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Title: The World's Progress, Vol. I (of X) - With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, - Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American - Literature
Author: Society, The Delphian, Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The World's Progress, Vol. I (of X) - With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, - Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American - Literature" ***
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Illustration: _THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI._
Reproduced for our Members through the courtesy of
The Newberry Library, Chicago
This illuminated manuscript represents the work done by French monks
in the early part of the fourteenth century. The border, containing
as it does many grotesque figures scattered through its foliage,
indicates this, as also the style of the faces in the miniature
work. This is taken from one of the many "Book of Hours" and was the
page used for the "Sext Hour," a full description of illuminated
manuscript will be found Part IX, page 101.
"COPYRIGHT BY THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY, CHICAGO"]
THE WORLD'S PROGRESS
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS FROM MASTERPIECES OF EGYPTIAN, HEBREW,
GREEK, LATIN, MODERN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
EDITORIAL STAFF
VERY REV. J. K. BRENNAN Missouri
GISLE BOTHME, M.A. University of Minnesota
CHAS. H. CAFFIN New York
JAMES A. CRAIG, M.A., B.D., PH.D. University of Michigan
MRS. SARAH PLATT DECKER Colorado
ALCÉE FORTIER, D.LT. Tulane University
ROSWELL FIELD Chicago
BRUCE G. KINGSLEY Royal College of Organists, England
D. D. LUCKENBILL, A.B., PH.D. University of Chicago
KENNETH MCKENZIE, PH.D. Yale University
FRANK B. MARSH, PH.D. University of Texas
DR. HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE New York
W. A. MERRILL, PH.D., L.H.D. University of California
T. M. PARROTT, PH.D. Princeton University
GRANT SHOWERMAN, PH.D. University of Wisconsin
H. C. TOLMAN, PH.D., D.D. Vanderbilt University
I. E. WING, M.A. Michigan
VOL. I
THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY
COPYRIGHT 1913
BY
THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY
CHICAGO
COMPOSITION, ELECTROTYPING, PRINTING
AND BINDING BY THE
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
HAMMOND, INDIANA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.
PAGE
The Delphian Course of Reading VIII
Prehistoric Man; Customs and Occupations. Dawn of Civilization XIV
EGYPT.
Prefatory Chapter 13
CHAPTER I.
Its Antiquity; Story of Joseph, Physical Geography, Prehistoric
Egypt 20
CHAPTER II.
Sources of Egyptian History; Herodotus' Account of Egypt 31
CHAPTER III.
Pyramid Age; Early Egyptian Kings; Construction of Pyramids 37
CHAPTER IV.
Age of Darkness; Middle Empire; Reigns of Amenemhet I. and III.;
Description of Labyrinth 43
CHAPTER V.
Egypt under the Shepherd Kings; Beginning of the New Empire;
Conquests of Thutmose I. 51
CHAPTER VI.
First Egyptian Queen; Temple of Hatshepsut; Expedition to Punt 57
CHAPTER VII.
Military Kings; Hymn of Victory; Worship of the Solar Disk;
Temple of Karnak 64
CHAPTER VIII.
Nineteenth Dynasty; Egypt under Ramses the Great; Twentieth
Dynasty; Priest Rule; Ethiopian Kings 72
CHAPTER IX.
Social Life in Egypt; Houses, Dress, Family Life 85
CHAPTER X.
Sports and Recreations 96
CHAPTER XI.
Agriculture and Cattle Raising; Arts and Crafts; Egyptian Markets;
Military Affairs 100
CHAPTER XII.
Schools and Education; Egyptian Literature 112
CHAPTER XIII.
Religion of Ancient Egypt; Hymn to the Nile; Egyptian Temples and
Ceremonies 119
CHAPTER XIV.
Art and Decoration 133
CHAPTER XV.
Tombs and Burial Customs 138
CHAPTER XVI.
Excavations in Egypt; Discoveries of W. M. Flinders Petrie 144
_Descriptions of Egypt._
Description of the Nile 153
Feast of Neith 155
Karnak 159
Memphis 161
Hymn to the God Ra 163
_Egyptian Literature._
An Old Kingdom Book of Proverbs 164
The Voyage of the Soul 168
The Adventures of the Exile Sanehat 171
The Song of the Harper 179
_Present Day Egypt._
Alexandria 181
Cairo 182
Egyptian Museum 185
Suez Canal 187
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Prefatory Chapter 193
CHAPTER I.
Early Civilization of Asia; Recovery of Forgotten Cities 201
CHAPTER II.
Sources of Babylonian and Assyrian History; Physical Geography 211
CHAPTER III.
Prehistoric Chaldea; Charms and Talismans; Semitic Invasion 218
CHAPTER IV.
City-States Before the Rise of Babylon; Hymn to the Moon-God 227
CHAPTER V.
Dominance of Babylon 232
CHAPTER VI.
Beginnings of Assyrian Empire; Conquest of Asshurnatsirpal 237
CHAPTER VII.
Assyria a Powerful Empire; Hebrew Account of the War with Assyria 245
CHAPTER VIII.
Last Years of Assyrian Dominance 256
CHAPTER IX.
Chaldean Empire in Babylonia 264
CHAPTER X.
Social Life in Mesopotamia. The Babylonian and Assyrian Compared;
Their Houses and Family Life 270
CHAPTER XI.
Morality of the Ancient Babylonians 276
CHAPTER XII.
Literature and Learning; Deluge Story 283
CHAPTER XIII.
Clothing Worn by Assyrians and Babylonians; Their Food 293
CHAPTER XIV.
Architecture and Decoration 300
CHAPTER XV.
Religious Customs 307
CHAPTER XVI.
The Laboring Classes; Professions 317
CHAPTER XVII.
The Medes 328
CHAPTER XVIII.
Condition of Persia Before the Age of Cyrus; Cyrus the Great and
the Persian Empire 332
CHAPTER XIX.
War with Greece 340
CHAPTER XX.
Manners and Customs of the Persians; Their Religion 346
CHAPTER XXI.
Contributions of Babylonia, Assyria and Persia to Modern
Civilization 357
_Assyrian Literature._
Chaldean Account of the Deluge 361
Descent of Ishtar to Hades 367
Gyges and Assurbanipal 371_a_
Purity 371_c_
Zoroaster's Prayer 371_d_
THE HEBREWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.
CHAPTER I.
Syria 372
CHAPTER II.
The Land of Phoenicia; Reign of Hiram; Invasion of Asshurbanipal 378
CHAPTER III.
Phoenician Colonies and Commerce 390
CHAPTER IV.
Occupations and Industries; Literature and Learning; Religion 399
CHAPTER V.
Physical Geography of Palestine; Climate and Productivity 408
CHAPTER VI.
Effects of Geographical Conditions upon the Hebrews 418
CHAPTER VII.
Sources of Hebrew History 426
CHAPTER VIII.
Condition of the Hebrews Prior to Their Occupation of Canaan 434
CHAPTER IX.
Era of the Judges 441
CHAPTER X.
Morality of the Early Hebrews 448
CHAPTER XI.
Causes Leading to the Establishment of the Kingdom. David's
Lament; His Reign. Solomon Rules; King Solomon and the Bees 453
CHAPTER XII.
After the Division of the Kingdom; End of Israel 469
Description of Illustrations 483
[Illustration: MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT]
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I.
PAGE
ILLUMINATED MISSAL Frontispiece
DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS 44
NEAR VIEW OF PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX 68
TOURISTS SCALING THE GREAT PYRAMID 92
COLUMN AND PYLON OF KARNAK 124
BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF PHILEA 148
WINDOWS OF A HAREM 172
SHIP OF THE DESERT (Photogravure) 192
WINGED LION 236
MUSICIANS AND ATTENDANTS IN THE GARDEN OF ASSHURBANIPAL 284
SWORD-MAKER OF DAMASCUS 348
THE RIVER JORDAN 392
JAPPA HARBOR 432
ROSES OF SHARON 464
MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT VI
THE DELPHIAN COURSE OF READING
Two thousand years before the sight of a new world burst upon the view
of the Genoese mariner, there existed in north-central Greece a
sanctuary famous in three continents. Located in mountainous Phocis, in
a natural amphitheater, overhung by frowning rocks and reached only
through mysterious caves, was the Oracle of Delphi. Here in remote times
Apollo was believed to reveal his wishes to men through the medium of a
priestess, speaking under the influence of vaporous breath which rose
from a yawning fissure. Her utterances were not always coherent and were
interpreted to those seeking guidance by Apollo's priests.
As its fame spread, the number of visitors to Delphi increased. More
priests were needed to counsel and advise. Although the first blind
faith in earlier deities lessened, the prestige of Delphi was
nevertheless preserved. Apollo's priests became better versed in the
affairs of Greece and the surrounding countries; their assistants became
familiar with all vital issues, and thus intelligent replies were given
to unceasing inquiries. In time the Greek divinities were almost
forgotten and Christianity became the state religion, yet the Oracle of
Delphi continued to draw men unto it until the fifth Christian century.
Ancient writers have left us abundant accounts of journeyings made
thither by potentates and kings, and have described at length the rich
offerings left by them in gratitude. The humble were seldom mentioned by
early writers and it remained for the last few years to bring to light
little leaden tablets--valueless from the standpoint of plunderers,
earth-covered and revealed only by the excavator's spade--silent
testimonials of appeals made to the oracle by the common people.
It is difficult for us today to understand the powerful influence which
the Delphian Oracle exercised for a thousand years in Greece. This might
fittingly be compared to that wielded by the Church in the Middle Ages.
Here questions of international importance were brought, policies
determined, and the balance delicately turned for peace or war. Nor were
questions of the humblest slighted. Any interference on the part of one
state designed to deny citizens of another free access to Delphi
precipitated serious trouble.
There is no doubt but that implicit faith directed the first visitors to
Delphi and beyond question this faith to some extent survived. The
peasant accepted literally the presence of deity as many a worshipper
today regards the statue, not as a symbol, but as the very Christ.
However, there have been in all ages the discerning who have
distinguished between the symbol and that symbolized, and certainly the
keen, alert Greeks did not remain blind adherents of antiquated
conceptions. The wisdom of the Delphian priests was revered and their
judgments accepted much in the same way as were those of the seers who
taught the children of Israel at the city gates. The Oracle of Delphi
became potent--a name with which to conjure.
We know full well today that no priestess upon a tripod can reveal to us
the secrets of the future. A thorough understanding of the past must be
the safest guide for coming years. No vapor can inspire sudden
revelations--the result only of faithful effort and earnest thought. Yet
the story of the ancient oracle charms us still and when a name was
sought for a national organization, that had for its avowed purpose the
promotion of educational interests in a continent, none was deemed more
suitable than that which for so many years cast its gracious spell from
one sea to another.
Each new decade brings new needs, and the conditions of fifty years ago
were wholly different from those confronting us today. Ours is an age
characterized by intensity, strenuous effort and tireless exertion.
Leisure seems to have disappeared from our national life and to be
remembered only when reviewing pleasant stories of other times.
Educators complain that we are neglecting the wisdom of the past--that
the enduring thoughts of men as preserved to us in their writings have
ceased to be familiar. The thoughtful deplore the loss of culture,
courtesy and old-time chivalry. Frequently the critics fail to look
beneath the surface for reasons leading to the very evident result. The
truth is that in no previous age have the hearts of people been more
sensitive to injustice, more united for fair dealing between man and
man, more eager for the best the world can offer. But we are living in a
transition period; social and industrial conditions have not yet
crystallized in their new forms sufficiently to permit the wider
opportunity for cultivation and reflection which must necessarily
overtake us in time.
At present people accumulate fine libraries and rarely read them; for
their shelves they seek the best--for their diversion the lightest and
most transient literature. Few are there who do not dream of a happy
time when it shall be their delight to browse among their books and find
companionship in them. Still the years fly by relentlessly and many who
are not mere theorists are sounding a warning: This time so fondly
anticipated will never come to many of the present generation; seize
today; snatch a brief moment for the consideration of enduring thoughts;
do not merely provide for the temporal wants and leave the soul
famishing. Dr. Eliot, late president of Harvard, in repeated lectures
and addresses has voiced this crying need.
"From the total training during childhood there should result in the
child a taste for interesting and improving reading, which should direct
and inspire its subsequent intellectual life. That schooling which
results in this taste for good reading, however unsystematic or
eccentric the schooling may have been, has achieved a main end of
elementary education; and that schooling which does not result in
implanting this permanent taste has failed. Guided and animated by this
impulse to acquire knowledge, and exercise his imagination through
reading, the individual will continue to educate himself all through
life. Without that deep-rooted impulsion he will soon cease to draw on
the accumulated wisdom of the past and the new resources of the present,
and, as he grows older, he will live in a mental atmosphere which is
always growing thinner and emptier. Do we not all know many people who
seem to live in a mental vacuum--to whom, indeed, we have great
difficulty in attributing immortality, because they apparently have so
little life except that of the body? _Fifteen minutes a day of good
reading would have given any one of this multitude a really human
life._"[1]
To meet this condition, which prevails throughout the length and breadth
of our land, to stimulate a deeper interest, quicken a latent
appreciation and facilitate the use of brief periods of freedom for
self-improvement, the Delphian Society was organized and the Delphian
Course of Reading made possible.
Believing that only a comprehensive course could meet the requirements
of the day and prove acceptable to a large number of people, the
Delphian Society has included those subjects which are now offered in
the curriculums of our leading colleges and universities--history,
literature, philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, art, ethics, music.
Mathematics, being in its higher forms essential to few, has been
omitted; languages, requiring the aid of a teacher, and such sciences as
make laboratories necessary, are not included. None of these subjects
possess purely cultural qualities. Technical information has no place
whatever in such a scheme. The branches of human interest which remain
are those of vital importance to everyone.
Not only is the list of subjects widely inclusive, but the method of
treatment has been carefully considered. Finding the beginnings of most
modern activities in antiquity, the Delphian Course presents the gradual
unfoldment of each subject from earliest times to our own. The distance
between an imitation of the hunt, as found among the diversions of
primitive people, and a modern play is great, and yet no complete idea
of the latter can be acquired without some conception of dramatic
origins. The crude picture drawn upon the sooty hide which formed a hut
in early times and the crowning masterpiece of a Raphael present
extremes, and yet he who would follow the gradual growth of painting
realizes that each has its place in the progress of art. Only in
comparatively recent times has the value of each link which form the
long chain of development been understood. No amount of heterogenous
reading can compare with the systematic tracing of one subject from its
early manifestations to its present forms.
Correlation of topics presents wonderful possibilities. If we become
interested, for example, in society as portrayed in the earliest English
novels, how much more shall we then appreciate the canvases of Hogarth,
which depict the same social conditions. If the age of idealism in
literature be under consideration, the productions of contemporaneous
artists grow to have for us a new significance.
It is a mistake to imagine that relaxation and diversion are obtainable
only from reading matter of the day. Oscar Kuhms calls attention to the
fact that "to spend hours over illustrated magazines, Sunday newspapers,
and the majority of popular novels, has very little to do with the art
of reading in its larger sense." To a far greater extent than is
generally imagined, the inordinate reading of magazines accounts for the
host of superficial readers of our generation. To see how temporary is
their interest one needs only to examine journals three or four years
old.
The pleasures of travel may be greatly enhanced by definite knowledge of
countries visited--their recorded past, the manner of life of those who
dwelt within them and those now populating them; ruins, old temples,
surviving art, make slight appeal to those wholly unfamiliar with the
ages that produced them. The enjoyment of a play is more poignant for
the one who has in mind the changes which plays and playhouses have
witnessed. There is something impressive in the thought that for ages
audiences have been thus held spellbound. Four centuries before the
Christian era imposing dramas and keenly satirical comedies were given
before larger assemblies than modern theatres could accommodate. Only in
modern times has a curtain separated the players and spectators.
Formerly the favored sat upon the stage itself; in the Elizabethan
playhouse the majority stood throughout an entire performance. Sentences
in Shakespeare's plays are meaningless without taking these facts into
account. Some extended acquaintance with pictures would put an end to
comments made not infrequently by critics that the spectacle of groups
of people today in attendance upon an art exhibit supplies an
astonishing sight. The majority--so it has been stated--find a number
in their catalogues, search frantically about for a picture so
designated, and when they discover it, sigh with satisfaction and begin
the search for another--"for all the world as though they were indulging
in a simple hunting game!" Why Raphael painted so many Madonnas, why
Watteau seems to have known only the gay and carefree--these are simple
questions which many might find perplexing to adequately explain.
The traveler whose time in a foreign land is limited does not seek the
commonplace and unattractive; he does not try to compass all a city
might have to show in the brief period he can spend there; rather, he
obtains the guidance of those more familiar with the locality, and gives
his attention to the best it has to offer. So if our time for reading
and self-improvement must be brief, we shall find small satisfaction in
wasting it blindly searching for what may satisfy. Educators are usually
less pressed by insidious cares and more free to give their devotion to
favorite subjects.
It is a mistake to suppose one reads chiefly for information. We read to
develop our insight into the mystery of life; to gain an individual
viewpoint; to establish our standards of conduct and modify our standard
of judgment. Reading which is mere diversion can never bestow this
power.
If those adopting the Delphian Course as the basis of their reading find
that with its aid they are enabled to accomplish more satisfying
results; if they finally discover that with its guidance one can make
more intelligent use of his own library; if a love for things worth
while--the lasting and enduring thoughts and sentiments of
men--increases, and the desire for wider knowledge is aroused--the hopes
and ambitions of the Delphian Society shall have been largely realized.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Eliot: Educational Reform.
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE DRAWING OF MAN.]
PREHISTORIC MAN
The word _prehistoric_ means, literally, _before history begins_, and by
prehistoric man we mean those human beings who lived upon the earth
before records were kept. History, properly so called, does not begin
until civilization is reached. The roaming of savage people over land in
search of food has little or no importance for the student of history,
although knowledge of a people in its savage state may throw some light
upon its future development. While prehistoric ages are the concern of
the archaeologist rather than the historian, we shall find that historic
ages owe a great debt to prehistoric ages, and with this aspect of the
matter the historian has deep interest.
The science of geology teaches us that the earth has not always
possessed its present familiar appearance. On the contrary, countless
years were consumed in molding it to its present shape, and even yet it
is undergoing constant change. It is supposed that in the beginning all
was a chaotic heap of Matter. In the words of a familiar story: "The
earth was not solid, the sea was not liquid, nor the air transparent.
All lay in confusion."
In some mysterious way,--that nobody understands--Motion was started in
this chaotic whole. Gradually the mass became more and more compact; at
the same time it became very hot. Revolving on an imaginary axis, the
mass grew rounder and rounder, flattening slightly at the poles, or the
ends of the axis. Gradually the surface of the mass cooled, and cooling,
formed the earth's crust. Because it did not cool evenly, but shrunk to
fit the still molten mass, this surface or crust was left with deep
crevasses and high ridges. This marked irregularity was further
increased by mighty upheavals caused by pressure of heat from within.
Thus were many of the mountains formed.
This process, so slightly indicated here, extended over a vast period of
time. It is supposed that later, for a protracted period, rain fell.
When the age of rain had passed, the deep depressions in the earth's
surface were left filled with water--our present oceans and some of the
seas. It would be impossible for us to review rapidly all the stages
through which the earth passed in its making. Suffice it to say that
conditions upon it were not always favorable to life as we know it. In
course of long geological ages--perhaps millions and millions of
years--forests of trees, plants, shrubs and flowers sprang up and
covered the bare earth. Last of all, probably, _man_ appeared. How all
these things came about no one understands, but it is generally accepted
that they occurred in an order similar to that just given. It would be
useless for us to inquire into all the reasons that have led to these
conclusions, but the most important one has been _evidences within the
earth itself_.
Men who work deep down in mines know that as they descend lower and
lower, the temperature rises, until there is a noticeable difference
between the temperature at the entrance of a mine and at its lowest
point. Moreover, not infrequently volcanoes pour forth streaming lava,
smoke and fire accompanying the eruption. While such evidences lead to
the conclusion that the temperature of its interior is very high, still
there are many reasons for believing that the earth is a solid mass.
From the examination of the various earth strata, their composition and
the evidences each bears of the conditions under which it was formed, we
learn of periods of rain, heat and cold prevailing. All these facts
belong to the realm of geology however, and concern us here only as they
have concerned the progress of mankind. These same earth layers or
strata which preserve eloquent testimony regarding the earth's
development, contain also remains of prehistoric men--men who lived in
the far away time before records were made and of which the rocks alone
give testimony.
Of the beginnings of the human race we know nothing. Many scientists,
notably Darwin and his followers, have sought to show that man evolved
from some lower animal life, in a way similar to that in which we find
some plant or flower perfected from inferior origin. Whether the theory
of man's evolution from some lower animal will ever be shown to be true
the future alone can tell. Nevertheless the scholarly world today has
generally accepted the evolutionary view of life and the world.
Buried within the earth along river-beds, around cliffs, in mounds and
many other places, have been found remains of primitive man. While the
beginnings of the human race, as has been said, are utterly unknown, the
earliest stage of which we have knowledge has been called the
Paleolithic Age,--the age of the River-drift Man.
Whether we accept the theory of man's evolution from the lower animal
kingdom or not, we must admit that the earliest Paleolithic people of
whom we have knowledge differed but little from the wild beasts. They
lived in caves along rivers,--natural retreats where wild animals might
have taken refuge. They lived on berries, roots, fish and such small
game as they could kill by blows. They did not cook their food, but
devoured raw meat much as did the wild beasts. They did not even bury
their dead. From the stones accessible to them they selected their
weapons, chipping them roughly. The crude weapons of this period have
given it the name of the Rough Stone Age.
The Paleolithic man, or man of the Rough Stone age, did not try to tame
the beasts he encountered. He stood in great fear of those with whose
strength he was not able to combat. He feared especially strange beings
like himself, and with his family dwelt apart from others so far as
possible. He did not plant nor gather stores for the future; thus when
food failed in his vicinity, he was obliged to roam on until he came
upon a fresh supply of acorns, berries, roots and small animals. Any
cave served for his dwelling. He protected himself from cold by a
covering made from the skin of the beast he had slain. He had few
belongings and these were scarcely valued, being easily replaced.
It is not difficult to see why the man of the Rough Stone Age preferred
to live by the side of some river. In early times, before paths were
worn through the forests, travel was easiest along the river bed. Food
was more abundant here, for fish inhabited the streams and thither also
animals came to drink, and in the reeds by the river's side, birds and
wild fowl breeded. Moreover, man was a timid creature and feared to
venture far inland.
From all this we see that man in his primitive state gave little
promise of his future development. For how long a time he continued in
this stage, we cannot estimate. Yet we find a decided improvement in the
latter part of this Paleolithic Age, for fire and its uses became known.
This brought about a wonderful change.
The man of the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age was followed by the man of
the Neolithic Age--the cliff dweller. He exchanged a home by the river
for one higher up; secure in some elevated cliff, the Neolithic man
lived, away from molesting beasts. Again, the stone weapons were greatly
improved. No longer were they rough; on the contrary, they were now
polished smooth. Ingenious from the beginning, man found that sharp
edges of stone were more useful than blunt ones, that smooth handles
were more convenient than irregular stones with no handles at all. For
this reason, this period has been called the Smooth Stone Age. Other
improvements no less momentous had been wrought. Food was now cooked,
and as a result, man grew a little less ferocious. He had less fear of
the wild beasts than before, and domesticated some of them. No longer
was he wholly dependent upon such food as nature provided, for he had
learned how to sow grain and gather it. He had learned how to fashion
bowls and other receptacles of clay. He now buried his dead with weapons
and other useful articles, proving that he believed that the dead still
had need of such things. We must not, however, suppose that he believed
in immortality, for the evidence shows that his conception of a
hereafter was very vague. In most cases the care for and fear of the
dead ceased a few years after their burial. Before the close of this
period men had journeyed far from abject savagery.
Finally we come to the Metal--sometimes called the Bronze--Age. The
discovery of metal proved the greatest boon, for now it was possible to
make sharp tools and weapons. Hitherto the mere cutting down of a tree
had taken a prodigious time. With a bronze ax, it could be quickly
accomplished. Progress made rapid strides after this invaluable
discovery. Nor this alone. Having learned to domesticate the beasts, men
passed from a purely hunting into a pastoral stage. Having learned to
reap and sow, it became convenient to have a fixed habitation. Instead
of dwelling apart, it proved safest to settle in hamlets or villages. In
other words, man had become _civilized_, and with the dawn of
civilization we find the dawn of history.
From this cursory view of the three important stages in prehistoric
times, it is possible to derive mistaken notions. For example, there was
never a time when stone was the only material available to man. Wood,
ivory and shell were probably always known and frequently procurable.
Neither is it to be supposed that each of these periods broke off
abruptly or that they extended over all lands simultaneously. Quite on
the contrary, stages in human development are never abrupt, and changes
come about unnoticed. In nature results are slowly attained and there
are no sharp distinctions between them. The three divisions of Rough and
Smooth Stone and Metal Ages refer to conditions of progress--not to
periods of time. The Egyptians had passed through all three stages
before the dawn of history; the American Indians were in the Smooth
Stone Age when Columbus discovered America; and in Central Australia
there are tribes today just emerging from the Smooth Stone period. The
rapidity with which a tribe passes from one to another of these stages
depends upon the natural conditions of the country, contact with outside
peoples and many other factors.
When written records enable us to weigh the true and the false, to sift
out fact from fiction and legend from verified event, several nations
had come into possession of a very fair degree of civilization. They had
settled homes in towns and villages, recognized some form of government,
understood the uses of fire, planted crops and garnered them, spun, wove
and made pottery; they had attained considerable skill in the working of
metals, had domestic animals and cultivated plants; they possessed a
spoken, and sometimes a written, language and had attained no little
skill in decorative art. A rich legacy was this for historic ages.
Surely there is interest for the historian in this remote time that lies
clouded still by much uncertainty. Let us consider some of these more
important attainments and try to see how naturally men grew to master
them and how in obscure ages the human race travelled so far on the high
road to progress.
DISCOVERY OF FIRE.
We have already noted that there was a time when fire was unknown. How
then could the Paleolithic man, thrown wholly upon his own observation
and resources, come upon this discovery, which was to work such changes
for the future? Only from his observance of natural phenomena. When
storms swept over desert and plain, vivid lightning flashed, and
occasionally some tree was struck by the bolt and flamed up, greatly to
the astonishment and alarm of the unknowing mind. At other times,
volcanic eruptions occurred, and dry leaves and forests caught on fire
from flying cinders. In the natural course of events, men soon found
that the warmth of burning wood was agreeable, that fire at night
allowed them to keep watch over possible invaders--whether man or wild
beasts--and that the interior of a tree's trunk could be more easily
removed by burning than by laborious scraping out with stone implements.
