LETTERS OF SESOSTRIS TO QUEEN EPIPHIA. (continued 4)

The Egyptian ladies employ much of their time with the needle; and either with their own hands, or by the agency of their maidens, they embroider, weave, spin, and do needle-work—the last in the most skilful and beautiful manner. They embroider chairs with thread of gold or silver, adorn sofas with embroidery, and ornament coverings for their couches with needle-work of divers colors, so artfully executed as to appear, on both sides, of equal beauty and finish. At the banquets or social festivals, which are very frequent, for the Egyptians are fond of society, the ladies sit at the same table with the men, and no rigid mistrust closes their doors on such occasions to strangers, towards whom they are ever courteous and hospitable; save only in religious ceremonies, from which, and "the mysteries of their theology," they are jealously excluded.

I have already spoken of the services of women in the temples. These do not marry. Although females may make offerings to Isis, they cannot be invested with any sacerdotal office; and a priest must preside at the oblation. They are rarely seen reading, their leisure being occupied chiefly in talking together in social companies. They vie with each other in the display of silver jewels, and jewels set in gold; in the texture of their raiment, the neatness and elegance of the form of their sandals, and the arrangement or beauty of their plaited hair.

If two ladies meet at a banquet or festival, it is considered an amiable courtesy to exchange flowers from the bouquet that Egyptian ladies always carry in the hand when in full costume. They are passionately devoted to dancing, and frequently both ladies and gentlemen dance together; but I think when the former dance in separate parties, their movements are marked by superior grace and elegance. Their dances consist usually of a succession of figures more or less involved; yet I have seen two daughters of the captain of the guard, at a private entertainment given by the queen, perform a dance to a slow air played upon the flute and lyre, with a grace of attitude and harmony of motion delightful to follow with the eye. Grace in posture, elegance of attitude, and ease of movement are their chief objects in the dance.

It is not, however, customary for the nobles and their families to indulge in this amusement in public, where usually the dancing is performed by those who gain a livelihood by attending festive meetings. They look upon it, however, as a recreation in which all classes may partake; and all castes engage in it, either in private festivities or in public. The lower orders delight in exhibiting great spirit in their dances, which often partake of the nature of pantomime; and they aim rather at ludicrous and extravagant dexterity, than displays of elegance and grace. At evening, under the trees of an avenue; at noon, in the shade of a temple, by public fountains, and before the doors of their dwellings, I often see the men and women amusing themselves, dancing to the sound of music, which is indispensable. At the houses of the higher classes, they dance to the harp, pipe, guitar, lyre, and tambourine; but in the streets and other places, the people perform their part to the music of the shrill double-pipe, the crotala or wooden clappers, held in the fingers, and even to the sound of the drum; indeed, I have seen a man dancing a solo on the deck of a galley at anchor in the river, to the sound of the clapping of hands by his companions. Certain wanton dances, consisting of voluptuous and passionate movements, by Arabian and Theban girls, whose profession it was, from the impure tendency of their songs and gestures, have been very properly forbidden by the queen in her dominions. There are certain religious processions in which women take part; they attend the funerals of their deceased relatives, and hired women appear as mourners.

I have devoted, my dear mother, so much of this letter to a description of the ladies of Egypt, in compliance with your expressed wish, and I will appropriate the residue of my papyrus, if the ink fail not, to an account of their homes, that you may see how they live; since, from their private life, great insight is obtained into their manners and customs. The household arrangements, the style of the dwellings, as well as the amusements and occupations of a people, explain their habits.

The style of domestic architecture, in this warm climate, is modified to suit the heat of the weather. The poorer classes (for though all Egyptians are born equal, yet there are poor classes), as well as castes, live a great part of their time out of doors, seeking rather the shade of trees than the warmth of habitations. And now that I have alluded to "castes," I will briefly explain the degrees of society in Egypt.

Though a marked line of distinction is maintained between the different ranks of society, they appear to be divided rather into "classes" than "castes," as no man is bound by law to follow the occupation of his father. Sons, indeed, do usually follow the trade of their father, and the rank of each man depends on his occupation. But there are occasional exceptions, as, for instance, the sons of a distinguished priest are in the army with Remeses, and a son of the admiral of the fleet of the Delta is high-priest in Memphis.

Below the crown and royal family, the first class consists of the priests; the second, of soldiers; the third, of husbandmen, gardeners, huntsmen, and boatmen; the fourth, of tradesmen, shop-keepers, artificers in stone and metals, carpenters, boat-builders, stone-masons, and public weighers; the fifth, of shepherds, poulterers fowlers, fishermen, laborers, and the common people at large. Many of these, says the record from which I have obtained my information, are again subdivided, as chief shepherds into ox-herds, goat-herds, and swine-herds; which last is the lowest grade of the whole community, since no one of the others will marry their daughters, or establish any family connection with them; for so degrading is the occupation of tending swine held by the Egyptians, that they are looked upon as impure, and are even forbidden to enter a temple without previously undergoing purification.

Thus you perceive, my mother, that Egypt practically acknowledges many degrees of rank, although she boasts that "every son of Misr is born equal."

These classes keep singularly distinct, and yet live harmoniously and sociably with each other. Out of them the queen's workmen are taken, and the lowest supplies the common laborers on the public works,—thousands of whom, clad only in an apron and short trowsers of coarsely woven grass-cloth, are to be found at work all over Egypt, and even mingled with the Hebrews in some parts of their tasks. "And the Hebrews?" you may ask; for I perceive by your letter that you are interested in the fate and history of this captive nation; "what rank do they hold among all these castes?"

They remain a distinct and separate people, neither regarded as a class or caste. They pursue but one occupation, brick-making, with its kindred work of digging the loam, gathering the straw, kneading the clay, and carrying the bricks to the place where the masons need them. They neither associate nor intermarry with any of the Egyptian classes. They are the crown slaves, born in bondage, below the lowest free-born Egyptian in the land of Misraim. Even the swine-herd belongs to a class, and is equal by birth, at least, with the Pharaoh who rules; but the Hebrew is a bond-servant, a stranger, despised and oppressed. Yet among them have I seen men worthy to be kings, if dignity of aspect and nobleness of bearing entitle men to that position.

I will now return, and describe to you the habitations of the Egyptians, my dear mother. Houses slightly removed beyond the degree of mere barbarous huts, built of crude brick, and very small, are the habitations of the lower orders. Others, of more pretension, are stuccoed, and have a court; others, still superior, have the stuccoed surface painted, either vermilion and orange, in stripes, or of a pale-brown color, with green or blue ornaments, fanciful rather than tasteful. Those of merchants and persons of that grade, are more imposing;—corridors, supported on columns, give access to the different apartments, through a succession of shady avenues and courts, having one side open to the breezes; while currents of fresh air are made to circulate freely through the rooms and halls, by a peculiar arrangement of the passages and courts; for, to have a cool house in this ardent latitude is the aim of all who erect habitations. Even small detached dwellings of artificers and tradesmen, consisting of four walls, with a flat roof of palm-branches, laid on split date-trees as a beam, covered with mats, and plastered with mud of the Nile, having but one door, and wooden shutters,—even such humble habitations have in the centre an open court, however limited, with rooms opening to the air on one side; while around the small court are planted one or more palms, for shade, besides adorning it with plants of their favorite flowers. I have seen some such neat little abodes, not much larger than cages, with a cheerful family in it, who lived out of doors all day, dining under the shade of their tree, and dancing in their open court by moonlight, to the music of clapping hands or the castanets, until bedtime, using their houses only to sleep in; and such is the happy life of half the Egyptians of their grade.

The grander mansions, less than palaces, are not only stuccoed within and without, but painted with artistic and tasteful combinations of brilliant tints. They have numerous paved courts, with fountains and decorated walls, and are adorned with beautiful architectural devices, copied from the sacred emblems and symbols in the temples, and arranged and combined in forms or groups in the most attractive style. Over the doors of many houses are handsome shields or tablets, charged with the hieroglyph of the master, inscribed with some sentence. Over that of the house of the chief weigher of metals, opposite my palace window in On, was written "The House of the Just Balance." Over another "The good house;" and over a third, "The friend of Rathoth, the royal scribe, liveth here." Any distinction, or long journey, or merit, or attribute, gives occasion for an inscription over the entrances.

The beauty of a house depends on the taste, caprice, or wealth of its builders. The priests and lords of Egypt live in luxurious abodes, and a display of wealth is found to be useful in maintaining their power, and securing the respect and obedience of the under classes.

"The worldly possessions of the priest," said an Egyptian scribe of the temple of Apis, "are very great, and as a compensation for imposing upon themselves at times abstemiousness, and occasionally limiting their food to certain things, they are repaid by improved health, and by the influence they acquire thereby. Their superior intelligence enables them," he continued, ironically, "to put their own construction on regulations and injunctions emanating from their sacred body, with the convenient argument, that what suits them does not suit others." The windows of the houses are not large, and freely admit the cool breezes, but are closed at night by shutters. The apartments are usually on the ground-floor, and few houses, except perhaps in Thebes, exceed two stories in height. They are accessible by an entrance court, often having a columnar portico decked with banners or ribbons, while larger porticos have double rows of columns, with statues between them. When there is an additional story, a terrace surmounts it, covered by an awning, or by a light roof supported upon graceful columns. Here the ladies often sit by day: and here all the family gather at the close of the afternoon to enjoy the breeze, and the sight of the thronged streets and surrounding scene,—for it is open on all sides to the air. In the trades' streets the shops are on the ground-floor, and the apartments for families are above. As it scarcely ever rains, the tops of the houses, terraced, and covered with a handsomely fringed awning, are occupied at all hours, and even at night as sleeping-places by the "lord of the house," if the apartments below are sultry and close. Some noble edifices have flights of steps of porphyry or marble leading to a raised platform of Elephantine or Arabic stone, with a doorway between two columns as massive as towers—ambitious imitations of the propyla of the temples. These gateways have three entrances, a smaller one on each side of the principal entrance for servants, who are very numerous in an Egyptian house of the first class. Such is the house of my friend, the Admiral Pathromenes, whom I visited the day I saw him in his galley, and just before he sailed with the fleet for Ethiopia.

