History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 — 04 - Vol. 01, Ch. 01: The Nile and Egypt, pt. 4

[Illustration: 044. jpg THE IBIS OF EGYPT.

] Even the non-migratory birds are really, for the most part, strangers acclimatized by long sojourn.

Some of them--the turtledove, the magpie, the kingfisher, the partridge, and the sparrow-may be classed with our European species, while others betray their equatorial origin in the brightness of their colours.

White and black ibises, red flamingoes, pelicans, and cormorants enliven the waters of the river, and animate the reedy swamps of the Delta in infinite variety.

They are to be seen ranged in long files upon the sand-banks, fishing and basking in the sun; suddenly the flock is seized with panic, rises heavily, and settles away further off.

In hollows of the hills, eagle and falcon, the merlin, the bald-headed vulture, the kestrel, the golden sparrow-hawk, find inaccessible retreats, whence they descend upon the plains like so many pillaging and well-armed barons.

A thousand little chattering birds come at eventide to perch in flocks upon the frail boughs of tamarisk and acacia.

[Illustration: 045. jpg THE MORMYRUS OXYRHYNCHUS.

] Many sea-fish make their way upstream to swim in fresh waters-shad, mullet, perch, and labrus--and carry their excursions far into the Saïd. Those species which are not Mediterranean came originally, still come annually, from the heart of Ethiopia with the of the Nile, including two kinds of Alestes, the elled turtle, the Bagrus docmac, and the mormyrus.

Some attain to a gigantic size, the Bagrus bayad and the turtle to about one yard, the latus to three and a half yards in length, while others, such as the sihlrus (catfish), are noted for their electric properties.

Nature seems to have made the fahâka (the globe-fish) in a fit of playfulness.

It is a long fish from beyond the cataracts, and it is carried by the Nile the more easily on account of the faculty it has of filling itself with air, and inflating its body at will.

[Illustration: 046. jpg AHAKA] When swelled out immoderately, the fahâka overbalances, and drifts along upside down, its belly to the wind, covered with spikes so that it looks like a hedgehog.

During the inundation, it floats with the current from one canal to another, and is cast by the retreating waters upon the muddy fields, where it becomes the prey of birds or of jackals, or serves as a plaything for children.

[Illustration: 47. jpg TWO FISHERMEN CARRYING A LATUS.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Medûm painting.

Pétrie, _Medûm_, pl.

xii.

Everything is dependent upon the river:--the soil, the produce of the soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds: and hence it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods.

They personified it as a man with regular features, and a vigorous and portly body, such as befits the rich of high lineage.

His breasts, fully developed like those of a woman, though less firm, hang heavily upon a wide bosom where the fat lies in folds.

A narrow girdle, whose ends fall free about the thighs, supports his spacious abdomen, and his attire is completed by sandals, and a close-fitting head-dress, generally surmounted with a crown of water-plants.

Sometimes water springs from his breast; sometimes he presents a frog, or libation vases; or holds a bundle of the cruces ansato, as symbols of life; or bears a flat tray, full of offerings--bunches of flowers, ears of corn, heaps of fish, and geese tied together by the feet.

The inscriptions call him, "Hâpi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who maketh food to be, and covereth the two lands of Egypt with his products; who giveth life, banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."

He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, and the other blue.

The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers upon his head, presides over the Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for his head-dress, and watches over the Delta.

[**] [**] Wilkinson was the first who suggested that this god, when painted red was the Red (that is High) Nile and when painted blue, was to be identified with the Low Nile.

This opinion has since been generally adopted; but to me it does not appear so incontrovertible as it has been considered.

Here, as in other cases, the difference in colour is only a means of making the distinction between two personages obvious to sight.

Two goddesses, corresponding to the two Hâpis--Mirit Qimâit for Upper, and Mirit Mîhit for Lower Egypt--personified the banks of the river.

They are often represented as standing with outstretched arms, as though begging for the water which should make them fertile.

