(1) The description, here alluded to, may also be found copied verbatim from Sethos, in the "Voyages d'Anténor.""In that philosophical romance, called 'La Vie de Sethos,' says Warburton, "we find a much juster account of old Egyptian wisdom, than in all the pretended 'Histoire du Ciel.' "— Div. Leg. book iv. sect. 14.

(2) For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, see Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. i., p. 90.

(3) More properly, perhaps, "the Column of the Pillars." Vide Abdallatif, Relation de l'Egypte, and the notes of M. de Sacy. The great portico around this column (formerly designated Pompey's, but now known to have been erected in honor of Dioclesian) was still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. Vide Lord Valentia's Travels.

(4) Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time, which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:"Ne nunc quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinæ variæ silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica nec Harmonia conticuit." Lib. 22.

(5) From the character of the features of the Sphinx, Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a host of authorities. See Castera's notes upon Browne's Travels, for the result of Blumenbach's dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon, speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient sepulchre and painting of Egypt, says, "Celle des femmes ressemble encore à la figuro des jolies femmes d'aujourd'hui: de la rondeur, de la volupté, le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts," &c., &c. He could judge, too, he says, from the female mummies, "que leurs cheveux étaient longs et lisses, que le caractère de tête de la plupart tenait du beau style."-"Je rapportai," he adds, "une tête de vieille femme qui était aussi belle que celles de Michel-Ange, et leur ressemblait beaucoup."

In a "Description générale de Thèbes," by Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers, they say, "Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les plus grands colosses de Thèbes jusqu'aux plus petites idoles, ne rappelent en aucune manière les traits de la figure des nègres; outre que les têtes des momies des catacombes de The bes présentent des profils droits." (See also M. Jomard's "Description of Syene and its Cataracts," Baron Larrey, on the "conformation physique" of the Egyptians, &c.) But the most satisfactory refutation of the opinion of Volney, has been afforded within these few years, by Doctor Granville, who, having been lucky enough to obtain possession of a perfect female mummy, has, by the dissection and admeasurement of its form, completely established the fact, that the uncient Egyptians were of the Caucasian race, and not of the Ethiopians. See this gentleman's curious "Essay on Egyptian Mummies," read before the Royal Society, April 14, 1825.

De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the authority of a passage in Ælian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c., we are told, on the authority of Manetho, (as given by Zoega from Georgius Syncellus,) of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth dynasty,

who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather inconsistently with the negro hypothesis) yellow-haired. See for a tribute to the beauty of Egyptian women, Montesquieu's Temple de Gnide.

(6) Vide Strabo.

(7) See Plutarch. de Isid. et Osir.

(8) "De là, en remontant toujours le Nil, on trouve à deux cent cinquante pas, ou environ de la Matarée, les traces de l'ancienne Héliopolis, ou Ville de Soleil, à qui ce lieu était particulièrement consacré. C'est pour cette raison qu'on l'appelait encore l'Œil, ou la Fontaine du Soleil."-Maillet.

(9) "On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d'or, avant de remonter jusqu'à Memphis."-Voyages de Pythagore.

(10) For an account of the Table of Emerald, vide Lettres sur lOrigine des Dieux d'Egypte. De Pauw supposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology. "La science hermétique," says the Benedictine, Pernetz, "l'art sacerdotal, était la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d'Egypte, et l'objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile de leur prétendue Religion."-Fables Egyptiennes. The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. See Mutus Liber, Rupellæ.

(12) "By reflecting the sun's rays," says Clarke, speaking of the Pyramids, "they appeared white as snow."

(13) For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, vide Jablonski, lib. iii. cap. 4.

(14) Vide Amailhou, "Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemies." See also for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile, Maillet, tom. i., p. 98.

(15) Vide Maurice, Appendix to "Ruins of Babylon." Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis, "founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle." From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.

(16) "La fleur en est mille fois plus odoriférante que celles de nos fèves d'Europe, quoique leur parfum nous paraisse si agréable. Comme on en sème beaucoup dans les terres voisines

du Caire, du côté de l'occident, c'est quelque chose de charmant que l'air embaumé que l'on respire le soir sur les terrasses, quand le vent de l'ouest vient à souffler, et y apporte cette odeur admirable.”—Maillet.

(17) Isis est genius," says Servius, “Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat."

(18) The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. Vide Diodor. Sic. 1. 10.

(19) "Quelques-unes," says Dupuis, describing the processions of Isis," portaient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous sens les images de la Déesse."-Origine des Cultes, tom. viii. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.

(20) Tout prouve que la territoire de Sakkarah était la Nécropolis, au sud de Memphis, et le faubourg opposé à celuici, où sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre Ville des Morts, qui terminait Memphis au nord."-Denon.

There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it will be perceived that the description of its position given by the Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M. Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has, in his work on Egypt, left us. It must be always borne in mind, too, that of the distances between the respective places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.