On entering the portal, I passed into an open court, on the right side of which was the mándara or receiving-room for visitors, where servants took my sandals, and offered water for my hands in silver ewers, at the same time giving me bouquets of flowers. This room, surrounded by gilt columns, and decorated with banners, was covered by an awning supported by the columns, and was on all sides open to within four feet of the floor, which lower space was closed by intercolumnar panels, exquisitely painted with marine subjects. Above the paneling a stream of cool air was admitted, while the awning afforded protection from the rays of the sun. This elegant reception-hall had two doors—that by which I had entered from the street, and another opposite to it which communicated with the inner apartments. Upon my announcement by the chief usher, the admiral came through the latter door to receive me; hence the title of "reception-room" given to this column-adorned and paneled hall. He embraced me, and entered with me by his side into a corridor which led into a court of large dimensions, ornamented in the centre with an avenue of trees—palm, olive, orange, and fig trees, the latter being an emblem of the land of Egypt. Here numerous birds filled their leafy coverts with melody. Six apartments faced as many more on two sides of this court—the corridor, or piazza, of pictured columns extending along their entire front; and before the corridor was a double row of acacia-trees. We did not turn to these rooms, but, advancing along the charming avenue between them, passed around a brazen fountain-statue of Eothos or Neptune, who was pouring water out of a shell upon a marble lotus-leaf, from which it fell into a vase of granite. Passing this figure, we kept the avenue till we came to a beautiful door facing the great court. It was of palm-wood, carved with devices of branches and flowers, and inlaid with ivory and colored woods, all finely polished. At this door a servant, in neat apparel, met us, and opening it ushered us into the sitting-room of "the lady of the house," who had already received notice of our approach, and who, presenting me with flowers, welcomed me graciously, and with a cordiality that gave me a favorable estimation of the goodness of her heart, and the amiability of her disposition.

Thus, dear mother, have I given you some insight into Egyptian home-life, and introduced you into the inmost private room of one of their houses. I will close my description by saying, that the ceiling of the reception-room was richly and tastefully adorned with the pencil; that gracefully shaped chairs, covered with needle-work; sofas, inlaid tables, couches with crimson and gold embroidery, and elegant vases of flowers, were charmingly disposed about it; and that a lute and two sistra were placed near a window, and a harp stood between two of the columns that inclosed a pictured panel representing the finding of Osiris.

Farewell, dearest mother. You will see that I have now acquitted myself of the charge of indifference to so interesting a subject as the mode of life of the ladies of Egypt, and by hastening to describe it to you in this letter, have evinced my profound filial reverence for your slightest wish.

Your faithful and affectionate son,

Sesostris

LETTER XIII.

The City of Apis.

My dear Mother:

I thank you for your long and very welcome letter, written from your palace, at Sidon, whither you went to celebrate the rites of Adonis. It assures me of your continued health, which may the gods guard with jealous care, for not only the stability of your kingdom, but my whole happiness depends on your life, beloved mother and queen. You also allude to your visits to the temples of Astarte and of Tammuz, on Lebanon. What a noble worship was that of our fathers, who, amid its gigantic cedars, old as the earth itself, there first worshipped the gods! How majestic must have appeared their simple rites, with no altar but the mountain rock, no columns but the vast trunks of mighty trees, no roof but the blue heavens by day, and the starry dome by night; while at morning and evening went up the smoke of the sacrifice of bullocks to the gods. These were the first temples of men, not builded by art, but made by the gods themselves as meet places for their own worship. I question, dear mother, if the subsequent descent of religion from its solemn shrines, in the dark forests of Libanus, into the valleys and cities, to be enshrined in temples of marble, however beautiful, has elevated it. Though the Phœnicians built the first temples on the peninsula of Tyre, before any others existed, save in groves; yet in Egypt (which claims also this honor), the "houses of the gods," in their vast and pyramidal aspects, their pillars like palm-trees, their columns like cedars, approach more nearly to the dignity, sublimity, and majesty of the primeval forests and eternal mountains where religion first offered prayer to heaven.

Your visit to the temple of Tammuz, at Sareptha, recalls a legend which, singularly enough, I first heard in Egypt, of the origin of the rites to that deity.

The books of the priests here, relating to Phœnician, Sabæan, Persian, and Chaldean ceremonies (for the learning of the Egyptians seems to embrace a knowledge of books of all countries), relate that Tammuz was a "certain idolatrous prophet of the Sabæan Fire-worshippers, who called upon King Ossynœces, our remote ancestor, and commanded him to worship the Seven Planets and the Twelve Signs of the constellations. The king, in reply, ordered him to be put to death. On the same night on which he was slain," continues the book from which I write, "a great gathering of all the images of the gods of the whole earth was held at the palace, where the huge golden image of the sun was suspended; whereupon this image of the sun related what had happened to his prophet, weeping and mourning as he spoke to them. Then all the lesser gods present likewise commenced weeping and mourning, which they continued until daylight, when they all departed through the air, returning to their respective temples in the most distant regions of the earth." Such, dear mother, is the tradition here of the origin of the weeping for Tammuz, the observance of which now forms so important a feature in our Phœnician worship, although introduced, as it was, from the Sabæans themselves.

But the more I have conversed with the wise and virtuous Prince Remeses, the more I feel the gross nature of our mythology, O mother, and that images and myths, such as form the ground and expression of our national worship, and that rest wholly in the material figure itself, are unworthy the reverence of an intelligent mind. It is true, we can look at them, and honor that which they represent,—as I daily look at your picture, which I wear over my heart, and kissing it from love for thee, do not worship and adore the ivory, and the colors that mark upon its surface a sweet reflection of your beloved and beautiful countenance. Oh, no! It is you far away I think of, kiss, love, and in a manner adore. Yet an Egyptian of the lowest order, seeing me almost worshipping your picture, would believe I was adoring an effigy of my tutelar goddess. And he would be right, so far as my heart and thought, and you are concerned, my mother. In this representative way, I am now sure that Remeses regards all images, looking through and beyond them up to the Supreme Infinite. I also have imbibed his lofty spirit of worship, and have come to adore the statues as I worship your picture. But where, O mother, is the Infinite? When I think of you, I can send my soul towards you, on wings that bear me to your feet, either in your private chamber at needle-work, or with your royal scribe as you are dictating laws for the realm, or upon your throne giving judgment. In memory and imagination, I can instantly send my thoughts out to you, and behold you as you are. But the Infinite, whom Remeses calls GOD, in contradistinction to lesser gods, where does He hide Himself? Why, if He is, does He not reveal Himself? Why does He suffer us to grope after Him, and not find Him? If He be good, and loving, and gracious in His nature, He will desire to make known to His creatures these attributes. But how silent—how impenetrable the mystery that environs Him in the habitation of His throne! Will He forever remain wrapped up in the dark clouds of space? Will He never reveal Himself in His moral nature to man? Will He never of Himself proclaim to the creation His unity—that there is no God but One, and besides Him there is none else? How can He demand obedience and virtue of men when they know not His laws? Yet, consciousness within, visible nature, reason, all demonstrate that there is but one Supreme God, a single First Cause, how numerous soever the inferior deities He may have created to aid in the government of His vast universe; and that to Him an intellectual and spiritual worship should be paid. This is the theory of Remeses, who seems to be infinitely above his people and country in piety and wisdom. Sometimes I fancy that he draws inspiration from this Infinite God whom he worships in his heart, and recognizes through his intellect; for his utterances on these themes are often like the words of a god, so wonderful are the mysteries treated of by him, so elevating to the heart and mind.

But I will repeat part of a conversation we had together, after he had offered in the temple of Apis his sacrifice for the restoration of the queen's health. He said, as we walked away together, along a beautiful and sacred avenue of acacia and delicate, fringe-like ittel or tamarisk trees, alternating with the pomegranate and mimosa:

"Sesostris, doubtless, after all my conversations with you, I seemed an idolater to-day, quite as material and gross, in the offerings and prayers I made, as the galley-rower we saw offering a coarse garland of papyrus-leaves and poppies to the god."

"No, my noble prince," I answered; "I saw in you an intellectual sacrificer, whose bodily eyes indeed beheld the sacred bull, but whose spirit saw the Great Osiris, who once dwelt in the bull when on earth. You honored the house where anciently a god abode."