The Nile-god had his chapel in every province, and priests whose right it was to bury all bodies of men or beasts cast up by the river; for the god had claimed them, and to his servants they belonged.

[Illustration: 048. jpg THE NILE GOD.

1] 1 THE NILE GOD: Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a statue in the British Museum.

The dedication of this statue took place about 880 B. c.

The giver was Sheshonqu, high-priest of Amon in Thebes, afterwards King of Egypt under the name of Sheshhonqû II.

, and he is represented as standing behind the leg of the god.

[Illustration: 049. jpg THE Shrine Of The Nile At Biggeh.

1] 1 Reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of Philae, built by Rajan and his successors.

The window or door of this temple opened upon gen, and by comparing the drawing of the Egyptian artist with the view i the end of the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of this cliff bouette in the piled-up rocks of the island.

By a mistake of the modern copyist's, his drawing faces the wrong way.

Several towns were dedicated to him: Hâthâpi, Nûit-Hâpi, Nilo-polis.

It was told in the Thebaïd how the god dwelt within a grotto, or shrine (tophit), in the island of Biggeh, whence he issued at the inundation.

This tradition dates from a time when the cataract was believed to be at the end of the world, and to bring down the heavenly river upon earth.

Two yawning gulfs (_qorîti_), at the foot of the two granite cliffs (_monîti_) between which it ran, gave access to this mysterious retreat.

A bas-relief from Philae represents blocks of stone piled one above another, the vulture of the south and the hawk of the north, each perched on a summit, wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in adoration.

The statue is mutilated: the end of the nose, the beard, and part of the tray have disappeared, but are restored in the illustration.

The two little birds hanging alongside the geese, together with a bunch of ears of corn, are fat quails, and the circular chamber wherein Hâpi crouches concealed, clasping a libation vase in either hand.

A single coil of a serpent outlines the contour of this chamber, and leaves a narrow passage between its overlapping head and tail through which the rising waters may overflow at the time appointed, bringing to Egypt "all things good, and sweet, and pure," whereby gods and men are fed.

Towards the summer solstice, at the very moment when the sacred water from the gulfs of Syene reached Silsileh, the priests of the place, sometimes the reigning sovereign, or one of his sons, sacrificed a bull and geese, and then cast into the waters a sealed roll of papyrus.

This was a written order to do all that might insure to Egypt the benefits of a normal inundation.

When Pharaoh himself deigned to officiate, the memory of the event was preserved by a stela engraved upon the rocks.

Even in his absence, the festivals of the Nile were among the most solemn and joyous of the land.

According to a tradition transmitted from age to age, the prosperity or adversity of the year was dependent upon the splendour and fervour with which they were celebrated.

Had the faithful shown the slightest lukewarmness, the Nile might have refused to obey the command and failed to spread freely over the surface of the country.

Peasants from a distance, each bringing his own provisions, ate their meals together for days, and lived in a state of brutal intoxication as long as this kind of fair lasted.

On the great day itself, the priests came forth in procession from the sanctuary, bearing the statue of the god along the banks, to the sound of instruments and the chanting of hymns.

[Illustration: 051. jpg NILE GODS FROM THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT ABYDOS

BRINGING FOOD TO EVERY NOME OF EGYPT.

1] 1 From a drawing by Faucher-Gudin, after a photograph by Béato.

"I. --Hail to thee, Hâpi!

--who appearest in the land and comest--to give life to Egypt;--thou who dost hide thy coming in darkness--in this very day whereon thy coming is sung,--wave, which spreadest over the orchards created by Ra--to give life to all them that are athirst--who refusest to give drink unto the desert--of the overflow of the waters of heaven;

as soon as thou descendest,--Sibû, the earth-god, is enamoured of bread,--Napri, the god of grain, presents his offering,--Phtah maketh every workshop to prosper.

"II.

--Lord of the fish!

as soon as he passeth the cataract--the birds no longer descend upon the fields;--creator of corn, maker of barley,--he prolongeth the existence of temples.

--Do his fingers cease from their labours, or doth he suffer?

