleased recognition of my person.

"It is indeed a lovely land, with its verdant plains, majestic mountains clothed with cedar, and beautiful but narrow rivers. It is covered with fair cities from the peninsula of Tyre to the further limits of Cœle-Syria, and is a rich and lovely kingdom, populous and happy. Its two great cities, Tyre and Sidon, are called the eyes of the world."

"I have so heard," he answered, "and when this Ethiopian war ends, and I find time to be absent, I hope to cross the sea to your kingdom and see 'the mother of Egypt,' as she also calls herself; 'the merchant of the seas,' whose galleys have discovered in unknown oceans, beyond the Pillars of the West, the isles of the blessed."

"So report our bold and venturous mariners," I answered.

"We who stay at home, know not, Sesostris, what marvels lie beyond the seas at the extremity of the plane of the earth's vast area. It is possible that islands and lands of wonderful beauty may exist where the sun wheels over the West to return to his rising in the Orient; and if we credit mariners who follow the shores of the Arabian and Indian seas, there are fair shores from whence come off to them breezes laden with fragrance of unknown flowers, while birds of rare melody fill the air with their songs by day; but at night the odorant forests echo with the dread roar of fierce monsters, that guard the shores from the invasion of man!"

"I have sailed along those shores, if I may be so bold as to speak in such a presence, my lord prince," interrupted the captain of the galley, who had stood by listening to our discourse.

"Say on, Rathos," answered the prince courteously. "What have you to tell of marvels on foreign seas?"

"The lands at the earth's end, your excellency, are not like ours of Egypt. I have seen isles where the men are like larger monkeys, and have a language no one understands, and build their houses in the trees. Evil demons I doubt not, or else souls sent back to earth from Amenthe, by Osiris, to atone for crimes in monstrous forms, neither human nor beast!"

"I have heard of these creatures," said I. "How far hast thou sailed, O Rathos?"

"To the very edge of the world, my lord of Tyre," he answered quietly. "I was in a ship going to Farther Ind. In sailing round the end of the earth we lost the shore in a dark storm; and when day came we saw only sky and water. All were in consternation to be thus between heaven and sea, and no land to guide our course. To add to our terror, I perceived that we were borne swiftly upon an ocean-current eastward. It increased in velocity, and I soon saw that we must be approaching the verge of the vast and horrid gulf, over which the full ocean plunges, a thousand leagues in breadth, prone into chaos and the regions of the lost spirits of the unburied souls of men! But by the interposition of the god of winds, to whom I vowed a libation and a bale of the richest spices of Bengal, a great storm swept over the sea against us, and before it we fled as with wings, until we came to a great island, under the shelter of which we anchored, rejoicing in our safety."

"Verily, brave Rathos, thou wert in a great peril," I said. "Thinkest thou it was at the world's end?"

"So said the king of the island, and he congratulated us on our escape; saying that few ships, when once upon that downward tide, ever returned again to the top of the earth."

"Thinkest thou the earth is square, Rathos, from what voyages thou hast made?" I asked of the gray-haired captain, whose silvery locks were braided around his head, and covered by a green embroidered bonnet, with a fringed cape falling to his neck.

"Or a triangle, my lord prince; but some say four square, with a burning mountain at each angle."

"Which is thine own opinion, Rathos?" asked the prince, who had been listening to our conversation.

"That it is irregular and jagged, my lord of Egypt, in shape not unlike this fair Isle of Rhoda, at which we are about to land."

"And what thinkest thou, Rathos, is its foundation?" continued the prince.

"The Indian wise men say it is held up on the back of a huge tortoise; and our priests of Egypt that it floats in a vast ocean; while in Jaffa they teach that it floats on a boundless sea of fire. I know not, my lord prince. I leave knowledge of such wisdom to the great philosophers; and for my part am content to live upon our fair earth as long as the gods will, be it fire, or tortoise, or even though it stand on nothing, as the people in Persia hold that it does. But we are at the terrace-steps, my lord of Memphis!"

Here he bowed low, holding his hand to his heart, and left us to superintend the landing of the galley, at the porphyry staircase of the propylæum of the palace.

"Sesostris," said the prince to me, "has the idea occurred to you that this world may be a globe, suspended in subtle ether, and in diurnal revolution around the fixed sun?"

"Never, Remeses!" I cried, with a look of amazement at this bold and original thought. "It is impossible it should be so!"

"Nothing is impossible with the Author of creation!" said Remeses, with great solemnity. And, then, after an instant's pause, he added pleasantly—"On what does the sea of fire or the tortoise rest, my dear prince? Which theory is the most difficult to receive? But I have given astrology considerable attention, and if you will examine with me some observations and calculations that I have made, I think you will be with me in my novel opinion, that this earth may prove to be a sphere and in orbitual motion, with its seven planets, about the sun; its annual progress in its circuit giving us seasons, its diurnal motion night and day! But I see you stand perplexed and amazed. By and by you shall be initiated into the mysteries of my studies. Let us land!"