Having once tasted roasted flesh, a desire for cooked food was probably
developed. Such a valued possession as fire proved, needed to be
carefully tended, and when it was exhausted, human ingenuity set to work
to create it anew. It is not unlikely that sparks occasionally struck
out from flint when it was being chipped into shape for a weapon or
implement. Necessity and desire have always worked wonders, and
primitive man learned shortly to produce the vital spark, both by
friction and by drilling.
Having mastered the art of fire-making, many innovations were consequent
upon it. Some fixed habitation was necessary if the coals were to be
kept covered from day to day, and from meal to meal. Cooked foods
gradually took the place of raw ones; in cold weather the family grew to
gather around the fire, where meals were prepared and warmth was to be
found. When the family, clan or tribe removed to a new home, coals were
carried to kindle the fire upon the new hearth. When men journeyed
abroad in the night, they carried torches to guide them; when they
labored at home, fire grew indispensable for baking their clay pottery,
smelting their ore, and manifold purposes.
While fire became one of man's aids, it wrought a decided change in the
position of woman. Before its discovery, man and woman had probably gone
side by side, sharing alike dangers and hardships. With its acquisition,
some one was required to stay to watch lest it go out, and thus was
developed the fireside and the home. "The fire has made the home. We
have heard much in these later days about woman's position. We are
assured that she has not all her rights. Now, there can be little doubt
that the primitive woman had all her rights. It is probable that she was
as free as her husband to kill the wild beasts, catch fish, fight her
savage neighbors, eat the raw meat which she tore by main strength from
the carcass of the lately slain beast. The beginning of woman's slavery
was the discovery of the fire. The value of fire known and the need of
feeding it recognized, it became necessary that someone should stay by
it to tend it. Notwithstanding the fact that woman had all her rights
and was free to come and go as she would, it was still true that, on
account of children and certain physical peculiarities, the woman was
more naturally the one who would remain behind to care for the feeding
of the flame. Before that, men and women wandered from place to place,
thoughtless of the night. After that, a place was fixed to which man
returned after the day's hunt. It was the beginning of the home."[1]
THE HOUSE.
The man of the Paleolithic Age crept into any cave that offered shelter
from the storm and molesting beasts. Such caves were plentiful along the
river's bank. Here today, elsewhere tomorrow, little heed was given to
the particular shelter in which he took refuge. With the possession of
fire, a fixed home became desirable. Even so, caves still remain the
homes of men for a long period of time.
The Neolithic man sought an abode farther away from the main
highway--the river. In cliffs towering above the river bed--sometimes
away from streams altogether, he scooped out a cave similar to the ones
occupied by his ancestors. Thus in many countries remains are found of a
race of cliff-dwellers. In ancient Greece, for example, have been found
evidences of people living thus, and Indians in Mexico and Arizona three
thousand years later were discovered in similar dwellings.
With a settled life, and cultivation of the soil, man frequently was
forced to provide a home for himself. The material from which he made it
depended upon the resources of the locality. In Egypt and Babylonia,
sun-baked mud huts afforded the simplest, least expensive structures,
both in point of time and labor. Among pastoral tribes, tents formed of
animal skins sewed together were easiest to provide. This was the usual
shelter also of the American Indians and other hunting tribes. The
Laplander found cakes of ice suited for his home, while man in the
tropics quickly constructed a shelter from the huge palm leaves,
available on every hand.
"Of all places for studying construction of huts, Africa is the very
best. There one may see samples of everything that can be thought of in
the way of circular houses; built of straw, sticks, leaves, matting; of
one room or of many; large or small; crude or wonderfully artistic and
carefully made. They may be permanent constructions to be occupied for
years or temporary shelter for a single night; they may consist of
frameworks made of light poles over which are thrown mats or sheets of
various materials and which after using can be taken apart, packed away,
and transported."[2]
From lightly built, temporary dwellings, it was but a short step to the
more substantial, more enduring ones. Stone houses, dwellings made of
timber and of brick, as the country afforded, replaced the earlier
homes, and when written records bring the full light of knowledge upon
the life of nations, in the matters of constructing dwelling places,
several peoples had become proficient.
FOOD.
It would be difficult to discover any plant or animal life which had not
served at some period for food. Primitive man knew nothing about harmful
plants, and only by long experience did he learn to avoid such as worked
him woe. No insect or animal is so repulsive but that it has been
appropriated by the food-hunter in some age and country, and things
today which we would refuse in time of distress were used as a matter of
course by earlier people.
Nature supplied acorns, berries, roots, fruits, fish and plenty of game.
All these articles were at first eaten in their native state. When fire
became well known, cooked foods grew in favor. It is supposed that these
were at first roasted. To suspend meat over a fire or make a large
opening in the ground, cover the floor with stones, heat these very
hot, then remove the fire and bake the food, these are the most
primitive--as well, perhaps, as the most satisfactory--ways known to us.
Boiling was probably a later method, and this was not done as we boil
food today. Rather, stones were heated very hot and tossed into kettles
of water. In this way the water was brought to a boiling point and the
food cooked.
CULTIVATED PLANTS.
Before men learned to cultivate plants and to domesticate animals,
subsistence was always an uncertain matter. They roamed about in one
vicinity until nature could no longer supply their needs, then left the
exhausted land to recover itself while new territory afforded means for
satisfying hunger. After fire became such a potent factor, as we have
seen, a fixed abode was desirable. It fell to the lot of women to stay
and tend the hearth. Shut off from the long expeditions undertaken by
men, they soon learned to make as much as possible of the space around
about their homes. Sticks were sometimes placed around plants or bushes
to protect them from the careless step until their fruits matured.
Occasionally plants were dug up and replanted nearer the hut. The garden
and grain field were but natural results of this spirit of husbanding
the stores provided by mother earth.
While women were the first to domesticate plants in the simple way just
indicated, not much came of it until men adopted the idea and carried it
further. With sharp sticks they scratched the soil and with the help of
animals they trod in the seeds. Irrigation was sometimes needed--as in
Egypt--to insure good crops. Thus from slight beginnings developed the
agriculture of the world. With reasonable labor and painstaking, the
tiller of the soil could be sure of a living for himself and his family,
and before historic records illumine the life of several nations,
farming was well understood. Indeed it is safe to say that until very
recent times methods followed by tillers of the soil in quite a number
of countries advanced very little upon those of the prehistoric man.
It is interesting to trace the history of present day foods, grains,
vegetables and fruits, with the attempt to ascertain where each was
native. All have been greatly improved by cultivation and not alone our
varieties, but even distinct fruits and plants have resulted from man's
propagation. Often the original species have been vastly improved. For
example, the potato was a native of Chili. Found there in the sixteenth
century of our era, it was described as "watery, insipid, but with no
bad taste when cooked." It is supposed that it was taken from some
Spanish ship to Virginia, and in the latter part of the same century
carried to Europe. Its cultivation has spread over many countries, and
from a small, watery tuber it has been brought to large size, mealiness
and taste agreeable to the palate. Even today it flourishes in its wild
state in Chili and Peru.
The cabbage was once a weed, growing on rocks by the seashore. By man's
care it has been developed to the vegetable widely used today; moreover,
its blossom has been exaggerated until a wholly new vegetable in the
form of the cauliflower is the result.
"When we visit a vegetable garden or see fresh, attractive fruits
offered in market or inspect the wonders shown upon the tables of county
fairs and agricultural shows, we seldom realize how truly they are all
the work of man....
"One of the most wonderful illustrations of what man can do in changing
nature is seen in the case of the peach. Some time, long ago, perhaps in
Western Asia, grew a wild tree which bore fruits, at the center of which
were the hardest of hard pits, containing the bitterest of kernels; over
this hard stone was a thin layer of flesh--bitter, stringy, with almost
no juice, and which, as it ripened, separated, exposing to view the
contained seed; such was nature's gift. Man taking it found that it
contained two parts which might by proper treatment be made of use for
food--the thin external pulp and the bitter inner pit. He has improved
both. Today we eat the luscious peaches with their thick, soft,
richly-flavored juicy flesh--they are _one_ product of man's patient
ingenuity. Or we take the soft shelled almond with its sweet kernel; it
is the old pit improved and changed by man: in the almond, as it is
raised at present, we care nothing for the pulp and it has almost
vanished. The peach and almond are the same in nature; the differences
they now betray are due to man."[3]
Many of the grains were known and grown by prehistoric man. Millet,
wheat and barley were known in earliest recorded times in Egypt; these
grains were also cultivated before historic times. Oats and rye were
early plant products. Corn was native to America and unknown to the
antiquity of the Old World. Several of our vegetables, such as the
radish, carrot, turnip, beet and onion, were early grown for food. The
lemon, orange, fig and olive were all native to Asia. Many flowers are
mentioned by early writers and they too were unquestionably carefully
tended in remote times. It is a subject for pleasant investigation to
find out where flowers, cultivated in some countries, grow wild in
others.
DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS.
Desiring to provide food for time of want, primitive man learned to keep
a wounded animal instead of at once killing it. Quite naturally it might
come about that such a creature would grow less wild and become a pet.
Realizing the advantage of confining animals, enclosures were probably
thrown around herds of goats, deer or sheep. Ingenious man soon seized
upon these half tamed beasts to help him in his work. Their use being
proven, he would not rest until he had tamed them to his hand. The dog
was the first dumb friend of men, accompanying them upon the hunt and
aiding in bringing game to bay. The oldest friend, the dog, has also
proven the most faithful of the animal kingdom. When history dawned, the
dog, cow, sheep, goat, donkey, and pig were already domesticated. The
horse was less commonly known in remote times. All these animals were
originally small and not to be compared with their present day
descendants.
DRESS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES.
Among primitive people dress is invariably a simple matter. In warm
countries little clothing is needed, and even in colder lands, ornaments
are valued above mere protection from the elements. It has been well
established that love of decoration has been a powerful factor with
primitive tribes, and that to this passion the habit of wearing clothing
can largely be traced. Skins of wild beasts were often used by early men
as protection from the cold, but it will be remembered that the Indians
found by early discoverers in America were very scantily clad, although
furs were available on every hand. Yet the Indian, who braved the
winter's blast unclad, was eager to barter his all for glass beads,
scarlet cloth, or little trinkets with which he could ornament himself.
The habits of different tribes and peoples have differed considerably;
some have adopted clothing earlier than others; some still go unclad.
Generally speaking, we may note that during the hunting stage, if men
have worn clothing except for ornamentation, it has been the skins of
animals; as spinning and weaving have become known, coarse, home-made
stuffs have come into use. In Egypt, linens were early woven; in
northern countries, woolen stuffs were made. Feathers, furs, fabrics
woven of grasses or reeds, leaves, shells, teeth, tusks and metal
ornaments have held varying favor for decorative purposes.
ART.
At first thought it seems surprising that art can be ultimately traced
back to the self-ornamentation of the savage; yet this is probably true.
The earliest people of whom we know loved to paint their bodies; the
American Indians made ready for feast or war by painting their bodies in
startling colors, and the tribes lowest today in the social
scale--tribes of Central Australia--have a similar practice. Dark
skinned tribes have frequently painted themselves with white; fair
skinned tribes with dark colors. The use of colors among primitive
peoples is an interesting study, and it is significant to note that red
has always been a favorite.
"Red--and particularly yellowish red--is the favorite color of the
primitive as it is the favorite color of nearly all peoples. We need
only observe our children to satisfy ourselves how little taste on this
point has changed. In every box of water colors the saucer that contains
the cinnabar red is the first one emptied; and 'if a child expresses a
particular liking for a color, it is nearly always a bright dazzling
red. Even adults, notwithstanding the modern impoverishment and blunting
of the color sense, still, as a rule, feel the charm of red.'... It may
be questioned whether the strong effect of red is called out by the
direct impression of the color, or by certain associations. Many
animals have a feeling for red similar to that of man. Every child knows
that the sight of a red cloth drives oxen and turkeys into the most
passionate excitement.... As to the primitive peoples, one circumstance
is here significant above all others. Red is the color of blood, and men
see it, as a rule, precisely when their emotional excitement is
greatest--in the heat of the chase and of the battle. In the second
place, all the ideas that are associated with the use of the red color
come strongly into play--recollections of the excitement of the dance
and combat. Notwithstanding all these considerations, painting with red
would hardly have been so generally diffused in the lowest stages of
civilization if the red coloring material had not been everywhere so
easily and so abundantly procurable. Probably the first red with which
the primitive man painted himself was nothing else than the blood of the
wild beast or the enemy he had slain. At present most of the decoration
is done with a red ochre, which is very abundant nearly everywhere, and
is commonly obtained through exchange by those tribes in whose territory
it is wanting."[4]
The difficulty found in this means of decoration is that it is not
lasting. However skillfully the savage covers himself with solid
coloring or design, a short time only and his labor is effaced. To
overcome this trouble, tattooing was devised. By this means the color
was placed beneath the skin and thus not subject to change. Very
elaborate patterns were sometimes worked out and the man so ornamented
was far more attractive in the eyes of his fellowmen.
Next to the personal adornment of primitive peoples comes the decoration
of their weapons and implements and the patterns in their handicrafts,
such as basketry and mattings. Generally speaking those are in imitation
of nature, and more, imitation of human and animal forms. Heretofore it
has not been unusual to dismiss these as merely geometrical designs.
Surely they were never such in the mind of the ancient worker. He copied
things that he saw around him--copied them awkwardly no doubt, but
nevertheless certainly. Some of these patterns we can recognize; others
defy us. For example, the waving line has been interpreted to represent
the course of the serpent; the herring bone pattern originated as a
copy of the feather. Sometimes the patterns copy the skin markings of
some animal or serpent; sometimes they imitate the scales of a fish.
Very seldom have these early artists attempted to copy plants or
flowers. Sometimes the bone knife bears an excellent drawing of a bird
or fish; occasionally the whole object has been given the form of some
living creature, as, for example, bone needle cases have come to us
which have the form of fish or birds. Shields, knives, bows and arrows,
and weapons of whatever sort often bore some picture, more or less
decorative. Such a picture upon an arrow enabled the savage to identify
as his game some animal that died some distance from where it was
wounded. Clubs and throw-sticks remain whereupon is scratched the
picture of some familiar animal--a kangaroo, a snake, or a fish. But the
pictures painted by primeval man were not limited to those which adorned
their weapons and implements. The _hide_ pictures, or pictures painted
or scratched upon hides are very interesting. Generally the hide used
for this purpose was a portion of the hut. During times when inclement
weather forced the early tribesman to remain inside for shelter, it may
be, merely for diversion he occupied himself by scratching some picture
upon the soot-covered skin that formed his hut. A tooth or bit of flint
furnished him with a tool. Or again, a piece of charcoal, snatched from
the hearth, furnished him means of picturing some scene upon a fresh
skin. Figures of men and animals, drawn in outline, make up the picture.
Now a battle, now a hunting scene may be delineated. The Eskimo brings
into his picture some of the round snow huts, with the animals which he
hunts--bears, walruses, and the like. In detail and accuracy of outline
the tribes still in the hunting stage greatly excel those which have
developed into a settled farming people. Nor is this difficult to
understand. The success of the hunter depends in no small degree upon
his ability to follow the faint foot-prints of the game. He must be
susceptible to many indications wholly unseen by the casual eye. The
keen vision of the uncivilized hunter is well recognized. When he no
longer needs this wonderful sight to accomplish his daily tasks, it
disappears. For this reason we find a fidelity to nature in the pictures
of the early hunting peoples which is missed in the productions of more
highly developed peoples.
Finally we may gather these conclusions from the facts known of
primitive art--or of art among primitive peoples. While no great
masterpieces remain as models for future generations, it is among
prehistoric men that art had its beginnings. Nor is it possible to sweep
aside the art of this remote period, relegating it to the realm of the
curious alone. Recent scholarly investigators in this field have reached
far different conclusions, finding here the indications of man's
artistic possibilities and the promise for the future.
"The agreement between the artistic works of the rudest and of the most
cultivated peoples is not only in breadth but also in depth. Strange and
inartistic as the primitive forms of art sometimes appear at the first
sight, as soon as we examine them more closely, we find that they are
formed according to the same laws as govern the highest creations of
art.... The emotions represented in primitive art are narrow and rude,
its materials are scanty, its forms are poor and coarse, but in its
essential motives, means, and aims, the art of the earliest times is at
one with the art of all times."[5]
RELIGION OF PREHISTORIC MEN.
We have found that men of earliest times had no belief in a future life.
They did not even bury their dead. The man of the Smooth Stone Age had
advanced greatly in this respect. He buried his dead with weapons and
implements which he imagined would be as useful in the next world as
they had proven during the earthly life. The question arises
consequently, how did the idea of a future existence, of a soul apart
from the body, have its origin among men? The answer is, through dreams
and visions. We understand today that dreams frequently result from
physical derangement. In early times, under the unwholesome conditions
that prevailed, men dreamed more constantly and vividly than they do
now. Having feasted immoderately, the man lay down to sleep. While he
slept, he dreamed--dreamed perchance of a hunt that seemed very real to
him. When he awakened, he related his experiences, but his companions
insisted that he had not been absent. He had to explain the matter in
some way, so he fancied that he was not one, but _two_, and that it was
his _other self_ that had been fortunate in the chase. Again, he would
dream of one of his dead relatives. Not understanding the stuff that
dreams are made of, or that dreams were less real than life, he inferred
that his dead relative had returned to him for the time being, and that
he still lived in some way. We can understand his condition the better
if we think of the child who has dreamed and has been either pleased or
terrified with his dream. The idea of another existence awakened,
ancestor worship was a natural result.
The early man who had developed a religious sense, worshipped two
different kinds of forces; the forces of nature, and his ancestors. The
savage bowed down to the stick that tripped him in the forest. He could
not understand how such a small object could possess power to throw him
and since it apparently did possess it, he worshipped it. The sun
brought light and warmth. By its presence man was benefited. Therefore,
primeval man worshipped the sun.
Ancestor worship was inspired by quite different motives. If it were
true that the dead lived on, then it must be possible for them to work
one's weal or woe. If the dead were cared for and ministered unto, they
would be appeased and would have no desire to bring trouble or
misfortune upon the survivor.
The taboo held an important place in early religious beliefs and
practices. A taboo is a prohibition laid upon some object or some
performance, with the superstitious idea that injury will follow if the
object be used or the performance done. Some of the tribes of Central
Australia, today in the Smooth Stone stage of development, hold the idea
that the meat of the emu may be eaten only by the elders of the tribe.
For women, therefore, there is a taboo on this meat, and its use by them
would be regarded as a great sacrilege. The early Hebrews had a similar
taboo, recorded in the earliest set of commandments preserved by them.
It was "Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk." This does
not mean one of many foolish meanings worked into it, but rather that
the early Hebrews for some reason had placed this taboo on kid cooked in
milk. The use of beans was similarly tabooed by Pythagoras and forbidden
to his followers. A study of the taboo is interesting indeed.
The _totem_ was important to the primitive man. A totem is an animal or
species of animal from which a social circle derives its origin. One
clan owed its being to a black hawk, another to an eagle, and so on. No
one of a clan would kill its totem, or in other words, there was a taboo
placed upon the totem. Of course this taboo affected only the one clan.
Early religion consisted for the most part in certain observances--not
so much in formulated beliefs. To be sure, the primeval man believed
that harm would overtake him if he failed to perform certain ceremonies,
but it was the performance or the refraining from the performance that
was important.
Among the earliest people associated into tribes there were distinct
moral requirements. There were some people who were not to be killed,
except upon due provocation, while to kill those of other tribes brought
great glory. Again, it was not right to lie to those of one's own tribe,
but to others one might lie at all times. "An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth," was the primitive way of viewing injury, and yet
when history sheds its light upon certain nations of antiquity, some of
them had already come into the transition state, where damages might be
given if satisfactory to the injured. The Babylonians afford an
excellent example of this condition.
CONCLUSION.
Each individual passes through many of the stages through which the race
has come. A child may pass in a week or a month through a stage covering
centuries in the development of the race, but nevertheless he
experiences it clearly for the time being. The savage personified
everything around him. If he struck himself against a tree, he was angry
with the tree that had hurt him, and he tried to hurt the tree in
revenge. The child today falls against a chair and hits the chair that
hurt him. Now just as the child by such experiences, scarcely noted by
others, realized far less by himself, comes into the clear vision of
manhood, so by similar experiences the whole race has come to its
present development. We are too prone to smile at the conceptions of the
primitive world, and, grown wise with the flight of centuries, cast
aside the beliefs of early ages when men adjusted themselves to life.
Let us reflect then upon the attainments of prehistoric man and attempt
to fathom how great a debt historic peoples owe him. In view of his
achievements, we must grant that by his efforts civilization was greatly
aided. The stepping stones on which he rose from abject savagery to
higher things stand out sharply in spite of absence of records and scant
remains. The rough pioneering had been done, in a great measure, and not
alone the rudiments of civilization but evidences of culture were
plainly visible at the dawn of history, properly so-called.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL ROCK-CARVINGS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 28.
[2] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 151.
[3] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 80.
[4] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 61.
[5] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 307.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
EGYPTIAN AFTERGLOW.
"'Tis sunset hour on Egypt's arid plains.
Each mighty pyramid, with purpling crest,
Looms dark against the glory in the west.
Swiftly the heaven's beauty dies and wanes,
Till sudden darkness its rich splendor stains.
Then slowly, dawn-like, on the shadows rest
Faint crimsons, violets, tint to tint soft pressed;
They brighten, glow, then fade and darkness reigns."
P. F. CAMP.
EGYPT
PREFATORY CHAPTER
There never was a time when men were so intensely interested in origins
and development as they are today. Our biologists are studying life in
all its forms, from the single cell to the highest mammal. Our
psychologists are studying mind--what consciousness is; how attention,
habit, memory are formed. Our physicists, not content with studying
gravitation, heat, light, electricity, etc., are inquiring into the very
nature of matter itself, and, together with the astronomers and
geologists, are telling us not only how the earth, but also how the
universe came to be. Our anthropologists, ethnologists and sociologists
are just as actively and patiently inquiring into the origins of
customs, institutions, law, religion, society. The historian is no
longer content to rehearse a story because it is interesting; he insists
upon getting at the original documents, at the facts in the case, not at
theories. The savage, when asked why he observes a certain custom or
performs some ceremony whose meaning he does not know, replies that his
ancestors did the same. To inquire beyond this seems to him more than
useless. Until the beginning of our modern scientific age the answer to
similar questions among ourselves--as it still is among the Chinese,
would have been, "it is written," "thus saith the Lord," "Aristotle,
Plato or St. Augustine thought so and so about the matter." But today
all is different. We are no longer content to know what is written, or
what somebody thinks about a subject, we insist upon demonstrating or
having some one demonstrate for us, the proposition put forward. We want
the "facts." Our whole system of education encourages pupils to perform
experiments and thus verify the statements they may find in their
text-books on chemistry, physics and other subjects. It is the
inductive method which gives the pupil the facts and encourages him to
draw his own conclusions.
But what has Egypt to offer the modern man? Does it interest any but
specialists and archaeologists? Apparently it does, for every year sees
an increase of tourists in the Nile valley. It is true many go there
because of the ideal climate or because it has become the fashion to do
so. But if we look at the matter more closely, do we not see other,
deeper reasons? Is it not true that many go because in their youth they
had read about the pyramids and the wonderful temples of Egypt, and
because now when they have the opportunity they desire to see these for
themselves? The architect, the engineer, the contractor, all are
interested in these masses of masonry. Again, when we are beginning to
reclaim the desert areas in our western states, Egypt with its system of
irrigation, older than history, arouses a new interest. The fact is that
in spite of our practical nature, as some would put it, or rather, as we
prefer to have it, because of our intensely practical nature, we are
beginning to feel the necessity of inquiring into the activities of
other peoples, be they past or present, not only because such inquiry
will satisfy our curiosity or enliven our dull moments, but because of
the lasting benefit we derive from it. We insist upon knowing the people
who have achieved, who have accomplished things, and surely the pyramids
alone would demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians belonged to this
class.
_Man attained to civilization for the first time in the Nile valley._ We
study the natives of Australia and Africa for social origins. It is here
we can gather most information about the primitive forms of marriage and
the growth of the family; about the beginnings of dress and ornament;
about primitive warfare, magic, religion and early forms of tribal
government. Just as we pay special attention to the development of the
mind of the child in the study of psychology, so we feel that the best
way to study the complex features of our civilization is to observe the
simpler life of the savage. But the child becomes a man while the savage
has not yet developed a civilization before our eyes. The growth of the
race is slow. It is only when we are able to observe a race through a
period of thousands of years that it is possible to see it grow from
infancy to manhood. We can follow our own ancestors from the time they
had advanced little beyond the stage of savagery, but it is to be
observed that they did not _develop_ but _borrowed_ their civilization.
Of the beginnings of the Greeks and Romans, whose civilization our
ancestors took over, we know but little, but in the case of the
Egyptians matters are different. We are able, by means of
archaeological, monumental and inscriptional remains to follow them as
they developed in the Nile valley, unassisted by any outside
civilization--for none existed, the world's first great civilized state.
"It may appear paradoxical to affirm that it is in arid districts, where
agriculture is most arduous, that agriculture began; yet the affirmation
is not to be gainsaid but rather supported by history, and is
established beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of desert organisms
and organizations."[1] This lesson drawn from the life of the Papago
Indians might just as well have been drawn from Egyptian life. Egypt is
practically rainless, but the soil of the Nile valley, ever renewed by
the silt deposited by the yearly inundation, yields enormous returns
provided only man uses his energy and ingenuity. Long before our written
records begin the Egyptians had developed an extensive system of
irrigation. Thus by arduous toil, organized and watched over by the
growing state, Egypt developed an enormous agricultural wealth--the
foundation upon which her civilization was built. With Egypt it was not
a question of the "conservation" but of the development of her natural
resources. The Egyptian was forced to keep up a continuous struggle with
nature and as a result he was always practical. Egypt has been called
the mother of the mechanical arts. It is not surprising that the
imaginative Greeks, when they became acquainted with the material
civilization of Egypt, her pyramids and temples, her system of
irrigation, her craftsmanship, conceived an exaggerated opinion of the
wisdom of the Egyptians. Even today we hear surmises of "lost arts"
which were used in the construction of the pyramids. But we know better.
The pyramids were built by the brawn of tens of thousands of serfs,
without the use, it would seem, of even a pulley; not even the roller
seems to have been known. On the other hand, we have only to visit the
museums here and abroad--especially the one in Cairo, to realize the
marvellous skill the Egyptian workman acquired in the carving of wood,
ivory and stone, and in the working of metals. Our architects are
studying the products of the greatest geniuses Egyptian culture
produced, and our students of design may learn many a lesson from the
workmanship of her artisans.