(21) "Par-là non-seulement on conservait les corps d'une famille entière, mais en descendant dans ces lieux souterrains, où ils étaient déposés, on pouvait se représenter en un instant tous ses ancêtres depuis plusieurs milliers d'années tels à peu près qu'ils étaient de leur vivant." "-Maillet.

(22) Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e ruinis arguitur."— Zorga. Vansleb, who visited more than ten of the small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a hundred in this place.

Sec, on the subject of the lake to the northward of Memphis, Shaw's Travels, p. 302.

(23) "On voit en Egypte, après la retraite du Nil et la fécondation des terres, le limon couvert d'une multitude de scarabées. Un pareil phénomène a dû sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre à peindre une nouvelle existence."-M. Jom

bard.

Partly for the same reason, and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to apply this emblem to Christ. "Bonus ille scarabæus meus," says St. Augustine, "non eâ tantum de causâ quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor mortalium speciem induerit, sed quòd in hac nostrâ fæce sese volutaverit et ex hac ipsâ nasci voluerit."

(24) Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi, pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre."-De Pauw. He mentions, also, in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks for glass.

(25) "Un prêtre, qui brise la tige d'une fleur, des oiseaux qui s'envolent, sont les emblèmes de la mort et de l'âme qui se sépare du corps."-Denon.

(26) A cross was, among the Egyptians, the emblem of a future life.

"The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at a very early period of ecclesiastical his

tory; and as some of the Priests, who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became converted to Christianity, the secret transpired. The converted heathens,' says Socrates Scholasticus, explained the symbol, and declared that it signifled Life to Come." "-Clarke.

Lipsius, therefore, is mistaken in supposing the Cross to have been an emblem peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject, L'Histoire des Juifs. liv. vi. c. 16.

It is singular enough that while the Cross was thus held sacred among the Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist, were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra.-Tertull. de Proscriptione Hereticorum.

Zoega is of opinion that the Cross, said to have been for the first time found, on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could not have been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on all the Egyptian monuments.

(30) The Nile, Pliny tells us, was admitted into the Pyramid.

(37) "On exerçait,” says Dupuis, "les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une grande étendue d'eau. On les y jettait, et ce n'était qu'avec peine qu'ils s'en retiraient. On appliquait le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On les faisait passer à travers les flammes."

The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are told, nearly lost his life in the trials. Vide Recherches sur les Initiations, par Robin.

(38) Enfin Harpocrate était assis sur le lotus, qui est la plante du Soleil." Hist. des Juifs.

(39) For the two cups used in the mysteries, see L'Histoire des Juifs, liv. ix. c. 16.

(40) Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the mythology of the Egyptians. "They believed," says Dr. Prichard, "that Sepis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were deposited in his palace." Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.

(41) Frigidam illam aquam post mortem, tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam." Zoega.-The Lethe of the Egyptians was called Ameles. See Dupuis, tom. viii. p. 651.

(42) "Enfin on disait qu'il y avait deux coupes, l'une en haut et l'autre en bas. Celui qui buvait de la coupe d'en bas, avait toujours soif, ses désirs s'augmentait au lieu de s'éteindre ; mais celui qui buvait de la coupe en haut, était rempli et content. Cette première coupe était la connaissance de la Nature, qui ne satisfait jamais pleinement ceux qui en sondent les mystères ; et la seconde coupe, dans laquelle on devait boire pour n'avoir jamais soif, était la connaissance des mystères du Ciel." Hist. des Juifs, liv. ix. chap. 16.

(43) The divine draught, which, according to Diodorus Siculus, Isis prepared for her son Orus.-Lib. i.

(44) Hor. Apoll.-The grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun, as being musical.

(45) The isle Antirrhodus, near Alexandria. Maillet. (46) Vide Athen. Deipnos.

(47) "On s'était même avisé, depuis la première construction de ces demeures, de percer en plusieurs endroits jusqu'au haut les terres qui les couvraient; non pas, à la vérité, pour tirer un jour qui n'aurait jamais été suffisant, mais pour recevoir un air salutaire," &c. Séthos.

(48) "On voyait en plein jour par ces ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande latitude septentrionale; et les prètres avaient bientôt profité de ce phénomène, pour observer à diverses heures le passage des etoiles." Séthos.-Strabo mentions certain caves, or pits, constructed for the purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Heliopolitan prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.

(49) Serapis, Sol Inferus.-Athenodorus, seripter vetustus, apud Clementem Alexandrium in Protreptico, ait "simulacra Serapidis conspicua esse colore cæruleo et nigricante." Macrobius, in verbis descriptis, § 6, docet nos apud Ægyptios "gimulacra solis infera fingi colore cæruleo." Jablonski.

(50) Osiris

(51) This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs. "Cui imminet musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum, umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur." Zoega.