Farewell, dear mother. The great length of this letter renders it necessary that I should close it abruptly, but believe me ever

Your dutiful son,

Sesostris

LETTER XI.

Palace of Rhoda, on the Nile.

My beloved Mother:

In my last letter I narrated a conversation between Prince Remeses and myself, upon the myths of Egypt and Phœnicia, and other subjects, while being borne in his galley from the Memphis bank of the river down to the Island of Rhoda. I have already described this beautiful isle, and spoken of it as the favorite residence of the queen. It is situated nearly midway between her two chief cities, On and Memphis, both of which—one on the west and the other on the east—are in sight from the top of the central pylon of her palace, that divides the "court of fountains and statues" from her gardens.

Also from this point the queen commands, at one view, the noble spectacle of her navy anchored in the river, and her armies encamped, the one on the plain of Memphis, and the other upon that of Raamses.

I wrote you a letter day before yesterday, my dear mother, after my return from a very interesting visit to the plain of Memphis, whither the prince went in his state barge to review the 80,000 soldiers encamped there. I will devote this letter to an account of a second visit, and a description of the scenes I witnessed, and a narration of the events which transpired.

Early this morning, when the queen and Remeses and I were about to be seated at our repast; and, as the pious custom of the Egyptians of all ranks is, Remeses having just asked the blessing of the gods before partaking, lo! Prince Mœris, lord of the Thebaïd, came in unannounced, accompanied by his favorite lion, which always follows his steps or stalks by his side, and said, with bluntness unsuited to the presence—

"Your majesty, I have come to say to you that I am ready to weigh anchor and commence my voyage to the Cataracts! I await your orders and pleasure!"

Thus speaking, he stood with his head-admiral and half a dozen of his chief officers behind him in the entrance, his sword at his side, and his gold helm with its nodding plumes towering proudly. His whole appearance was singularly splendid and martial, and he seemed to be conscious of the effect the striking elegance and brilliancy of his costume produced upon me; for, though brave as Osirtasen the Conqueror, he is as vain as ever was the fair Princess Nitocris.

Queen Amense, who enjoined the strictest etiquette in her court, frowned at this discourteous intrusion; for the nobles of Lower Egypt are remarkable by the grace and refinement of their manners, and the court of the Pharaohs has for ages been distinguished for the high tone of its polite observances. From portico to saloon, from saloon to ante-room, from ante-room to reception-room, and so onward to the deepest recesses of the palace or house, the guest is ushered by successive pages, until the chief steward or grand-chamberlain admits him into the presence of the lord of the mansion, who already, by a swift page, has been informed of the advance of the visitor. In no case are these formalities dispensed with by persons of high breeding. Breaking through all such ancient and social ceremonies, the rude Theban viceroy came before her as I have described. The brow of Remeses darkened, but he preserved silence.

"I am glad, prince, that you have been so diligent," said Amense, coldly. "When will you depart?"

"Within the hour, my royal aunt. If Remeses, my warlike cousin, wishes to co-operate with me at Thebes, he will not long delay marching his army forward. I hear, by a swift galley just arrived, that the fierce Ethiopian king, Occhoris, with half his mighty host, has already dared to enter the Thinite province, and menaces Thebes!"

"There is no time for delay, then," cried Remeses, rising from the table, leaving the grapes, figs, and wheaten rolls untouched. "Farewell, my mother!" he said, embracing her. "In a few weeks I shall return to you with tidings that the scourge of your kingdom has perished with his armies!"

I will not describe the tenderness of the parting between the queen and Remeses, whom she would have held, refusing to release him, if he had not gently disengaged himself, taken up his sword and helmet, and hastened from the apartment. Prince Mœris, with a haughty bow to the queen, for whom he seems to entertain bitter dislike, had already taken his departure with his captains at his heels. I followed Remeses, and together we crossed to the shore on the side of On, and there meeting chariots, we were in a short time in the midst of the war-camp of his chariot legions. They were encamped several stadia south of On, on the plain beyond Raamses. Here, in the little Temple of Horus, on the terrace of which we held our conversation about the Hebrews as we paced its long pavement (and which I have already repeated to you), the prince with his chief captains offered libations and burned incense, invoking the favor and aid of Heaven on the expedition. He then gave his orders to his generals of division, chiefs of legions, and captains; and the whole host, forming in column of march, moved forward towards the south, with trumpets sounding and the rumbling thunder of thousands of wheels of iron. Seeing that they were all in motion—each battalion under its own head-captain—the prince took boat to cross the Nile to the plain of Memphis, in order to put in motion the army of horse and foot there encamped. On our way over, we saw the van of the fleet of the Prince of Thebes coming up the broad river in stately style, fifty abreast, propelled by innumerable oars. It was a brave and battle-like front, and what with pennons flying, spears and shields gleaming from their poop-decks and mast-towers, and the brazen or gilt insignia of hawks', eagles', lions', or ibis' heads rising upon a thousand topmasts, and all catching the sunbeams, the spectacle was singularly impressive.