--then are all the millions of beings in misery;--doth he wane in heaven?

then the gods--themselves, and all men perish.

"III.

--The cattle are driven mad, and all the world--both great and small, are in torment!

--But if, on the contrary, the prayers of men are heard at his rising--and (for them) he maketh himself Khnûmû,--when he ariseth, then the earth shouts for joy,--then are all bellies joyful,--each back is shaken with laughter,--and every tooth grindeth.

"IV.

--Bringing food, rich in sustenance,--creator of all good things,--lord of all seeds of life, pleasant unto his elect,--if his friendship is secured--he produceth fodder for the cattle,--and he provideth for the sacrifices of all the gods,--finer than any other is the incense which cometh from him;--he taketh possession of the two lands--and the granaries are filled, the storehouses are prosperous,--and the goods of the poor are multiplied.

"V. --He is at the service of all prayers to answer them,--withholding nothing.

To make boats to be that is his strength.

--Stones are not sculptured for him--nor statues whereon the double crown is placed;--he is unseen;--no tribute is paid unto him and no offerings are brought unto him,--he is not charmed by words of mystery;--the place of his dwelling is unknown, nor can his shrine be found by virtue of magic writings.

"VI.

--There is no house large enough for thee,--nor any who may penetrate within thy heart!

--Nevertheless, the generations of thy children rejoice in thee--for thou dost rule as a king--whose decrees are established for the whole earth,--who is manifest in presence of the people of the South and of the North,--by whom the tears are washed from every eye,--and who is lavish of his bounties.

"VII.

--Where sorrow was, there doth break forth joy--and every heart rejoiceth.

Sovkû, the crocodile, the child of Nit, leaps for gladness;[*]--for the Nine gods who accompany thee have ordered all things,--the overflow giveth drink unto the fields--and maketh all men valiant; one man taketh to drink of the labour of another,--without charge being brought against him.

[**] * The goddess Nît, the heifer born from the midst of the primordial waters, had two crocodiles as her children, which are sometimes represented on the monuments as hanging from her bosom.

Both the part played by these animals, and the reason for connecting them with the goddess, are still imperfectly understood.

** This is an allusion to the quarrels and lawsuits resulting from the distribution of the water in years when the Nile was poor or bad.

If the inundation is abundant, disputes are at an end.

"IX.

--If thou dost enter in the midst of songs to go forth in the midst of gladness,--if they dance with joy when thou comest forth out of the unknown,--it is that thy heaviness is death and corruption.

--And when thou art implored to give the water of the year,--the people of the Thebai'd and of the North are seen side by side,--each man with the tools of his trade,--none tarrieth behind his neighbour;--of all those who clothed themselves, no man clotheth himself (with festive garments)--the children of Thot, the god of riches, no longer adorn themselves with jewels,--nor the Nine gods, but they are in the night!

--As soon as thou hast answered by the rising,--each one anointeth himself with perfumes.

"X. --Establisher of true riches, desire of men,--here are seductive words in order that thou mayest reply;--if thou dost answer mankind by waves of the heavenly Ocean,--Napri, the grain-god, presents his offering,--all the gods adore (thee),--the birds no longer descend upon the hills;--though that which thy hand formeth were of gold--or in the shape of a brick of silver,--it is not lapis-lazuli that we eat,--but wheat is of more worth than precious stones.

"XI.

--They have begun to sing unto thee upon the harp,--they sing unto thee keeping time with their hands,--and the generations of thy children rejoice in thee, and they have filled thee with salutations of praise;--for it is the god of Riches who adorneth the earth,--who maketh barks to prosper in the sight of man--who rejoiceth the heart of women with child--who loveth the increase of the flocks.

"XII.

--When thou art risen in the city of the Prince,--then is the rich man filled--the small man (the poor) disdaineth the lotus,--all is solid and of good quality,--all herbage is for his children.

--Doth he forget to give food?

--prosperity forsaketh the dwellings,--and earth falleth into a wasting sickness."