Not long since it was not unusual to see ridicule heaped upon the
theories of the "high-brows" by our farmers, manufacturers and other
"practical" men. Probably our system of education _was_ at fault.
Nevertheless, these same farmers, manufacturers and other practical men
are beginning to realize the importance of the researches and
investigations of the specialists. We cannot hope to compete with the
industries of the Germans which rest upon a scientific basis, as long as
ours are conducted by "rule-of-thumb" methods. There is no better
opportunity offered anywhere for observing the limitations of an
exclusively practical system of education than the study of Egyptian
learning.
The Egyptian regarded learning as a means to an end, and that end was
never the increase of the sum of human knowledge or the advancement of
humankind, but always freedom from manual labor. Next to a few folk
songs, preserved in the decorations of Fifth Dynasty tombs--by mere
accident, for a scribe would never have thought of preserving them, the
oldest literature of the Egyptians which has come down to us consists of
the precepts of Kagemni and Ptah-hotep.[2] This wisdom of the viziers of
the Pharaohs of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, is similar to that of
the books of instruction from all periods of Egyptian history, and
consists largely of rules of conduct. The sole object of an education
was to obtain a position as scribe or secretary of higher or lower rank
in the government service, and this could only be done by gaining and
keeping the favor of the Pharaoh or of one of his officials. These
scribes never weary of telling of the superiority of their calling over
that of the man who must labor with his hands, who is like a heavily
laden ass driven by the scribes. Of course we too recognize the gulf
fixed between the educated and the unlettered, but we try to bridge it.
It is not probable that many of the laboring classes knew more than the
barest elements of reading and writing. The Egyptian script was
exceedingly cumbrous, and probably few would have seen any use in
mastering it, even if they had had the time, unless they intended to
enter upon a scribal career. Of course many such careers were open, for
the elaborate bureaucratic system of administration demanded the
services of a host of secretaries and overseers. In time these
constituted a distinct middle class, largely recruited, we may be sure,
from the laboring class below. The Egyptian was always ready to
recognize and reward ability, no matter where it was found. Now a word
about the limitations of such a view of education. As already indicated,
the object of an education was to gain a government position. In Egypt,
as elsewhere, the chief end of government, in the eyes of the officials
at least, was the collection of revenues. Taxes were in kind and as a
result the work of the scribe consisted in finding out the amount of the
harvest and deducting the king's share. The extensive mining and
building operations conducted by the Pharaohs required the services of
hundreds of scribes and overseers to superintend the work and distribute
the rations of the armies of workmen employed in these projects. In this
work the scribe developed a remarkable facility with figures. But he
never advanced beyond concrete examples. Multiplication and division in
our sense of the terms were unknown to him, their places were taken by
addition and subtraction. For example: to multiply seven by nine, the
Egyptian scribe would proceed, 1·7=7, 2·7=14, 2·14=28, 2·28=56, etc.
That is he always doubled the last figure. It was nothing but addition.
He wrote his results as follows:
1 7
2 14
4 28
8 56
16 112
and then found which of the numbers of the first column added together
would give the sum 9. These were 8 and 1. He then added the
corresponding numbers in the second column and got the result, 56+7=63.
So 50÷7 would have looked like this: 50-28=22; 22-14=8; 8-7=1. The
result was (4+2+1) sevens with 1 as remainder. The Egyptian scribe
could not handle fractions other than those with one as numerator.
Two-thirds was the only exception. The Egyptian knew that the area of a
rectangle was to be found by multiplying the two adjacent sides
together, and that the area of a right angled triangle was equal to half
the area of a rectangle whose base and altitude were equal respectively
to the sides adjacent to the right angle. When his problem was to find
the area of an isosceles triangle he applied the same rule, that is,
multiplied the base by one of the sides and divided by two. Here theory
might have helped him, had he been able to develop it. He never reached
the conception of base and altitude. His rule for finding the area of a
circle is worth mentioning. He took the diameter, subtracted one-ninth
of it therefrom, and squared the result. In a word, he had not come far
from the correct value of [Greek: pi]. But the Egyptian always dealt
with concrete examples, he never was able to generalize and carry his
mathematics into the theoretical. As a result he never attained
scientific accuracy. Not that he did not set himself difficult problems.
Indeed many of them are so complicated that they required an immense
amount of reckoning, by his methods, to solve. Without giving his
solution, let me add one more of his problems: "A man owns 7 cats; each
cat eats 7 mice daily; each mouse eats 7 ears of grain; each ear
contains 7 grains; each grain gives a sevenfold return in the harvest.
What is the sum of the cats, mice, ears and grains?"
The Egyptians observed the stars. They had names for all of the
principal constellations; knew the circumpolar stars from those which at
times disappeared below the horizon, but they never seem to have noticed
the difference between fixed stars and planets. They invented a calendar
with a year of 365 days as early as 4241 B.C. This was based upon the
heliacal rising of Sirius (Sothis) coincident with the beginning of the
inundation. But they never discovered, or if they did, never bothered
about the fact that their year was one-fourth of a day too short. They
were deeply interested in medicine, and their recipes prescribe
everything that can be swallowed. Many of these were borrowed by the
Greeks and from them have come down into the folk-medicine of modern
Europe. No doubt many of their remedies were helpful, but magic always
played the most important rôle in their medicine, as it does among all
primitive peoples and as it did in our own until the beginning of our
modern scientific age.
The progress made by the Egyptians in the development of a purer
conception of religion will be discussed at length in the body of this
volume, especially on pages 131 and following. The Egyptians were not
far from monotheism.
But the Egyptian culture must be studied as a whole. Time was when the
study of the civilization of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, together with
that of the Hebrews, was regarded as a sort of introduction to the study
of history, which began with the Greeks and Romans. Much was said of the
immovable East. It was supposed that progress was exceedingly slow there
as compared with that in the West. But our wider knowledge of the
history and life of these peoples shows how false this conception was.
We can trace Egyptian civilization from its beginnings in the
palaeolithic and neolithic ages; see it develop from many petty states
into an absolute monarchy; follow it as it emerges after a period of
anarchy into a Feudal Age, and as it rises after two centuries of
foreign oppression into a mighty empire pushing its southern frontier
away into Nubia and its northern one to the Euphrates. Meanwhile we are
not neglecting to study the economic and intellectual forces at work.
Society has been developing steadily. A monotheistic religion has been
growing up. But Egypt has reached her zenith and the age of decline sets
in. In time she falls before foreign invasion, because she has used up
her vitality. Her civilization is not to be studied as a preliminary to
anything else, but as the achievement of a gifted race. Of course we are
to compare her progress with that of other peoples, to see the faults
of, but also to appreciate the good in, her culture.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] W. J. McGee, "The Beginning of Agriculture," American
Anthropologist, 8, 375.
[2] See page 164.
EGYPT.
[Illustration: THE SPIRAL DECORATION OF SCARABS.]
CHAPTER I.
ITS ANTIQUITY.
Among Old Testament stories familiar throughout the Christian World, a
general favorite with boys and girls from their earliest years is the
story of Joseph--a seventeen year old lad, the son of his father's later
life, and most loved of all his children. In Genesis we may read how his
brothers became jealous of Joseph because of Jacob's care for him, and
their anger increased when the boy related a dream wherein he had seen
himself exalted to high position while his family and all the world did
honor to him.
His people led a pastoral life, and when the dry season came, the older
brothers went away with the flocks in search of fresh pastures. Soon the
father grew anxious to hear from them, and sent Joseph to locate them
and then return to tell him how they fared. After some searching, Joseph
drew near the flocks and was seen afar by his brothers. They were now
many miles from home, and what they might do was not likely to reach the
ears of those who knew them. So they plotted to kill Joseph and ascribe
the deed to some wild beast. Reuben, more compassionate, urged that they
should not have this awful crime upon their hands, but suggested instead
that they cast him into a pit, from which plight, we are told, Reuben
intended to deliver him. The others yielded to his plea, and Joseph was
cast into the pit. Shortly after, a caravan came in sight, passing on
its way to Egypt. At once a surer way of disposing of Joseph suggested
itself--they would sell him as a slave and free themselves from further
responsibility in the matter. The company of merchantmen drew nearer,
journeying with their spices and their wares. To them Joseph was sold,
and with them he "went down into Egypt."
His varying fortune for the next few years is briefly told. Now we see
him a trusted servant, given responsibility and acquitting himself with
credit; then upon false accusation, he is cast into prison, but even
here he wins the confidence of his jailer. Here too, he establishes a
fame for the interpretation of dreams, which ability is soon noised
abroad. So widely did it become known that when the king's counsellors
were unable to explain his repeated vision, from prison walls Joseph was
summoned to reveal its hidden meaning. He thereupon foretold the seven
years of plenty and the seven years of famine through which the land of
Egypt would soon pass. The king, impressed with his wisdom and
sincerity, chose him steward of the realm.
All know the outcome of the tale--how Joseph soon became second in
importance to the king himself, trusted, depended upon and loved; how he
bought up the heavy yield of grain throughout the realm for seven years
and hoarded it in "store cities," until he ceased to chronicle the
amount, so vast it was. Then when the years of famine came, he sold
again to those who would buy, and when their money was exhausted, he
took their flocks, their lands and their slaves as security--yes, even
the service of citizens was pledged to the king in exchange for food.
It was during these tedious years of want that Joseph learned of his
family, when the same brothers who had done him so much injury came into
Egypt to buy grain, and through his generosity they were united once
more, and at his invitation brought their families to dwell near him.
The king commanded that they be well provided for and they prospered and
increased in number.
Years passed and Jacob died, and at last Joseph himself. Then we are
told there came to the throne a king "who knew not Joseph." He looked
with dismay upon a foreign people growing up within his country, whose
traditions, customs, and religious beliefs were wholly unlike those of
his own nation. Then followed the years of oppression when he sought to
exterminate the race with relentless work and cruel persecution. Within
recent years, one of the "store cities," supposed by some scholars to
have been built by the Hebrews during this period of their life in
Egypt, has been unearthed--verifying the account of their bondage as
preserved to us in the book of Genesis.
It is difficult for us to realize the vast antiquity of Egypt. When
Joseph as a seventeen year old boy came with that band of merchantmen
into its borders more years had passed over its civilization than have
passed since Homer told his stories of gods and heroes to the Hellenes
who gathered around to hear him. The three great pyramids had stood in
their majestic calm under more moons than have risen and set since
Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea; and the Sphinx had watched, for
how many years men cannot tell. When we come to the land of Egypt, we
are appalled by its age. America was discovered about five hundred years
ago; England has been inhabited for more than twenty hundred years, but
Egypt counts its history back for thousands of years and loses itself in
tradition and legendary periods preceding these. The story of Joseph,
told in Genesis, the book of earliest Biblical tradition, records an
incident early in the history of the Hebrews, but the Egyptians had
already been governed by many ruling dynasties and had known the
oppression of invading kings whom they had at last driven from the
throne. They had built colossal structures which were to perpetuate the
memories of their mighty kings as well as to provide their everlasting
tombs, and these stand today the marvel of all who gaze upon their vast
proportions. They had developed a complex religious system, and had
reached some perfection in decorative art. Egypt had long been the
granary of the civilized world and consequently of great importance from
an economic standpoint. The Nile, that wonderful river which caused
Herodotus to exclaim: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile!"--a sentiment
quoted ever since by all who have written about the country or the
river--had cut down its river bed and had already built up a rich soil
in the valley by its deposits, left by the overflow of countless
seasons.
We look today upon the cathedrals of Europe, standing as they have since
the Norman conquest, even, in some instances antedating it, and we
exclaim that the builders of these impressive edifices built for ages to
come. Yet in Egypt the pyramids have stood for almost five thousand
years, and it is safe to say that they will proclaim to many
millenniums more, the wealth and power of the Pharaohs who raised them
for their everlasting abodes. Hundreds of years dwindle in the
contemplation of thousands, and these are ever before the student of
Egyptian history.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT.
Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa. To the east lies
the Isthmus of Suez--the pathway to Asia, and the Red Sea--separated by
a range of mountains from the Valley of the Nile. To the south lies
Nubia, and to the west stretches away for hundreds of weary miles the
Sahara, the old bed of an extinct ocean.
Egypt is by no means the country it is sometimes represented to be on
geographical maps. That Egypt someone has called a "geographical
fiction." On the contrary, it has always consisted simply of the Nile
valley and delta. It is about one-half as large again as the state of
Massachusetts, containing approximately 12,000 square miles.
The Nile is unlike any river of our land. It takes its rise in a chain
of lakes near the Equator. These lakes lie in a heavy rain belt and at a
certain season the rainfall is so constant that the river is greatly
swollen. It is joined by tributaries which in turn are overflowing with
the melting snows of mountains wherein they take their rise, and
altogether the main river continues so to increase that it overflows its
channel and spreads out into the valley on either side.
In America we know how disastrous spring floods frequently become, but
here the overflow is violent, tearing down bridges and embankments,
bringing injury rather than benefit to the land. In Egypt the rise of
the Nile is gradual; dwellings are built on elevations of land or on the
outskirts of the valley.
Without the yearly inundation there would be no food to maintain the
dense population of the country.
During the period of high water the Nile is heavily loaded with mud.
When the river recedes, this fertile silt is left upon the surface of
the land. This, and this alone, has made the land of Egypt different
from the deserts on either side of it. And now we see how truly
Herodotus spoke when he exclaimed that Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
Containing about the same number of miles as our state of Maryland, for
numberless years this little country has been the granary for
surrounding lands. Thus may we judge of its remarkable fertility.
Much of the loam which the river has brought down has been spread over
the valley, but a considerable amount has been emptied each year at the
mouth of the stream, forming in course of time a _delta_,--so called by
the Greeks from its resemblance to their letter _delta_. Because of its
long threading valley and this delta, Egypt has sometimes been likened
to a lily; the delta representing the flower and the valley the stem.
After flowing four thousand miles, the waters of the Nile find their way
at last to the Mediterranean Sea, and towards this sea the land
gradually slopes. Passing southward through Egypt from the
Mediterranean, one journeys more than a hundred miles through the delta.
This great plain has been formed entirely of the mud washed down by the
mighty river. Each year for countless ages it has been extended at least
eight feet farther into the sea, and thus its area continues to
increase. This portion of the country, or this delta, is frequently
referred to as Lower Egypt.
Continuing south, one enters the valley. This narrow strip of fertile
land measures about six hundred miles from the apex, or southern
extremity of the delta, to the first cataract. The bed of the Nile is
very irregular in its upper course and falls over ten cataracts in its
downward flow before the southern boundary of Upper Egypt is reached. In
width the valley varies from one to ten miles. This portion of the
country is known as Upper Egypt.
Imagine, if you can, a river flowing through a valley skirted on either
side by deserts whose boundaries are so abruptly marked that one may
stand with one foot in the fertile, life-producing valley, and with the
other in the shifting sands of desert waste. On the east lies the
Arabian desert, while the many colored peaks of a lofty mountain range
form a well nigh impassable barrier between it and the Red Sea, save
where famous mountain passes lead to the waters beyond.
Nubian mountains, to the south, supplied most of the gold and precious
ore used by the ancient Egyptians, and were held in greatest dread by
those taken in captivity, for the work within them was relentless and
none ever returned when once sent to join the hopeless, heartsick throng
of laborers employed by the king to develop the mines.
The Sahara west of the valley is not a flat region, but is made up of
shifting sands, hills and rocks of limestone. It is plain that the
Valley of the Nile was once a part of this desert, but the river, with
its tremendous volume, set to work to cut down its bed. The channel, so
worn down, is the present valley. "Egypt is the temporarily uncovered
bed of the Nile, which it reclaims and recovers during a portion of each
year, when Egypt disappears from view, save where human labor has by
mounds and embankments formed artificial islands that raise their heads
above the waste of waters, for the most part crowned with buildings."[1]
It is plain, as we note the nature of the land through which the great
river flows, that no rich soil would be accumulated from the banks it
washes in its downward course. We must look to the high tablelands where
the two large tributaries, the Blue Nile and the Atbara, have their
beginnings, to find the mountain loam that has given the valley a
fertile soil, thirty feet in depth, and has built up the grain-producing
delta, one hundred miles in length and more in breadth. Again and again
we are forced to remember that Egypt is indeed the gift of the Nile.
YEARLY RISE OF THE NILE.
This brings us back once more to the subject of the inundations. Early
in June the Nile begins to rise below the first cataract. In July it has
become swollen throughout its course.
The highest water mark is reached about September fifteenth. By the
first of November the river begins to recede and is at low water again
by the last of January, although it continues to diminish until the
following June.
Nilometers are used to register the river's rise. These are wells in
which the water can fluctuate freely, with a stone column in the center
marked as a scale. The _ell_ is the unit of measure, being equal to
about twenty-one and one-third inches. At low water the river registers
about seven ells. If during the inundation sixteen ells are reached, all
Egypt is supplied with water and fine crops are assured throughout the
land.
NILOMETERS.
From earliest times the rise of the Nile was closely watched, and
nilometers, which were under the special protection of the State,
constructed. Today these water gauges are under the inspection of
government officials. Taxes have always been apportioned according to
the amount of the inundation, and it has been to the interest of the
government, naturally, that these be as heavy as possible. For this
reason it has often been claimed, both in ancient and modern times, that
the official report of the high water mark greatly exceeded the actual
rise.
There is no rainfall in the valley and little in the delta, so whatever
moisture Egypt receives must come from the Nile. The entire valley is
not of equal elevation but becomes higher as it spreads out on either
side, and so a vast system of irrigation must be maintained to make good
crops possible. Large sums have been expended in the construction of
dams, embankments and canals to contain the water after the river
recedes, allowing the amount thus retained to be drawn off as it is
needed. From canals it is drawn off into trenches for still higher land,
and artificial means of various kinds have always been employed to lift
the water from one level to another. It is estimated that tens of
thousands of men and boys are constantly engaged in this elevation of
water from one level to another, in order that farms throughout the
valley may receive the necessary moisture and fertility. As rapidly as
one crop is harvested, the soil is made ready for another, so that as
many as five crops are frequently harvested in a year on a given
acreage.
INFLUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY.
With a sea on the north, mountains on the east, cataracts to the south
and a desert on the west, what would be the natural effect upon the
inhabitants of physical conditions such as these prevailing in the land
of Egypt? They determined that the Egyptians would be left to develop
their civilization unmolested for the most part by outside influences.
Such physical features account for the fact that for hundreds of years
that was a land, not of war, but of peace. Think for a moment what
natural boundaries have meant to nations of Europe. England's isolation
has been largely due to her stormy channel, while the independence of
the Swiss is accounted for by their inaccessible mountain home. Austria,
on the other hand, has known the disastrous effects of repeated
invasions, while Poland has lost her identity and has been appropriated
by her neighbors because of unfortunate situation and the lack of
natural defenses.
Not only did the topography of the land surface determine the political
fortunes of the ancient Egyptians in a large degree; it materially
influenced the very temperament of the people. Many civilizations have
developed in lands broken by hills and valleys, plains and plateaus,
dotted with lakes, skirted by forests, bays, inlets and a thousand
irregularities of nature. Few trees grow in Egypt and few wild flowers
are found. Each spot that might have become a tangled thicket was early
appropriated by the practical tiller of the soil. The valley has always
supported too dense a population to permit of wilds and abandoned
corners, and only that remains uncultivated which has proved too marshy
for grain production. Possessing no timber suitable for ship-building,
the Nile dwellers did not become sailors. Their communication from one
part of the country to the other was established by means of small boats
or donkey paths. Rain was scanty and mud huts sufficed to shelter the
people. While constant attention was required to maintain an extensive
system of irrigation, the soil was so fertile and the climate so
favorable that two, three and even more crops per year were possible.
Nature worked with--not against--man. "A serene temper, and a reliance
in nature were fostered. A submissiveness was developed which allowed
the king to turn all into a fighting people, or into a body of forced
laborers." The absence of nearly all that inspires, that stimulates the
energy and quickens the imagination may largely account for the placid
temperament of the ancient Egyptians. Passing their lives in a land of
slightly varying processes, they could imagine nothing more
satisfactory for a hereafter than a shadowy land wherein they might till
the soil as of yore, only water should always reach the needs of the
remotest, and perplexities removed, each should complete his yearly
circuit through eternity.
PREHISTORIC EGYPT.
Long before northern Africa acquired its present land surface, made up
so largely of deserts, it is believed that the portion which we call
Egypt was a fertile country, visited by frequent rains. It is possible
that the Nile did not exist; at least, it had not eroded its present
channel, and the fertility of the soil was due to causes other than
yearly inundations. This, we must remember, was many geological ages ago
and cannot be computed in years at all. Remains of rude flint implements
are scattered over the heights of the desert plateau to the west of the
Nile valley. The people who used these lived in settlements, traces of
many of which have been found; but of their relation to the later
inhabitants of Egypt we know nothing. They belong to the field of
archaeology rather than to history.
Climatic changes took place in Africa. Gradually the country assumed its
present surface of desert and valley. It is supposed that Libyan tribes
came from northwestern Africa and settled in Egypt; these were joined
later by Asiatic hordes who crossed the Isthmus of Suez in search of
better pastures for their flocks, or because of some shifting of the
tribes in their rear. This inference, based upon the Semitic elements in
the grammar and vocabulary of the language of the earliest Egyptian
inscriptions, has been raised almost beyond doubt by the latest
researches. From the mingling of these Asiatic tribes with others
already established in western Africa, sprang, so it is believed, the
early Egyptians. The Egyptians, however, like the ancient Greeks,
regarded themselves as autochthonous.
Roughly speaking, prehistoric events in Egypt include all those
preceding the year 4000 B.C., and our knowledge of them has been
gathered from the disclosures of excavated tombs. While a discussion of
the Egyptian religion will be taken up later on, some slight knowledge
of it is necessary at the start.
The Egyptian of both early and later periods believed firmly in a future
life, but he believed further that the future welfare of the soul
depended wholly upon the preservation of the body. This belief led him
to study how best to preserve the dead body, and to bring embalming to
such an art that tombs opened today, after the flight of five thousand
years, reveal bodies in complete states of preservation. Again, it was
believed that the same needs would be felt in the future life as had
been experienced during the earthly career. For this reason, foods,
vessels of pottery, weapons, and even toilet preparations for personal
adornment, were enclosed in the tomb. From a study of the contents of
these ancient tombs most that is at present known of the ancient
Egyptian has been ascertained.
When many implements furnished with ivory handles are found in these
tombs, together with occasional pictures of elephants scratched on bone
and bits of pottery, even those of us who are neither antiquarians nor
historians might infer that the elephant was contemporaneous with the
prehistoric Egyptian. Pictures of boats, of animals and men, decorating
pieces of pottery, throw light upon this early civilization.
From all remains recovered in tombs antedating the year 4000 B.C. the
following conclusions have been reached: these primitive people reached
considerable skill in the making of pottery and stone receptacles. From
copper they made knives and implements; they built very fair river
boats, wove coarse fabrics, although skins of wild animals usually
constituted their clothing: they hunted and fished and were to some
extent an agricultural people. At this remote time Egypt was not the one
united country it later became. It was composed of nomes, or districts,
of which the late lists give 22 for Upper and 20 for Lower Egypt. Their
number probably varied considerably during the course of Egyptian
history. In early times each nome probably had been the home of an
independent tribe, having its own chief and its own religious customs.
Gradually, however, powerful chieftains conquered other nomes, until
just before our written records begin, the two more or less compact
kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were established. Throughout Egyptian
history each locality held to its peculiar religious beliefs, and
although there was always a state religion and a state god, dearer to
the hearts of men were the deities of their own vicinity; and it is
possible to trace several religions in the one composite system of later
years.
By 4300 B.C. the men of the Delta had divided the year into 365 days,
and again into twelve months of thirty days each, with five extra days
for sacred festival. For six thousand years, then, the calendar which we
use has experienced little change. Take it all in all, the Egyptians of
this age had traveled far from the state of savagery.
[Illustration: ROYAL CROWNS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson; Ancient Egypt, p. 6.
[Illustration: CLEOPATRA.]
CHAPTER II.
SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.
The study of prehistoric man is largely a matter of conjecture and has
little interest for any save the archaeologist and antiquarian. There is
yet so much uncertainty regarding historic periods in Egypt that the
general reader must leave prehistoric ages to others. Reaching authentic
ages, in addition to the remains discovered within old tombs, we are
aided by written records, and these fall into three classes: facts
regarding Egypt as recounted in the Old Testament; writings of the
Greeks; inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians themselves. The light
thrown upon the subject by old Hebrew writers is slight. They chronicled
the history of their own people and mentioned other nations only when in
some way the Hebrews came into contact with them. Hebrew traditions,
customs, and religion differing wholly from those of Egypt, at best
there would have been but little understanding between them. Biblical
comment upon Egyptian life is slight. In connection with the story of
Joseph we find that some facts concerning the land unwittingly creep
into the narrative. Modern discovery has verified such facts as are
recounted, and buried and forgotten cities have been sought and located
from mere mention of them in some Old Testament passage. Thus the Bible
is rightly included with the sources of Egyptian history.
So far as treatment of Egypt by Greek writers is concerned, we can stop
for only the most important. Best known are the works of Herodotus, who
lived about five hundred years before the Christian era. He was the
first to bring forward the historical style of writing and for this
reason he has been called the Father of History.
Herodotus journeyed to Egypt and abode there some little time. He did
not understand the language of the country and depended largely upon
priests who spoke Greek for his information. He apparently believed all
they told him, and likewise accepted the tales with which his guides
entertained him, incorporating all their marvelous stories into his
writings. Consequently much that is found in his works cannot be
credited. Whatever he himself saw and understood he recounted with
simplicity and truth, as recent discoveries have proved. It is easy
today to point out the failings of Herodotus and to wonder that he was
so ready to credit all he heard, but judged by the age in which he
lived, his writings may be the better understood. We are told that
portions of his works were read by him at the Olympian Games, and that
those who listened received his stories with enthusiasm. To the
imaginative Greeks no report was too fanciful to find credence. They
delighted in the unusual and strange, and they made up the audiences for
which Herodotus wrote. It is not surprising, then, that the Father of
History brought back to his countrymen the unique stories he heard
concerning the Egyptians--a people whose life and customs were thought
by foreigners until long years after, to be deeply shrouded in mystery.