"There comes a prince, my Sesostris," said Remeses to me, as he surveyed the advancing front of war, "who, if I should fall in this Ethiopian expedition, will be Pharaoh of Egypt when my mother dies."

"The gods forbid!" I exclaimed with warmth.

"He is the next of blood. It is true, my mother could, by will, alienate her crown and confer her sceptre upon any one she chose to adopt. Indeed, I now remember that, by our laws, it would be necessary for her publicly and ceremoniously adopt him as her son before he could reign—since a nephew, by the ancient Memphitic law regulating succession, cannot inherit. Mœris would, therefore, have to be adopted."

"Then he would never reign," I said.

Remeses remained silent a moment. Resuming, he said, with a tone of indignant emotion—

"Sesostris, my mother fears that evil young prince. He possesses over her an inexplicable power. To this influence he owes his elevation, from being a mere governor of Saïs, to the viceroyalty of Upper Egypt. He would not fail, should I fall, to exert his mysterious power over her mind, and his ambition would prompt him to aim at even the throne of all Egypt. But let us mount!" he added, as we touched the shore.

A score of horsemen, armed with long spears, were in waiting. Remeses and I mounted horses already provided; and, at a wave of his hand, the whole party dashed off along the avenue of the aqueduct, a magnificent thoroughfare, two miles in length, bordered by palm-trees, with, at intervals, a monolith statue of red Syenite granite, or an obelisk, casting its needle-like shadow across the wide, paved road. At the end of this avenue, which leads straight from the river to the pyramids, we turned south, and before us beheld, spread out as far as the eye could reach, the tented field of the vast Egyptian host, cavalry and footmen of all arms, languages, and costumes, belonging to the nations tributary to Egypt. I had visited this vast camp the preceding day. It covered a league of ground, presenting a sea of tents, banners, plumes, spears, and shining helms. As we came in sight, a trumpeter sounded a few loud notes to proclaim the presence of the prince-general. We dashed up to the central pavilion, on the summit of which the winged sun of burnished gold showed that the army was to march under the particular guardianship of the god. From the summit of the staff of other handsome tents, the emblems of generals and chiefs of battalions were displayed in the form of silver hawks' heads, the brazen head of a lion or wolf, or the heads of the ibis, crocodile, and vulture. Each phalanx thus marched under and knew its peculiar emblem, following its lead in the column of advance on the march, and rallying around it in the midst of battle.

Prince Remeses was in a few moments surrounded by his generals and chief warriors, to whom he made known the advance of the Ethiopian king, Occhoris, upon Thebes,—intelligence of which he and the queen had received by a mounted messenger, while Prince Mœris, who had come to announce it also, was in her apartment. In a few words he made known his orders to each general in succession, who, making a low military obeisance, by bowing the head and turning the sword-point to the earth, instantly departed to their divisions. The general-in-chief in immediate command he retained by his side, with his gorgeous staff of officers. In a few minutes all was life and movement throughout the tented field. In four hours the whole army—their tents struck and conveyed to barges, together with all other military impediments not necessary for the soldiers on their march—was formed into a hollow square on the plain, twenty thousand men on each side facing inward to a temple of their war-god, Ranpo-re, which stood on the plain. This was a small but beautiful temple, or marble pavilion, in the form of a peristyle, with brazen columns, dedicated to the Egyptian Mars. It was erected in this martial plain by Amunophis I., for the purpose of sacrifices and oblations, and of offering libations and incense for armies assembled about it before marching on warlike expeditions. The circle of columns was cast from the shields and weapons which he had taken in his Arabian and Asiatic wars.

The chief priest of Mars, who is a prince in rank, and allied to the throne, attended by more than one hundred inferior priests, advanced from the inner shrine upon a marble terrace, in the centre of which stood the iron-columned pavilion that inclosed the shrine of the god. He was attired in a grand and imposing costume, having a tiara, adorned by a winged sun sparkling with jewels, and the sacred uræus, encircling his brows. He wore a flowing robe of the whitest linen, descending to his feet. A loose upper cape of crimson, embroidered with gold, and having flowing sleeves, was put on over the robe. Still above this was a breastplate of precious stones, in the form of a corselet, while the tiara partook also of the martial form, being shaped like a helmet, with the sacred asp of gold projecting in front as a visor. Above all this, hanging from his left shoulder, was a splendid leopard's skin, heavy with a border of closely woven rings of gold. As he advanced, he extended in his right hand a short sword, the hilt of which was a crux, or the sacred cross-shaped Tau, surmounted by a ball, the whole being an emblem of life; while in his helmet towered, as symbols of truth and order, two ostrich feathers—the evenness and symmetry with which the feathery filaments grow on each side of their stem having suggested to the Egyptians the adoption of this emblem; for order and truth, according to Egyptian philosophy, are the foundation and preservation of the universe.