(52) For a full account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught to the initiated in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consult Dupuis, Prichard's Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology, &c., &c. "L'on découvrait l'origine de l'âme, sa chute sur la terre, à travers les sphères et les élémens, et son retour au lieu de son origine.. .. c'était ici la partie la plus métaphysique, et que ne pourrait guère entendre le commun des Initiés, mais dont on lui donnait le spectacle par des figures et des spectres allégoriques." Dupuis.

(53) See Beausobre, lib. iii. c. 4, for the "terre bienheureuse et lumineuse," which the Manicheans supposed God to inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phæd.) of a pure land lying in the pure sky, "the abode of divinity, of innocence, and of life."

(54) The power of producing a sudden and dazzling effusion of light, which was one of the arts employed by the contrivers of the ancient Mysteries, is thus described, in a few words by Apuleius, who was himself admitted to witness the Isiac ceremonies at Corinth :-"Nocte medià vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine."

(55) In the original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here, (which I have since published in a more extended form,) illustrating the doctrine of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.

(56) In the language of Plato, Hierocles, &c., to "restore to the soul its wings," is the main object both of religion and philosophy.

Damascius, in his Life of Isidorus, says, "Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagorum et Platonem Isidorus ut Deos coluit, et eorum animas alatas esse dixit quas in locum supercolestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit ideis pasci." Apud Phot. Bibliothec.

(57) In tracing the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion, Voltaire says, "Il y a bien plus; les véritables grandes tragédies, les représentations imposantes et terribles, étaient les mystères sacrés, qu'on célébrait dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en présence des seuls Initiés; c'était là que les habits, les décorations, les machines étaient propres au sujet; et le sujet était la vie présente et la vie future." Des divers Changemens arrivés à l'Art tragique.

To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the Spirit shows him the abominations which the Israelites had learned in Egypt :-" Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery?"— Chap. viii.

(58) "Bernard, Comte de la Marche-Trévisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit, que Hermes trouva sept tables dans la vallée d'Hébron, sur lesquelles étaient gravés les principes des arts libéraux." Fables Egyptiennes. See Jablonski de stelis Herm.

(59) For an account of the animal worship of the Egyptians. see De Pauw, tom. ii.

(60) Herodotus (Euterp.) tells us, that the people about

Thebes and Lake Moeris kept a number of tame crocodiles, which they worshipped, and dressed them out with gems and golden ornaments in their ears.

(61) "On augurait bien de serpens isiaques, lorsqu'ils goûtaient l'offrande et se trainaient fentement autour de l'autel." De Pauw.

(62) For an account of the various festivals at the different periods of the sun's progress, in the spring, and in the autumn, see Dupuis and Prichard.

(63) Vide Athenag. Leg. pro Christ., p. 138.

(64) See, for some curious remarks on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries, De Pauw, tom. i. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were produced on the stage was called a Ceraunoscope.

(65) In addition to the accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in all parts of Egypt-the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth-the subterranean stables of the Thebaid, containing a thousand horsesthe crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c., &c.-the stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory of those wonderful substructions, "Un Arabe," says Paul Lucas, "qui était avec nous, m'assura qu'étant entre autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avait marché dans les chambres souterraines jusqu'en un lieu où il y avait une grande place environnée de plusieurs niches qui ressem blait à de petites boutiques, d'où l'on entrait dans d'autres allées et dans chambres, sans pouvoir en trouver la fin." In speaking, too, of the arcades along the Nile, near Cosseir, "Ils me dirent même que ces souterraines étaient si profondes qu'iì y en avaient qui allaient à trois journées de là, et qu'ils conduisaient dans un pays où l'on voyait de beaux jardins, qu'on y trouvait de belles maisons," &c., &c.

See also in M. Quatremère's Mémoires sur l'Egypte, tom. i. p. 142, an account of a subterranean reservoir, said to have been discovered at Kaïs, and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow boat, for the purpose of exploring it. "Leur voyage avait éte de six jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employés à pénétrer les bords; les deux autres à revenir au lieu d'où ils étaient partis. Pendant tout cet intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l'extrémité du bassin. L'émir Ala-eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, écrivit ces détails au sultan, qui en fut extrêmement surpris."

(66) The position here given to Lake Moris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it by Maillet:"Memphis avait encore à son midi un vaste reservoir, par où tout ce qui peut servir à la commodité et à l'agrément de la vie lui était voituré abondamment de toutes les parties de P'Egypte. Ce lac qui la terminait de ce côté-là," &c., &c.— Tom. ii. p. 7.

(67) "On voit sur la rive orientale des antiquités qui sont presque entièrement sous les eaux."-Belzoni.

(68) "Quorundam autem domorum (in Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus fores tonitruum intus terribile existat." -Pliny.