More valuable has proved the work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who
wrote in Greek. He is said to have made a complete list of Egyptian
kings from records preserved in the temples. This list has been lost and
only portions quoted from time to time by later writers have come down
to us. These fragments have been of much service to students of
Egyptology. It was Manetho who divided the history of his country into
three periods: the Old Empire, Middle Empire, and New Empire. He also
treated the past by dynasties rather than years. These general divisions
have been retained by all subsequent historians. Those who are not
specialists in Egyptology are apt to be confused by the widely divergent
systems of chronology found in the different histories of Egypt, or they
reach the conclusion that all is uncertainty in this field. This is not
the place to enter into a discussion of this difficult technical
problem. Suffice it to say that in the opinion of the best scholars,
Eduard Meyer, the great historian of the Ancient Orient, has said the
last word on this subject. Contrary opinions notwithstanding, the
accession of Menes and the beginning of the dynasties cannot be placed
before 3400 B.C., nor can the beginning of the twelfth dynasty have been
earlier than 2000 B.C.*
Coming lastly to monumental inscriptions, we approach the difficulties
of the Egyptian language. Let us try to understand why it proved so
difficult for scholars who read Hebrew, Greek and Latin, together with
some older tongues, to comprehend the language of the Nile dwellers.
In prehistoric times the Egyptians understood one another but it was
long before they had any means of expressing their thoughts in writing.
It may have occurred to them finally that the pictures which they drew
for decorative purposes might be used to convey messages, and thus they
began to express simple meanings, using pictures rather than symbols.
Sometimes to make doubly sure the meaning of several pictures, they
added another which combined the meaning of all into one. These added
pictures have been called determinitives, and the pictures used to
convey meanings in this way are known as hieroglyphics. There was
something very attractive and decorative about this method of writing by
thus picturing out stories, and it was used extensively in tombs and
temples. It became too elaborate, however, for daily use, and gradually
only the _main outlines_ of the original pictures were used to represent
the idea or word. This system of writing was more practical for
constant, everyday needs than the more ornamental hieroglyphics. It is
known as the hieratic writing. Finally, late in the history of Egypt,
these hieratics were very much abbreviated, mere dots and lines being
substituted. This cursory system is known as _demotic_ writing. It was
adopted by the people generally, and might perhaps be compared to modern
shorthand. To make the whole more complicated still, all three methods
were used for different purposes contemporaneously.
Hundreds of years passed; the language of the ancient Egyptians was
forgotten and so, indeed, were the people themselves. In modern times
the learning of ancient peoples was revived and their writings eagerly
read. Quite naturally students wished to know something of the earliest
civilizations, particularly of the civilization of the Nile valley. Here
they were confronted by what seemed baffling indeed. Three forms of
writing used contemporaneously, even interchangeably, defied all effort
to decipher them. Attempts were made to explain certain inscriptions,
but these explanations were found later to have been far astray. In
1799, one of Napoleon's soldiers, while excavating in the mouth of the
Rosetta, came upon a stone which bore a royal decree written in three
ways: in hieroglyphics, in demotic and in Greek. This supplied a key at
last, and scholars set themselves to the task of deciphering ancient
Egyptian writings. Other inscriptions written in two or more languages
were found and verified the conclusions reached earlier in the
translation of the Rosetta Stone.
In recent years a large number of inscriptions from tombs and temples
have been read and many rolls of papyrus have been translated. This has
enabled historians to read back, step by step, into far away ages, and
to carry the thread of Egyptian civilization to its beginnings. Maspero,
Eduard Meyer, Breasted, Petrie and other painstaking students of
Egyptology have given their lives to the task of unraveling the past,
both by deciphering inscriptions and unearthing forgotten cities. From
the tireless efforts of men like these, tombs hidden for centuries have
been recovered, temples and colonnades laid bare of drifting sands,
inscriptions transcribed and translated, and volumes of scholarly
material written for the special student, while at the same time the
general reader may find much of interest concerning the life of a
remarkable people whose works have borne testimony through the ages.
HERODOTUS.
The following lines are taken from the pages of Herodotus wherein he
relates what he saw and heard when he visited Egypt nearly twenty-five
hundred years ago.
"There is no country in all the whole world that hath in it more
marvelous things or greater works of buildings and the like than hath
the land of Egypt. And as the heavens in this land are such as other men
know not--for in the upper parts there falls not rain but once in a
thousand years or more, and in the lower parts not often--and the river
is different from all other rivers in the earth, seeing that it
overflows in the summer and is at its least in the winter, so also do
the manners of the Egyptians differ from the manners of all other men.
For among them the women buy and sell in the market but the men sit at
home and spin. And even in this matter of spinning they do not as
others, for others push the shuttle in the loom from below upward, but
these men push it from above downward. Also the men carry burdens on
their heads, but the women carry them on their shoulders. And the women
pray to none, neither god or goddess, but the men pray to all. And there
is no duty laid on a son to succor father or mother, if it be not his
pleasure to do it, but on a daughter there is laid, whether she will or
no.
"In the matter of mourning for the dead, these folks have a strange
custom, for they let grow the hair upon the head and chin when they
mourn, but are shaven at other times. And whereas other men hold
themselves better than the beasts, the Egyptians have these in great
honor, keeping them in their houses, aye, and worshipping them. Nor do
they eat the food of other men, holding it a shame to be fed on wheat
and barley which others use, and eating the grain of millet only; and
the dough that is made of it this they knead, trampling it with their
feet; but mud and like things they are wont to take up with their
hands....
"Now as to the beasts and the honor in which the Egyptians hold them,
there are many strange things to be told. The crocodile some of the
Egyptians hold to be sacred, but not all. And in every city where they
hold it, as in Thebes and in the cities round the lake Moeris, they keep
one crocodile to which they do special honor. This they train to be tame
to the hand, and they put earrings of glass and gold into his ears, and
bracelets on his forefeet, and give it a portion of food day by day, and
make offerings to it, and when it dies they embalm it and bury it in the
sacred sepulchres. But the people that dwell in the city of Elphantine
count them not to be sacred at all, but slay and eat them....
"The cat the Egyptians hold in great honor. Of this beast there is a
very marvelous thing to be told. When it chanceth that a house is
burning a strange madness cometh upon the cats, for they are very
desirous to leap into the fire. And the Egyptians set guards round the
place if by any means they may keep the cats from their purpose; nor do
they care to quench the fire, if so be that they may do this; but the
cats nevertheless, making their way through them, or leaping over them,
have their will and so perish. Over this the Egyptians make great
lamentation. If a cat die in the course of nature, all that are in that
house shave their eyebrows only, but all dwellers in a house where a dog
dies shave their heads and whole bodies. The cats, when they are dead,
they carry away for burial to the city of Bubastis, but the dogs they
bury each in the city where he dies, only in the holy sepulchres....
"For food the Egyptians have bread made of millet as has been said
before. They have wine made of barley, for the vine groweth not in their
land. Of birds they eat doves and pigeons, and such small kinds as there
are in the country.
"... Such of the Egyptians as dwell in the marshes of the river have
also for food the seed of the water-lilies, which grow abundantly when
the river overfloweth the plains. This seed is like to the seed of a
poppy, and they make of it loaves which they bake with fire, having
first dried it in the sun. Also the root of this water-lily (which they
call the lotus) may be eaten, being round, and of the bigness of an
apple. Other lilies there are growing in the river, like to roses, which
have a fruit very like to a wasp's comb, and in it many seeds of the
bigness of an olive, which the men eat both green and dry. Also these
marsh folk gather the reeds, and use the upper part for other things, as
for the making of paper and the like, but the lower part, as much as a
cubit's length from the ground they eat.
"All the Egyptians worship not the same gods, but Isis and Osiris they
all worship and this Osiris is the same as he whom the Greeks call
Bacchus or Dionysus, and his feast is in all things like to that which
the Greeks keep to their God, only that there is no acting of plays. As
for Isis the Greeks call her Demeter, that is to say, being interpreted,
Mother Earth....
"Let so much then be said about the Egyptians and their customs and
manner of life, and the gods whom they worship."
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN NUMERATION.]
CHAPTER III.
THE PYRAMID AGE.
Menes was the king who succeeded in accomplishing the unification of
Egypt. We are told by Manetho that he was at first chief or governor of
the eighth nome of Upper Egypt, whose capital city was Thinis, and being
ambitious, subdued the surrounding nomes, until at last all Egypt was
brought under his control. No doubt earlier chieftains had begun the
work of conquest and left the completion to Menes, whose personality and
executive strength were sufficient to efface the reigns of his
predecessors.
Having brought the Delta under his control and crowned himself with the
white crown of Upper and the red crown of Lower Egypt, Menes realized
that a capital for such a straggling kingdom as his would best be
centrally located. He therefore fixed upon a site just south of the apex
of the delta and built the city of Memphis. Quite possibly there was a
settlement here before this time.
It happened that the Nile flowed close to the western hills in this
locality. The king knew well that his capital would be safer and the
more easily protected were the river between it and possible Asiatic
invaders on the east. So he undertook what has ever since been regarded
as a bold feat of engineering; he built a high embankment across the
Nile and compelled the stream to seek a new course farther east. Filling
in the old channel, he built a wall around the new city, caused a temple
to be at once erected to Ptah, the ancient deity of the locality, and
shortly a town grew up around it. Thus we see the beginnings of the Old
Empire, so called by Manetho and subsequent historians. For convenience
scholars sometimes group Dynasties I. and II. and Dynasties III. to VI.
together. The first period (3400-2980 B.C.) is called the Thinite age
because the rulers of these two dynasties came from Thinis. The name Old
Kingdom is then limited to Dynasties III. to VI. (2980-2475 B.C.)
It would be useless for us to attempt to become familiar with all these
early kings--some fifty in number--with reigns varying from one to many
years. Should we succeed in collecting the meager facts known of each we
would have little to repay us for our trouble. It is more to the purpose
that we know something about the period as a whole--its general
characteristics and attainments.
During this period hieroglyphic writing became widely used, having been
but rarely known before the age of Menes. A line of forts was built
along the Isthmus of Suez to stay invaders from Asia. Tribes on the
south were brought into subjection and pledged service to Egypt in time
of war. Stone quarries and mines were developed and granite ranges
sought and found. In the sixth dynasty one man-of-war sufficed to
accompany the transports sent to bring granite for the kings' tombs from
the southland--a fact recorded with pride by the pharaohs, since it gave
proof of their far reaching might.
From earliest times the Egyptian kings were builders, particularly of
tombs, which during the Old Empire took the form of pyramids. Of far
greater importance than the earthly abode was thought to be the
tomb--the dwelling place for eternal years, consequently tombs and
temples received the attention of Egypt's kings in early as well as
later times.
In 1897 the tomb of Menes was discovered. It was a brick-lined pit
containing an inner chamber of wood. Around the mummy of the pharaoh had
been placed the bodies of different members of his household. Similar to
this were royal tombs until the Third dynasty, when stone was first
used. To the kings of the Fourth dynasty belong the famous pyramids,
unsurpassed by any subsequently built, and still today the wonder of the
world.
The Egyptians always located their cemeteries toward the west. Into the
west the sun sank at night, and by the same way the soul started upon
its long journey to the realm of Osiris, god of the future world. The
irregularity of the Nile usually made it possible for the city of the
living to grow up on its eastern bank, while across the stream, on the
west shore, lay the City of the Dead. To the west of Memphis lay its
cemetery or Necropolis, and while this remained the capital of Egypt,
the pyramid-shaped tomb remained in favor. Sometimes the pyramid tombs
were small; sometimes they were large. More than sixty have been found,
and large numbers have doubtless disappeared for all time. Three,
however, were made so prodigious in size as to cast into obscurity all
the rest, and these have come to be called the "three Pyramids of
Gizeh," quite as though they were sole examples of their kind. Khufu was
builder of the largest; this is generally called "the Great Pyramid."
His son Khafre built the one next in size, known as the "Second
Pyramid," while the third, much smaller than these, was built by
Menkure. Were we indifferent to the political development of Egypt, we
would still wish to learn about these mammoth structures which are
scaled each season by wondering tourists, and have excited the
admiration and awe of travelers since the time of Herodotus.
It is difficult to realize the vast size of these piles, and we can do
so only by comparing them to things with which we are familiar. The base
of the largest pyramid covers thirteen acres of ground, solid masonry;
it was originally 482 feet high. Since it is almost one solid mass of
stone, it is not difficult to credit the statement of Herodotus that it
took 100,000 men twenty years to build it, an additional ten years being
necessary to quarry the stone and bring it to the chosen site.
"The tradition recorded by Herodotus as to the labor employed, is so
entirely reasonable for the execution of such work, that we cannot
hesitate to accept it. It is said that a hundred thousand men were
levied for three months at a time (i. e. during the three months of the
inundation, when ordinary labor is at a standstill); and on this scale
the pyramid-building lasted twenty years."
How complete must have been the organization of a government which could
promote such an extensive project as this! How entirely were the
resources of the empire at the disposal of the king when free citizens
could be impressed to satisfy the vanity of the proud pharaoh! To have
supported 100,000 non-producing men must of itself have taxed the
treasury. The rulers who built these majestic tombs wished to make their
names immortal, as well as to preserve their bodies from harm and decay.
This first they certainly accomplished, but in light of modern
investigation, when each stone lifted into place has been estimated to
have cost at least one human life, these proud pharaohs elicit less
admiration and commendation than they doubtless thought to win.
Three kinds of stone were used in the construction of these pyramids.
The inner part, or core, was formed of material plentiful near the
building site. This was a spongy limestone that was not durable if
exposed to the elements, but adequate when covered with other stone. The
successive layers, put on in the form of steps, were of stone brought
from across the river, having been quarried in the mountains on the
east. It has been conjectured that a causeway was laid from the
mountains to the side of the pyramid, and that blocks of stone were
dragged by men this distance. Finally, the beautiful granite used for
outer casing was found near the southern border of Egypt, floated down
the stream when the water was high, and having been polished like a
mirror, was fitted over the rougher stone. 2,300,000 blocks, averaging
two and one-half tons each, were used for the construction of the
largest pyramid.
"If we had so much stone, what could one do with it?" is asked in The
Boy Travelers in Egypt. And it is answered: "You could build a wall four
feet high and two feet thick--a good wall for a farm or a garden--all
the way from New York to Salt Lake City, and were New York in danger of
an attack and desired to surround the whole of Manhattan Island--21
miles--with a wall forty feet high and twenty feet thick, here would be
material to do it." Rawlinson tries to bring its size home to us by
comparing it to structures with which we are familiar. He says: "In
height it exceeds the capitol at Washington by nearly 200 feet, and its
cubic contents would provide a city of 22,000 houses solidly built of
stone having walls a foot thick, twenty feet frontage and thirty feet
deep, thirty feet high, allowing one-third for dividing walls."
For several hundred years the Mohammedans have occupied Egypt and they
have taken away quantities of stone from the lesser pyramids, from
temples and other ancient structures of Memphis, to be used in their
mosques and buildings in Cairo, near-by. The outer casing of the Great
Pyramid, beautiful granite as hard as iron, was removed to build the
large mosque of this comparatively modern city. The removal of this
casing has left the under layers bare, and these, step-like in
appearance, are annually scaled by tourists. With the help of Arab
guides, one may ascend to the very top of the huge pile, gaining thence
a splendid view of the surrounding country.
Even the pyramids left cased in granite are no longer smooth. The
weathering of ages has roughened their sides and dulled their polish.
They are of a tawny orange color and gleam by certain lights like
gigantic piles of gold.
Within the pyramids were chambers for the remains of kings and their
families and chambers for friends to gather for worship--for after his
death, an Egyptian king was worshipped as a god. Even a spacious gallery
was provided near the top of the Great Pyramid, in order that air might
circulate freely and thus keep the tomb dry.
The ambitious, short-sighted Fourth dynasty kings exhausted the
resources of their realm. During the Fifth and Sixth dynasties the
pyramids became smaller. Even the long-suffering land of the Nile could
no longer muster vast forces to provide huge abiding places for the
pharaohs. Marvelous temples would still be erected, and wonderful feats
of architecture accomplished, but the passion for tremendous tombs had
in a measure spent itself.
"The essential feeling of all the earliest work is a rivalry with
nature. In other times buildings have been placed either before a
background of hills, so as to provide a natural setting to them, or
crowning some natural height. But the Egyptian consented to no such tame
co-operation with natural features. He selected a range of desert hills
over a hundred feet high, and then subdued it entirely, making of it a
mere pedestal for pyramids, which were more than thrice as high as the
native hill on which they stood. There was no shrinking from a
comparison with the work of nature; but, on the contrary, an artificial
hill was formed which shrunk its natural basis by comparison, until it
seemed a mere platform for the work of man.
"This same grandeur of idea is seen in the vast masses used in
construction. Man did not then regard his work as a piling together of
stones, but as the erection of masses that rivalled those of nature. If
a cell or chamber was required, each side was formed of one single
stone.... If a building was set up, it was an artificial hill in which
chambers were carved out after it was piled together....
"The sculptor's work, and the painter's, show the same sentiment. They
did not make a work of art to please the taste as such; but they
rivalled nature as closely as possible. The form, the expression, the
colouring, the glittering transparent eye, the grave smile, all are
copied as if to make an artificial man. The painter mixed his half-tints
and his delicate shades, and dappled over the animals, or figured the
feathers of birds, in a manner never attempted in the later ages. The
embalmer built up the semblance of the man in resins and cloth over his
shrunken corpse, to make him as nearly as possible what he was when
alive.
"In each direction man then set himself to supplement, to imitate, to
rival or to exceed, the works of nature. Art, as the gratification of an
artificial taste and standard, was scarcely in existence; but the
simplicity, the vastness, the perfection, and the beauty of the earliest
works place them on a different level to all the workers of art and
man's device in later ages. They are unique in their splendid power,
which no self-conscious civilization has ever rivalled, nor can hope to
rival; and in their enduring greatness they may last till all the
feebler works of man have perished."[1]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Petrie; History of Egypt, Vol. I, p. 66.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
THE AGE OF DARKNESS.
With the close of the Sixth dynasty, records practically cease, and few
indeed are the facts established regarding those kings whom Manetho
included in his Seventh and Eighth dynasties.
From earliest times each nome had been the seat of some noble
family--the descendants of chieftains, possibly, or perhaps the
recipients of royal land grants. Certain it is that each nome had its
noble family of wide estate, from whose number the governor was usually
chosen, as was also the high priest of the local temple. By the end of
the Sixth dynasty, the claimants to the throne were not strong enough to
hold together the land they aspired to rule; they maintained their
capital at Memphis, but neither the Delta or Upper Egypt recognized
their sway. On the contrary, each prince in his own nome tried to
increase his individual strength at the expense of the general
government. Asiatic invaders seem to have strengthened themselves in the
Delta, while to the south Theban princes came into prominence.
During the period which Manetho accorded to the Ninth and Tenth
dynasties, a prince often bought the favor and assistance of as many
nobles as he was able, and with his united forces established himself in
his own vicinity.
The vast resources which had been so completely at the command of the
Fourth dynasty kings were now divided among many petty nobles, each
seeking to aggrandize himself. Naturally, no costly tombs could be
constructed to perpetuate the memories of these who now aspired to
Egypt's throne; the tombs which had to satisfy were less enduring, and
this no doubt explains why so few remains of the period have come to
light in recent years. The thread of history is almost lost during the
age of darkness which included the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth
dynasties. Shut off from the disclosures of tombs, Egyptologists have
turned to the mines and quarries. All kings of importance have there
left traces of their operations, but the mines contain no tablets, no
decrees, no records of quarrying undertaken in these years, save here
and there an inscription indicating that some noble carried on work
within them on his own behalf.
It is probable that the land passed through a most trying experience in
the time intervening between the Old and the beginning of the Middle
Empire, when neither property, possessions, nor life itself were safe
throughout the land, but anarchy, strife and turmoil were everywhere
rife. The kings maintained their capital at Heracleopolis, but they were
in continual struggle with the princes of Thebes. How great had been the
confusion we may judge when one of the Tenth dynasty rulers takes pride
in recording the fact that order had characterized his reign. "Every
official was at his post, there was no fighting, nor any shooting an
arrow. The child was not smitten beside his mother, nor the citizen
beside his wife. There was no evil-doer nor any one doing violence
against his house. When night came, he who slept on the road gave me
praise, for he was like a man in his house; the fear of my soldiers was
his protection."[1]
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.[2]
Order and prosperity returned to Egypt after years of darkness and
confusion. Thebes superseded Memphis as the center of political life.
Great material development characterized the beginning of what Manetho
designated as the Middle Empire. Before taking up the work of the early
Theban kings, let us learn something of the locality wherein they dwelt.
[Illustration: DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS.]
Memphis, as has been shown, was located conveniently to both Upper and
Lower Egypt, while the Nile protected the city from sudden Asiatic
attacks. What then were the points of advantage for Thebes, lying 400
miles farther south?
"Here the usually narrow valley of the Nile opens into a sort of plain
or basin.
"The mountains on either side of the river recede, as though by common
consent, and leave between themselves and the river's bank a broad
amphitheater, which in each case is a rich green plain--a soil of the
most productive character--dotted with doom and date palms, sometimes
growing single, sometimes collected into clumps or groves. On the
western side the Libyan range gathers itself up into a single
considerable peak, which has an elevation of 1,200 feet On the east the
desert-wall maintains its usual level character, but is pierced by
valleys conducting to the coast of the Red Sea. The situation was one
favorable for commerce. On the one side was the nearest route through
the sandy desert to the Lesser Oasis, which commanded the trade of the
African interior; on the other the way led through the valley of
Hammamat, rich with ... valuable and rare stones, to a district
abounding in mines of gold, silver and lead, and thence to the Red Sea
coast, from which, even in very early times, there was communication
with the opposite coast of Arabia, the region of gums and spices."[3]
Such being the location of Thebes, we shall see that it grew until in
time it became the mightiest city of the ancient world.
With the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty (_Ca._ 2160-2000 B.C.),
the work of reuniting and re-establishing a centralized government
began. The Delta had to be reclaimed from invaders who had gained the
upper hand while the land was divided against itself. Unity being at
last secured, rulers were free to launch out upon other enterprises. One
of the later kings had a deep well provided for those who served in the
quarries; another sent an expedition of 3,000 men to bring back stone
for his tomb. These men were also instructed to go beyond the
quarries--to Punt, which must have lain on the Somali coast of East
Africa, and bring back products of that region. The expedition set out
under the leadership of a nobleman whose report has fortunately come
down to us. It states that his men built stations and made wells along
their route, to the lasting benefit of those who might journey thence.
Part of the detachment was left to quarry stone, while the rest
proceeded to Punt and procured spices, gums, precious woods, and rare
animals. After noting their safe return, the prince adds: "Never was
brought down the like thereof for the king's court; never was done the
like of this by any king's confidant sent out since the time of the
god. I did this for the majesty of my lord because he so much loved
me."[4]
The Twelfth dynasty (2000-1788 B.C.) brought forth some of Egypt's
ablest kings. Their creative ability was perhaps not excelled by
subsequent pharaohs. Amenemhet I. (2000-1970 B.C.) proved himself strong
enough to curb the power of the feudal princes. These hereditary nobles
had probably received gifts of land from earlier kings in recognition of
loyal service. The estates passed from father to son, and while the
central government had been weak, the princes became more and more
aggressive. They fortified themselves, each in his nome, retained large
retinues of officials, servants, militia and realized vast incomes from
extensive tracts of arable land. It was neither possible nor prudent to
remodel the entire system, but Amenemhet I. undertook to modify it.
Whenever one of these landed princes died, the king himself chose from
the heirs the one who should succeed him. Naturally, he selected one
whose loyalty to himself and to the government was unquestioned. Again,
the boundaries of the nomes had never been officially determined, and
during the years of confusion, strong nobles had infringed upon the
possessions of weaker ones. The king made a tour through the country,
heard all complaints of such encroachments, and decided the limits of
all disputed boundaries. This did much to restrict the strength of
ambitious princes.
His son, coming to the throne, subdued the Nubians on the south and
extended the empire to the second cataract; but it was left for
Sesostris III. to make this conquest sure, and then to post his decree
along the river.
"This is the southern frontier; fixed in the eighth year of the reign of
his majesty. Usurtasen [Sesostris], ever living. Let it not be permitted
to any negro to pass this boundary northward, either on foot or by boat;
nor any sort of cattle, oxen, goats, or sheep belonging to the negroes.
Except when any negro comes to trade in the land of Aken, or on any
business, let him be well treated. But without allowing boats of the
negroes to pass Heh northward forever."[5]
In gratitude to the king for thus securing to them safety by repulsing
the negroes, the Egyptians sang extravagant hymns to Sostostris. Some of
these have been rendered into English, and are regarded as excellent
specimens of Egyptian poetry. The following is one of these songs:
"Twice joyful are the gods,
Thou hast established their offerings.
Twice joyful are thy princes,
Thou hast formed their boundaries.
Twice joyful are thy ancestors before thee,
Thou hast increased their portions.
Twice joyful is Egypt at thy strong arm,
Thou hast guarded the ancient order.
Twice joyful are the aged with thy administration,
Thou hast widened their possessions.
Twice joyful are the two regions with thy valor,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy young men of support,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy veterans,
Thou hast caused them to be vigorous.
Twice joyful are the two lands in thy might,
Thou hast guarded their walls.
Twice joyful be thou, O Horus! widening thy boundary,
Mayest thou renew an eternity of life."[6]
AMENEMHET III.
The greatest name of the Twelfth dynasty is that of Amenemhet III.
(1849-1801 B.C.). He directed his attention to internal improvements.
Realizing the dire effects upon Egypt when the Nile failed to supply
sufficient water or when too much water was forthcoming, he studied
various ways of controlling the river. Once or twice in a century the
rainfall, always heavy in the Abyssinian highlands, is yet greater; the
river rises rapidly to unexpected heights and works general havoc. Or
sometimes the supply may be less than usual. Having watched the stream
with anxious eyes for many a week, the people behold it recede,
although only the adjacent plains have been refreshed and upper portions
of the valley lie parched and lifeless, while famine stares Egypt in the
face.
Amenemhet III. believed that a vast reservoir might regulate the supply,
receiving the water when it was at high flood and giving it out once
more when the stream was low. He looked about for a natural depression
and found it to the west of Memphis, beyond a narrow range of hills.
Canals were made leading into this basin and Lake Moeris was the result.
Some hundreds of square miles were gained by this new means of
irrigation and the tract thus made arable, became royal domain. The
district is known as the Fayoum. Near its entrance Amenemhet III. built
his pyramid. It differed from earlier tombs in that the chamber destined
to receive his mummy was reached by passages even more secret and
winding than ordinary. False doors were placed here and there to mislead
any who might attempt to molest the body.