"No, Sesostris, the bull is nothing to me in any sense, but as the prince of a realm whose laws ordain the worship of Apis in Memphis, of the ram-headed Ammon at Thebes, or the sacred ox at On, I outwardly conform to customs which I dare not and cannot change. Or if I would, what shall I give the people if I take away their gods? My own religion is spiritual, as I believe yours is becoming; but how shall I present a spiritual faith to the Egyptians? In what form—what visible shape, can I offer it to them? for the priests will demand a visible religion—one tangible and material. The people cannot worship an intellectual abstraction, as we can, Sesostris, and as the more intelligent priests pretend they do and can. Yet if, when I come to the throne, by an imperial edict I remodel the theology of the priesthood and the worship of the people—remove the golden sun from the temple in On, slay the sacred bull Apis, and banish the idols from all the thousand temples of the two Egypts, with what shall I replace the religion I depose?"

"With an intellectual and spiritual worship of the Supreme Infinite," I answered.

"But who will enlighten my own ignorance of Him, Sesostris?" he inquired sadly. "What do I know of Him save from an awakened consciousness within my bosom? How can I make others possess that consciousness which is only intuitive, and so incommunicable? I must first know where God is, before I can direct the people whither to look for Him when they pray. I must first cultivate their minds and imaginations, in order to enable them to embrace a purely mental religion, and to worship the Infinite independently of figures, images, and visible mementos or symbols; for, so long as they have these at all, they will rest their faith in them, and will look upon them as their gods. But what do I know of the God I would reveal to them? Absolutely nothing! That there can be but one Supreme God, reason demonstrates; for if there were two equal gods, they would have equal power, equal agency in the creation and upholding of all things, in the government of the world, and in the worship of men! Two equal gods, who in no case differ one from the other, but are in all things one and the same, are virtually but one God. Therefore, as neither two, nor any number of equal gods, can exist without acting as a unit (for otherwise they cannot act), there can be only one God!"

I at once assented to the conclusiveness of the prince's reasoning.

"God, then, existing as One, all beings in his universe are below Him, even His creatures the 'gods,' if there be such made by Him. It becomes, therefore, all men to worship, not these gods, but the God of gods. That he should be worshipped spiritually is evident, for he must be a spiritual essence; and as we are certainly composed of spirits and material bodies, and as our spirits are no less certainly our superior part, so He who made the spirit of man must be superior to all bodies or forms of matter; that is, he must be that by reason of which he is superior, namely, a SPIRIT."

I then said to this learned and great prince, "Thinkest thou, Remeses, that this Infinite God, whom we believe exists, will ever make a revelation of Himself, so that He may be worshipped as becomes His perfections? Do you think the veil of ignorance which hangs between Him and us will ever be lifted?"

"Without question, my Sesostris," he answered, with animation, the light of hope kindling in his noble eyes, "the Creator of this world must be a benevolent, good, and wise Being."

"Of that there can be no doubt," was my reply.

"Benevolence, goodness, and wisdom, then, will seek the happiness and elevation of man. A knowledge of the true God, whom we are now feeling and groping after in darkness, with only the faint light of our reason to illumine its mysterious gloom,—this knowledge would elevate and render happy the race of men. It would dissipate ignorance, overthrow idolatry, place man near God, and, consequently, lift him higher in the scale of the universe. A God of wisdom, benevolence, and justice, will seek to produce this result. The world, therefore, will have a revelation from Him, in the fulness of time,—when men are ready to receive it. It may not be while I live, Sesostris, but the time will come when the knowledge of the Infinite God will be revealed by Himself to man, who will then worship Him, and Him alone, with the pure worship due to His majesty, glory, and dominion."

As Remeses concluded, his face seemed to shine with a supernatural inspiration, as if he had talked with the Infinite and Spiritual God of whom he spoke, and had learned from Him the mighty mysteries of His being. Then there passed a shadow over his face, and he said, sorrowfully—

"How can I lead the people of Egypt to the true God, when He hath not taught me any thing of Himself? No, no, Sesostris, Egypt must wait, I must wait, the world must wait the day of revelation. And that day will come, or there is no God! For an ever-silent God—a God who forever hideth Himself from His creatures—is as if there were no God! But that there is a God the heavens declare in their glory, the ocean hoarsely murmurs His name, the thunders proclaim His power, the lilies of the field speak of His goodness, and we ourselves are living manifestations of His benevolence and love. Let us, therefore, amid all the splendor of the idolatry which fills the earth, lift up our hearts, O Sesostris, to the One God! and in secret worship Him, wheresoever our souls can find Him, until He reveals Himself openly to the inhabitants of the earth."

In relating this conversation, my dear mother, I not only am preparing you to see my views of our mythology materially changed, but I unfold to you more of the sublime character of Remeses, and give you some insight into his deep philosophy and wonderful wisdom.

I will, in connection with this subject, describe to you a religious scene I witnessed in the Temple of Apis on the occasion of an excursion made by me in company with Remeses, from the Island of Rhoda.

I have already spoken of his courtesy in offering to accompany me to Memphis, at which city he left me, immediately after his oblation and thanksgiving, and proceeded to attend to some urgent affairs connected with the proposed movement of the army; with which, since then, he has taken his departure.

The barge in which I left the palace at Rhoda, was rowed by forty-four men, swarthy and muscular to a noticeable degree, who belong to a maritime people, once possessing the Pelusian Delta, but who are now reduced to a servitude to the crown. They have a sort of chief, called Fellac, whom they regard partly as a priest, partly as a patriarch. Under him, by permission of the crown, they are held in discipline. They have a mysterious worship of their own, and are reputed to deal in magic, and to sacrifice to Typhon, the principle of evil.

They were attired in scarlet sashes, bound about the waist, and holding together loose white linen drawers, which terminated at the knee in a fringe. Their shoulders were naked, but upon their heads each wore a sort of turban of green cloth, having one end falling over the ear, and terminating in a silver knob. These were the favorite body-guard rowers of the prince. Their captain was a young man, with glittering teeth, and large oval black eyes. He was mild and serene of aspect, richly attired in a vesture of silver tissue, and had his black hair perfumed with jasmine oil. His baton of office was a long stick—not the long, slender, acacia cane which all Egyptian gentlemen carry, but a staff short and heavy, ornamented with an alligator's head, which, with that of the pelican, seem to be favorite decorations of this singular people.

As we were on the water, moving swiftly towards the quay of the city, amid countless vessels of all nations, a slave-barge passed down from Upper Egypt, laden with Nubian boys and girls, destined to be sold as slaves in the market. Borne with velocity along, we soon landed at the grand terrace-steps of the quay. They were thronged with pilots, shipmen, those who hold the helm and the oar, mariners, and stranger-merchants innumerable. A majestic gateway, at the top of the flight of porphyry stairs, led to an avenue of palm-trees, on each side of which was a vast open colonnade covered with a wide awning, and filled with merchants, buyers, captains, and officers of the customs, dispersed amid bales of goods from all lands of the earth. I lingered here, for a short time, gazing upon these representatives of the wealth and commerce of the world. This is the great landing-mart of Memphis, for the products of the other lands; while Jizeh, lower down, is the point from whence all that goes out of the country is shipped. The strange cry of the foreign seamen, as they hoisted heavy bales, and the wild song of the Egyptian laborers, as they bore away the goods, the confused voices of the owners of the merchandise, the variety and strange fashion of their costumes, the numerous languages which fell upon my ear, produced an effect as novel as it was interesting.

The riches and beauty of what I saw surprised me, familiar as I am with the commerce of Tyre. There were merchants from Sheba, bearded and long-robed men, with gold-dust, spices of all kinds, and precious stones of price; and others from the markets of Javan, with cassia, iron, and calamus; there were wines from the vine-country of Helbona, and honey, oil, and balm from Philistia; merchants of Dedan, with embroidered linings and rich cloths for chariots, and costly housings for horses, of lynx and leopard-skins; tall, grave-looking merchants from our own Damascus, with elegant wares, cutlery, and damascened sword-blades of wonderful beauty, and which bring great price here; shrewd-visaged merchants of Tyre, with purple and broidered work and fine linen; and merchants of Sidon, with emeralds, coral, and agate, and the valuable calmine-stone out of which, in combination with copper, brass is molten by the Egyptians.

There were also merchants, in an attire rich and picturesque, from many isles of the sea, with vessels of bronze, vases, and other exquisitely painted wares, and boxes inlaid with ivory, jewels, and ebony. I saw the dark, handsome men of Tarshish and far Gades, with all kinds of riches of silver, iron, tin, lead, and scales of gold. Shields from Arvad, beautifully embossed and inlaid; helmets and shawls from Persia; ivory from Ind, and boxes of precious stones—the jasper, the sapphire, the sardiüs, the onyx, the beryl, the topaz, the carbuncle, and the diamond—from the south seas, and those lands under the sun, where he casts no shadow. There were, also, wild-looking merchant horsemen from Arabia, with horses and mules to be traded for the fine linen, and gilt wares, and dyes of Egypt; and proud-looking shepherd chiefs of Kedar, with flocks of lambs, rams, and goats; while beyond these, some merchants of Saïs, men of stern aspects, bad bands of slaves, whose shining black skins and glittering teeth showed them to be Nubians from Farther Africa, who had been brought from the Upper Nile to be sold in the mart.

Thus does all the earth lay its riches at the feet of Egypt, even as she pours them into the lap of Tyre. Meet it is that two nations, so equal in commerce, should be allied in friendship. May this friendly alliance, more closely cemented by my visit to this court, never be broken! I am willing to surrender to Egypt the title, "Mistress of the World," which I have seen inscribed on the obelisk that Amense is now erecting, so long as she makes no attempt upon our cherished freedom, nor asks of us other tribute to her greatness than the jewelled necklace it was my pleasure to present to her queen, from your hand.