Having reached the front of the lofty terrace, upon which was an altar of brass, he raised his left arm by throwing back the superb leopard-skin mantle; and, elevating his commanding form to its full grandeur, he turned slowly round, pointing heavenward with his left hand, and holding his sword, as it were, over the army as he turned, until with it he had swept the circle of the horizon. This was an invocation to all the gods for a blessing upon the assembled hosts. During the act, every general bowed his head as if to receive it, every soldier lowered his weapon, and at its conclusion, all the music bands in the army before him simultaneously burst into an overwhelming sound—drums, trumpets, cornets, cymbals, filling the air with their mingled roll! Silence deep as night then succeeded; and the high-priest, facing the shrine, stood while a company of priests rolled out from the door of the temple the statue of the god, clad in full armor of steel, inlaid with gold, a jewelled helmet upon his head, and a spear in his right hand. It was of gigantic size, and standing in an attitude of battle, upon a lofty chariot of burnished brass, with wheels of iron. It was an imposing and splendid figure, and a just image of war. The priests, who wheeled the car out of the temple, having drawn it once all around the terrace, so that the whole army could behold the mailed and helmeted god (whose presence they hailed by striking their swords upon their shields, or swords against swords), stopped in front of the prince-priest. He then prostrated himself before it, the profoundest silence and awe prevailing during the few moments he remained upon his face at the feet of the deity.

When he rose and turned to the west, the Prince Remeses and all his captains advanced to the steps of the pyramidal base on which the temple was elevated. Each captain was followed by a Nubian slave, bearing in a sacred vase the offering of his own phalanx of soldiers. Remeses bore in his hand a costly necklace, dazzling with precious stones, the offering of his mother. The generals and captains came with flowers, chains of gold the lotus-leaf made of ivory, and sparkling with jewels scattered upon it in imitation of dewdrops. Some bore swords, and spears, and plumes.

Remeses, at the head of his officers, ascended the steps and presented to the priest his mother's offering, which he placed over the head of the god. He then laid a sword, brought for the purpose, at the feet of the statue; but, as he afterwards explained to me, and as I understood, not as an offering to a mythical Mars, but to the Infinite God of armies, whom the statue symbolized; yet I could see that the greater part of his officers paid their homage and made their offerings to the mere material statue. Such is the twofold idea attached, either by one or another class of devotees, dear mother, to all worship in Egypt. They do one thing and mean another; of course I speak of the priests, princes, and philosophers. As for the people, they mean what they do when they offer a libation or an invocation to a statue.

When the chief captains had presented their offerings, and the high-priest had either decorated the god with them, or laid them upon the altar of brass, then came the Nubian slaves, laden with the gifts of the soldiers. There were sixty of these offering-bearers, and in procession they ascended the terrace, each with a painted earthen vase upon his shoulder. One after another they deposited them around the over-burdened altar and descended to the plain, not daring to lift their eyes to the god, so near to whose presence they came. It was my privilege to stand always by the side of Remeses, who desired me to witness the scene.

The vases contained every imaginable article that, at the moment, a common soldier might have about his person. There were rings of silver, of copper, of wood, of glass; dried figs, tamarinds, dates, and raisins; garlics, leeks, onions, bits of inscribed papyrus, palm-leaves, flowers innumerable, scarabæi of burnt clay, pebbles, and metal; seeds of the melon and radish, and incense-gum; little clay images of Mars, of various weapons, and of Osiris. There were also myrrh, resin, and small pots of ointment; pieces of iron, fragments of weapons, locks of hair, shreds of linen, and bits of ostrich feathers; beans, sandal-clasps, charms, amulets, and even tiny bottles of wine. Indeed, to enumerate what met my eyes in the vases, which the common soldiers in their piety voted to the god, praying for a successful campaign, would fill the page on which I write, and give you the name of nearly every thing to be found in Egypt.

When all these offerings had been received by the high-priest, and while the prince and his officers stood some paces to one side, he stood before the altar: and one article from each vase being brought to him, he laid it upon the altar, and then, in a solemn manner, invoked the god, asking him to accept the offerings of this great army, and of its prince and captains, and to grant them victories over their foes, and a return to their queen crowned with conquest and glory.

In his prayer I could see that he elevated his noble countenance to the heavens, as if, in his mind, mentally overlooking the inanimate statue before him, and directing his thoughts to the Invisible and Supreme Dweller in the secret places of His universe beyond the sun! Remeses stood in a devotional attitude, but with his thoughtful brow bent to the ground. I could perceive, now that we had conversed so much together upon these divine things, that he was worshipping, in the depths of his heart, the God of gods, wherever that Dread and Mighty Power is enthroned on the height of His universe, or the wings of the imagination can go out to Him and find Him.