Under his direction, a wonderful building was constructed. It was called
the Labyrinth. Being about 800 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, it
contained 1,500 rooms above the ground and as many more below it. There
were many courts with numerous doors leading from them and Strabo, a
Greek geographer, who saw it long after Amenemhet had taken his journey
to the realm of Osiris, said that the ceilings and sides of the rooms
were made from single stones! It is believed that the king planned this
structure to serve as a great capitol for his kingdom, and that there
were suites of halls for every nome, with chapels for their gods. A vast
number of chambers would naturally be required for this, and probably
there was no thought of making the building baffling or bewildering, as
the name labyrinth now signifies. This was counted among the wonders of
the ancient world, but, like the city built around it, disappeared ages
ago. Herodotus has left us a description of the huge building, written
to inform his countrymen of a structure more remarkable than anything
they could boast. When he saw it, almost five hundred years before the
time of Christ, it was still in perfect condition.
"I visited the place," he says, "and found it to surpass description;
for if all the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put
together into one, they would not equal this Labyrinth. The pyramids
likewise surpass description, and are severally equal to a number of the
greatest works of the Greeks; but the Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids.
It has twelve courts, all of them roofed, with gates exactly opposite
one another, six looking to the north, and six to the south. A single
wall surrounds the whole building. It contains two different sorts of
chambers, half of them under ground, and half above ground, the latter
built upon the former; the whole number is three thousand, of each kind
fifteen hundred. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and
what I say of them is from my own observation; of the underground
chambers I can only speak from report, for the keepers of the building
could not be induced to show them; since they contain, they said, the
sepulchres of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also those of the
sacred crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of
them; but the upper chambers I saw with my own eyes, and found them to
excel all other human productions; for the passages through the houses
and the varied windings of the paths across the courts, excited in me
infinite admiration, as I passed from these colonnades into fresh
houses, and again from these into courts unseen before. The roof was,
throughout, of stone, like the walls; and the walls were carved all over
with figures; every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was
built of white stone, exquisitely fitted together. At the corner of the
Labyrinth stands a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large figures
engraved upon it, which is entered by a subterranean passage."
In comparison with the Old Empire kings, those of the Middle Empire seem
to us much more modern in spirit. Instead of merging the whole
population into instruments to work out the pharaoh's fancy, instead of
squandering the riches of the land and the lives of subjects to provide
mammoth tombs which should eternalize the ruler's memory and flame forth
his power and greatness unto succeeding generations, the farsighted
Twelfth dynasty kings devoted their time and resources to the
improvement of their kingdom. Wells were dug; roads constructed; public
buildings erected; fortifications strengthened; frontiers extended. The
attention of the monarch was directed to the commercial prosperity of
the realm, to the agricultural conditions and their improvement--in
short, the best years of the Middle Empire were years of material gain
for the Nile dwellers, wherein men developed the arts of peace, and the
valley testified to wise administration. Through a second period of
depression a nation was to look back upon the age of its material
progress with longing eyes, and still better, to retain even under
adverse conditions standards of government and life which would later be
recovered. After the death of the great king, called Amenemhet the Good
by his grateful subjects, none appeared able to adequately fill his
place, and his glorious reign was overshadowed by a second period of
darkness.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Trans. by Breasted, Hist. Egypt, 149. The approximate dates of this
period are: Dynasties VII. and VIII. _Ca._ 2475-2445 B.C.; Dynasties XI.
and X. _Ca._ 2475-2160 B.C.
[2] Dynasties XI. and XII. 2160-1788 B.C.
[3] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 95.
[4] Trans. by Breasted, Ancient Records, I, §483.
[5] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 181.
[6] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 182.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
THE SHEPHERD KINGS.[1]
The Thirteenth dynasty kings were not sufficiently strong to hold intact
the kingdom which passed into their hands. Soon again the feudal princes
of nome and city were contending with one another for additional power.
The Fourteenth dynasty rulers had their capital in Xois, a Delta city.
Both dynasties lasted but a brief time, filled with unrest and
contention. We can imagine into what state Egypt fell when a negro of
Nubia, of a race despised by the Egyptians, set himself up as their
king. Several princes ruled at the same time in various portions of the
realm. Sources of information for these chaotic years are scanty; no
monuments have come down to us, the inference being that the resources
and energies of the land were required for more immediate needs than the
erection of costly tombs for rulers of disputed right.
The whole country must have suffered greatly. The system of irrigation
set in order by Amenemhet III. required both national supervision and
national funds for its maintenance. As neither could have been
forthcoming, the food production must have been materially diminished.
Engaged in civil war, Egypt soon fell a prey to foreign invaders.
For hundreds of years it had been not unusual for Syrian bands to ask
permission to settle within Egyptian borders. In the tomb of a
provincial governor of Upper Egypt has been found a painting which
portrays a company of seventeen Bedouins bringing presents to the
nobleman and asking that they be allowed to locate in his dominion. In
Genesis we read concerning Abram: "And Abram journeyed, going still
toward the south. And there was a famine in the land of Canaan; and
Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous
in the land." Since Abram was rich in cattle and in gold, he undoubtedly
brought many of his family and followers to dwell with him in the land
of plenty. Similar incidents were common. If the rainfall was short in
Canaan, in the territory of the Hittites or even in Arabia, Egypt was
ever regarded as a last resort. The Nile never failed to supply water
for the flocks; here, too, it was customary to store grain in royal
store-cities, in order that in time of need Egypt could sell
advantageously to her neighbors. In a pastoral age, such favorable
conditions as these were highly prized.
The Pharaohs diligently fortified their frontiers, and it must not be
supposed that in times of peace foreigners were allowed to come at will
into the land. There were, on the contrary, officers stationed along the
boundaries to apprehend any who wished to enter, to receive their
requests and forward them to the governor of the nome. Until he was
heard from, strangers were detained on the border. It seems to have been
usual, however, to admit such petitioners unless it was thought that
they might become a menace to the state. It naturally came about,
therefore, that the tribes on the east looked with envious eyes upon the
rich valley of the Nile, and when Egypt was disrupted, her resources and
soldiers no longer at the command of one ruler but divided among several
contending nobles--each of whom valued his personal interests above
those of his country--while anarchy and disorder infested the coveted
land, an overwhelming host of Semitic hordes poured into the Delta,
spreading thence into the valley. Before them Egypt was helpless.
Asia and Egypt as well were inhabited in early times by many wandering
or nomadic tribes. A tribe dwelt in one locality while pasturage was
good, and when it was exhausted, would move on to new fields. Sometimes
the tribe in possession of one district would learn that other tribes
were drawing near, and in an age when strangers were considered enemies,
this would furnish sufficient pretext for starting out on the march
again. Periods of unrest sometimes swept over vast areas; in such a time
as this, perhaps, Asiatic tribes poured into Egypt. In her pitiable
plight, the country lay an easy prey to such invaders, who Manetho tells
us numbered a quarter of a million. It is said that they took possession
without a battle. Just who they were or where they came from is not
known. We now know that the Hittites invaded Babylonia during the reign
of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and that
this was the indirect cause of the fall of this dynasty (about 1750
B.C.). Scholars are beginning to suspect that the invasion of Egypt at
this time was either led by the Hittites or due to Hittite pressure
back of the tribes in Syria-Palestine. Their kings were called Hyksos,
and from a doubtful etymology of this name they are still styled the
"Shepherd kings."
The invading conquerors put many of the Egyptians to death, taking their
wives and children into slavery. Worshipping gods of their own, they
hated the gods of the Egyptians and destroyed many temples and
monuments. Generally speaking, they remained in the Delta and the
Fayoum, the Theban princes ruling in the south as their vassals.
Gradually these fierce Asiatics took on the civilization of the land
they had invaded. They donned Egyptian dress, spoke and wrote as the
Egyptians, and built temples much like theirs. The country rallied from
its recent disaster and life became not unlike that of earlier times.
In time the Theban nobles increased in power; the Hyksos--or their
descendants in the Delta--grew alarmed lest the native princes might
become powerful enough to force them from the throne they had usurped.
Determined to check any threatening strength on the part of the
Egyptians, the foreigners tried to bring about open conflict, sure
themselves of victory. At first the Theban princes sought to avert war,
but the demands of the Hyksos grew heavier. There was a folk-story to
the effect that the usurping king in the Delta sent word to the Theban
prince that the noise of the sacred hippopotami in the pools and canals
allowed him rest neither by night or day, and must be disposed of.
However simple this appears, it may easily signify that the final break
came because of religious difficulties.
Roused at last, the Egyptians determined to drive the invaders from
their land. This occurred during the Seventeenth dynasty--for Manetho
continues his list of Egyptian kings throughout the period of foreign
rule. The Asiatics were driven north, and the first pharaoh of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, King Ahmose (1580-1350 B.C.), gathered a vast army
and forced them beyond his borders. Five years were consumed in
accomplishing this, and in the end many of the foreigners were reduced
to slavery.
Summing up the results of the invasion of the Hyksos, we may note that
Egypt learned much during her period of oppression Before the invasion,
her fighting had been confined to the defense of her frontiers. Asiatic
and African, and the tribes with which she had waged war had been her
inferiors. In the Asiatic tribes she had at last met a people more
skillful in military affairs than she. They used horses and chariots,
and their mode of warfare was superior to the clumsy, undisciplined
efforts of the Nile-dwellers. It was by adopting their methods that
Egypt finally succeeded in expelling them from the land. Hereafter we
find the horse and chariot used extensively in Egyptian wars.
Another important result was the elimination of the feudal lords. They
had opposed both the Hyksos and the successful king Ahmose, and fighting
for personal interests alone, had most of them perished in the conflict.
The vast areas which had been their portion reverted to the crown and
became royal domain.
It has been thought that Joseph served under one of the foreign kings,
and that the conditions spoken of at the close of his career--when all
Egypt was subdued and at the command of the Pharaoh--coincide with the
situation shortly after the feudal lords had disappeared as a political
factor. All this is, however, doubtful.
In marked contrast with the gloom of long years under foreign oppression
shines the splendor of the New Empire.
THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW EMPIRE.[2]
The wide differences which we have noted concerning dates accepted by
various Egyptologists disappear as we approach the Christian era, and
there is general agreement that the sixteenth century before Christ saw
the dawn of the New Empire which had its beginning when the independence
of Egypt was established and Hyksos rule thrown off. Petrie calls this
the most glorious page in Egyptian history.
Ahmose had much to do before the safety of the government was assured.
While he pursued the Hyksos into Asia, crippling their allies, the
Ethiopians infringed upon his southern border. Three different
expeditions had to be sent against them before they were reduced to
submission. Then only did the king find opportunity to direct his
attention to the domestic concerns of the kingdom. Thebes, the capital,
was given first consideration in the matter of building and adornment.
The foundations for the famous temple of Karnak, of which we shall hear
more at length, were begun.
Ahmose's son succeeded him, but aside from putting down an uprising of
the troublesome Ethiopians, little of importance attached to his
administration.
It was left for Ahmose's grandson, Thutmose[3] I., to give Egypt the
position she was to occupy among the nations for many years. Thutmose I.
was instinctively a soldier. Coming to the throne when a mere boy, the
Ethiopians made war directly, thinking they could easily overcome so
inexperienced a king. Thutmose at once gave indication of his capacity
by marching immediately into their territory and defeating them with
tremendous slaughter. To prevent further annoyance from these people the
king divided their country into districts and over each he placed an
Egyptian official. Thus the land of Kush became an Egyptian province.
Having now a well organized army, Thutmose pressed into Asia--for the
experience of Ahmose had shown that rich plunder there awaited the
victor. Some tribes yielded voluntarily to Egypt; others were forced to
yield.
Although the king penetrated some distance east of the Euphrates, these
districts were not permanently won for Egypt. On the contrary, we shall
find that subsequent pharaohs did over and over again what this king
attempted, and for this reason: each time a nation was conquered,
Thutmose withdrew his soldiers from it, imposing tribute and asking
hostages. So long as the tribute was forthcoming, the tribe was left
undisturbed. This gave wide opportunity for the conquered peoples to
unite among themselves and make attempts to shake off control whenever a
new ruler succeeded to the throne of Egypt. This proved eventually a
most extravagant policy for Thutmose to have followed.
Henceforth Egypt had to take her place as a military power, and with her
every new aspiring nation had to reckon. When we recall the peaceful
Egyptians of early times, secluded in their quiet valley, disliking
foreigners and having as little intercourse with them as possible, we
realize what a change had been wrought in them by their contact with the
Hyksos during the years of their oppression.
Egypt's future was largely marked out by Thutmose I., as later reigns
demonstrated. Perhaps his greatness has not been wholly appreciated.
"The greatness of Thutmose[3] I. has scarcely been sufficiently
recognized by historians. It may be true that he did not effect much;
but he broke ground in a new direction; he set an example which led on
to grand results. To him it was due that Egypt ceased to be the
isolated, unaggressive power that she had remained for perhaps ten
centuries, that she came boldly to the front and aspired to bring Asia
into subjection. Henceforth she exercised a potent influence beyond her
borders--an influence which affected, more or less, all the western
Asiatic powers. She had forced her way into the comity of the great
nations. Henceforth whether it was for good or for evil, she had to take
her place among them, to reckon with them, as they reckoned with her, to
be a factor in the problem which the ages had to work out--what should
be the general march of events, and what states and nations should most
affect the destiny of the world."[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dynasties XIII to XVIII, including the Hyksos, 1788-1580 B.C.
[2] Dynasties XVIII to XX, 1580-1090 B.C.
[3] Usually written Thothmes. The form Thutmose is, however, nearer the
original.
[4] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 168.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EARLIEST QUEEN IN HISTORY.
We now come upon a story in Egyptian history. It might easily begin with
"Once upon a time," and better still, it is true. Of course we all know
that when people live hundreds and thousands of years in a country and
reach a high degree of civilization, when they build noble structures,
become proficient in art, write books, and have developed a high degree
of culture, their lives have been full of absorbing experiences, just as
ours are today, and we may be sure that these Egyptians, who sometimes
seem a bit monotonous in the light of recorded history, would be
interesting enough did we know more about their daily lives.
In many families it has been customary to keep a family record--in the
Bible often, sometimes in special record books. The habit is less
prevalent than it once was, but we have doubtless all seen such records
and recall that they generally include births, marriages and deaths
occurring in the family. From them, however, one could get no idea in
years to come of the happy holiday gatherings, social pleasures, and
family celebrations frequently enjoyed.
It is somewhat the same with nations. They leave momentous events in
their history carved in marble, painted on canvas or written in whatever
fashion they have known; but it is left largely to us to weave in the
rest of the story as best we may--and too often this part is neglected.
People long since vanished seem too often like unreal creatures, who
fought in wars, established dynasties, enjoyed periods of peace and
suffered in times of tumult, and these events appear to be fitted
together like the pieces of a puzzle. Had historians keener imaginations
they might bring these ancient people before us as distinctly human, so
that, like the characters of Dickens and Scott, they would abide in our
memories. But then you see, someone would suggest that this was no
longer history.
However, the world has seen a few queens who have apparently determined
to relegate dullness and monotony to kings--as for themselves they
would have none of it. Such was Good Queen Bess of England, and such
also was Queen Hatshepsut of long-forgotten Egypt.
Thutmose I. had been a great warrior; he had subdued the Nubians and
Ethiopians in Africa, and then, roused to a spirit of conquest, he had
pushed into Asia, revenged the indignities inflicted upon his people by
the Hyksos, and had made his power felt far beyond the Euphrates. When
no longer able to rule, he left the widest empire the world had yet seen
to his daughter Hatshepsut, aged twenty-four, and to his seventeen year
old son. Hatshepsut had inherited her father's great ability and
tireless energy; the son was weak and purposeless. His untimely death
gave occasion for many both then and since to wonder if his vindictive
sister did all she could to save him. Certain it is that Queen
Hatshepsut rallied sufficiently from the shock of his death to reign for
many years.
It was very disconcerting to a nation so strongly held by tradition and
veneration for established customs as was Egypt, to have a woman on the
throne of the Pharaohs. This is amusingly shown in temples where her
loyal supporters sought to lessen prejudices felt because she was a
woman by portraying pictures designed to show that her birth had been
attended by special marks of favor and of prophecy on the part of the
gods. In these, however, she is often represented as a _boy_. She seems
to have regretted not having been a man, and no doubt the matter was
constantly thrust before her and she was forced to feel how greatly this
placed her at a disadvantage among her subjects. She seems to have made
heroic efforts to modify the differences in sex as much as possible by
assuming a beard and by having herself represented in art in a king's
official dress. Furthermore, a bewildering use of pronouns seem to have
been employed concerning her, and such phrases as: "his majesty
herself," and others similar have come down to us.
Great benefits came to Egypt when the ruler's attention was directed
from conquest to internal improvements, and these last occupied the
energy of this capable queen throughout her reign. Instead of erecting
pyramids or tombs, she at once began to build a temple in which she
might be worshipped after death--for in Egypt a ruler was worshipped as
a god after his death. Nor would Hatshepsut have her temple like those
around her. Rather, a site was chosen out of Thebes, where the hills
rose to quite an elevation. A series of four terraces, each having its
beautiful colonnade, led to the temple itself, which was hewn out of the
rocky hill.
The young queen wished to build such a temple as she fancied might have
been sacred to Amon--the ancient deity of Thebes--in his own land of
Punt, on the East African coast. It was a myth of the Egyptians that
long before they existed, the gods abode in the land of Punt, called by
them the Holyland, or God's land. Tradition held that in this land the
myrrh tree was sacred to Amon, and so one day Queen Hatshepsut announced
to her ministers that the god Amon had revealed to her his desire that
here in Thebes, before the new temple, his favorite myrrh tree should
grow.
Now myrrh incense for offerings had been procured from merchantmen who
brought their spices into Egypt, and the tree itself grew only in Punt,
which lay to the furthermost corner of the ancient world. However, the
queen was determined to satisfy the god--and incidentally, perhaps, her
own fancy. So, nothing daunted, her subjects set to work to construct a
fleet suitable for the journey necessary for procuring the
incense-bearing tree.
It is supposed that some canal connected the river with the Red Sea;
whether or not this was the case, the ships were built at Thebes, and
there is no record of their having been carried over land to the port.
They were fitted out with both sails and oars, so that the expedition
might not be hindered by calm weather. Beside the oarsmen and the crew,
soldiers accompanied the fleet to give protection should it be needed.
After many days the ships came at last to the Holy Land, or Punt.
Messengers were dispatched to the native king with presents from Queen
Hatshepsut and a request that he acknowledge the sovereignty of Egypt,
and allow her subjects to bring back products from his land--especially
the coveted incense-tree. The king was delighted with the gifts and made
up a procession to go down to the shore and meet the Egyptians. He had a
funny little dwarf wife, belonging, it is supposed, to one of the dwarf
tribes of interior Africa. She on her donkey, her three children, the
king and several of his chiefs, proceeded to the shore to greet the
strangers. They were led to the native houses--curious round huts built
on piles and entered only by ladders, while palm and incense trees
sheltered their occupants from the hot rays of the tropical sun. The
travelers were treated royally throughout their sojourn in the land of
Punt, and were allowed to exchange the products they had brought from
the valley of the Nile for the native products--such as ebony, ivory,
incense, leopard skins, metals, and the much desired myrrh trees.
At length the Egyptians were ready to set sail for the home land, and
now some of the natives, the dwarf queen, some of the chief men and
others decided to return with them and see the queen of great renown; so
with these for passengers, the ships cleared port.
Upon arrival, their return was the occasion for a gala-day at the
capital. The state troops were out on parade, the veterans of the
expedition formed in procession with the thirty-one myrrh trees which
had been carefully packed and shielded under awning from the sun's rays;
the strange animals from Punt--dogs, baboons, monkeys, a tame leopard
with his keeper, natives who gave their war dance, the dwarf queen of
Punt, who with her chief men brought gifts to Hatshepsut--all these made
up a great spectacle sufficiently absorbing to the throngs who filled
the streets of Thebes. All went to the temple where Queen Hatshepsut
made offerings to Amon, and then the myrrh trees were planted before his
temple. It would be interesting to know how many of these thirty-one
trees withstood the radical change, but probably trees which had
occasioned such a national outlay had no choice but to flourish.
Queen Hatshepsut felt a natural pride in the result of her expedition
which had the effect of establishing lasting trade between the two
countries, to the benefit of both. She did not wish it to be forgotten,
and so had the whole story depicted on the walls of her temple by
artists who probably accompanied the fleet. There some of the pictures
may still be seen. The first portrays the embarking of the Egyptian
fleet. An inscription before it reads: "These are the ships which the
wind brought along with it. The voyage on the sea, the attainment of the
longed-for aim in the Holy Land, the happy arrival of the Egyptian
soldiers in the land of Punt, according to the arrangement of Amon,
King of the gods, Lord of the terrestrial thrones in Thebes, in order to
bring to him the treasures of the whole land in such quantities as will
satisfy him. This was done by the Queen of Egypt, the daughter of the
Sun, never has anything similar been done in the times of a former king
in this country."[1]
The second scene shows the reception in Punt; the third, the traffic;
the fourth picture, the loading of ships for the return. Men are seen
bringing trees and other products of Punt on board. This inscription
reads: "The loading of the ships of transport with a great quantity of
the magnificent products of Arabia,[2] with all kinds of precious woods
of the Holy Land, with heaps of incense, resin, with verdant incense
trees, with ebony, with pure ivory, with gold, and silver from the land
of Amon, with tesep-wood and the cassia bark, incense, hounds, skins of
leopards, apes, monkeys, with women and children. Never has a coming
been made like this by any king since the creation of the world."
The fifth is the "Return to Thebes." The accompanying inscription:
"Excursion completed satisfactorily; happy arrival at Thebes to the joy
of the Egyptian soldiers. The princes of Punt after arrival in this
country, bringing with them costly things of the Arabian[2] land, such
as never had yet been brought by any Egyptian king, for the Supreme
Majesty of the god Amon-Ra, Lord of the terrestrial thrones."
The sixth scene represents the presentation of the tribute of Punt to
the Queen, while princes of that land kneeling before her ask for peace.
"Homage to thy countenance,
O Queen of Egypt, Sun,
Beaming like the sun-disk
After your mistress, who is
Arabia's[2] mistress."
In the seventh painting the Queen offers gifts to Amon; the eighth shows
the weighing of the incense; the ninth, the formal announcement of the
successful expedition before Amon, and the tenth and last, the formal
announcement of the happy issue before the Egyptian court.
Other paintings which adorn the walls of this temple, depicting the
birth of the Queen and the guardianship exercised over her by the
goddess Hathor, while less famous are quite as indelible and interesting
from a social standpoint.
This temple in its architectural conception was a departure from
Egyptian models. It impresses us with its fine proportion and the
skillful use of the colonnade.
It has not long been accessible to visitors, having been uncovered only
in the last few years.
Other building enterprises were undertaken by Queen Hatshepsut, notably
the erection of two obelisks of polished granite in honor of Amon.
Possessing some tributary territory in Asia and Punt and maintaining a
policy of peace, the national revenue was much increased. The proud
queen left a record of her kingdom's prosperity chronicled in stone: "My
southern boundary is as far as Punt; my eastern boundary as far as the
marshes of Asia, and the Asiatics are in my grasp; my western boundary
is as far as the mountain of Manu (or the sunset); my fame is among the
Sand dwellers altogether. The myrrh of Punt has been brought to me, all
the luxurious marvels of this country were brought to my palace in one
collection. They have brought me the choicest products, of cedar, of
juniper, and of meru-wood; all the goodly sweet woods of God's-land. I
brought the tribute of Libya, consisting of ivory and seven hundred
tusks which were there, numerous panther skins of five cubits along the
back and four cubits wide."[3]
In addition to new structures, Queen Hatshepsut repaired temples fallen
in decay. In one of these temples she caused to be written: "I have
restored that which was in ruins, I have raised up that which was
unfinished since the Asiatics were in the midst of the Northland, and
the barbarians in the midst of them, overthrowing that which had been
made while they ruled in ignorance of Ra."[4]
Thutmose III., a younger brother--a mere child at the death of his
father--grew restless at being held so long from the throne by his
ambitious sister. The sudden death of the queen again raised the
question as to whether the sovereign had died as a result of court
intrigue. Certain it is that Thutmose III. retaliated for the restraint
the queen had exercised over him by commanding that her name be stricken
from all the monuments she had erected, his own to be substituted.
Fortunately his workmen followed his instructions so badly that it has
been possible to read the original name in many cases, and thus possible
to trace the career of the world's earliest recorded queen. Thus have
later ages been able to realize how well Queen Hatshepsut met the
requirements of her day, and to appreciate her courage in overcoming the
prejudices which as a woman on the throne of the Pharaohs she is sure to
have encountered.
[Illustration: QUEEN HATSHEPSUT.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These inscriptions are translated in Records of the Past, ed. by
Sayce, Vol. X.
[2] The translation is to be corrected to Punt.
[3] Trans. by Breasted, History of Egypt, 280.
[4] Ibid.
CHAPTER VII.
GREAT MILITARY KINGS.
The accession of a new king was the signal for Asiatic nations, long
held in tribute, to revolt from a servitude that had always been galling
to their pride. Thutmose III. at once established his reputation as a
king of prompt decision and strength by marching immediately into the
revolting territories and defeating the league formed against him.
During his reign of some fifty years he is reputed to have carried on
nineteen campaigns. The wealth of Egypt was materially increased by
these expeditions which were frequently marauding excursions rather than
open-battle victories.
"Altogether Thothmes [Thutmose] III. is said to have carried off from
the subject countries about 11,000 captives, 1,670 chariots, 3,639
horses, 4,491 of the larger cattle, more than 35,000 goats, silver to
the amount of 3,940 pounds, and gold to the amount of 9,954 pounds. He
also conveyed to Egypt from the conquered lands enormous quantities of
corn and wines, together with incense, balsam, honey, ivory, ebony, and
other rare woods, lapis lazuli, furniture, statues, vases, dishes,
basins, tent-poles, bows, habergeons, fruit-trees, live birds, and
monkeys! With a curiosity which was insatiable, he noted all that was
strange or unusual in the lands which he visited, and sought to
introduce the various novelties into his own proper country. Two unknown
kinds of birds, and a variety of the goose, which he found in
Mesopotamia, and transported from the valley of the Khabour to that of
the Nile, are said to have been 'dearer to the king than anything else.'
His artists had instructions to make careful studies of the different
objects, and to represent them faithfully on his monuments. We see on
these 'water-lilies as high as trees, plants of a growth like cactuses,
all sort of trees and shrubs, leaves, flowers, and fruits, including
melons and pomegranates; oxen and calves also figure, and among them a
wonderful animal with three horns. There are likewise herons,
sparrow-hawks, geese and doves.' All these appear gaily intermixed in
the pictures, as suited the simple childlike conception of the artist.
