Part 7 (1/2)
Even the conception of a son who is born of a virgin and a G.o.d is met with in the temples of Hatshepsu at Der el-Bahari, and of Amenophis III.
at Luxor. Here Amon-Ra is said to have ”gone to” the queen, ”that he might be a father through her. He made her behold him in his divine form, so that she might bear a child at the sight of his divine beauty.
His charms penetrated her flesh, filling it with the odours of Punt.”
And the G.o.d is finally made to declare to her: ”Amen-hotep shall be the name of the son that is in thy womb. He shall grow up according to the words that proceed out of thy mouth. He shall exercise sovereignty and righteousness in this land unto its very end. My soul is in him, and he shall wear the twofold crown of royalty, ruling the two lands like the sun for ever.”
Religious dogmas did not weaken the firm hold the Egyptian had upon morality. His moral code was very high. Even faith in Horus the ”Redeemer” did not suffice by itself to ensure an entrance for the dead man into the fields of Alu, the Egyptian Paradise. His deeds were weighed in the balance, and if they were found wanting, he was condemned to the fiery pains of h.e.l.l. Each man, after death, was called upon to make the ”Negative Confession,” to prove that he had not sinned against his fellows, that he had not oppressed or taken bribes, had not judged wrongfully, had not injured a slave or overtasked the poor man, had not murdered or stolen, lied or committed adultery, had not given short weight or robbed the G.o.ds and the dead, had made none to ”hunger” or ”weep.” Only when all the questions of the awful judges in the underworld had been answered satisfactorily was he allowed to pa.s.s into the presence of Osiris and to cultivate the fields of Alu with his own hands.
This was the last trial demanded from the justified Egyptian, and it was a hard one for the rich and n.o.ble who had done no peasants' work in this present life. Accordingly, small images of labourers were buried with the dead, and it was supposed that their ”doubles” or shadows would a.s.sist him in his labours. The supposition rested on a theory which ascribed to all things, whether animate or inanimate, a double or reflection which corresponded to the thing itself in every particular.
It was like a shadow, except that it was invisible to mortal eyes, and did not perish with the object which had projected it.
The ”double” was called _ka_, and the _ka_ of a man was his exact representation in the other world, a spiritual representation, it is true, but nevertheless one which had the same feelings, the same needs, and the same moral nature as himself. It thus differed from the _ba_ or ”soul,” which flew away to the G.o.ds on the dissolution of the body. It was, in fact, the Personality of the man.
From the outset the Pharaonic Egyptians were a nation of readers and writers. Nothing is more astonis.h.i.+ng than the way in which the simplest articles of daily use are covered with inscriptions. Even the rocks on the river-bank are scribbled over by the generations who once pa.s.sed beside them. Already in the time of Menes the hieroglyphic system of writing was fully developed, and before the end of the Third dynasty a ”hieratic” or running hand had been formed out of it. The more c.u.mbrous and picturesque hieroglyphics were reserved for engraving on wood or stone or metal, or for the sacred texts; the ordinary book was written in hieratic. The papyrus which grew in the marshes of the Delta was the writing material, and in spite of its apparently fragile character, it has been found to last as long as paper. When its use was at last discontinued in the tenth century of our era, the cultivation of the papyrus ceased also, and it became extinct in its ancient home.
Tradition, however, a.s.serted that leather had been employed by the scribe before papyrus, and in the time of Pepi of the Sixth dynasty a description of the plan of the temple of Dendera was discovered inscribed on parchment. Even in later ages leather was sometimes employed.
Egyptian literature covered a wide field. Two of the oldest books that have come down to us are the wise sayings of Qaqemna and Ptah-hotep, the first of whom lived under the Third, the second under the Fifth dynasty.