The great invocatory prayer ended, the high-priest received from Remeses a votive crystal box of the fragrant Ameracine ointment—a gift so costly and precious that only the princes and the priests are permitted to possess it—and broke it upon the breast of the god, anointing him in the name of the people of Egypt. The odor filled all the air. A priest then handed to him a golden cup richly chased with sacred symbols, and another, filling it from a vase of wine, the offering of the chief Archencherses, who is next in military rank to Remeses, he elevated it a moment, and poured it out at the feet of the god as a libation for the hosts. Some other interesting ceremonies followed, such as consecrating and presenting a sword to the prince, and the touching of the altar by all the chiefs with the points of their weapons as they passed it in descending to the field, the high-priest sprinkling each one of them with sacred water from the Nile. The last act of sacrifice—for, though bloodless, the Egyptians term the whole rite a sacrifice to the god—was by Remeses. The high-priest placed in his hands a censer—for the prince, by virtue of his rank, is a royal priest; and Remeses, accepting it with reverence, cast upon the live coals of palm-wood a quantity of incense. Then approaching the altar, he waved it before it until clouds of smoke rose into the air and enveloped his head.

At this moment, the most sacred one of the whole scene, there appeared advancing from the pavilion-temple a beautiful maiden, the daughter of the high-priest. She was arrayed in a pure white robe, which floated about her in the wind like a cloud. Over her shoulders was thrown a crimson scarf, on which was embroidered the cartouch of the god. Her rich, flowing hair was bound about her stately brow by a crown of flowers, above which rose a silver helm with a crest of emeralds and sapphires, in imitation of the feathery coronet of the bird-of-paradise. Her face was wonderfully beautiful, her dark eyes beamed with love and joy, and her form was the impersonation of grace.

As she advanced, the priests on either side drew back with their hands crossed upon their foreheads, and their heads bent lowly before her presence. Coming forward between the two rows of officials, she shook in the air above her head a small temple bell called the sistrum, which emitted the sweetest and clearest melody. This little musical instrument is sacred to the services of the temples, and the sound of it is the signal for the beginning or ending of every rite. That which was now borne by the high-priest's daughter consisted of a cylindrical handle of pearl, surmounted by a double-faced head of ivory, one side being that of Isis, the other of Nephthys. From this twofold head rose a silver almond-shaped bow about five inches high, inlaid with gold and precious stones. In this bended loop of metal were inserted four metallic bars in the shape of asps, upon the body of which were loosely strung several silver rings, As the maiden held this beautiful instrument in the air, and shook it, the rings, moving to and fro upon the bars, produced the clear bell-like sounds I have mentioned. In ancient times so great was the privilege of holding the sacred sistrum in the temple, it was given to the queens; and on great occasions Amense has performed this high office. On an obelisk, now old, the daughter of Cheops is represented holding the sistrum while the king is sacrificing to Thoth. Though I have said little about the Egyptian females, as in truth I have seen but little of them, yet I ought not to omit to tell you that some of the most sacred offices are intrusted to distinguished women, in the services of temples. I have seen not only priests' daughters, but ladies of rank and eminent beauty, holding these places; and in On there is a band of noble young ladies having the distinguished title of "Virgins of the Sun," who devote their lives until they are thirty years of age, to certain principal services of the temples of Osiris and Isis. Indeed, my dear mother, in Egypt woman is singularly free, and regarded as man's companion and equal. She is respected and honored, both as wife and mother, and her social relations are of the most unrestrained and agreeable kind. In all houses, she is prepared gracefully to do honor to her lord's guests; and while she is devoted to domestic duties, prides herself upon her skill and taste at home; abroad, at banquets and evening festivals, which are frequent, and where there is music and dancing, she shines with all the charms she can borrow from splendor of attire, or derive from inherent loveliness of person; while a profusion of jewels upon her hands and neck reveal her wealth and rank.

When the prince saw her advancing, he approached the statue with his censer, and waving it once in the sight of the army, hung it upon the spear of the god. The sistrum sounded as the incense rose, and every man of that vast host bent his knee for a moment! Then the high-priest commenced a verse of a loud chant in a sonorous voice. The one hundred priests marching, in procession around the god, answered antiphonally with one voice in a part; and, the whole army catching up the hymn, the very pyramids seemed to tremble at the thunder of eighty thousand deep voices of men rolling along the air. Then Remeses chanted a few stirring words of this national and sacred war-hymn, the high-priest answered, the maiden's clear voice rose in a melodious solo, the hundred priests caught up the ravishing strain as it melted from her lips in the skies, and again the great army uttered its voice! My heart was oppressed by the sublimity. Tears of emotion filled my eyes. I never was more deeply impressed with the majesty of the human voice, united in a vast multitude, uttered as the voice of one man. The combined voice of the human race—if such a thing could be—must be like the voice of God when He speaks!

The invocation and sacrifice were over. Remeses embraced the priest, and receiving his blessing, in a few minutes every chief captain had joined his battalion, and at the cry of trumpets and cornets, sounded all over the plain, and echoed back from Cheops, the whole host formed in columns of march. Remeses, I being in his company, galloped forward and took a position on an elevation, from which he reviewed the whole army as it tramped by. The fleet was in parallel motion at the same time, and I saw the splendid galley of the Prince Mœris, with its colored silken sails, and golden beak, gallantly ascending the river. He stood upon the poop; a tame lion crouched by his side, on the tawny shoulders of which he rested one foot as he gazed at us. The division of cavalry was the last in moving, and trotted past us in splendid array. This arm of the service is not large, nor much relied on in Egypt. The chariots of iron, to the hubs of which terrible scythes are sometimes fastened on the eve of battle, and the bowmen and spearmen, have always been the main dependence of the kings in their wars.