An inscription tells the intention of the monarch. 'Here,' it runs, 'are
all sorts of plants and all sorts of flowers of the Holy Land, which the
king discovered when he went to the land of Ruten to conquer it. Thus
says the king--I swear by the sun, and I call to witness my father Amon,
that all is plain truth; there is no trace of deception in that which I
relate. What the splendid soil brings forth in the way of production I
have portrayed in these pictures, with the intention of offering them to
my father Amon, as a memorial for all times.'"[1]
Egypt had now become so powerful that many of the Phoenician cities
voluntarily came under her protection, thinking in this way they could
best secure safety for their extensive commerce on the seas. The
Phoenicians were the middle-men for antiquity and desired above all to
keep their triremes safe from sea pirates. Seeking the protection of the
greatest world power, in this age they turned to Egypt.
A vast amount of Asiatic plunder found its way to the temples as
offerings to the gods who were supposed to have made victory possible.
This accumulation of wealth within the temples proved a most important
factor in strengthening the priesthood--a power with which the future
had to reckon.
A song of victory, composed in honor of Thutmose III., is preserved in
the temple of Karnak. The god Amon is supposed to be speaking. We may be
sure that it was not wholly the flattery of priests, written to appease
the ruler, but that it embodied the general opinion as to the power
bestowed by the god upon the king, who was his representative upon
earth.
HYMN OF VICTORY.[2] (_Amon speaking._)
I have come, causing thee to smite the princes of Zahi;
I have hurled them beneath thy feet among their highlands.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as lord of radiance,
So that thou hast shone in their faces like my image.
I have come, causing thee to smite the Asiatics,
Thou hast made captive the heads of the Asiatics of Retenu.
I have caused them to see thy majesty equipped with thy adornment
When thou takest the weapons of war in the chariot.
I have come, causing thee to smite the eastern land,
Thou hast trampled those who are in the districts of God's-Land.
I have caused them to see thy majesty like a circling star,
When it scatters its flame in fire, and gives forth its dew.
I have come, causing thee to smite the western land,
Keftyew and Cyprus are in terror.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a young bull,
Firm of heart, ready-horned, irresistible.
I have come, causing thee to smite those who are in their marshes,
The lands of Mitanni tremble under fear of thee.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a crocodile,
Lord of fear in the water, unapproachable.
I have come, causing thee to smite those who are in their isles;
Those who are in the midst of the Great Green (sea) hear thy roarings.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as an avenger,
Who rises upon the back of his slain victim....
I have come, causing thee to smite the uttermost ends of the lands,
The circuit of the Great Circle (Okeanos) is included in thy grasp.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a lord of wing (hawk),
Who seizeth upon that which he seeth, as much as he desires.
I have come, causing thee to smite the Nubian Troglodytes,
As far as Shat (they) are in thy grasp.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as thy two brothers.[3]
I have united their two arms for thee in victory.
Thy two sisters,[4] I have set them as protection behind thee,
The arms of my majesty are above, warding off evil.
I have caused thee to reign, my beloved son,
Horus, Mighty Bull, Shining in Thebes, whom I have begotten in
uprightness of heart.
Thutmose, living forever, who hast done for me all that my ka desired;
Thou hast erected my dwelling as an everlasting work,
Enlarging and extending it more than the past which has been.
Thou hast fêted the beauty of Amon-Re,
Thy monuments are greater than those of any king who has been.
When I commanded thee to do it, I was satisfied therewith;
I established thee upon the Horus-throne of millions of years.
Thutmose III. left his individuality strongly stamped upon the empire
his military skill had welded together. Tribute poured into his coffers
from all the petty nations throughout western Asia, from the tribes of
the Sahara, and lands south of Egypt. He was probably without question
the greatest military leader the country ever produced, and he was a
tireless builder. The great temple of Amon in the city of Thebes was his
pride and many other temples were built and restored by him. He was
succeeded by his son, but no very important event claims our attention
until the accession of his great grandson, Amenhotep IV.
The beautiful Queen Tiy was the mother of this monarch. There is no
foundation for the oft repeated assertion that she was of foreign,
probably Asiatic, origin. Maspero's belief that she was of Egyptian
(perhaps obscure) origin is most probable. We may well believe that she
exercised considerable power over her son, but we have no evidence for
asserting that it was from her that he received the new religion which
he attempted to force upon the country, as a result of which the whole
land was thrown into a tumult.
We have already seen that Egypt was originally composed of many little
states, each independent of the rest and each having its own religious
system and customs. As the many states were assimilated into one, a
state religion resulted, into which the main elements of each local cult
were combined. Although the people throughout the land worshipped the
state god, the local gods were always more particularly endeared to the
masses. Now had Amenhotep IV. desired to change the state god, the
official deity, the people would have accepted the change readily, but
when he attempted to sweep away the entire religious system of his realm
and substitute an utterly new system, the masses could not understand
such a radical change. They were enraged at what they considered an
indignity put upon their gods and the gods of their fathers.
Realizing how impossible it would be to accomplish his reform in the
ancient city of Thebes, the king determined to change his capital.
Thebes had long been the religious as well as the political center, and
the worship of Amon was fundamentally associated with the city. In order
to set up the worship of one deity, Aton--the Solar Disk--in place of
Amon, with the complex system of deities, Amenhotep IV. went north of
Thebes and began the construction of a new capital[5] which was never
completed. Its name signified "The Horizon of the Solar Disk." Within
this new capital the new religion was to be firmly established and
thence spread throughout the realm. Just what teachings this religion
embodied is not now understood. While the sun was worshipped in a new
form as Aton, this may have been merely symbolic of one God--one Spirit,
felt to be one and alone. Acceptance of the Solar Disk religion
necessitated an abandoning of all earlier deities, especially the
powerful Amon, and his name was commanded to be stricken from all
monuments throughout the land.
The result of this religious crusade was a total failure. Amenhotep IV.
realized how great was the innovation he sought to make, but he
underestimated the strength of the priests of Amon, the treasures of
whose temple at Thebes were loaded with the spoil of Asia. This
"reform" while in line with the theology, was utterly at variance with
the popular religion of the day. Angered beyond measure by the injury to
their faith, the people rose up against the new teaching. The old-time
worship was reinstated, the former deities elevated to their former
dignity, and the Eighteenth dynasty which had begun so auspiciously came
to an end in confusion and disorder.
[Illustration: GREAT PYRAMID, SPHINX AND TEMPLE OF ARMACHIS.]
KARNAK.
The temple of Karnak belongs to both the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
dynasties. Thutmose III., Amenhotep II. and Amenhotep III. each added
rooms to the great structure, although it was left for Seti I. to build
the crowning Hall of Pillars. Three centuries witnessed its erection and
many kings contributed to its greatness. Most famous of all Theban
architecture, it is still mighty in its ruins.
Karnak is the name of one of the four districts into which the irregular
Nile divided the city of Thebes. From this district, or ward, the great
temple dedicated to Amon--ancient deity of Thebes--took its name.
In some ways, perhaps, the temples of Egypt corresponded to the temples
of the Greeks, or even to modern churches, yet there were material
differences. Indeed, the similarity is slight. Modern churches are
supposedly places of worship; Greek temples were erected in honor of
Greek gods and thither offerings were brought by a trusting people.
Egyptian temples were built by rulers in honor of some god whose help
and protection they believed had enabled them to put down their enemies
and given their country its victories and prosperity. While a temple was
erected especially in honor of some particular deity, as Karnak was
dedicated to Amon, other deities might have shrines within it. While it
did honor to the god whose protection had allowed the ruler to rise
triumphantly above all obstacles, yet it was the glory of the king that
the temple exalted--his pictures adorned the walls, his deeds were set
forth in minute detail, his courage in war and relentless energy in
times of peace,--these were carved in stone and written in hieroglyphics
until it was difficult to find a section of wall, a column, a stone
ceiling unadorned. Hymns of victory were inscribed in the temples;
songs of praise and fulsome flattery not infrequently were composed by
the priests. Sometimes the god who presided over the temple seems to
have been well nigh lost sight of, yet even so, honor was accorded him,
since the king was his representative on earth. Because Karnak received
the particular care of many kings, it is one of the most interesting
temples to study, apart from its beauty, its stupendous size and
proportions.
Lists of dimensions are seldom interesting, and yet, unless we compare
the size of Egyptian structures to others known to us, we fail utterly
to grasp the tremendous scale on which these people built. We have
mentioned the avenue, more than a mile in length, guarded on either side
with sphinxes, which connected this temple with one built by Queen
Hatshepsut. This avenue led finally to a gateway, flanked on both sides
by towers. Either of these towers were themselves spacious enough to
have contained a temple. The temple court was enclosed by a wall 25 feet
thick and varying from 60 to 100 feet in height. Vast wealth was stored
in the temple, and this wall made it possible, in an age before
gunpowder, to protect the place from sudden attacks--always possible
contingencies. The temple itself was 1,180 feet long and 600 feet wide,
and was composed of many rooms and halls built by various kings. We
shall give attention to one alone--the famous Hall of Pillars.
Often has it been said that to describe this hall and do it justice
exceeds the power of mortals. It is on such a vast scale that modern
times have produced no structures with which to compare it.
The Hall of Pillars was originally 329 feet long and 170 feet in width.
Through its center were placed two rows of columns, six in each row.
Excluding pedestal and capital, these measured 60 feet in height and in
circumference were so large that should six men stand with arms
extended, fingers touching, they could scarcely encompass one. Seven
rows of pillars, somewhat smaller, were placed on either side of these;
the ceiling was supported by all these columns and was formed of mammoth
blocks of stone. Finally the entire interior was covered with
sculptures, paintings, and hieroglyphics--all recounting the exploits of
the king who built the hall. In a similar fashion the entire temple was
ornamented.
King succeeded king and each burned with ambition to exceed the skill of
his predecessor. Room after room was added to Karnak and the original
plan greatly expanded. Seti I. however built on such a tremendous plan
that none other eclipsed him, and the Hall of Pillars remains today a
mighty monument to a mighty ruler.
[Illustration: AMMON-RA, THE GREAT GOD OF THEBES.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 196.
[2] Breasted, Ancient Records, II, §§ 658f.
[3] Horus and Set.
[4] Isis and Nephthys.
[5] On the site of the modern Tell el-Amarna, about a hundred and sixty
miles south of Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile. Here the famous Tell
el-Amarna Letters were discovered in 1887.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY.[1]
Before Seti I., founder of the Nineteenth dynasty, succeeded to the
throne, peace and order had been once more restored to Egypt. One
important change had crept into the military life of the country, which
was to lead to trouble later on. Heretofore, Egypt had depended solely
upon her national troops to protect her borders and maintain her
position as first among the nations. Now her armies were increased by
mercenaries--foreign soldiers hired to do her fighting for her. History
has shown that uniformly when a people ceases to depend upon its own
citizens for the main strength of its army, taking instead hired
soldiers who fight simply for the love of fighting and for gain, serving
one cause today and another tomorrow,--whenever a nation has adopted
this policy of providing its armed forces, its years of strength are
numbered. So it was in Egypt. Troops from Libya, from Nubia and Ethiopia
made up her armies. During times of peace they returned to their kindred
and gave glowing accounts of the vast wealth of the Nile valley. It came
about naturally then, that African, as well as Asiatic, tribes looked
with longing eyes upon the coveted country and stood ready at the first
sign of internal weakness to revolt and share the spoils. Strong rulers
of the Nineteenth dynasty held their possessions intact, and foreign
nations bided the time when the first sign of weakness should be the
signal for action.
The immediate successor of Thutmose III. had little trouble in keeping
Syria in subjection. Taxes regularly reached Thebes. During the reigns
of the Amenhoteps, III. and IV., the Hittites began pushing south from
Asia Minor and organizing the revolt against Egypt. Upon ascending the
throne Seti I. found it expedient to push into western Asia and quell a
vigorous uprising. He was one of Egypt's most capable and farsighted
kings, and being as well a fearless warrior, he carried all before him.
He struck terror to the hearts of his enemies and returned home to find
the Libyans threatening his western borders. After defeating their
chiefs with great slaughter, Seti I. received a large number of their
soldiers into his army as mercenaries. This did very well for the time,
but before four hundred years had passed, their chiefs had become
powerful enough to snatch the throne of Egypt from its rightful
claimants.
Like most Egyptian rulers, Seti I. was a builder. From earliest years in
Egypt, imposing structures had supplied surest means by which a monarch
could leave evidences of his power. The position of chief architect to
the king had been filled by princes, who held it as a post of honor.
Often the king's sons planned temples for the king's construction, and
not infrequently gave personal supervision to their erection.
During the last period of civil disorder, many public monuments and
temples had fallen into decay. These Seti I. caused to be restored. He
invariably adhered to the original ideas of the builder, adding but an
inscription to show that by him they were restored. In this respect his
course differed widely from that of many of the Egyptian kings, notably
Ramses II., who boldly appropriated scores of temples and monuments,
substituting his name for that of the original builder. Frequently his
workmen did their task so badly that the first name has been deciphered.
In other cases, the true builder of the temple is now uncertain.
It was this king who erected the Hall of Pillars, of which we have just
learned. While temples were erected and restored throughout the land,
much of his attention was directed to Thebes--the great and splendid
city so long the capital of Egypt.
Thebes was built on the east side of the river. On this side dwelt the
pharaohs, the wealthy, and the poor. Here too were the shops, the places
of business and amusement. In fact, all the interests of living, pulsing
Thebes were centered here. On this side also, in the district of Karnak,
was the great temple of Amon. South of it rose the palace of the king;
around this were mansions of the wealthy, while in the narrow streets
reaching into the desert lived those of moderate and limited means.
South of Karnak lay the district of Luxor, and along the river between
these two districts stood the mud huts of the poor.
Crossing the Nile to the western bank, one came into radically different
surroundings. Here lay the City of the Dead. This was quite unlike any
cemetery of modern times. Here were temples, tombs of kings and queens,
tombs of the wealthy and the prosperous citizens, and the symbolic lake
of the dead. Here were the unpretentious tombs of the masses. Nor was
this all. We have seen that the Egyptian felt it necessary to supply his
dead with all the necessities of life, such as food, furniture, and
ornaments. Here, then, were the shops where such things might be
obtained. Here were the embalmers, the makers of linen used by them;
here lived the priests who said prayers over each finger and toe of the
deceased and made the body ready for its everlasting home. On the west
bank of the river lay a city in itself very different from the living
one across the water. Funeral processions constantly wended their way to
this City of the Dead; wails and lamentations often mingled in the air
with songs of the priests at their devotions. At sunset the gates
admitting to this portion of Thebes were locked and guarded against
bands of robbers who laid in wait for the riches enclosed in the tombs.
The tombs reached out to the rocky range of hills on the west and were
with difficulty protected.
Ancient Thebes extended some miles in each direction and covered
considerable territory. Little today remains to mark its early splendor.
The ruins at Karnak, the ancient mounds of Luxor, topped by a squalid
Arab village, some tombs opened, some still hidden by the sands, are
left. Much excavating has been done in this so-called "Valley of the
Kings." Strabo and other early writers left some description of the
original city, but aside from such records, little is left today to
indicate the glories of that Thebes which was for hundreds of years the
pride of Egyptian kings.
RAMSES.
Seti I. was followed by his son, the famous Ramses II., or Ramses the
Great. Recent historians claim that this king has been given undue
prominence, and that he was outranked by several Egyptian monarchs,
including his own father. While this is probably true, it would seem
that this pharaoh was as popular as any king who ruled in Egypt. He was
young and handsome when he ascended the throne, and possessed a power of
winning people to himself. That he was filled with self-pride, no one
can deny. He attached his name, as we have seen, to every temple and
monument where it was possible, and scattered statues of himself
broadcast. Yet the only poem that suggests the epic in all Egyptian
literature is the one known as "Pentuar's Poem," in which his bravery at
the battle of Kadesh was sung.
Ramses had penetrated into Asia to bring the revolting tribes back to
submission. During this particular battle, he became separated from his
body guard and suddenly found himself facing 2,500 charioteers alone.
His personal bravery on that occasion was splendid; his soldiers pressed
on to him quickly, but his daring was seen by them and greatly admired.
The poem of Pentuar was written to celebrate the king's courage in this
crisis.
PENTUAR'S POEM.[2]
"Then the King stood forth, and, radiant with courage,
He looked like the Sun-god armed and eager for battle.
The noble steeds that bore him into the struggle--
'Victory to Thebes' was the name of one, and the other
Was called 'contented Nura'--were foaled in the stables
Of him we call 'the elect,' 'the beloved of Amon,'
'Lord of truth,' the chosen vicar of Ra.
Up sprang the king and threw himself on the foe,
The swaying ranks of the contemptible Cheta.
He stood alone--alone, and no man with him.
As thus the king stood forth all eyes were upon him,
And soon he was enmeshed by men and horses,
And by the enemy's chariots, two thousand five hundred,
The foe behind hemmed him in, and enclosed him.
Dense the array of the contemptible Cheta,
Dense the swarm of warriors out of Arad,
Dense the Mysian host, the Pisidian legions.
Every chariot carried three bold warriors,
All his foes, and all allied like brothers.
"'Not a prince is with me, not a captain,
Not an archer, none to guide my horses!
Fled the riders! fled my troops and horse--
By my side not one is now left standing.'
'Great father Amon, I have known thee well,
And can the father thus forget his son?
Have I in any deed forgotten Thee?
Have I done aught without Thy high behest,
Or moved or staid against Thy sovereign will?
Great am I--mighty are the Egyptian kings--
But in the sight of Thy commanding might,
Small as the chieftain of a wandering tribe.
Immortal Lord, crush Thou this unclean people;
Break Thou their necks, annihilate the heathen.
And I--have I not brought Thee many victims,
And filled Thy temple with the captive folk?
And for Thy presence built a dwelling place
That shall endure for countless years to come?
Thy garners overflow with gifts from me.
"'I offer Thee the world to swell Thy glory,
And thirty thousand mighty steers have shed
Their smoking blood on fragrant cedar piles.
Tall gateways, flag-decked masts, I raised to Thee,
And obelisks from Abu I have brought,
And built Thee temples of eternal stone.
For Thee my ships have brought across the sea
The tribute of the nations. This I did--
When were such things done in former time?
For dark the fate of him who would rebel
Against Thee; though Thy sway is just and mild.
My father, Amon--as an earthly son
His earthly father--so I call on Thee.
Look down from heaven on me, beset by foes,
By heathen foes, the folk that know Thee not.
The nations have combined against Thy son;
I stand alone--alone, and no man with me.
My foot and horse are fled, I called aloud
And no one heard--in vain I called to them.
And yet I say: the sheltering care of Amon
Is better succor than a million men,
Or than ten thousand knights, or than a thousand
Brothers and sons though gathered into one.
And yet I say: the bulwarks raised by men
However strong, compared to Thy great works
Are but vain shadows, and no human aid
Avails against the foe--but thy strong hand.
The counsel of Thy lips shall guide my way;
I have obeyed whenever Thou hast ruled;
I call on Thee--and, with my fame, Thy glory
Shall fill the world, from farthest east to west.'
"Yea, his cry rang forth even far as Hermonthis,
And Amon himself appeared at his call; and gave him
His hand and shouted in triumph, saying to the pharaoh
'Help is at hand, O Rameses. I will uphold thee--
I thy father am he who now is thy succor,
Bearing thee in my hands. For stronger and readier
I than a hundred thousand mortal retainers;
I am the Lord of victory loving valor.
I rejoice in the brave and give them good counsel,
And he whom I counsel certainly shall not miscarry.'
"Then like Menth, with his right he scattered the arrows,
And with his left he swung his deadly weapon,
Felling the foe--as his foes are felled by Baal.
The chariots were broken and the drivers scattered,
Then was the foe overthrown before his horses.
None found a hand to fight; they could not shoot,
Nor dared they hurl the spear, but fled at his coming--
Headlong into the river."
Having quelled the disturbances incident to his accession--for a change
of rulers was generally the occasion for tribes held in tribute to seek
their freedom--Ramses was free to devote the remainder of his reign,
some forty years, to internal improvements. New cities, embankments,
fortresses, statues, obelisks and temples absorbed his untiring
interest. He seems to have been especially fond of grotto
temples,--those hewn out of rocky hills or mountain sides. Most
beautiful of these was the temple of Abu Simbel, guarded by four famous
statues of this king. They stand today much as they stood three thousand
years ago. One who has gazed upon the unaltering expression of these
sentinels says of them: "The artists who wrought the statues were ...
daunted by no difficulties of scale. Giants themselves, they summoned
these giants from out the solid rock and endowed them with superhuman
strength and beauty. They sought no quarried blocks of syenite or
granite for their work. They fashioned no models of clay. They took a
mountain and fell upon it like Titans and hollowed and carved it as
though it were a cherry stone; and left it for the feebler men of after
ages to marvel at forever. One great hall and fifteen spacious chambers
they hewed out from the heart of it, then smoothed the rugged precipice
toward the river, and cut four huge statues with their faces to the
sunrise, two to the right and two to the left of the doorway, there to
keep watch to the end of time.
"These tremendous warders sit sixty-six feet high, without the platform
under their feet. They measure across the chest twenty-five feet and
four inches.... If they stood up, they would tower to a height of at
least eighty-three feet, from the soles of their feet to the tops of
their enormous double-crowns."[3]
To estimate the cost of all those tremendous undertakings in human life
would be impossible. It is believed by some that Ramses II. was the
pharaoh of the oppression of the Hebrews. However, during his
administration they were well fed and while their tasks were hard, they
were not harder than those of other workmen similarly employed. It was
left for his son and successor to make their lot so grievous that a
deliverer was raised up to lead them out of bondage.
Regard for human life, compassion for the lowly, and the spirit of
humanity were qualities almost unknown in antiquity. The importance of
the individual has only in modern times come to be acknowledged. At the
period of which we are studying, there was no restraint upon the will of
the sovereign. To satisfy his ambition and to gratify his pride,
hundreds of thousands of slaves, captives, and impressed citizens were
continually sacrificed. Some were driven to the mines: others were
harnessed to huge blocks of stone to draw them from the quarry mountain
to the building site; some were set to work in the brick fields, and
over all were placed overseers to goad the workers on, giving little
rest or respite.
Regarding the Hebrews, it must be remembered that before the Nineteenth
dynasty, they prospered in the land of Egypt. A new king who "knew not
Joseph" looked with disfavor upon these foreign people waxing strong
within his borders. Feeling that they might become a menace to the
country, he determined to exterminate them by dint of excessive work.
One of the "store-cities" built by them under these circumstances has
been unearthed. It was surrounded by a wall thirty feet thick, which
enclosed about twelve acres. Besides a temple, the enclosure contained
subterranean cellars built of sun-dried brick. The bricks themselves
confirm the biblical version of the story. While some are mixed with
straw, as was customary, others were mixed with leaves and
reeds--indicating that straw was no longer supplied. Still others were
made simply of sun-dried mud.
Ramses II. so covered the land with his works and monuments of his
greatness, that his personality has stamped itself everywhere.
It caught the attention of early writers and has ever since impressed
itself upon the traveller, so that this king has been exalted to a
prominent place in Egyptian history. Best known of Egypt's kings, for
that reason, possibly, he has been most popular.
At length Merneptah ruled in his father's stead. Few qualities did he
possess to awaken admiration. When his armies were forced to face an
invasion of African tribes, reinforced by mercenary troops, he remained
in camp while his soldiers won victory for him. The god Ptah, so he
explained, had commanded him to stay inside. This did not deter him from
taking full credit for the successes. Upon his monuments were inscribed
records similar to this: "These people were meditating to do evil to
Egypt. They were as grasshoppers. Lo, I vanquished them; I slaughtered
them, making a spoil of their country."
It is supposed that at this time Moses came to the relief of Israel, and
asked permission for his people to withdraw a few days into the desert
to offer sacrifices to their God. This was the occasion for the king
both to deny the request and to double the tasks meted out to the
brickmakers by withholding straw and requiring the same amount of work
to be accomplished as before. Then, according to the Hebrew version,
grievous plagues were sent upon Egypt, and only when the king's son,
with the other first born, was stricken in the night, did the monarch
concede to the entreaties of his own people and bid the Hebrews depart
from his land. The story is familiar to all--how when he came to think
of the six hundred thousand valued bonds-people of which he was now
bereft, he dispatched the flower of Egyptian charioteers to prevent the
Hebrews crossing the Red Sea and bring them back to do his bidding. To
these despairing people to whom light seemed about to dawn, the fact
that they were able to cross over while the Egyptian horses were
ensnared and drowned, seemed a miracle enacted for their deliverance. It
has since been noted that similar tidal action at this point has
sometimes repeated itself. To the Hebrews, believing firmly in the
inspired mission of Moses, it was regarded later as an example of how
for the dutiful "all things work together for good."
TWENTIETH DYNASTY.[4]
Ramses III. was the first important ruler of the Twentieth dynasty. He
and his immediate successors were able to hold intact the vast empire
won by earlier kings. We hear no more of aggressive wars for conquest.
However, the time had come when Egypt did well when she maintained such
territories as belonged to her.
Men of Crete, other islanders and sea-faring people, made common cause
against the Asiatic shore early in this reign. Ramses watched their
progress until they attacked the Egyptian province of Palestine. Not
willing to lose this, the pharaoh marched against the plundering bands
and utterly routed them, taking many captives. Three other campaigns
were directed by this king, but they were carried on to defend Egyptian
borders and hold together tributary provinces.
Like his father, Ramses III. was a builder. Like him, too, he
appropriated earlier temples and monuments for his own fame and glory.
He built a fleet on the Red Sea, continued the profitable commercial
intercourse with Punt, and caused a large reservoir to be constructed in
Palestine. Another thing he did, which all histories have been careful
to chronicle: he ordered trees and shrubs to be systematically planted
throughout the realm. In a land where for months together the sun pours
its hot rays down on a defenseless people, he tried to bring rest and
cooling shade where both were sorely needed.
We have often noted the growing power of the priesthood in Egypt, and
have seen that a large amount of the booty and tribute which flowed into
the country from Asia found its way to the temples. An inventory of the
resources of the temples during this reign has come down to us in a
statement prepared by Ramses III., known now as the Papyrus Harris. From
this it appears that the temples owned 107,000 slaves--or 2 per cent of
the entire population; they possessed 750,000 acres, or over 15 per cent
of all the arable land in the valley. Some 500,000 head of cattle, over
80 vessels, 53 workshops and shipyards, brought an annual income; and
169 towns in Egypt Kush and Syria were theirs. All this property in a
land of less than 10,000 square miles and possibly 6,000,000 people, was
exempt from taxation.
The lion's share of all this wealth fell to the temples sacred to Amon.