(69) Strabo. According to the French translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of the faba Egyptiaca, not the leaf, that was used for this purpose. "La Kiẞwptov," he says, "devait s'entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens se servaient comme d'un vase, imaginant que l'eau du Nil y devenait délicieuse."

(70) Elian, lib. vi. 32,

(71) Called Thalameges, from the pavilion on the deck.Vide Strabo.

(72) As April is the season for gathering these roses, (see Malte-Brun's Economical Calendar,) the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw them actually in flower.

(73) "L'or et l'azur brillent en bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus beau bleu céleste." -Sonnini.

(74) "Un canal," says Maillet, "très-profond et très-large y voiturait les eaux du Nil."

(75) "Anciennement on portait les eaux du Nil jusqu'à des contrées fort éloignées, et surtout chez les princesses du sang des Ptolomées, inariées dans des familles étrangères."—De Pauw.

The water thus conveyed to other lands was, as we may collect from Juvenal, chiefly intended for the use of the Temples of Isis, established in those countries.

Si candida jusserit Io,

Ibit ad Ægypti finem, calidaque petitas
A Meroë portabit aquas, ut spargat in æde
Isidis, antiquo quæ proxima surgit ovili.

Sat. vi.

(76) "Le nom du maître y était écrit, pendant la nuit, en lettres de feu."-Maillet.

(77) Called Alassontes. For their brittleness Martial is an authority:

Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,

Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.

"Sans parler ici des coupes d'un verre porté jusqu'à la pureté du crystal, ni de celles qu'on appelait Alassontes, et qu'on suppose avoir représenté des figures dont les couleurs changeaient suivant l'aspect sous lequel on les regardait à peu près comme ce qu'on nomme vulgairement gorge-depigeon," &c.-De Pauwo.

(78) The bean of the Glycine, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.—Niebuhr.

(79) See M. Villoteau on the musical instruments of the Egyp tians.

(80) Solinus speaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night. In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we read, that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents of light were seen to fall on the sea.

(81) "Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo effluvia quædam Lunæ, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse Ægypti.”—Jablonski. He is of opinion that the superstition of the Nucta, or miraculous drop, is a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the tears of Isis.

(82) Travels of Captain Mangles.

(83) Plutarch. Dupuis, tom. x. The Manicheans held the same belief.-See Beausobre, p. 565.

(84) See Plutarch. de Isid.

(85) See Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.

(86) Vide Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, Asiatic Re

searches.

(94) The voyages on the Nile are, under favorable circumstances, performed with considerable rapidity. "En cinq ou six jours," says Maillet, "on pourrait aisément remonter de l'embouchure du Nil à ses cataractes, ou descendre des cataractes jusqu'à la mer." The great uncertainty of the navigation is proved by what Belzoni tells us :-"Nous ne mîmes cette fois que deux jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire à Melawi, auquel, dans notre second voyage, nous avions employé dix-huit jours."

(95) "Elles ont près de vingt mètres (61 pieds) d'élévation; et au lever du soleil, leurs ombres immenses s'étendent au loin sur la chaîne Libyenne."-Description générale de Thèbes, par MM. Jollois et Desvilliers.

(96) Paul Lucas.

(97) See an account of this sensitive tree, which bends down its branches to those who approach it, in M. Jomard's Description of Syene and the Cataracts.

(98) The province of Arsinoë, now Fioum.

(99) Paul Lucas.

(100) There has been much controversy among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for which see Quatremère, tom. i. art. Amoun.

(101) The monks of Mount Sinai (Shaw says) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks with fruitful gardens and orchards.

(102) There was usually, Tertullian tells us, the image of Christ on the communion-cups.

(103) "We are rather disposed to infer," says the late Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian, "that, at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of the brotherly love subsisting between them."

(104) It was among the accusations of Celsus against the

Christians, that they held their assemblies privately, and contrary to law; and one of the speakers, in the curious work of Minucius Felix, calls the Christians "latebrosa et lucifugax natio."

(105) See Macrizy's account of these valleys, given by Quatremère, tom. i. p. 450.

(106) For a striking description of this region, see "Rameses," a work which, though in general too technical and elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.

(107) From the position assigned to Antinoë in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther to the north, than the few ruins of it that remain would seem to indicate, and that the distance between the city and the Mountain of the Birds was considerably less than what it appears to be at present.

(108) Vide Plutarch. de Isid.

(109) "Conjunctio solis cum luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium."—Jablonski.

(110) M. Châteaubriand has introduced Paul and his lion into the Martyrs, liv. xi.

(111) "Je vis dans le désert des hirondelles d'un gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent."-Denon.

(112) In alluding to Whiston's idea of a comet having caused the deluge, M. Girard, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds, " On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon qui celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l'occasionna, et dont l'apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l'Egypte, et de l'Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale." -Description de la Vallée de l'Egarement.