Ethiopia, against which this great army is moving by water and land, is in a state of civilization and political power not greatly inferior to Egypt. It has vast cities, noble temples, extensive cultivated regions, adorned with palaces and villas; it has a gorgeous but semi-barbaric court, a well-disciplined army, and skilful generals. It is a race allied by blood and lineage to that of Egypt, and is not to be confounded with Nubia and the pure Africanic kingdoms. In religion it is idolatrous, and hostile to the worship of Egypt. A supposed title, by a former conquest, to the crown of Thebes, has made Ethiopia for three centuries the hereditary foe of Egypt.

The Egyptian army is divided into sections, formed and distinguished according to the arms they bear. They consist, like ours, of bowmen, spearmen, swordsmen, macemen, slingers, and other corps. There are captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, fifties, and tens. When in battle-array, the heavy foot-soldiers, or infantry armed with spears, and a falchion, or other similar weapon, are drawn up in the form of an impenetrable phalanx; and once this massive wall of ten thousand men formed, it is fixed and unchangeable; and such is its strength, one hundred men on each front, and one hundred deep, no efforts of any of the enemies of Egypt have been able to break it. Presenting a wall of huge shields lapping and interlocked, resting on the ground, and reaching to their heads, the missiles of the foe rattle against it as against the steel-sheathed side of one of their battle-ships. The bowmen, slingers, javelin-men, and lighter troops act in line, or dispose themselves according to the nature of the ground, or the exigency of the moment. There is a corps armed with battle-axes and pole-axes, having bronze blades ornamented with heads of animals. These wear quilted helmets, without crests, which effectually protect the head. The chariot battalions are drawn up to charge and rout the enemy's line, and the cavalry follow to slay the resisting, and pursue the flying. Each battalion has its particular standard, which represents a sacred subject—either a king's name on his cartouch or painted shield, a sacred baris, a hawk, or a feather. The chief standard-bearer is a man of approved valor, and an officer of the greatest dignity, and stands next to the chief in rank. He is distinguished by a gold necklace collar, on which are represented two lions and an eagle—emblems of courage. The troops are summoned to all movements by the sound of the trumpet and the long drum, with other instruments.

The offensive weapons of the army are the bow, spear, javelin, sling, a short, straight sword, a dagger, broad knife, falchion, battle-axe, spear-axe, iron-headed mace, and a curved club adopted from the Ethiopians. Their defensive arms consist of the helmet, either of iron, bronze, brass, silver, or plaited gold, according to the rank of the wearer; usually without a crest, and extending to the shoulders, in a collar or hood of chain-mail, protecting the neck; they wear also a cuirass of metal plates, or quilted with bands of polished iron, and an ample shield, of various forms, but usually that of a funeral tablet, or a long and narrow horseshoe. This piece of armor is the chief defence. It is a frame covered with bull's or lion's hide, bound with a rim of metal, and studded with iron pins. The archers wear no bucklers, but corselets of scale-armor.

I will now end this long letter, my dear mother, and my description of Egyptian armies, by naming the nations of which it was made up. As I sat upon my horse by the side of the prince, surveying the marching columns as they moved southward, I distinguished the tall, Asiatic-looking Sharetanian by his helmet ornamented with bull's horns, and a red ball for a crest, his round shield, and large ear-rings—a fierce race, once the foes but now the allies of Egypt; the bearded Tokkari from beyond the horns of the Arabian Sea, armed with a pointed knife, and short, straight sword, with arched noses and eagle eyes,—also once enemies of the queen, but now added to her armies; an unknown people, with tall caps, short kilt and knife-girdle of lion's hide, an amulet of agate on the neck of every man—strangers, with wild, restless eyes, and fierce looks; the swarthy Rebos, with his naked breast and shoulders, and long two-headed javelin; the Pouonti, with faces painted with vermilion, and cross-bows with iron-headed arrows, archers that never miss their mark. There marched by, also, the relentless Shari, who neither ask nor give quarter to their enemies, their masses of black hair bound up in fillets of leather, and skull-caps of bull's hide on their heads, whose weapons are clubs and short daggers. Other bands, differing in costume and appearance, continued to pass, until it seemed that the queen's army had in it representatives of all nations tributary to Egypt.

Continuing with Remeses a day's march, I then parted from him to return to the palace, promising, as soon as I had seen Lower Egypt, I would ascend the Nile and meet him at Thebes.

Farewell, dearest mother; may the gods of our country preserve you in health.

Your devoted son,

Sesostris

LETTER XII.

Palace of the Pharaohs, Memphis.

My honored and very dear Mother:

In my last letter I was particular in describing to you the armies of Egypt, as I have not forgotten the interest you take in the discipline of your own, nor that once you led in your chariot a battle-charge when your kingdom was invaded by the king of the Elamites. In Egypt, which is truly a warlike country, one cannot but be inspired by the military spirit. Not only is she the school to all the world of astronomy, sculpture, physic, astrology, and magic, but also of arms.