The priests of Amon had charge of it, and as time went on, they came to
be regarded as superior to other priestly orders and their High Priest
became the head of all priesthoods in the realm. Of all the temple
estates, Amon owned two-thirds. In slaves, this god owned seven times as
many as any other; of the cattle, more than four-fifths; of the ships,
all but five; of the workshops, forty-six of the fifty-three were his.
Regarding Amon's coffers, Ramses had inscribed: "I have filled its
treasury with the products of the land of Egypt: gold, silver, every
costly stone by the hundred thousand. Its granary was overflowing with
barley and wheat; its lands, its herds, their multitudes were like the
sands of the shore. I taxed for it the Southland as well as the
Northland; Nubia and Syria came to it, bearing their impost."[5]
In showering all these princely gifts upon Amon, Ramses was but
following the example set by his forefathers. The kings themselves held
the priests somewhat in fear, believing that they had influence with the
gods and could indirectly influence not only their earthly prosperity
but their future welfare.
While this lavish wealth overflowed the coffers of the temples, we find
the workmen in the service of the government, laboring in the City of
the Dead--the Necropolis--having to resort to strikes, or in older
phraseology, "having to lie at home," because their monthly rations were
not forthcoming. The revenue of the government had, apparently, become
the spoils for corrupt officials who sought to increase their personal
incomes at the expense of the public treasury. Repeatedly starving
laborers left their work and started with their families to leave
Thebes, whereupon part of their rations would be given them and they
would be urged to continue at their tasks! Nor was this all. Records
have come down to us of bands of robbers who made a profession of
rifling tombs of the dead. Worse still, cases for trial were frequently
dismissed because officials themselves and priests of lesser position
were sharing in the booty! Some of the Ramessides removed their
ancestors from the original tombs and had all placed in a shaft where
guards could keep watch over them. It was next to impossible to protect
the wide-reaching City of the Dead, but it was worse than useless to
attempt such a thing when those supposed to lend protection were
themselves participating in the robberies.
After the death of Ramses III., his descendants to the number of ten
succeeded him. Then the High Priest of Amon snatched the power from
Ramses XIII., taking the title of king as well as the authority which he
already held. For some time the kings had been practically subservient
to him. For almost a hundred and fifty years priests ruled in Egypt.[6]
Under priestly rule the government was quite as corrupt as it had been
previously. Discontent on the part of the workmen, bold robberies of
tombs, were the order of the day. First Libyan, then Ethiopian chiefs
gained possession of the throne. The country fell apart; the days of
Egypt's glory were gone.
From this time forward her political power was at an end. To be sure,
Ethiopian kings took on Egyptian civilization--as a matter of fact,
their country had long been Egyptianized. They tried to rule as pharaohs
before them had done, worshipping Egyptian gods and keeping temples in
repair. To the average citizen, life was no doubt much as it had been in
former periods. But the old ideas were steadily falling away. The
Assyrians invaded the country, and later, the Persians under Cambyses
conquered it. Now and then a native prince would temporarily get control
and repulse the Libyans and Ethiopians on the west and Asiatic peoples
on the east. Such reactions and returns to the old order were
short-lived, and like the sudden glow of dying embers, bespoke an
approaching end.
Foreign people and foreign influences pushed into the valley. Especially
did they come from Greece. We have seen that rapid change and quick
assimilation were alien to the nature of the Egyptian. While the Greeks
gained much by this contact, their coming served but to make briefer the
remaining years of Egyptian life. Greek learning was taught and Greek
religion spread into the valley. Finally with the conquest of Alexander
in 331 B.C., the prevailing element in the land became Greek and so
remained until Rome extended her sway over all the ancient world.
When we think that each succeeding invasion was the occasion for
destruction; when plunder and fire vied with each other in despoiling
the conquered land; when later the few temples which had withstood these
experiences were robbed of their contents, and obelisks, monuments and
statues were scattered among the nations of the earth, to satisfy
personal gratification, we can no longer wonder that so little remains
of that Egypt we have been studying.
After the period of the priest-kings, the history of Egypt belongs to
the history of Assyria, Babylonia, Greece and Rome, and no longer
concerns us in our attempt to become acquainted with the "earliest
nations."
We feel some way that the end of Egypt's political power should have
been more splendid than it was--more worthy of her former dignity and
strength, and almost regret that the masses of her citizens had not met
their final repulse in some desperate rally to drive invaders from their
borders. But the end had been long drawn out. Generations of alien rule
had accustomed the people to accept this as a natural condition.
Rawlinson puts it well: "As it was, Egypt sank ingloriously at the
last--her art, her literature, her national spirit decayed and almost
extinct--paying, by her early disappearance from among the nations of
the earth, the penalty of her extraordinarily precocious greatness."[7]
Such being a brief survey of her political achievements, we turn now to
the life and customs of her people.
[Illustration: OSIRIS]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1350-1205 B.C.
[2] Records of the Past, ed. Dr. Burch. The author is unknown, but the
poem is known by the name of a scribe who once copied the production.
[3] Edwards: A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, 262
[4] 1200-1090 B.C.
[5] Breasted: History of Egypt, 493; trans.
[6] Twenty-first Dynasty, 1090-945 B.C.
[7] Rawlinson: Ancient Egypt, 402.
SOCIAL LIFE IN EGYPT
CHAPTER IX.
INTRODUCTORY.
The social life of ancient peoples has for many greater interest than
their political development. Before the days of Greece self-government
was unknown, and the king embodied in himself the government. Upon his
personal character, his foresight and statesmanship, the weal of the
country depended. For this reason, as we trace the political fortunes of
one nation and another in antiquity, we find that the story consists
largely of the doings of the monarch. When kings were strong and
ambitious, wide activities characterized their reigns; when they were
weak, unprincipled and selfish, their periods were less brilliant. In
any case, one feels how powerless were the masses--how utterly at the
will of the sovereign. To be sure, even in antiquity, it ill behooved a
ruler to disregard his subjects altogether, but conditions had to be
extreme before they would assert themselves against him.
Apart from a nation's political life, however, there is always a greater
life--the life of the people, regardless of their political relations.
One never exists without the other, and one is influenced by the other;
but the social body includes each and every one, whether of low or high
estate, while the political body may include but a portion of a nation's
people. Again, in spite of bad government, the selfishness of kings,
even in spite of invasions of the enemy, the daily life of the great
majority of early people varied but little. They procured food and
clothing, cared for their children, worked at their various callings, as
civilized beings have done in all ages. Certain peculiar customs are to
be found among each nation, and it is these very peculiarities,
probably, that relieves what might otherwise become a monotonous
repetition.
We cannot too often recall that the recorded history of ancient Egypt
extended over three thousand years. The manner of life, dress, customs,
etc., changed considerably in that long period, and just as we divide
the social life of England into various epochs--such as social
conditions under Saxon kings, during Norman rule, in Elizabethan years,
etc.--so, for any protracted investigation of social Egypt, we would
find it necessary to make several divisions of the subject.
The greatest source of knowledge for Egyptian social life is of course
the tombs. From their contents and from the pictures that adorn their
walls much has been ascertained. To be sure, many details are yet
lacking, and Egyptologists seek still for answers to unanswered queries.
Many recovered remains have not yet been classified, and rolls of papyri
lie still untranslated, so undoubtedly the future will make many
contributions to what has already been worked out. Nevertheless, even
now many aspects of the life of the old Nile-dwellers have been
reconstructed with considerable degree of certainty. These recent
conclusions have proven the ancient Egyptian to have been quite a
different creature from what he was long supposed. Until late years it
was believed that he was a solemn, serious individual, overwhelmed with
an ever-present thought of death, for which many of his acts in life
prepared him. This idea was mistaken. The religion of the ancient
Egyptian led him into many curious ways, beyond a doubt, but he was
withal a contented person who found some humor in life. The happenings
of his earthly career were as potent to him as ours are to us. The study
of history should do one thing for us at least: it should teach us to
find strong similarities between the people we see around us today and
those of whom we read and study in antiquity. The normal human being has
in all ages been governed by certain controlling interests, passions and
desires, has pulsed with the vigor of life and its manifold
interests--as we do now and as the Egyptian did, five thousand years
ago.
HOUSES.
In strong contrast with the solid, substantial tombs and temples were
the private dwellings. No need was felt to make these enduring. Rather,
they were constructed in such a way as to allow free circulation of air
and to preserve coolness. The walls were thin, being made of stucco, mud
brick, or wood. The outside of the house was decorated in gay colors,
and was hung with brightly tinted carpets or mattings. Similar coverings
adorned the inner walls.
Many pictures of ancient Egyptian houses have been found in tomb
pictures. It is apparent that the well-to-do citizen desired seclusion
for his home. An outer wall usually surrounded the house and out
buildings. The general plan of houses for people of comfortable means
was this: a gateway, often of cedar, gave entrance into a court. The
gate was kept locked, save when the keeper opened it to allow visitors
to enter or depart. Crossing the court--of varying size--one entered a
vestibule, guarded by a porter. This vestibule led directly to the
dining hall, the largest and most important room in the house. Sleeping
apartments for the family were reached through a second vestibule and
the kitchen, store-rooms, and servants' apartments, though joined on one
side, were separated from the main portion of the house by an inner
court. Often the houses were two stories in height. Generally a stairway
led to the roof, which was used for many purposes when the heat of the
sun was passed.
The wealthy required many buildings. One would be set aside for the
women; another contained reception halls for distinguished guests; a
third, store-rooms and supplies; and besides these there might be
several stables and separate quarters for slaves and servants. Service
was cheap and slaves plentiful, so people of even moderate means had
numerous assistants.
The elaborate estate of the wealthy was exceeded by the magnificence of
the pharaoh, who frequently constructed his own city, as it was called.
Here the king might have plenty of land and surround himself with as
many buildings as he chose, enclosing the whole by a wall. In bitter
contrast to this royal splendor was the squalor of the poor, whose
shelter was a tiny hut built of sun-dried mud.
For those whose incomes permitted, the garden was the favorite spot.
This we would naturally expect in a country where out of door life is
interrupted only in the middle of the day by the intense heat. In the
garden, trees, shrubs, and many kinds of flowers were planted. Its size
depended upon the prosperity of the owner. Sometimes the court, however
tiny, provided all the garden plot he possessed; sometimes extensive
grounds included flower-gardens, date orchards, and sycamore groves,
while summer houses and artificial ponds were scattered over wide areas.
Small wonder was it that the "pious Egyptian hoped his soul, as its
supreme felicity, would return to sit under the trees he had planted, by
the side of the ponds he had dug, there to enjoy the refreshing breeze
from the north."
The Egyptians were passionately fond of flowers. They grew them in their
gardens, filled their houses with the blossoms, used them lavishly at
their feasts and carved them on their tombs and in their temples. They
sought ever to increase their varieties, originally few, and we have
seen that the kings often prized new specimens found in other lands
above their tribute.
"Everywhere on the monuments we meet with flowers; bouquets of flowers
are presented to the gods; the coffins are covered with wreaths of
flowers; flowers form the decoration of the houses, and all the capitals
of the pillars are painted in imitation of their colored petals. The
Egyptian also loved shady trees. He not only prayed that the 'Nile
should bestow every flowering plant in their season' upon his departed
soul, but also that his soul might sit 'on the boughs of the trees that
he had planted, and enjoy the cool air in the shade of his sycamore.'
The arable fields, the shadeless woods of palms, the bare mud soil,
scarcely provided the scenery which he most admired; he therefore tried
to supply the want by landscape gardening. In the oldest periods there
were parks and gardens; and the gentleman of ancient Egypt talked with
pride of his shady trees, his sweet-smelling plants, and his cool tanks.
All the sentiments with which we regard the woods and meadows of nature,
the Egyptian felt towards his well kept garden; to him it was the
dwelling place of love, and his trees were the confidants of lovers.
"On the 'festival day of the garden,' that is on the day when the garden
was in full bloom, the wild fig-tree calls to the maiden to come into
the shade of the fig leaves as a trysting place:
"The little Sycamore,
Which she planted with her hand
She begins to speak,
And her (words are as) drops of honey.
She is charming, her bower is green,
Greener than the (papyrus).
She is laden with fruit,
Redder than the ruby,
The color of her leaves is as glass,
Her stem is as the color of the opal....
It is cool in her shadow.
She sends her letter by a little maiden,
The daughter of her chief gardener
She makes her haste to her beloved:
Come and linger in the (garden) ...
The servants who belong to thee
Come with the dinner things;
They are bringing beer of every (kind),
With all manner of bread,
Flowers of yesterday and of today,
And all kinds of refreshing fruit.
Come, spend this festival day
And tomorrow and the day after tomorrow
Sitting in my shadow.
Thy companion sits at thy right hand,
Thou dost make him drink,
And then thou dost follow what he says....
I am of a silent nature
And I do not tell what I see
I do not chatter."[1]
Having attractive grounds as a setting, the houses of the wealthy
Egyptians were also attractive indoors. The dining room was the
important room of the house. Guests generally sat on stools when dining.
When ladies gathered for a banquet, they frequently sat on costly rugs
spread upon the floor. Servants or slaves served those assembled from a
large table loaded with tempting viands.
The Egyptian seems no longer far away and mummy-like when we learn that
he was fond of good things to eat. Roast goose was a favorite dish;
bread and beer were constantly in demand, quite as they are in Germany
today. In naming over the dishes he hoped to supply his departed, in a
tomb we may read: five kinds of birds, sixteen kinds of bread and cake,
six varieties of wine, and eleven different fruits. The bread, molded
into fancy shapes, was made of barley and wheat. Grapes were generally
grown, and fig trees too. Tame monkeys were trained to go into the high
branches of the fig trees and throw down the fruit.
Many specimens of ancient household furniture have been found in
Egyptian tombs, such as chairs, couches, tables and bedsteads. In the
sleeping apartments, high couches were reached by steps. Wooden
headrests took the place of pillows. These were used in order that the
wigs and elaborate head dresses might not be disturbed while the wearers
slept.
The student who would make an exhaustive study of the Egyptian house and
its contents must go to the museums where discovered articles have been
preserved, or at least to the detailed descriptions of these given by
Maspero and other Egyptologists. We could not well leave a consideration
of the subject however, without giving brief attention to the dwellings
of the poor, who in every age and country have made up a large part of
the population.
The fellah of today lives much as did the peasant of antiquity. His
dwelling was a hut built of mud and roofed with palm leaves. While the
poorest had but one room, those who were more industrious, perhaps,
might have two or three. Once or twice in a century, rain would fall.
Then these huts would dissolve and flow away. When the storm ceased, all
the family would set to work, level off the spot and construct a new
dwelling from sun-dried mud, which after being exposed to the heat of a
few days, would be as good as ever. This leveling of huts, whether
caused by storms, or because it was easier to build a new house than
cleanse the old one, has elevated the land in many parts of Egypt.
Frequently it is the case that peasants have dwelt so long on the sites
of buried cities, that the explorer who today would reach the original
settlement must tunnel down through many layers of sun-dried mud, once
the dwellings of the poor.
FAMILY LIFE.
It is frequently said that the test of a nation's civilization is the
position accorded to woman. Applying this test to Egypt, her
civilization would rank well with nations of modern times as well as
with those contemporaneous with her. From the earliest times of which we
have record, Egyptian women were the companions and trusted counsellors
of their husbands. During the New Empire it was the boast of one of the
Ramessides that any woman might go alone and unveiled as far in any
direction as she wished, confident that she would not be accosted nor
disturbed.
Two customs prevailed in ancient Egypt that are contrary to the moral
standards of our day: one was the practice of a brother marrying his
sister; the second, a husband having more than one wife. Early peoples
did not regard these practices in the light of modern opinion. The
Hebrews, for example, frequently took two or more wives, and the same
habit obtained among the Babylonians and Assyrians. Among pastoral
tribes of the present day this custom survives. In all cases, _one_
woman was regarded as the legitimate wife, and her children were heirs
to their father's estate, while children by his other wives might or
might not be recognized by the father as his heirs, according to his
pleasure. As a rule, only the well-to-do Egyptian could afford the
luxury of two wives, so that polygamy was not common among the lower
classes. There seems to have been little friction in the Egyptian
household between the several wives. Stories have come down to us of
women who cared enough for other wives of their husbands to name
children for them. Certain marks of honor were the right of the first
wife and were conceded as a matter of course.
The marriage of those close of kin was quite usual. The word _sister_ in
Egypt came to be used interchangeably for wife or sister. In this land
it appears to have frequently resulted that a boy and girl, brought up
in the same family, having similar ideas and interests, married and
lived happily together in their married life.
Multifarious were the duties of a wife of the middle class. She cared
for the family, spun and wove, sent the little ones to school and took
them a lunch at mid-day. She drew water at the nearest pool, ground
corn into meal and made the meal into cakes; she drove the cattle to
pasture and collected the fuel. What did not this mother do? It is
little wonder that from lack of care and nourishment, large numbers of
children died before they became ten years of age. Those who lived were
indeed the survival of the fittest, and aside from a disease of the
eye--brought on by the glaring sand and burning sun--they were generally
healthy and equal to any hardship. Marrying young, women were often
grandmothers at thirty. Although they faded early, they did not suffer
in their position in the family on that account. Great respect was shown
them while they lived, and after their death they were worshipped--for
the Egyptian always worshipped his ancestors. Believing that the soul
lived on, it might work harm for the surviving relatives and friends
unless appeased with marked consideration. This desire to escape
possible harm by satisfying the departed appears to have been the strong
motive inducing ancient peoples to worship the dead.
The children were left with the mother until almost four years of age.
Dolls and other toys found buried in the tombs with little ones show
that they, in those far away times, were quite like children who have
lived since. When four, they were sent to an elementary school. If at
ten the son had evinced any special ability that would justify educating
him, he was put into a school maintained by the priests. Here he was
trained for a scribe unless his early promise was borne out by rapid
progress, in which case he was educated for the priesthood. If by the
age of ten he had given no special evidence of ability, he was taught a
trade.
The old idea that caste was strongly marked in Egypt is not only
misleading but untrue. Class distinctions were closely drawn in Egypt,
as they are today, even in America. The average child born in the slums
of a city seldom comes to importance. The son of a day laborer rarely
marries into the wealthy or so-called "old families." The reason for
this is not so much that there is objection in America to the humblest
born rising to any height, but that the opportunities for progress to
one born into such surroundings are few. It was somewhat similar in
Egypt. Chances for rapid advance were by no means as favorable then as
now, but nevertheless, there are many cases on record where men
attained high official position in spite of great social disadvantages.
[Illustration: TOURISTS SCALING THE GREAT PYRAMID.]
The affection of the Egyptians for their children was almost universal.
Large families were desired, even by those in moderate circumstances.
Indeed it was necessary that families be perpetuated, for thus alone
would family tombs be kept up and respect be shown those who had
departed. Among all people who worship ancestors, children are
especially desired and to be bereft of them is the greatest hardship and
affliction.
In spite of all that has been said of the respect paid to women, the
happy domestic relations in Egypt and the affection for children, it is
doubtful whether or not there was much home life as we today understand
the phrase. The importance of the individual is a modern conception. The
will of the king was paramount in Egypt and all citizens were first of
all subservient to his wishes. Less security, less freedom in pursuing
one's own course probably resulted in brief periods of family unity.
Surely such must have been the result of early marriages which took
children from their parents at a tender age.
DRESS.
Suppose for a moment that some unforseen catastrophe should wipe out the
inhabitants of England, and future generations attempted to reconstruct
their history, from the age of King Arthur and his knights to the
peaceful days of Edward the Seventh. After working out an outline of
their political development, suppose it should be asked, But how did
these people dress? Think of the variety of costumes that have been
popular since the Round Table days! Who could describe them all? The
task would be disheartening indeed. And yet, far more years sped over
Egypt than England has yet known.
Living in a warm country, the Egyptian required simpler raiment than the
Englishman. In early times a short, scant skirt was worn by both men and
women--the children were generally not clothed at all. This skirt, which
formed the foundation of all the later, more elaborate dress, changed in
style from one age to another. Sometimes it was scantier than at other
times and it varied in length. During the Sixth dynasty, either by means
of pressing, or by some device, the front of the skirt was made to
assume a stiff, triangular appearance. As pictured on the tombs, it
looks like a three-cornered apron. In the Old Empire, the great lords
threw a panther skin across their shoulders, when, as Erman expresses
it, "they wished to appear in full dress."
In the Middle Empire people of high position wore two skirts, the under
one short and of heavy linen; the outer skirt so sheer that the contour
of the body was quite visible.
By the Eighteenth dynasty it had become customary to clothe the upper
portion of the body. Even now the arms were left free. The king appeared
occasionally in a mantle and the nobles also donned mantles for festival
days.
Working people always clothed in the simplest fashion. All garments were
frequently discarded in the field, as they impeded rapid movement. The
supersensitive modesty of our day which cries out against a low bodice
or lace hose, even raises objection at undraped marble statues, had no
part in the thought of these simple-hearted, pure-minded people; yet
they showed a fitting sense of decorum and dignity.
It was the men in Egypt who delighted in finery and showy costumes,
while the dress of the women was plainer and remained almost wholly
unaltered for centuries together. Their usual garment during the later
periods was a close fitting gown reaching from under the arms to the
ankles, and mistress and maid were dressed much alike. In the New Empire
a cloak was added, but it and the gown beneath were of sheerest linen
procurable. As time went on, garments of both men and women were
elaborately embroidered.
The ancient Egyptian desired to preserve absolute cleanliness. Scenes
characteristic of washing day have been pictured on many a tomb. The
chief washer was assisted by others who beat the clothes, wrung them
out, bleached and dried them. It was the desire to be clean which led
these people to shave their heads and beards. Wigs of curled wool and
others of long hair are constantly seen in the old pictures, although it
sometimes appears that these covered heads already crowned by a natural
growth. While they shaved off the beard as something unclean, the
Egyptians still shared in the idea common to oriental peoples that a
beard gives added dignity, hence the king and men of rank wore
artificial beards on state occasions. Even Queen Hatshepsut assumed one
when she wished to appear regal.
Sandals and foot gear were not popular at any time, although men of the
higher classes wore them when they walked abroad. Men and women alike
donned necklaces and bracelets, while women wore anklets also. Earrings
were introduced by foreigners and rings seem to have been confined to
seal rings. Walking sticks were carried as badges of honor and each
style of stick indicated a degree of social rank.
The Egyptians painted their faces, rouged their lips, blackened their
eyes, and oiled their hair and bodies. At a feast a slave would bring a
ball soaked in oil for each guest, place it on his head, in order that
the oil might gently percolate through the hair of the banqueter during
the meal. The dead were provided with many kinds of oil, perfumes, and
rouges for use of the double, or ka.
Probably many allowed their hair to grow long, for we find physicians
taxed to their utmost to supply concoctions which would produce heavy
growths of hair, strengthen it and prevent it from turning grey. All
these remedies are found in old papyri:
To prevent the hair turning grey: "The blood of a black calf, cooked in
oil--a salve."
Or this: "Two parts of bloods, horn of a black cow, warm it up for a
salve."
When the hair fell out: "Take fat of the lion, of the hippopotamus, the
crocodile, the cat, the snake, and the ibex."
To strengthen the hair: "Anoint it with the tooth of a donkey crushed in
honey."
Or try this: "Boil the hoof of a donkey in oil together with a dog's
foot, and some date kernels."
[Illustration: VIEW OF MANSION, FROM THE TOMB OF ANNA, EIGHTEENTH
DYNASTY.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 193.
CHAPTER X.
SPORTS AND RECREATIONS.
The pastimes and diversions of any people fall easily in two divisions;
those which are adapted to the open air, and those enjoyed indoors. The
popular outdoor sports among the Egyptians were hunting, fishing and
boating, while the banquet with its attendant dancing and music, helped
them to pass those hours when Amon, god of the sun, concealed, reigned
over all.
The wealthy Egyptian liked to take his wife or family in his light boat
and wander at will among the reeds and marshy plants abounding in the
little streams and lakes left still undrained. It was fine sport to flit
in and out among the tall papyrus, rouse a flock of birds and bring some
of them down with the boomerang. Fishes were plentiful in the streams,
and the sportsman chose to get them with a two-pointed spear. If he
became expert, he could spear two at once--one on either point. To be
sure, the game dealers, requiring large numbers of fish and fowl, caught
both in a net. Only the noble or the well-to-do had time to indulge in
hunting and fishing for mere diversion. In the tomb pictures, gentlemen
are shown seated in their gardens, on costly rugs, it may be, leisurely
spearing fish in their own artificial ponds. This was too simple a
process for any but the most indolent, and did not appeal to the true
sportsman who loved the natural streams.
Great was the attraction of these marshy lakes. "Much of the country
formerly covered by marshes and tropical forests was already arable
land. At the same time old river beds remained; stretches of marsh and
half-stagnant water, overgrown as of old with papyrus reeds, offered
shelter to the hippopotamus, the crocodile and to numberless
water-birds. This was the happy hunting ground of the great lords of
ancient Egypt, the oft-mentioned 'backwaters,' the 'bird tanks of
pleasure.' They played the same part in Egyptian life as the forest in
German folk lore; the greatest delight perhaps that an Egyptian knew was
to row in a light boat between the beautiful waving tufts of the
papyrus reeds, to pick the lotus flowers, to start the wild birds and
then knock them over with the throw-stick, to spear the great fish of
the Nile and even the hippopotamus, with the harpoon. Pictures of all
periods exist representing these expeditions, and we have but to glance
at them in order to realize how much the Egyptians loved these wild
districts, and how much poetry they found in them."[1]
Danger mingled with sport in capturing the larger game--the hippopotamus
and crocodile. Pictures of crocodile hunts have not been found. Probably
they were not painted, because in certain parts of Egypt these animals
were held sacred to some god, and even those who did not share this
belief might not have cared to record the killing of them in the tomb.
No such feeling existed concerning the hippopotamus and he who was
successful in securing one seldom failed to have the hunt pictured in
his tomb. You will remember that in ancient Egypt, each person built his
own tomb during his life time, and so decided for himself for what he
was to be remembered.
The deserts and mountains on either side offered game to the hunter.
Gazelles, antelopes, foxes, hares, and other small animals, such as
rabbits, abounded. Did one crave greater adventure, he might follow the
leopard and the lion. It was quite the custom for the wealthy man, who
followed the chase for sport, to collect wild animals and add them to
the menagerie usually found on the large estates. Here were elephants
and baboons from Asia, giraffes from the upper Nile, lions, leopards,
hyenas and gazelles from the deserts. Some became quite tame and were
taught tricks. Lions were favorite pets, and kings often took them along
on their campaigns. Monkeys were found in almost every household; and
since hunting was so popular, various kinds of hounds were more numerous
than other species of dogs.