Having crossed this wonderful mart of the world, we issued upon a broad street, which diverging to the right led towards Jizeh, not far distant, and to the left towards Memphis, the noble pylon of which was in full sight. The street was lined with small temples, six on each side, dedicated to the twelve gods of the months, statues of each of whom stood upon pedestals before its gateway.

This avenue, which was but a succession of columns and statues, and in which we met several pleasure-chariots, terminated at an obelisk one hundred feet in height—a majestic and richly elaborated monument, erected by Amunophis I., whose name it bears upon a cartouch, to the honor of his Syrian queen, Ephtha. Upon its surface is recounted, in exquisitely colored intaglio hieroglyphs, her virtues and the deeds of his own reign. At each of its four corners crouches a sphinx, with a dog's head, symbolic of ceaseless vigilance. A noble square surrounds the obelisk, and on its west side is the propylon of Memphis. The great wings that inclose the pylon are ninety feet in height, and are resplendent with colored pictorial designs, done in the most brilliant style of Egyptian art.

Here we found a guard of soldiers, whose captain received the prince with marks of the profoundest military respect. We passed in, through ranks of soldiers, who bent one knee to the ground, and entered the chief street of Memphis—the second city in Egypt in architectural magnificence, and the first in religious importance, as the city of the sacred bull Apis.

A description of this city would be almost a repetition of that of On, slightly varying the avenues, squares, and forms of temples. You have, therefore, to imagine, or rather recall, the splendor of the "City of the Lord of the Sun" (for this is its true Egyptian designation), and apply to Memphis the picture hitherto given of that gorgeous metropolis of Osiris.

After we had passed a few squares through the thronged and handsome street, which was exclusively filled with beautiful and tasteful abodes of priests, adorned with gardens and corridors, we came to a large open space in the city, where was a great fountain, surrounded by lions sculptured in gray porphyry stone. On one side of this square was a lake, bordered with trees; on another, a grove sacred to certain mysteries; on a third, a temple dedicated to all the sacred animals of Egypt,—images of which surrounded a vast portico in front. An enumeration of them will exhibit to you, how the first departure, in ancient days, from the worship of the One Deity, by personating His attributes in animal forms, has converted religion into a gross and sensual superstition. It is not enough that they have fanciful emblems in all their temples, and on all their sculptured monuments, of Life, Goodness, Power, Purity, Majesty, and Dominion (as in the crook and flail of Osiris), of Authority, of Royalty, of Stability; but they elevate into representatives of the gods, the ape, sacred to Thoth; the monkey; the fox, dog, wolf, and jackal, all four sacred to Anubis; the ichneumon and cat, which last is superstitiously reverenced, and when dead embalmed with divine rites. The ibex, which I once believed to be sacred, is regarded only as an emblem; and so with the horse, ass, panther, and leopard, which are not sacred, but merely used in sculptures as emblems. The hippopotamus is sacred, and also an emblem of Typhon, dedicated to the god of war. The cow is held eminently sacred by the Egyptians, and is dedicated to the deity Athor.

There are four sacred bulls in Egypt,—not only sacred, but deified. In Middle Egypt, Onuphis and Basis are worshipped in superb temples; and at On, Mnevis, sacred to the Sun. Here in Memphis is Apis, not only sacred but a god, and type of Osiris, who, in his turn, is the type of the Sun, which is the type of the Infinite Invisible; at least this is the formula, so far as I have learned its mysteries. How much purer the religion, dear mother, which, passing by or overleaping all these intermediate types and incarnations, prostrates the soul before the footstool of the Lord of the Sun Himself, the One Spiritual God of gods!

Of all the sacred animals above named, I beheld images in stone upon the dromos which bordered the portico. There were also figures of the sacred birds,—as the ibis, sacred to the god Thoth; the vulture, the falcon-hawk, sacred to Re, and honored in the city of On, and the egret, sacred to Osiris. Besides these sacred figures which decorated this pantheonic portico, at each of the four gates was one of the four deified bulls in stone, larger than life-size. There are also to be found, all over Egypt, sculptured sphinxes,—a sort of fabulous monster, represented either with the head of a man, a hawk, or a ram; to these may be added a vulture with a serpent's head, and a tortoise-headed god.

The phœnix, sacred to Osiris, I shall by and by speak of, and the white and saffron-colored cock, sacred to, and sacrificed in, the Temple of Anubis. Certain fishes are also held sacred by this extraordinary people, who convert every thing into gods. The oxyrhincus, the eel, the lepidotus, and others are sacred, and at Thebes are embalmed by the priests. The scorpion is an emblem of the goddess Selk, the frog of Pthah, and the unwieldy crocodile sacred to the god Savak—a barbarous deity. Serpents having human heads, and also hawk's and lion's heads, were sculptured along the frieze of this pantheon, intermingled with figures of nearly all the above sacred animals. On the abacus of each column was sculptured the scarabæus—the sacred beetle—consecrated to Pthah, and adopted as an emblem of the world; also the type of the god Hor-hat, the Good Genius of Egypt, whose emblem is a sun supported by two winged asps encircling it. Flies, ichneumons, and bees, with many other insects and animals, are represented in the sculptures, but are not sacred.

Even vegetables do not escape the service of their religion. The persea is sacred to Athor; the ivy to Osiris, and much made use of at his festivals; the feathery tamarisk is also sacred to this deity; and the peach and papyrus are supposed to be sacred, or at least used, for religious purposes. Contrary to the opinion I formed when I first came into Egypt, the onion, leek, and garlic are not sacred. The pomegranate, vine, and acanthus are used for sacred rites, and the sycamore-fig is sacred to Netpe. The lotus, the favorite object of imitation in all temple-sculpture, is sacred to, and the emblem of, the most ancient god of Egypt, whom the priests call Nofiratmoosis—a name wholly new to me among the deities;—but it is also clearly a favorite emblem of Osiris, being found profusely sculptured on all his temples. Lastly, the palm-branch is a symbol of astrology and type of the year, and conspicuous among the offerings made to the gods.

Now, my dear mother, can you wonder at Prince Remeses—that a man of his learning, intellect, sensibility, and sound judgment, should turn away from these thousand contemptible gods of Egypt, to seek a purer faith and worship, and that he should wish to give his people a more elevating and spiritual religion? Divisions and subdivisions have here reached their climax, and the Egyptians who worship God in every thing may be said to have ceased to worship him at all!

What was on the fourth side of the great square, of which the lake, the grove, and the pantheon composed three, was the central and great Temple of Apis in Lower Egypt. In my next letter I will describe my visit to it. I am at present a guest of the high-priest of the temple, and hence the date of my letter at Memphis.

Your affectionate son,

Sesostris

LETTER XIV.

The Palace of the Priest of Apis.

My dear Mother:

I will now describe to you my visit, with the prince, to the most remarkable shrine in Egypt. While the worship of Osiris, at On, is a series of splendid pageantries, but little differing from the gorgeous sun-worship which you witnessed some years ago at Baalbec, the rites of Apis are as solemn and severe as the temple in which they are celebrated is grand and majestic.

The temple itself is a massive and imposing edifice, of reddish Elephantine stone. It is of vast proportions, and the effect produced is that of a mountain of rock hewn into a temple, as travellers say temples are cut out of the face of cliffs in Idumea-Arabia. Its expression is majesty and grandeur. It occupies the whole of one side of the vast square described by me in my last letter.

As we were about to ascend to the gate, I was startled by a loud and menacing cry from many voices, and, looking around, perceived a Tyrian mariner, recognized by me as such by his dress, who was flying across the square with wings of fear. A crowd, which momentarily increased, pursued him swiftly with execrations and cries of vengeance! As he drew near, I noticed that he was as pale as a corpse. Seeing that he was a Phœnician, I felt interested in him, and by a gesture drew him towards me. He fell at my feet, crying—"Save me, O my prince!"

"What hast thou done?" I demanded.

"Only killed one of their cats, my lord!"

The throng came rushing on, like a stormy wave, uttering fearful cries.

"May I try and protect him, O Remeses," I asked, for I knew that, if taken, he would be slain for destroying one of their sacred animals.

"I will see if I can; but I fear my interposition will not be heeded in a case like this," he replied. At the same time he deprecatingly waved his hand to the infuriated populace, which had in a few moments increased to a thousand people.

"No, not even for the prince! He has killed a sacred animal. By our laws he also must die. We will sacrifice him to the gods!"

In vain I entreated, and Remeses interposed. The wretched man was torn from our presence by as many hands as could seize him, thrown down the steps of the temple, and trampled upon by the furious crowd, until nothing like a human shape remained. The formless mass was then divided into pieces, and carried to a temple where numerous sacred cats are kept, in order to be given to them to devour. Such is the terrible death they inflict upon one who by accident kills a cat or an ibis!

"The power of the State is weak when contending with the mad strength of superstition," remarked Remeses, as we entered the temple between two statues of brazen bulls. Entering through a majestic doorway, we came into an avenue of vast columns, the size of which impressed me with awe. The temple was originally erected to Pthah, anciently the chief deity of Memphis, and dedicated in the present reign to the sacred bull, whose apartment is the original adytum of the temple.