They are moral treatises like the Proverbs of Solomon or the Discourses of Confucius. Ptah-hotep already laments that men were not as they had been. He had reached the age of a hundred and ten years, and had fallen upon degenerate days. Perhaps he was right, for it would seem that the examination system had already been introduced for the disposal of official posts. Ptah-hotep's style, too, is involved and elaborate; he writes for a _blase_ circle of readers who can no longer appreciate simplicity.
The historical novel was an Egyptian invention. Several of the works that have survived are examples of it. But light literature of every kind was much in fas.h.i.+on. A tale written for Seti II. when he was crown-prince contains an episode which closely resembles the history of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, and the reign of Ramses II. produced a sarcastic account of the misadventures of a tourist in Canaan, the object of which was to ridicule the style and matter of another writer.
Poetry--heroic, lyrical, and religious--flourished, and a sort of Egyptian Iliad was constructed by the poet Pentaur out of a deed of personal prowess on the part of Ramses II. during the war with the Hitt.i.tes.
Reference has already been made to the work on mathematics that was composed when the Hyksos were ruling Egypt. A century or two later a work on medicine was written, a copy of which is known as the Ebers Papyrus. It shows that medicine has not advanced very rapidly since the age of the Eighteenth Egyptian dynasty. Diseases were already carefully diagnosed and treated, much as they are to-day. The medical prescriptions read like those of a modern doctor; we have the same formulae, the same admixture of various drugs.
The Egyptians were not only a people of scribes and readers, they were also a people of artists. They had the same power as the j.a.panese of expressing in a few outlines the form and spirit of an object; their drawing is accurate, and at the same time spirited. It is true that their canon of perspective was not the same as our own, but the greater difficulties it presented to the artist were successfully overcome.
Their portraits of foreign races are marvellously true to life, and their caricatures are as excellent as their more serious drawings. It was in statuary, however, that the Egyptian artist was at his best. The hardest of stones were carved into living likenesses, or invested with a dignity and pathos which it is difficult to match. Such at least was the case with the statuary of the Old Empire, before the conventionalised art of a later day had placed restrictions on the sculptor and stifled his originality. The great statue of King Khaf-Ra of the Fourth dynasty, seated on his throne with the imperial hawk behind his head, is carved out of diorite, and nevertheless the sculptor has thrown an idealised divinity over the face, which we yet feel to be a speaking likeness of the man. The seated scribe in the Museum of Cairo, with his high forehead, sparkling eyes, and long straight hair divided in the middle, has a countenance that is the very ideal of intellectuality, and in the wooden figure of the ”Shekh el-beled,” we have an inimitable portrait of the sleek and wealthy _bourgeois_ as he walks about his farm. All these statues are older than the Sixth dynasty.
In disposition the Egyptian was remarkably kindly. He was affectionate to his family, fond of society, and, alone among the nations of antiquity, humane to others. His laws aimed at saving life and reclaiming the criminal. Diodoros states that punishments were inflicted not merely as a deterrent, but also with a view towards reforming the evil-doer, and Wilkinson notices that at Medinet Habu, where the artist is depicting the great naval battle which saved Egypt from the barbarians in the reign of Ramses III., he has represented Egyptian soldiers rescuing the drowning crew of an enemy's s.h.i.+p.
The Pharaoh derived his t.i.tle from the Per-aa or ”Great House” in which he lived, and where he dispensed justice. The t.i.tle thus resembles that of the ”Sublime Porte.” Next to him, the priests were the most powerful body in the kingdom; indeed, after the close of the struggle between Khu-n-Aten and the priesthood of Thebes the latter obtained more and more power, until under the kings of the Twentieth dynasty they were the virtual rulers of the state. They stood between the labouring cla.s.ses and the great army of bureaucracy which from the days of the Eighteenth dynasty onward carried on the administration of the kingdom. The labouring cla.s.ses, however, knew how to defend their own interests; the artisans formed unions and ”went on strike.” Curious accounts have been preserved of strikes among them at Thebes in the time of Ramses III. The free labouring population must be distinguished from the slaves, who were partly negroes, partly captives taken in war. The greater part of the latter were employed on the public works. The mines and quarries were worked by criminals.