In the army, recently departed for Ethiopia, I saw many young lords and princes and heroes, strangers, who accompany the expedition to learn the art of war. The Egyptians are eminent in planning and executing sieges, and few fortified towns can resist their war-engines.

From my description in the last letter, you would suppose that Egypt is now emptied of its soldiers. On the contrary, there is a garrison in every city, and a fortress filled with troops in every one of the thirty or more nomes. Besides, there are all over the country, where the Hebrews are congregated, lesser detachments, who keep vigilant guard over this toiling nation in bondage. The queen is also at war with a prince of Arabia Deserta, and an army of twelve thousand men, four hundred chariots, and a thousand horsemen, have recently marched against him. Egypt is powerful enough to combat the combined world. Her forces are not less than four hundred thousand trained warriors of all arms, besides sixteen thousand chariots of iron. Power, thrift, activity, and energy characterize Egypt. The wise, courageous, firm rule of the queen has contributed to this. What she has brought to such glory and perfection, Remeses, when he comes to the throne, will preserve and perpetuate.

The mention of my noble friend reminds me that he is no longer near me. The army has been in motion southward eight days, and he has written to the queen, and also to me, speaking of the prosperity attending their advance. The fleet had not kept up with the army of foot, while the chariot legion on the east bank has gone far in advance and encamped. Every day, incense is burned, and intervention made in all the temples, for the success of the expedition.

In the mean while, my dear mother, I will devote my letters to daily scenes around me.

The queen's health is now firmly established, and she extends to me the kindness and, I may say, affection, which she would to a son; but I am conscious that I am so honored as the friend of her absent son, who, at parting from me a stadium above Memphis, said:

"My Sesostris, be near my mother, and in the pleasure of your society, let her regrets at my absence find compensation. When you have seen all of Lower Egypt, come to the Thebaïd, and go with me and my army into Ethiopia."

I promised that I would follow him by and by; but now I am engaged in seeing the wonders of Memphis, and those marvels of ages—those "temples of the gods"—the mighty pyramids. I will soon devote a letter to an account of my first visit to Memphis and the pyramids. It was made a day or two after we came to reside in the palace at Rhoda. Remeses, though hourly occupied, had kindly promised he would accompany me to the city of Apis, and there place me in charge of a son of the priest of the temple. I arose the following morning a few minutes before sunrise, in order to be prepared to go early. My window looked forth upon On, a league and a half distant, with its grand avenue of columns, sphinxes, obelisks, and towering propyla clasping it to the shining river. The splendor of that morning, my dear mother, I shall never cease to remember. The atmosphere of Egypt is so crystalline, that light lends to it a peculiar glow. As I looked eastward, the skies had the appearance of sapphire blended with dust of gold; and from the as yet invisible sun, a gorgeous fan of radiant beams, of a pale orange-color, spread itself over the sky to the zenith. Not a cloud was visible; nor, indeed, have I seen one since I have been in Egypt. This magnificent glory of the Orient steadily grew more and more wonderful for beauty and richness of colored light, when, all at once, the disk of the bright god of day himself majestically rolled up into sight, filling heaven and earth with his dazzling and overpowering light, while the golden shield on the temple of the sun caught and reflected his rays with almost undiminished brilliancy.

As I regarded with delight this sublime sunrise, there came borne to my ears, from the direction of the temple of Osiris, in Memphis, the sound of music. Walking round the terrace to that side, I heard the voices of a thousand priests chanting the morning hymn to the god of light, the dazzling "Eye of Osiris." Then I recollected that this was the day of the celebration of the revival or resurrection of Osiris, one of the most important days in the sacred calendar. The whole city seemed to be in motion, and boats garlanded with flowers, and filled with gayly attired people, were crossing to the city and temple at every point. Music from a hundred instruments filled the air, which seemed to vibrate with joy and delight. The city of Apis had on its gala apparel, and all the world was abroad to welcome the sun-rising and join in the processions.

Remeses joined me while I was watching the scene, and listening to the grand waves of harmony as they rolled away from the temple and sounded along the air in majestic volumes of sound.

"I see you are interested, my Sesostris, in this enlivening scene. It is a day of rejoicing to the worshippers of Osiris."

"It seems, my dear prince," I replied, "as if every day I have passed in Egypt has been a festival to some of its deities."

"Our year is more than two thirds of it consecrated to the gods; that is, supposing a day given to each, the most of the year is religious. We are a people given to piety, so far as we understand. All our works are consecrated by prayer or sacrifice; and whether we go to war, or engage in merchandise, build a palace or a tomb, prayer and oblation precede all. Are you ready to go to the city and pyramids as soon as we break our fast? My mother has invited us to breakfast with her."