The worship of Apis and Mnevis, the bulls consecrated to Osiris, exhibits the highest point to which the worship of animals in Egypt has reached, and it was with no little interest I felt myself advancing into the presence of this deified animal. We were met, at the entrance of the avenue of columns, by two priests in white linen robes, over which was a crimson scarf, the sacred color of Apis. They had tall caps on their heads, and each carried a sort of crook. They received the prince with prostrations. Going one before and one behind us, they escorted us along the gloomy and solemn avenue of sculptured columns, until we came to a brazen door. A priest opened it, and we entered a magnificent peristyle court supported by caryatides twelve cubits in height, representing the forms of Egyptian women. We remained in this grand hall a few moments, when a door on the opposite side opened and the sacred bull appeared. He was conducted by a priest, who led him by a gold chain fastened to his horns, which were garlanded with flowers. The animal was large, noble-looking, and jet-black in color, with the exception of a square spot of white upon his forehead. Upon his shoulder was the resemblance of a vulture, and the hairs were double in his tail! These being the sacred marks of Apis, I observed them particularly: there should be also the mark of a scarabæeus on his tongue.

The deity stalked proudly forth, slowly heaving up and down his huge head and thick neck,—a look of barbaric power and grandeur glancing from his eye.

The curator of the sacred animal led him once around the hall, the Egyptians prostrating themselves as he passed them, and even Remeses, instinctively, from custom, bending his head. When he stopped, the prince advanced to him, and taking a jewelled collar from a casket which he brought with him, he said to the high-priest—who, with a censer of incense, prepared to invoke the god—

"My lord priest of Apis: I, Remeses the prince, as a token of my gratitude to the god, of whom the sacred bull is the emblem, for the restoration of my mother, the queen, do make to the temple an offering of this jewelled collar for the sacred bull."

"His sacred majesty, my lord prince, accepts, with condescension and grace, your offering," answered the gorgeously attired high-priest. He then passed the necklace through the cloud of incense thrice, and going up to the bull, fastened the costly gift about his neck, already decorated with the price of a kingdom, while his forehead glittered like a mass of diamonds. A cool draft of wind passing through the open hall, a priest (at least two hundred attendant priests were assembled there to witness the prince's offering) brought a covering or housing of silver and gold tissue, magnificently embroidered, and threw it over the god.

The prince now, at the request of the queen, proceeded to obtain an omen as to the success of his army. He therefore approached and offered the bull a peculiar cake, of which he is very fond, which the animal took from his palm and ate. At this good omen there was a murmur of satisfaction; for a refusal to eat is accounted a bad omen. Remeses smiled as if gratified. Could it be that he had faith in the omen? I know not. Much must be allowed to the customs of a lifetime! Trained to all these rituals from a child, had the philosophy of his later years wholly destroyed in him all faith and confidence in the gods of his mother and his country? The priest now asked a question aloud, addressed to the god:

"Will the Prince of Egypt, O sacred Apis, be a successful king, when he shall come to the throne?"

The reply to the question was to be found in the first words Remeses should hear spoken by any one when he left the temple. He immediately departed from the peristyle, and we returned through the solemn avenue to the portico. As we descended the steps, a seller of small images of the bull called out, in reply to something said by another—

"He will never get there!"

"Mark those words, Sesostris!" he said, not unimpressed by them; "my mother is to outlive me, or Mœris will seize the throne from me!"

"Do you put faith in this omen?"

"I know not what to answer you, my Sesostris. You have, no doubt," he added, "after all I have said, marvelled at my offering to Apis. But it is hard to destroy early impressions, even with philosophy, especially if the mind has no certain revelation to cling to, when it casts off its superstitions. But here I must leave you, at the door of the hierarch's palace. This noble priest is head of the priesthood of Pthah, a part of whose temple, as you have seen, is devoted to Apis,—or rather the two temples subsist side by side. You saw him last week at our palace. He has asked you to be his guest while here. Honor his invitation, and he will not only teach you much that you desire to know, but will visit with you the great pyramidal temple of Cheops."

Having entered the palace, and placed me under the hospitality of the noble Egyptian hierarch therein, the prince took leave of me. I would like to describe to you the taste and elegance of this abode, my dear mother; its gardens, fountains, flower-courts, paintings, and rich furniture. But I must first say a little more about the god Apis, who holds so prominent a place in the mythology of Egypt. In the hieroglyphic legends he is called Hapi, and his figurative sign on the monuments is a bull with a globe of the sun upon his head, and the hieroglyphic cruciform emblem of Life drawn near it. Numerous bronze figures of this bull are cast, whereupon they are consecrated, distributed over Egypt, and placed in the tombs of the priests. The time to which the sacred books limit the life of Apis is twenty-five years, which is a mystic number here; and if his representative does not die a natural death by that time, he is driven to the great fountain of the temple, where the priests were accustomed to bathe him (for he is fed and tended with the greatest delicacy, luxury, and servility by his priestly curators), and there, with hymns chanted and incense burning, they drown him amid many rites and ceremonies, all of which are written in the forty-two books of papyrus kept in the sacred archives of the oldest temple.

No sooner does the god expire, than certain priests, who are selected for the purpose, go in search of some other bull; for they believe that the soul of Osiris has migrated into another body of one of these animals, or "Lords of Egypt," as I have heard them called. This belief of the constant transfer of himself by Osiris from the body of one bull to another, is but the expression of a popular notion here, that souls of men transmigrate from body to body; and my opinion is confirmed by a scene depicted in the judgment-hall of Osiris, where the god is represented as sending a soul, whose evil deeds outweighed his good ones, back to earth, and condemning it to enter the body of a hog, and so begin anew, from the lowest animal condition, to rise by successive transmigrations through other beasts, higher and higher; until he became man again, when, if he had acquired virtue in his probation, he was admitted to the houses of the gods and became immortal.

The prince assures me that the belief in the transmigration of souls is almost universal in the Thebaïd, as well as among the lower orders in the northern nomes; and that the universal reverence for animals is, without doubt, in a great measure to be traced to this sentiment. A monstrous doctrine of the perpetual incarnation of deity in the form, not of man, but of the brute, seems to be the groundwork of all religious faith in Egypt. This idea is the key to the mysteries, inconsistencies, and grossness of their outward worship; the interpreter of their animal Pantheon.

"There is a tradition," said to me, to-day, the prince-priest Misrai, with whom I am now remaining, "that when Osiris came down to earth, in order to benefit the human race by teaching them the wisdom of the gods, evil men, the sons of Typhon, pursued to destroy him, when he took refuge in the body of a bull, who protected and concealed him. After his return to the heavens, he ordained that divine honors should be paid to the bull forever."

This account, my dear mother, is a more satisfactory myth than any other, if any can be so; and recognizes incarnation as the principle of the worship of Apis. This universal idea in the minds of men, that the Creator once dwelt in the body of a creature, would lead one to believe, that in ages past the Infinite had descended from heaven for the good of men, and dwelt in a body; or that, responding to this universal idea, he may yet do it. Perhaps, dear mother, the worship of Osiris under the form of Apis, may be the foreshadowing and type of what is yet really to come—a dispensation, preparing men for the actual coming of the Invisible in a visible form. What a day of glory and splendor for earth, should this prove true! The conception, dear mother, is not my own; it is a thought of the great, and wise, and good Remeses, who, if ever men are deified, deserves a place, after death, among the gods. His vast and earnest mind, enriched with all the stores of knowledge that man can compass, seems as if it derived inspiration from the heavens. His conversation is deeper than the sacred books; the ideas of his soul more wonderful than the mysteries of the temple!

The priests who seek another bull, discover him by certain signs mentioned in their sacred books. These I have already described. In the mean while, a public lamentation is performed, as if Osiris, that is, "the Lord of Heaven," had died, and the mourning lasts until the new Apis is found. This information is proclaimed by swift messengers in all the cities, and is hailed with the wildest rejoicings. The scribes who have found the young calf which is to be the new god, keep it with its mother in a small temple facing the rising sun, and feed it with milk for four months. When that term is expired, a grand procession of priests, scribes, prophets, and interpreters of omens, headed by the high-priest, and often by the king, as hereditary priest of his realm, proceed to the temple or house of the sacred calf, at the time of the new moon—the slender and delicate horns of which symbolize those of the juvenile Apis. With chants and musical instruments playing, they escort him to a gorgeously decorated baris or barge, rowed by twelve oars, and place him in a gilded cabin on costly mats. They then convey him in great pomp and with loud rejoicings to Memphis. Here the whole city receives him with trumpets blowing and shouts of welcome; garlands are cast upon his neck by young girls, and flowers strewed before him by the virgins of the temple.

Thus escorted, the "Living Soul of Osiris" is conducted to the temple provided for him, which is now, as I have before observed, an appendage to the Temple of Pthah or Vulcan, an edifice remarkable for its architectural beauty, its extent, and the richness of its decorations; indeed, the most magnificent temple in the city. A festival of many days succeeds, and the young deity is then led in solemn procession throughout the city, that all the people may see him. These come out of their houses to welcome him, with gifts, as he passes. Mothers press their children forward towards the sacred animal that they may receive his breath which, they believe, conveys the power to them of predicting future events. Returned to his sacred adytum, he henceforth reigns as a god, daintily fed, and reverently served. Pleasure-gardens and rooms for recreation are provided for him when he would exercise.