At home the well-to-do Egyptian was artistic in his tastes. The walls and columns of his house were frescoed with pictures, and his furniture was at once comfortable and tasteful. Chairs and tables are of patterns which might well be imitated to-day, and the smallest and commonest articles of toilet were aesthetically and carefully made. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the jewellery found at Dahshur, and belonging to princesses of the Twelfth dynasty. Precious stones are so exquisitely inlaid in gold as to look like enamel, and are formed into the most beautiful of designs; small forget-me-nots, for example, alternate with plain gold crosses on one of the coronets, and the workmans.h.i.+p of the pectoral ornaments could hardly be equalled at the present day. In dress, however, the Egyptian was simple; his limbs were not overloaded with jewellery, and he preferred light and muslin-like linen, which was kept as scrupulously clean as his own person.
But he was fond of social entertainments, and Egyptian cookery and confectionery were famous throughout the world. Table and guests alike were adorned with fragrant flowers, and musicians and singers were called in to complete the banquet. The house was surrounded by a garden, if possible, near the river. It was open to the air and sun. The Egyptian loved the country, with its fresh air and suns.h.i.+ne, as well as its outdoor amus.e.m.e.nts--hunting and fis.h.i.+ng, fowling and playing at ball. Like his descendants to-day, he was an agriculturist at heart. The wealth and very existence of Egypt depended on its peasantry, and though the scribes professed to despise them and to hold the literary life alone worth living, the bulk of the nation was well aware of the fact.
Even the walls of the tombs are covered with agricultural scenes. In one of them--that of Pa-heri, at El-Kab--the songs of the labourers have been preserved. Thus the ploughmen sing at the plough: ”'Tis a fine day, we are cool, and the oxen are drawing the plough; the sky is doing as we would; let us work for our master!” and of the reapers we read: ”In answering chant they say: 'Tis a good day, come out to the country, the north wind blows, the sky is all we desire, let us work and take heart.”
The best known, however, of the songs, is that sung by the driver of the oxen who tread out the corn, which was first deciphered by Champollion--
”Thresh away, oxen, thresh away faster, The straw for yourselves, and the grain for your master!”
Such were the Egyptians and such was Egypt where the childhood of Israel was pa.s.sed. It was a land of culture, it was a land of wealth and abundance, but it was also a land of popular superst.i.tion and idolatry, and the idolatry and culture were too closely a.s.sociated in the minds of the Israelites to be torn apart. In turning their backs on the Egyptian idols, it was necessary that they should turn them on Egyptian civilisation as well. Hence it was that intercourse with Egypt was forbidden, and the King of Israel who began by marrying an Egyptian princess and importing horses from the valley of the Nile, ended by building shrines to the G.o.ds of the heathen. Hence, too, it was that the distinctive beliefs and practices of Egypt are ignored or disallowed.
Even the doctrine of the resurrection is pa.s.sed over in silence; the Pentateuch keeps the eyes of the Israelite fixed on the present life, where he will meet with his punishment or reward. The doctrine of the resurrection was part of the faith in Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and Yahveh of Israel would have no other G.o.d beside Himself.
Moreover, the Israelites saw but little of the better side of the Egyptians. They lived in Goshen, on the outskirts of northern Egypt, where the native population was largely mixed with foreign elements.
When they first settled there the Pharaoh and his court were Asiatic or of Asiatic descent. And in later days the rise of a purely native government meant for them a bitter bondage and the murder of their children. Between the Israelite and the Egyptian there was hostility from the first; Joseph began by confiscating the lands of both peasant and n.o.ble; the natives revenged themselves by reducing his kinsfolk to a condition of serfdom, and the last act in the drama of the Exodus was the ”spoiling of the Egyptians.”
CHAPTER VI
BABYLONIA AND a.s.sYRIA