I expressed my readiness, and we left to seek the presence of the queen. As we entered, she was superintending a piece of embroidery of the richest colors, which three maidens were at work upon at one end of the apartment. They remained a few minutes after our entrance, glancing at us timidly, yet curiously and archly. When their royal mistress had received us, she made a slight gesture with her hand, and the dark-eyed girls, disappearing behind a screen, left the apartment. I had time to see that they were very young, of an olive, brunette complexion, with braided and tastefully arranged dark-brown hair, their slender persons habited in neat vestures of mingled colors, fitting the form, but open in front, displaying a soft, fine linen robe, with loose, fringed sleeves. They had ear-rings, and numerous finger-rings, and gilt, red, gazelle-leather sandals, laced with gay ribbons across the small, naked foot. These, as the queen informed me, belonged to families of officers of the palace. One of them, the tallest, and who was most striking in her appearance, had eyes of wonderful beauty, the effect of the expression of which was deepened by painting the lids with a delicate shade of cohol. She was the daughter of the royal scribe, Venephis, and her own name is Venephe; and here, my dear mother, since you asked me in your last letter why I am so silent upon the subject of Egyptian ladies, I will devote a little space to them. But you know that my heart so wholly belongs to the lovely Princess Thamonda, the daughter of the Prince of Chaldea, that it is entirely insensible to any impressions which the high-born Egyptian maids might otherwise make upon it. I will, however, learn more of them by seeking their society, my dear mother, and henceforward will give them all the attention they merit in my letters.

I have seen many ladies of great elegance and ease of manner. The court of Egypt is composed of an immense number of nobles and high officers, whose palaces crowd the cities of On and Memphis, and whose tasteful, garden-environed villas extend far beyond their limits. Some of these nobles have the title of princes, when they govern one of the thirty-six nomes, or command armies. They are opulent, fond of display in apparel and architecture, great lovers of flowers and paintings, and their dwellings are profusely decorated with the one and adorned with the other. These men of rank are educated, polished in bearing, courteous and affable. Their wives are their superiors in refinement, being daughters of men of the same rank and social distinction. Nobles and noble ladies by hereditary title there are none in Egypt; for it is the boast of the Egyptians, and it is often inscribed on their monuments, that Egyptians, being all equally "sons of Misr," are all born equal. It is official elevation and position at court, as the reward of talent or services, which create noble rank. Yet there are families here who speak with pride of the glory and fame of ancestors; and I know young Egyptian nobles whose forefathers were lords in the court of the old Pharaohs, of the XVth and XVIth dynasties. I have already alluded to the brave young officer of the chariot battalion, Potipharis, whose ancestor, a lord of the court of Apophis, purchased of the Idumeans the youthful Hebrew who subsequently ruled Egypt as prime minister; and whose family, now grown to a great nation, are held here in hopeless bondage.

The women of Egypt owe their high social rank to the respect shown them by the men, who give them precedence everywhere. The fact that Egypt is ruled by a queen, is testimony that woman is honored here by the laws of the realm, as well as by the customs of the people, or she would not have succeeded to the throne. It is not a mere influence derived from their personal attractions that women possess here; but their claims to honor and respect are acknowledged by law, in private as well as in public. Said Remeses to me, a day or two since, when I was remarking upon the universal deference paid to the sex, "We know, unless women are treated with respect and made to exercise an influence over the social state, that the standard of private virtue and of public opinion would soon be lowered, and the manners and morals of men would suffer." How differently situated is woman with us! Respected she undoubtedly is, but instead of the liberty she enjoys here, behold her confined to certain apartments, not permitted to go abroad unveiled, and leading a life of indolent repose.

In acknowledging this, dear mother, the laws point out to the favored women of Egypt the very responsible duties they have to perform. The elevation of woman to be the friend and companion of man, is due to the wisdom of the priesthood. These men have wives whom they love and respect, and I have seen the priest of On seated in his summer parlor, which overlooks the street, by the side of his noble-looking wife (who, it is said, is a descendant of a priest of On, whose daughter was married to Prince Joseph, the Hebrew), surrounded by their children, and manifesting their mutual affection by numberless domestic graces; and I was charmed with the expressions of endearment I heard them use to each other and to their children. What a contrast all this to the priests of Tyre, who regard celibacy as the highest act of piety!

The hand of your sex, my dear mother, is apparent in all the household arrangements, and in the furniture and style of the dwellings. In her contract of marriage it is written, that the lady shall have the whole regulation of domestic affairs and the management of the house, and that the husband shall, in all such matters, defer to the judgment and wishes of the wife. Neither king, priest, nor subject can have more than one wife, a custom differing from our own, and far superior to it. It is owing to this universal honor paid to the sex, that queens have repeatedly, since the ancient reign of Binothris, held the royal authority and had the supreme direction of affairs intrusted to them. It is proper to say, that although the Egyptians have but one wife, they are not forbidden by the laws to have favorites, who are usually slaves, and owe their elevation to talents or beauty. They do not, however, hold any social relation; and the wife, to whom alone is given the title "lady of the house," enjoys an acknowledged superiority over them. But concubinage, though tolerated, is not regarded with favor, and is practised by few.