At the death of Apis, all the priests are immediately excluded from the temple, which is given up to profound solitude and silence, as if it also mourned, in solemn desolation, the loss of its god. His obsequies are celebrated on a scale of grandeur and expenditure hardly conceivable. Sometimes the rich treasury of the temple, though filled with the accumulated gold of a quarter of a century, is exhausted. Upon the death of the last Apis, the priests expended one hundred talents of gold in his obsequies, and Prince Mœris, who seeks every opportunity to make a show of piety, and to please the Egyptians, gave them fifty talents more, to enable them to defray the enormous costs of the funeral of the god.

The burial-place of the Serapis, as the name is on the mausoleum (formed by pronouncing together Osiris-Apis), is outside of the western pylon of the city. We approached it through a paved avenue, with lions ranged on each side of it. It consists of a vast gallery, hewn in a rocky spur of the Libyan cliff, twenty feet in height, and two thousand long. I visited this tomb yesterday, accompanied by the high-priest. He showed me the series of chambers on the sides of this sepulchral hall, where each embalmed Apis was deposited in a sarcophagus of granite fifteen feet in length. There were sixty of these sarcophagi, showing the permanency and age of this system of worship. They were adorned with royal ovals, inscribed, or with tablets containing dedications, to Apis. One of these bore the inscription, "To the god Osiris-Apis, the Lord of the Soul of Osiris, and emblem of the Sun, by Amense, Queen and upholder of the two kingdoms."

In front of the sculptured entrance of this hall of the dead god is the Sarapeum, a funeral temple for perpetual obsequies. It has a vestibule of noble proportions, its columns being of the delicately blue-veined alabaster from the quarries in the south. On each side of the doorway is a crouching lion, with a tablet above one, upon which a king is represented making an offering. Within the vestibule stand, in half circle, twelve statues of ancient kings. In a circle above these sit, with altars before each, as many gods. Upon a pedestal in the centre stands the statue of the Pharaoh who erected this beautiful edifice.

Thus, my dear mother, have I endeavored, as you requested, to present before your mind a clear view of the system of theology, and the forms of worship of the Egyptians. To evolve from the contradictory and vague traditions a reasonable faith; to select from the countless myths a dominating idea; to separate the true from the false, to bring harmony out of what, regarded as a whole, is confusion; to know what is local, what national in rites, and to reconcile all the theories of Osiris with one another, is a task far from easy to perform. At first, I believed I should never be able to arrive at any system in these multifarious traditions and usages, but I think that my researches have given me an insight into the difficulties of their religion, and enabled me, in a great measure, to unravel the tangled thread of their mythology.

I will now resume my pen, which, since writing the above, I laid down to partake of a banquet with the priest, my princely host, at which I met many of the great lords of Memphis, namely—the lord-keeper of the royal signet, the lord of the wardrobe and rings of the queen's palace, and the lord of the treasury. These men of rank I well knew, having met them before at the table of the queen. There were also strangers whom I had not met before—men of elegant address, and in rich apparel, each with the signet of his office on his left hand; among others, the lord of the nilometer, who reports the progress of the elevation of the river in the annual overflows, and by which all Lower Egypt is governed in its agricultural work; the president of the engravers on hard stones, an officer of trust and high honor; the governors of several nomes, in their gold collars and chains; the lord of the house of silver; the president of architects; the lord of sculptors; the president of the school of art and color; with other men of dignity. There were also high-priests of several fanes, of Athor, of Pthah, of Horus, of Maut, and of Amun. Besides these gentlemen, there was a large company of noble ladies, their wives and daughters, who came to the banquet by invitation of the Princess Nelisa, the superb and dark-eyed wife of the Prince Hierarch, and one of the most magnificent and queenly women (next to the queen herself) I have seen in this land of beautiful women.

It was a splendid banquet. The Lady Nelisa presided with matchless dignity and grace. But I have already described a banquet to you. This was similar in display and the mode of entertaining the guests.

I was seated opposite the daughter of the Priest of Mars, of whose beauty I have before spoken. She asked many questions, in the most captivating way, about Tyre, and yourself, and the Phœnician ladies generally. She smiled, and looked surprised, when I informed her that I was betrothed to the fair Princess Thamonda, and asked me if she were as fair as the women of Egypt. She inquired if Damascus had always been a part of Phœnicia, and how large your kingdom was. When I told her that your kingdom was composed of several lesser kingdoms, once independent, but now united far east of Libanus, under your crown, she inquired if you were a warlike queen to make such conquests. I replied that this union of the free cities of Phœnicia, and of the cities of Cœle-Syria under your sceptre, was a voluntary one, partly for union against the kings of Philistia, partly from a desire to be under so powerful and wise a queen. She said that if the danger were passed, or you were no more, the kings of these independent cities might dissolve the bonds, and so diminish the splendor of the crown which I was to wear. To this I replied, that to be king of Tyre and its peninsula was a glory that would meet my ambition. "Yes," said she, "for Tyre is the key of the riches of the earth!"

I repeat this conversation, dear mother, in order to show you that the high-born daughters of Egypt are not only affable and sensible, but that they possess no little knowledge of other lands, and take an interest in countries friendly to their own. The grace and beauty of this maiden, as well as her modesty, rendered her conversation attractive and pleasing. She is to become the wife of a brave young captain of the chariot battalion, when he returns from the Ethiopian war.

My visit to the pyramids I will now describe, dear mother, although in a letter to the Princess Thamonda I have given a very full account of it. Accompanied by the hierarch and a few young lords—his friends and mine—we rode in chariots out of the gate of the city, passed the guards, who made obeisance to the high-priest, and entered upon an avenue (what noble avenues are everywhere!) of trees growing upon a raised and terraced mound which bounded each side of it. The mound was emerald-green with verdancy, and the color of the foliage of the palms, acacias, and tamarisk trees was enriched by the bright sunshine as seen through the pure atmosphere. At intervals we passed a pair of obelisks, or through a grand pylon of granite. Then we came to a beautiful lake—the Lake of the Dead—where we passed a procession of shrines. Every nome and all large cities have such a lake. I will here state its use, which, like every thing in Egypt, is a religious one. It is connected with the passage of the dead from this world to the next; for the Egyptians not only believe in a future state, but that rewards or punishments await the soul. When a person of distinction dies, after the second or third day his body is taken charge of by embalmers, a class of persons whose occupation it is to embalm the dead. They have houses in a quarter of the city set apart for this purpose. Here the friends of the dead are shown three models of as many different modes of embalmment, of which they choose one, according to the expense they are willing to incur. "The most honorable and most costly," said the high-priest to me, as we were surveying the Lake of the Dead, towards which a procession was moving from the city, when we came before it, "is that in which the body is made to resemble Osiris. And a custom prevails among us, that the operator who first wounds the body with the sharp embalming flint, preparatory to embalming, is odious by the act, and is compelled to take to flight, pursued with execrations and pelted with stones. No doubt the man we saw flying out of a house this morning, as we passed, was one of these incisors."

The body remains seventy days, if that of a person of rank, at the embalmers. It is then either taken to the house, to be detained a longer or shorter time—according to the attachment of relatives, and their reluctance to part with it—or is prepared for entombment. During the interval of seventy days, the mourners continue their signs of lamentation, which often are excessive in degree, such as tearing off raiment, beating the breast, and pouring dust upon the head. The pomp of the burial of the Pharaohs, I am informed, is inconceivably grand and imposing. The whole realm joins in the rites and processions, and every temple is crowded with sacrificers and incense-burners.

We stopped our chariots to witness the funeral procession advance to the shore of the lake, from the wide street leading from Memphis.

First came seven musicians, playing a solemn dirge upon lyres, flutes, and harps with four chords. Then servants carrying vases of flowers; and others followed, bearing baskets containing gilded cakes, fruit, and crystal goblets of wine. Two boys led a red calf for sacrifice in behalf of the dead, and two others carried in a basket three snow-white geese, also for sacrifice. Others bore beautiful chairs, tablets, napkins, and numerous articles of a household description; while others still, held little shrines, containing the household gods or effigies of their ancestors. Seven men carrying daggers, fans, sandals, and bows, each having a napkin on his shoulder, followed. Next I saw eight men appear, supporting a table; and lying upon it, as offerings, were embroidered couches and lounges, richly inlaid boxes, and an ivory chariot with silver panels, which, with the foregoing articles, the high priest informed me had belonged to the deceased, who, from the cartouch on the chariot, was Rathmes, "lord of the royal gardens."

Behind this chariot came the charioteer, with a pair of horses caparisoned with harness for driving, but which he led on foot out of respect to his late master.

Then came a venerable man, with the features and beard of the Hebrew race. Surprised to see one of these people anywhere, save with an implement of toil in his hand, or bowed down to the earth under a burden, I looked more closely, and recognized the face of the head gardener, Amrami, or Amram, whom I had often seen in the queen's garden, and whom Remeses had taken, as it were, into his service, as he was his foster-father: for it is no uncommon thing with the nobles to have Hebrew nurses for their infants; on the contrary, they are preferred. When Remeses was an infant, it seems, therefore, that the wife of this fine-looking old Hebrew was his foster-mother, or nurse. I have before spoken of the striking resemblance he bears to Remeses. Were he his father (if I may so speak of a prince in connection with a slave), there could not be a much greater likeness.

This venerable man, who must be full seventy years of age, bore in his hand a bunch of flowers, inverted and trailing, in token that his lord was no more. He was followed by not less than fifty under-gardeners, four or five of whom had Hebrew lineaments, but the rest were Egyptians and Persians,—the latter celebrated for the culture of flowers, which are so lavishly used here in all the ceremonies of society and rites of religion.

After them followed four men, each bearing aloft a vase of gold, upon a sort of canopy, with other offerings; then came a large bronze chest, borne by priests, containing the money left to their temple by the deceased. Then, in succession, one who bore his arms; another, a pruning-hook of silver; another, his fans; a fourth, his signets, jewelled collars, and necklaces, displayed upon a cushion of blue silk, adorned with needle-work; and a fifth, the other insignia peculiar to a noble who had been intrusted with the supervision of all the royal gardens in the Memphite kingdom.

Now came four trumpeters and a cymbal-player, performing a martial air, in which voices of men mingled, called "The Hymn of Heroes."

Next appeared a decorated barge or baris,—a small, sacred boat, carried by six men, whom I saw elevate to view the mysterious "Eye of Osiris;" while others carried a tray of blue images, representing the deceased under the form of that god, also of the sacred bird emblematic of the soul. Following these were twelve men, bearing, upon yokes balanced across the shoulders, baskets and cases filled with flowers and crystal bottles for libation. Next were a large company of hired females, with fillets upon their brows, beating their bared breasts, and throwing dust upon their heads,—now lamenting the dead, now praising his virtues.

Then came the officiating priest, his sacred leopard-skin cast over his shoulders, bearing in his hand the censer and vase of libation, and accompanied by his attendants holding the various implements required for the occasion. Behind this priest came a car, without wheels, drawn by four white oxen and seven men, yoked to it, while beside them walked a chief officer, who regulated the movements of the procession. Upon this car was the consecrated boat, containing the ark or hearse. The pontiff of the Temple of Horus walked by the sarcophagus, which was decked with flowers, and richly painted with various emblems. A panel, left open on one side, exposed to view the head of the mummy.

Finally came the male relatives of the dead, and his friends. In his honor the queen's grand-chamberlain and the master of horse marched together in silence, and with solemn steps, leaning on their long sticks. Other men followed, whose rich dresses, and long walking-canes, which are the peculiar mark of an Egyptian gentleman, showed them to be persons of distinction. A little in the rear of these walked a young man, who dropped a lotus-flower from a basket at every few steps, and closed the long procession.

In no country but this, where rain seldom falls, and it is always pleasant in the open air, could such a procession safely appear bearing wares so delicate and frail. The only danger to be apprehended is from storms of sand from the desert beyond the pyramids, of the approach of which, however, the atmosphere gives a sufficient warning.

This letter is quite long enough, dear mother, and I close it, with wishes for your happiness, and assurances of the filial devotion of

Your son,

Sesostris

LETTER XV.

City of Memphis.

Dearest Mother:

Your last letter, assuring me of your health, and that of the Princess Thamonda, I received by the chief pilot, Onothis, who, in his new and handsome galley, reached the head of the Delta two days ago. Thence he came here in his boat, his ship being too large, in the present depth of water, to come up to Memphis.

I will now continue the description of the funeral of "the lord of the royal gardens." When the procession reached the steps leading down to the sacred lake, the hearse was borne upon a gilded and carved baris, the consecrated boat for the dead. This was secured to a decorated galley with sails and oars and a spacious cabin, richly painted with funeral emblems. The friends and relatives of the deceased embarked in other barges in waiting, and to the strains of wailing music, the procession, reverently joined by the boats of several gentlemen, in gay apparel, who were fishing on the lake, crossed to the other side. Reaching the opposite shore, it formed again, as before, and moved down "the Street of the Tombs," crossed a narrow plain, and entered the gate of the great burial-place of Memphis. We slowly followed the procession; and, alighting from the chariot, I saw them take the mummy from the sarcophagus on the car, and place it upright in a chamber of the tomb. An assistant priest then sprinkled all who were present with sacred water, and the chief-priest burnt incense before an altar of the tomb, and poured libations upon it, with other ceremonies. To close the scene, the mummy was embraced by weeping friends, and a funeral dirge played by the musicians without, which was wildly answered by the mourning wail of woe from within.

Driving around the Acherusis Lake, under the shade of its solemn groves, the priest directed his charioteer to take me in again at the gate of the tombs. Reseating myself by his side—for the chariots of the priests, as well as those of ladies, are provided with a movable curved chair which holds two persons—we proceeded in a direct line towards the greatest of the three pyramids that stand near Memphis. We were upon what is called "The Sacred Way." It commenced at the gate of a temple to the god of the winds, beneath the pylon of which we passed, and extended nearly a league in length over a vast plain crowded with funeral temples, monuments, mausolean porticos, statues, and fountains. All the architectural magnificence which is found in other avenues, seemed to be combined here to form a royal road which has no parallel on earth; not even the long column-lined approach to the Temple of the Sun, at the end of the straight street in Damascus, can be compared with it.

This noble thoroughfare, as we drove slowly along that I might admire its grandeur and beauty, was thronged with people going to and coming from the city. There were processions returning from having deposited their dead in one of the many tombs which covered the vast plain; processions of the humbler orders, with but few signs of display and wealth, proceeding, with real mourners, to the tomb. There were groups of children, their hands filled with garlands, going to place them upon the sarcophagus of a departed parent; for the custom of decorating the resting-places of the dead with wreaths often renewed, belongs to Egypt as well as to Syria.

We overtook a rich lady in a gilded palanquin, borne on the shoulders of four slaves. She was opulently and handsomely attired, and carried a blue and green fan, while an attendant walked behind and held over her head a large parasol.

Two chariots, containing young Egyptian lords, dashed by us at full speed in the excitement of a race, each driving his own ornamented car, the charioteers standing a little in the rear.

People selling little images of gods, or of eminent deceased persons, or fruit, or flowers, or scarabæi, and amulets, were seated all along the highway, upon pedestals, or in the shade of statues and tombs; while along the road walked sellers of vegetables, and fowls, and bread. Indeed, the way was crowded with life and activity. With no other people would the avenue to its tombs be the most thronged of any, and the favorite of all in the city; for Memphis, which extends from and includes Jizeh, past the pyramids south for six miles, has noble streets, but none like this leading to the pyramids. The Egyptians say that the house is but the temporary abode of man, but in the tombs his embalmed body dwells forever. "Let us, therefore, decorate our tombs with paintings and art, and fill them with flowers, and adorn the homes which are to be permanent."

Hence the "dead-life" of the sepulchres is not less a reality to the Egyptian than his life in the city. The poor, however, do not find tombs. They are buried in graves or pits, like the Hebrew people. On the other side of the river lies the most ancient burial-place of Memphis; but since the construction of the Lake of the Dead, it is no longer necessary to cross the Nile (for the dead must be ferried across water) for interment.

As we drove on, we came to a stately sepulchre, before which was gathered a large multitude. The coffin had just been removed from a gorgeous hearse and set down upon the step of the tomb. It was the funeral of a lady. I never saw any painting so rich as that which adorned the mummy-case. It was an Osirian coffin, and covered in every part with columns of hieroglyphics or emblematical figures, among which were represented the winged serpent, the ibis, the cynocephalus or the genii of Amenthe, and the scarabæus.

"The hieroglyphics," said my companion, "contain the name and qualities of the deceased."

At this moment an official, partly in a priestly dress, advanced in an imposing manner, touched the coffin with a wand, and said aloud:

"Approved! Let the good be entombed, and may their souls dwell in Amenthe with Osiris. Judgment is passed in her favor! Let her be buried!"

Upon hearing this address, I asked the high-priest what it signified. He replied, with that courtesy which has always distinguished his replies to my numerous questions:

"This act has reference to the judgment of Osiris. We did not witness a similar ceremony at the lake, because the deceased was brought from On, and had already been judged at the crossing of the Nile. If we had sooner seen this funeral procession, which came only from the city to the lake, we should have beheld forty-two just persons, chosen as judges, seated upon a semicircular stone bench along the shore."

"I noticed the stone seats," I answered, "and intended to have inquired their use."

"Seated upon them, the forty-two judges await the procession. The baris, or gilded galley, which is to receive the body, is then drawn alongside of the steps. Before it the bearers stop, and turning to the judges, rest their burden on the ground before them. Then, while all the friends stand anxiously around, and hundreds of spectators line the shores, one of the judges rises and asks if any one present can lawfully accuse the deceased of having done wrong to any man. If the dead has done injustice or evil, his enemy, or the one wronged, or their relatives, advance and make the charge. The judges weigh the accusation, and if it be sustained, the rites of sepulchre are commanded not to proceed."

Such a judgment, dear mother, I afterwards witnessed on our return from the pyramids. It was the funeral of a woman of respectability.

The accuser said, advancing into the space before the judges—

"I accuse the deceased of suffering her father to perish in want."

"This is a great crime by our laws," said the judge sternly; "for, though sons are not bound to provide for poor parents, daughters are. This she knew, and was able to do it. Where are the proofs?"

Three persons came forward and bore testimony to the fact.

"The deceased is not worthy to pass the Lake of the Dead. The burial is prohibited."

Hereupon there was a great cry of woe on the part of the mortified relations; and the mummy, without being permitted to enter the sacred baris, was retaken to the city, where in a shrine in the house it will remain above-ground for years; until finally, after certain ceremonies, it is permitted to be ignominiously entombed in "the sepulchre of the evil."

This accusation and judgment, dear mother, is a striking illustration of the veneration and respect children are expected to pay to their parents in Egypt.

If, on the other hand, the accusation is not sustained, the accusers are stoned away by the friends, who then with great joy unite in a eulogy of the dead, and joined by all the people present pray the gods below to receive him to dwell among the pious dead. In the eulogy, they speak only of virtues—praising his learning, his integrity, his justice, his piety, his temperance, and truthfulness; but no mention is made of rank, since all Egyptians are deemed equally noble. Such an ordeal has no doubt a great influence upon the living Egyptian; for he is certain that at his death every act of injustice he has committed will be brought up before the forty-two judges, and if found guilty, he will be denied sepulture, while infamy will be attached to his memory.

"What," I asked of my companion, the high-priest, "is the state of the deceased soul after death?"

"That, O prince," said he, "is one of the mysteries. But as you have been initiated into the knowledge of the mystic books in your own land, I will explain to you what our books of the dead teach. We priests of Apis do not believe with those of Osiris at On."

"What is their faith?" I asked.

"That the soul of man is immortal (which we all believe)," he added positively; "that when the body decays, the soul enters into and is born in the form of a lower animal; and when it has gone the round of the bodies of all terrestrial and marine animals, and of all flying creatures, it enters again into the body of an infant at its birth."

"Possibly in this belief," I remarked, "is found the reason for preserving the human body as long as possible by embalming it, thus keeping off the transmigration of its soul into a brute as long as possible."

"Without doubt," he replied, "embalming the dead grew out of the doctrine of transmigration of souls. The circuit performed by a soul in this series of inhabitations of the forms of animals, is three thousand years in duration. Such is the belief of the priests of the Sun. This transmigration is not connected either with reward or punishment, but it is a necessity of its creation that the soul should accomplish the whole circuit of the kingdom of animated nature ere it again enters a human body. Our doctrine of metempsychosis only so far embodies this, as to make Osiris send back the transgressing soul from Amenthe to earth, to dwell in the body of swine as a punishment; and when its probation is passed, we allow an ultimate return to the Divine Essence."

"What is this tribunal of Osiris?" I asked.

"The dead carry with them to the tomb a papyrus, on which is written their address to the gods, and the deeds which entitle them to admission into Heaven. When the soul leaves the grave, it is received by Horus son of Osiris, and conducted to the gates of Amenthe, or the regions of the gods. At the entrance, a dog with four heads—of the wolf, lion, serpent, and bear—keeps guard. Near the gate, which is called the Gate of Truth, sits the goddess of Justice, with her gigantic scales of gold between her and the Gate of Truth. Hard by sits the god Thoth, with a tablet and stylus. The scales are superintended by the deity Anubis Through the open gate the throne of Osiris is visible with the deity upon it.

"As Horus advances with the soul to the Gate of Truth, as if to enter, the goddess of Justice commands him to stop, that the sum of its deeds, both good and evil, may be weighed and recorded.

"Anubis then places a vase containing all the human virtues in one scale, and the heart of the deceased, or sometimes the soul itself, in the other. Horus repeats the result, which the god Thoth inscribes upon his iron tablet. The dog watches the issue of the weighing with eyes red with furious longing to devour the soul. If the sum of its good deeds predominates, Horus, taking it by one hand, and the tablet of Thoth in the other, advances into the hall, where his father, Osiris, is seated upon the throne, holding his crook and flagellum, and awaiting the report from the hand of his son. They approach the throne between four genii of Amenthe, and come before three deities who sit in front of the throne. These ask if he has been weighed, and Horus exhibits to each the tablet of Thoth. They then permit him to pass. Horus now stands before Osiris, with the soul by his side, and presents the tablet, which the deity takes from his son's hand. If satisfied by an inspection of the tablet, which records not only the virtues but every error of the soul's life on earth, Osiris presents him with an ostrich feather, the emblem of truth. One of the three deities then gives him a vase containing all the virtues, his few sins being pardoned; a second offers him a jewelled band for the forehead, on which is inscribed in diamonds the word 'justified;' and the third presents him with the emblem of life. He is now received by Isis, and conducted through gates of gold that open with divine music, and enters into scenes of celestial beauty and splendor; palaces of the gods become his abode, he reposes by heavenly rivers of crystal beauty, wanders through fields of delight, and dwells with the Lord of the Sun, and all the immortal gods, in glory ineffable and endless."

The hierarch said all this with great animation, and like a man who believes what he utters. I was deeply interested.

"And what, my lord priest, becomes of the soul which cannot meet the scales of justice with confidence, whose evil deeds outweigh his good ones?"

"Such a soul does not see Osiris, nor the farther heavens where he dwells illumined by the glory of the divine disk of the Lord of the Sun. The reprobate spirit does not behold the Eye of Osiris, nor repose in its pure light. It is not manifested to the sacred deities of the inner heavens, nor does he hear the voice of the great god, saying, 'Thou art justified, O soul! Enter thou the Gate of Truth.'

"If the soul is all wicked, with no virtues, then Horus releases its hand with horror, and the dog devours the wretched being in a moment. But if he has one or two virtues—such as honoring his parents, having saved a human life, or fed the hungry—then he is not given over to the monster; but Horus, with a sad aspect, leads him to the throne of Osiris, who, reading the dark tablet of Thoth, sternly inclines his sceptre in token of condemnation, and pronounces judgment upon him according to his sin, when, Horus leaving him, two evil gods from the realms of Typhon appear and lead him forth."

"What is the punishment ordained?"

"To be led back to the gate of Truth and delivered to Justice, who, without a head, sits thereat. The goddess seals the sentence of Osiris upon the forehead of the unclean soul, and instantly it assumes the form of a pig, or some other base animal. The god Thoth then calls up two monkeys, who take the condemned soul to a boat and ferry it back to the world, while the bridge by which it came from the earth is cut down by Anubis, in the form of a man with an axe."

"As every thing in Egyptian mythology is symbolical, what is the signification of these monkeys?"

"Monkeys are emblems of Thoth, the god of time," he answered. "The books of our mysteries teach that the human race began with the monkey, and progressively advanced to man. Osiris, by his judgment, condemns the unclean soul to the level of the monkey again, but first commands it to enter a swine's body, the uncleanest of all beasts, and make its way through the whole circle of animal creation, back to the monkey, and up through the black, barbaric races of men, who have arms like apes, to true man himself. Then, practising virtue and rejecting his former vices, he may after death finally attain to the mansions of the blessed, in the presence of Osiris. But I should add, the souls of bodies unburied can never enter the Gate of Truth."

Here we came in sight of the gigantic pylon that opens to the Temple of the Pyramid of Cheops, and the hierarch ceased speaking. He had, however, but little to add, for his explanations covered all the ground of my inquiries.

Thus, dear mother, have I presented to you the system of worship in this wonderful land. I will now proceed to a description of my visit to the pyramids, which, in sublime majesty, occupied the whole horizon as we advanced beyond the plain of the tombs. At the extremity of the paved causeway of this stately "Avenue of the Dead," leading from the Nile to the pyramids, we beheld the three great triangular mountains of gigantic art obliquely, so that they were grasped by the eye in one grand view. But the lofty mass of Cheops immediately before us, at the end of the avenue, challenged the eye and whole attention of the observer. For a moment, as we dashed onward in our brilliantly painted chariot, our steeds tossing their plumed heads as if proud of their housings of gold and needle-work, we lost sight of the pyramid by the interposition of the gigantic wings of the Gate of the Pyramids. These wings were towers of Syenite rock, one hundred and twenty feet in height, looking down from their twelfth painted and sculptured story upon the tops of the loftiest palms that grew on each side of the entrance. The gate was guarded by priests, who wore a close silver helmet, and held in their hands a short sword, the sheath of which hung to a belt of leopard's skin. They were young men, numbering in all three hundred and sixty, corresponding to the days of the former Egyptian year; while their five captains typify five days added by the gods.

"These young men," said the high-priest, "are all sons of warlike fathers. They desire to become priests, and are now in their novitiate; but after a year's service as guards to the greatest of temples, they will be advanced to a higher degree, and exchange the sword for the shepherd's crook; and thence they rise to be bearers of libation vases, and assistants in sacrifices."

We passed under the lofty pylon, which was spanned by a bronze winged sun, saluted by sixty of the guard on duty; this being the number of each of the six bodies into which they are divided. As soon as we entered the court of the gate, a sight of inconceivable grandeur burst upon me. Imagine a double colonnade of the most magnificent pillars which art could create, extending on each side of an open way a thousand cubits in length. At the end of the grand vista, behold crouched at full length, on the eastern edge of the elevated table on which the pyramids stand, and in an attitude of eternal repose, with an aspect of majesty and benignity inconceivable in the human lineaments, an andro-sphinx of colossal size, having the face of a warrior. Although stretched on the earth, with its fore-paws extended, the summit of the brow is seventy feet above the earth. This sublime image is emblematical, like all Egyptian sphinxes, and represents strength or power combined with intellect. The face I at once recognized to be that of Chephres, as seen upon his obelisk at Rhoda, aggrandized by the vastness of its proportions to the aspect of a god.