In addition to the small canoe in which he hunted water birds, the
nobleman usually had a large, square-sailed, double-masted boat in which
he would take his family and friends for an evening sail down the river.
His musicians would accompany him, and dispense sweet strains on their
harps and lutes, in harmony with the quiet waters.
Feasting was popular alike with men and women. Music and dancing were
invariably furnished as means of entertainment. Many pictures of the
banquet remain. Sometimes ladies in elaborate toilettes are shown,
partaking of all sorts of dainties, while dancing girls move gracefully
before them, beating time to the music which accompanied them. Sometimes
the dances were intricate; one of them pictured in a tomb seems to
represent papyrus reeds, swaying in the wind. Others were yet more
elaborate.
Music was popular among all classes. Flutes, lutes and harps are shown
in the tomb pictures. Singing often accompanies the harp. Among the
superintendents of "all the most beautiful pleasures of the king" were
superintendents of singing. Thus it seems royalty, at least, did not
trust to inspiration for entertainment, but prudently had it arranged
and rehearsed in advance. At Memphis there is said to have been a school
where music was taught to girls.
Some games of chance were popular in Egypt. Checkers was known and a
picture remains wherein Ramses II. is playing the game with his
daughter.
It remains to speak of certain other customs of the feast. The ladies
would come together to make their toilets, rouging their lips,
blackening their eyes, offering one another their flowers to smell, and
examining each other's jewelry.
"The serving boys and girls go round, offering ointment, wreaths,
perfumes, and bowls of wine. They challenge the guests at the same time
to 'celebrate the joyful day' by the enjoyment of the pleasure of the
present moment; the singers also continually repeat the same as the
refrain to their song. They sing to the guests as they quaff the wine:
'Celebrate the joyful day!
Let sweet odours and oils be placed for thy nostrils,
Wreaths of lotus flowers for the limbs
And for the bosom of thy sister, dwelling in thy heart
Sitting beside thee.
Let song and music be made before thee.
Cast behind thee all cares and mind thee of pleasure,
Till cometh the day when we drew towards the land
That loveth silence.'
or:
'Put myrrh on thy head, array thyself in fine linen,
Anointing thyself with the true wonders of God.
Adorn thyself with all the beauty thou canst.
With a beaming face celebrate the joyful day and rest not therein
For no one can take away his goods with him,
Yea, no one returns again, who has gone hence.'"[2]
The men banqueted alone. Dancing and music diverted them during the
feast. It was customary to pass the image of a mummy around at the
feast, while words similar to these were repeated: "Look upon this and
know, even as it is, so shalt thou be--for all must die." This in no way
dampened the pleasures of the night; rather, each sought to enjoy to its
fullest capacity the fleeting hours.
[Illustration: FACADE OF A HOUSE TOWARD THE STREET. SECOND THEBAN
PERIOD.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 235.
[2] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 255.
CHAPTER XI.
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE RAISING.
Owing to the inexhaustible fertility of the Nile valley, fine crops were
always forthcoming on the land reached by the annual overflow. The rich
mud deposited by the flood left the productive qualities of the soil
restored, and it was never necessary to leave the fields lie fallow.
However, the ground had not only to be merely reached by the river
waters, but to be saturated, for rain seldom fell and whatever humidity
was supplied the growing vegetation, came from the overflow. A system of
irrigation brought the water in trenches as near each farm as possible.
From these trenches, thousands of men and boys, employed throughout the
country, lifted water in buckets to the higher land, that all the crops
might receive sufficient moisture.
As soon as the river receded, all the valley was astir with busy people,
getting the ground ready for the grain and other seed. Implements of the
farm were crude indeed, and crude they are today. A high official in
recent times had a quantity of agricultural implements, such as are used
by the most progressive farmers in America, imported into Egypt and
endeavored to encourage the peasants to use them. Not they. What had
served the needs of seven thousand years in their valley was deemed
sufficient for them, and after some time, the entire outfit had to be
sold for old iron.
Pictures in tombs depict many scenes connected with grain
production--from the plowing of the soil to the storing of the grain
into granaries. From these pictures we are able to outline the daily
life of the peasant.
Their plows were crude, wooden implements, which at best did little more
than scratch over the soil. Coarse clods of earth had to be broken with
a sort of wooden hoe. Then the farmer scattered seed over the mellow
ground, driving flocks of sheep across the fields to tread it in. Aside
from the matter of irrigation, the crops needed little attention until
the time for harvest. Then the grain was cut by a sickle, loaded on to
donkeys and taken to the threshing-floor, located near the village. Here
in early times it was trodden out by donkeys, driven back and forth over
it. Later oxen were in greater favor for threshing. The grain was freed
from chaff by throwing it up into the air rapidly. The grain fell
straight down, while the chaff was blown forward. Now it was ready for
the "scribes of the granary," who measured it and supervised it while
being stored safely away. Sometimes the boats of a nobleman would ply
back and forth for weeks together, bringing his heavy yield of millet
and barley to his granaries.
One word about the "corn" of Egypt. The Indian corn which we call corn
today is a native American product, and was unknown to antiquity. Corn
has been used as a common name for all grain. Wheat, barley and millet
were the leading grains of Egypt.
Taxes were paid in kind--in produce; so naturally, large quantities of
grain were poured yearly into the coffers of the government. This was
stored against times of need which occasionally fell upon Egypt. It was
in one of these years when a famine swept over the east that Joseph's
brothers came down into the valley to buy grain from government
granaries.
Little is known of the vegetables grown in antiquity. Probably many of
those common today were raised. Melons were extensively grown; onions
and cucumbers were probably known and the grape vine was extensively
cultivated.
Cattle raising was carried to some perfection. The Egyptians understood
well the secrets of high breeding and produced especially fine specimens
of cows and oxen. Being fond of all animals, they were partial to the
ox, symbolic of great strength, and to the cow, sacred to Isis. As the
lion, with its strength, has appealed to many people, so the ox was a
favorite with the dwellers on the Nile.
The herders made up a class by themselves. In the summer they drove the
cattle up north, into the marshes, where pasture was good. The average
Egyptian looked upon these men with deepest disgust, for they let their
hair grow, and wore beards. They lived in portable reed huts. Their
lives were quite primitive and they had a general unkempt appearance.
They dressed very little, and their efforts to copy the Egyptian skirt
in their stiff matting, afforded the townsman much amusement. They
spent their idle time weaving papyrus reeds into mats, and wove boats
from the same useful plant.
When the fall came, they returned with their herds from the northern
marshes. When they reached home, officials came to inspect the flocks.
They noted the increase of the stock, all losses and other matters of
interest to the owners. Records show that single proprietors sometimes
owned as many as 1,300 cows, in addition to other cattle.
Large flocks of sheep were kept, and goats were plentiful. Few pictures
of pigs are to be seen, and those only in the New Empire period. The pig
was objected to on religious grounds, as unclean.
Their fondness for animals led the Egyptians to receive as many wild
animals as possible into their flocks. These were fattened with the
cattle. Mention is made of the ibex and antelope being especially valued
when they had been fed for awhile with the herds.
Birds were apparently not extensively domesticated. This was not
necessary, for the bird-catchers could find any number of ducks and
geese in the marshes, fatten them for a time, and supply them without
the trouble of raising them. The goose was the favorite bird. Roast
goose was a favorite dish and was offered as a delicacy to the gods.
Pictures even show geese kept as pets, in the place of dogs or monkeys.
While the whole civilization of Egypt was based on its agriculture and
its cattle raising, the farmer and herder had no social standing. The
tiller of the soil was regarded as an overworked creature who never
became prosperous. The land was generally owned by great noblemen of
wealth, who themselves received the profit.
"The following sad sketch of the lot of the harvestmen was written by
the compiler of a didactic letter, of which many copies are extant, and
implies not only a personal opinion, but the general view of this
matter: The worm has taken half of the food, the hippopotamus the other
half; there were many mice in the fields, the locusts have come down and
the cattle have eaten, and the sparrows have stolen. Poor miserable
agriculturist! What was left on the threshing floor thieves made away
with.... Then the scribe lands on the bank to receive the harvest, his
followers carry sticks and the negroes carry palm rods. They say: 'Give
up the corn'--and there is none there. Then they beat him as he lies
stretched out and bound to the ground, they throw him into the canal and
he sinks down, head under water.... This is, of course, an exaggerated
picture, which is purposely overdrawn by the writer, in order to
emphasize the striking contrast that he draws in his eulogy of the
profession of scribe; in its main features, however, it gives us a very
true idea, for the lot of the ancient peasant very much resembled that
of the modern fellah. The latter labours and toils without enjoying the
results of his own work. He earns a scanty subsistence, and,
notwithstanding all his industry, he gains no great renown amongst his
countrymen of the towns; the best they can say of him is, that he is
worthy to be compared with his own cattle."[1]
ARTISANS AND THEIR CRAFTS.
Countries today can easily import such articles of manufacture as are
not produced within their own boundaries. A single household may possess
silk made in India, porcelain from China, curtains and laces from
Belgium, cutlery from England, and some musical instruments made in
Germany. All this was different in antiquity. Egypt long remained
isolated. She developed a higher civilization than her neighbors, and
what her people required had to be produced for the most part within her
borders. It followed naturally that a wide variety of trades and crafts
grew up in the limited valley of the Nile. To be sure, during her empire
period many lands sent their choicest products as tribute, yet even
then, Egyptians held first place in certain arts and crafts.
There was little native wood in the valley. When the conquests of
Thutmose I. established relations with Syria, woods were imported to
some extent. Mummies have been found encased in the rare cedars of
Lebanon. Generally speaking, however, substitutes had to be found for
timber. Light boats were made from reeds, and for the making of larger
ones, boatmakers became expert in joining together small pieces of wood,
thus forming large boards, strong enough to bear severe strains. For
some purposes, cartonage was substituted. This was composed of several
layers of coarse linen glued together. It was used extensively for the
manufacture of coffins. In veneering rare woods upon less costly
foundations, the Egyptians far surpassed any modern efforts. Wood
carvers reached a high degree of skill in fashioning little statuettes
and images from wood, also in carving, with exquisite detail, tiny
wooden amulets and ornaments. Handles of knives sometimes display the
dexterity of the wood carvers.
Even greater, perhaps, was their success in metal work. Bronze was
commonly used for articles of every day use. Iron was known and was
reserved more especially for weapons of warfare and for some kinds of
knives. For a time, silver was more highly valued than gold, being more
rare. Later it was found in greater quantities, and took rank with gold,
or had even less value. Statues of the gods were made commonly in
bronze, although many were fashioned from gold. The goldsmith was a
person of good social standing. He made statues of the gods to adorn the
temples and he cut and set jewels for royalty. The number of precious
stones was quite extensive in Egypt. Diamonds, rubies and sapphires were
seemingly unknown, but amethysts, emeralds, garnets, agates, jasper and
lapis lazuli were available. The Egyptians, both men and women, were
very fond of personal adornments, and jewelry was worn in profusion by
the wealthy and to some extent by all. Amber, turquoise, coral and
pearls were popular. Every man wore a seal ring--and this not merely as
an ornament. Letters and documents were never signed in these
ages--rather, one affixed his seal. The noble wore a costly ring; the
citizen of humble position, one of slight value, but every one who
expected to transact any business or carry on any correspondence wore a
seal ring of some kind. Women, to the same extent, wore necklaces. Most
elaborate ones have been discovered in the tombs of royalty; very simple
ones adorned the necks of the humbler women, yet none was so poor as to
lack a necklace altogether. Bracelets, anklets, hair combs and
ornaments, amulets, chains, and scarabs were greatly in demand, and the
goldsmiths of ancient Egypt attained great originality, skill and
perfection in his art. So constant being the demand for inexpensive
jewelry, remarkable skill was reached in imitating precious stones in
glass. Indeed, it is difficult for experts today to determine in some
cases whether the stone be real or imitated.
In glass work, the Egyptians preferred colored glass to the clear.
Whatever glass utensils remain are invariably colored. Blue was a
favorite color. Thin layers of glass were used sometimes to decorate
coffins. Blown glass was not made in early times, statements to the
contrary notwithstanding. Pictures once supposed to represent glass
blowers at work are now understood to depict one stage of metal working.
Pottery was never brought to any high mark by the Nile dwellers. Clay
utensils were used for only the most ordinary purposes, and the jars,
bowls, and vases which remain give evidence of poor material having been
used in the first place, indifferent labor in the next place, poor fire
and little skill in ornamentation. These indifferent results were
satisfactory enough for the commonest uses and for anything more,
something in metal appears to have been demanded.
Hunting being a favorite pastime, and cattle raising carried on to such
a wide extent, Egypt became rich in skins. The skins of rarer animals
were never shorn of the natural hair. This was dressed and used for
coverings of couches and chairs--for shields and even garments. Skins of
cattle were made into leather and worked up into sandals, straps and
aprons for workmen. Pictures of boats are shown with leather sails, and
leather was used for manifold purposes.
The extensive use of linen for clothing necessitated a large production
of flax. Those who wove--mostly women, in spite of Herodotus to the
contrary--attained a high skill and dexterity in their work. Linen was
generally kept white, and was frequently made so thin and sheer that the
outlines of the body were visible through it.
Of the condition and life of the average artisan, we know that he was
allowed to hold no office under the government and had no political
rights whatever. Every man was obliged by law to have some calling and
to follow it, nor could he work at trades other than his own. This
insured good work--always exacted by the Egyptians from their workmen
who often received but meager food and no wages. Probably the highly
prized work of the goldsmith was well paid. The Egyptians frequently
paid for their goods in kind.
Large numbers of laborers belonged to the state or the temples, and they
were provided only the bare necessities of life. Some of these men knew
how to chisel the hard granite which almost defies the strong steel of
today; others could decorate tombs with animated scenes which still
today retain their original colors. All these men lived in wretched
poverty, in little mud huts, and often had to besiege their overseers
for bread. It appears to have been customary to give these workmen their
monthly rations at the beginning of the month. Probably the supply was
scanty at best, and the hungry laborers made heavy inroads upon it
during the first few days. Ere twenty days had passed they were often
entirely out of meal for bread, to say nothing of oil and other
necessities. Only a threat to appeal to the king would at times bring
the needed food. The workmen maintained that the officers withheld from
them their dues, only to add it to their own personal stores--a claim
that was no doubt well founded, and needs no better proof than the
granting of more food to those who united and ceased to work until
supplies were forthcoming.
MARKETS.
For an understanding of the old Egyptian market we can do no better than
read the description worked out by Maspero from scenes still existing in
the tombs:
"We ... suddenly emerge into the full sunshine of a noisy little square,
where a market is being held. Sheep, geese, goats, asses, large-horned
oxen, scattered in unequal groups in the center, are awaiting a
purchaser. Peasants, fishermen, small retail dealers, squat several deep
in front of the houses, displaying before them, in great rush baskets or
on low tables, loaves of pastry, fruit, vegetables, fish, meat raw or
cooked, jewels, perfumes, stuffs, all the necessities and all the
superfluities of Egyptian life.
"The customers stroll past and leisurely examine the quality of the
commodities offered for sale; each carries something of his own
manufacture in his hand--a new tool, some shoes, a mat, or a small box
full of rings of copper, silver, even of gold, of the weight of an
_outnou_ (a little over two ounces), which he proposes to barter for the
objects he requires. Two customers stop at the same moment in front of
a fellah, who exhibits onions and wheat in front of a basket. Instead of
money, the first holds two necklets of glass or of many colored
earthenware, the second a round fan with a wooden handle, and one of
those triangular ventilators which the cooks use to quicken the fire.
'Here is a beautiful necklet which will please you, this is what you
want,' cries the former; whilst the latter urges, 'Here is a fan and a
ventilator.' However, the fellah, quite overcome by this double attack,
methodically proceeds to first seize a string of beads for closer
examination. 'Let me see it, that I may fix a price.' The one asks too
much, the other too little; from concession to concession they finally
come to terms, and settle the number of onions or the weight of corn
which the necklet or fan may be worth. Elsewhere it is a question of
bartering a pair of sandals or a row of enamelled beads for some
perfume. 'Here,' urges the buyer, 'is a very strong pair of shoes.' But
the seller does not require shoes for the moment, so he offers one of
his small pots in exchange for a row of beads. 'It is delicious when a
few drops are poured out,' he explains, with a persuasive air. A woman
thrusts under the nose of a kneeling individual two jars, probably
containing some ointment of her own manufacture. 'Here,' she cries, 'it
smells sweet enough to entice thee.' Behind this group two men are
discussing the value of a packet of fish-hooks; a woman, box in hand, is
a vendor of bracelets and necklets; another woman endeavors to obtain a
reduction upon the price of a fish, which is being dressed before her.
"When it is a question of a large animal, or of objects of considerable
value, the accounts become intricate. For instance, Ahmosou sells a bull
for a mat, five measures of honey, eleven measures of oil, and seven
objects of different kinds. Now, imagine the calculations which must
have been made before he succeeded in establishing such a complicated
balance.... The mat was estimated at 25 outnou, the honey at 4, the oil
at 10, and so on, the whole weighing 119 outnou, which is not too dear
for a beast in good condition. This custom of payment by one of the
usual metals is so convenient, and dispenses with so many calculations,
that it has been adopted even for the minor transactions of daily life.
The butcher, the baker, the corn-chandler, all the small tradesmen
prefer exchange for metal, which is of small compass and does not spoil,
to exchange for objects, often bulky in size, which is liable to
deteriorate if kept too long in the house. A pair of ducks is worth a
quarter of an outnou in copper; a fan, a quarter; a bronze razor is
worth a whole outnou; a pickaxe, two; a goat, two; an ox-head, half an
outnou in silver; a leather bottle of fine wine, three outnou of
gold....
"Two or three commercial streets or bazaars open from the other side of
the square, and the crowd hastens towards them when it leaves the
market. Nearly their whole length is filled with stalls and shops, in
which not only Egypt, but the majority of the oriental nations display
their most varied productions. Beautifully ornamented stuffs from Syria,
Phoenician or Hittite jewellery, scented woods and gums from Punt and
the Holy Lands; lapis and embroideries from Babylon; coral, gold, iron,
tin and amber from the far-distant countries beyond the seas, are found
scattered pell-mell amongst the native fine linen, jewels, glass-work
and furniture. The shop is usually independent from the rest of the
house, and is let separately. It is a small, square room, often a simple
shed, widely open in front, and closed every evening by means of wooden
shutters, held in place by cross-bars with one or two mats, one or two
low stools, some shelves fixed to the wall, which hold the goods;
perhaps behind the shop are one or two carefully closed rooms where the
most valuable objects are stored. Most of the tradesmen are also
manufacturers. They have apprentices or workmen who work for them, and
they join them during the intervals between their sales.... Artisans of
the same trade have usually a natural tendency to collect together, to
dwell side by side in the same place--blacksmiths with blacksmiths,
curriers with curriers, goldsmiths with goldsmiths, forming a small city
in which objects of the same kind only are found."[2]
THE BUSINESS OF WAR.
It would be misleading to speak of the profession of war in Egypt, for
the Egyptians were essentially unwarlike. In early times they lived in
their isolated valley, and the nature of the country on either side of
them was not such as to tempt them to reach out to conquer it. When
Nubian and nomadic tribes stole their cattle and otherwise molested
their outlying districts, it was a comparatively simple matter to
repulse them and reduce their number. Such raids were not regular
military campaigns--far from it. They were expeditions of plunder and
pillage. "I have carried off their women and captured their men; for I
marched to their well; I slew their oxen, cut down their corn and set
fire to it." Thus did one pharaoh record his victory on a monument
raised to commemorate it. War with tribes of this strength was not
likely to elevate the military standard of Egypt.
Contact with the Hyksos during the Middle Empire taught the Nile
dwellers more of warfare than they had previously known. By superior use
of arms these Asiatics were able to take possession of the land, which
they held until, from the struggling feudal nobles, a ruler came forth,
strong enough to establish himself and collect an army. By adopting the
method of battle practised by the enemy, the Hyksos were at last driven
from the valley, and were pursued far beyond their former borders.
The New Empire saw a brief period of military successes, but they rested
on a slight foundation. The Egyptians were naturally poor soldiers. A
strong and fearless general was able to rouse them to action, and by
meeting detached tribes, they were able to overcome them. Then with
confidence born of success, they sometimes made a brilliant progress to
the civilization of Mesopotamia. Asiatics had not yet learned the real
nature of those to whom they offered tribute. When once it was learned,
tribute was no longer forthcoming, or indeed, it was sometimes demanded
by the Asiatics of Egypt.
Of the life of a private soldier, we know very little. During times of
peace he was a tiller of the soil, or a common laborer. He thought no
hardship greater than that which compelled him to enter the service of
an army. He regarded war as the greatest evil and was disheartened by
the slightest defeat. This was poor material to convert into effective
soldiers and only when the Egyptian king received a large number of
mercenaries into his ranks was his army particularly efficient.
Many times several thousand soldiers were dispatched to escort workmen
sent to obtain granite for the king's tomb. It is probable that their
duties were less military than civil, for they no doubt were set to
cutting out the granite from the quarry and assisted in transporting it
to the building site.
Of the equipment of the soldiers, it seems that in early times they
carried simply a bow, wearing ostrich feathers on their heads as a token
of victory. Later they carried shields and spears or battle axes. The
order of battle in later times was to place chariots in the front and
rear, with strong detachments of infantry between them. Ramses II.
caused the whole story of his victory over the Hittite king at Kadesh to
be painted in his temple. This is one of the best sources for military
history during the New Empire. "We see how the soldiers of the 'first
army of Amon' pitch their camp; the shields are placed side by side so
as to construct a great four-cornered enclosure. One entrance only is
left, and this is fortified with barricades and is defended by four
divisions of infantry. In the middle of the camp a large square space
indicates the position of the royal tent; the smaller tents of the
officers surround it. The wide space between these tents and the outer
enclosure serves as a camping-ground for the common soldiers and for the
cattle, and here we see a series of life-like scenes, in the
representation of which the Egyptian artist has evidently taken great
delight. In one corner stands the rows of war-chariots; the horses are
unharnessed and paw the ground contentedly, while they receive their
food. Close by are posted the two-wheeled baggage cars; the oxen are
looking round at the food, and do not appear to trouble themselves about
the king's big tame lion, which has lain down near them wearied out. The
most characteristic animal in the camp, however, is the donkey with his
double panniers in which he has to carry the heavy sacks and jars of
provisions. We meet with him here, there, and everywhere, in all manner
of positions; for instance, he drops on his knee indignantly, as if he
could carry his panniers no longer; he prances about when the soldiers
want to lade him with the sacks; he lies down and brays, or he takes his
ease rolling in the dust near his load. The boys, also, whose business
it is to fasten up the donkeys to pegs, contribute to the general
liveliness of the camp; in more than one place they have begun to
quarrel about their work, and in their anger they beat each other with
the pegs. Other boys belonging to the camp have to hang the baggage on
posts, or to bring food for the soldiers, or to fetch the skins of
water. These boys insist upon quarreling too; the skins are thrown down,
and they use their fists freely.
"In contrast to these scenes of daily life in the camp, we have on the
other hand a representation of the wild confusion of battle. Close to
the bank of the Orontes is the royal chariot, in which the king stands
drawn up to his full height; behind and on each side the chariots of the
Cheta[3] surround him; while many more are crossing the stream. The
Egyptian chariots are indeed in the rear of the king, but in order to
come to his help they would have first to force a way through the
chariots of the Cheta. In the meantime, the Pharaoh fights by himself,
and pours down such a frightful rain of arrows on the enemy that they
fly in wild confusion. Hit by the arrows, their horses take fright, dash
the chariots to pieces, and throw out the warriors, or they get loose
and breaking through their own ranks, spread confusion everywhere. The
dead and the wounded Cheta fall one upon another; those who escape the
arrows of the king throw themselves into the Orontes and try to swim
across to Kadesh, which is seen on the opposite bank surrounded by walls
and trenches....
"Whilst the Pharaoh thus slays the Cheta, the prince of the latter
people stands watching the battle from the corner between Kadesh and the
Orontes in the midst of a mighty square of 8,000 foot soldiers of the
elite of his troops; 'he does not come out to fight, because he is
afraid before his Majesty, since he has seen his Majesty.' When he sees
that the battle is lost, he says in admiration: 'He is as Sutech the
glorious, Ba'al lives in his body.'"[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 415.
[2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt, 18.
[3] That is, the Hittite king.
[4] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 529.
CHAPTER XII.
PRAISING LEARNING.[1]
I have seen violence, I have seen violence, give thy heart after letters.
I have seen one free from labors; consider there is not anything beyond
letters.
Love letters as thy mother. I make its beauty go in thy face.
It is a greater possession than all besides.
He who has commenced to avail himself is from his infancy a counsellor.
He is sent to perform commissions.
He who does not go is in sack-cloth.
I have not seen a blacksmith on a commission, a founder who goes on an
embassy.
I have seen the blacksmith at his work at the mouth of the furnace.
His fingers like things of crocodiles, he smells worse than the eggs
of fishes.
Every carpenter carrying tools,--is he more at rest than the laborer?
I tell you the fisherman suffers more than any employment.
Consider, is he not toiling on the river? he is mixed with the
crocodiles.
Should the clumps of papyrus diminish, then he is crying for help.
If he has not been told that a crocodile is not there, terrors blind him.
Consider, there is not an employment destitute of superior ones
Except the scribe, who is first, for he knows letters; he is greater
than they.
Shouldst thou walk after great men, thou art to proceed with great
knowledge.
Do not say proud words. Be sealed in thyself alone.
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION.
The Greek loved learning for itself alone. Not so the Egyptian. He, too,
praised learning and considered no calling so worthy as that of the
scribe. It was not because an education lifted one out of a sordid world
to purer heights of knowledge, however, but rather, because the scribe
was exempt from physical exertion, and if ambitious and persevering,
might find all official doors open to him. A citizen wished his son to
receive an education in order that he might occupy a position superior
and less arduous than he could otherwise hope to fill. The lot of the
laborer in Egypt was hard. Working constantly he could but provide
himself and family with their scanty food and scanty clothing. At any
time he might be pressed into public service and here he was fortunate
if he received "one clean garment once a month," in addition to his
monthly rations. Scribes were safe from physical toil. Quite naturally,
it followed that a family would make every possible sacrifice that one
of the children might be fitted for a life more safe and comfortable
than the average. No higher ideal, no loftier motive seems to have
actuated the parent than this: to qualify his son for an easy and
lucrative position in life.
There were elementary schools in Egypt in an early age. These were open
to all children, who probably paid a small fee to the teacher. Gradually
also, there grew up around the temples schools for the training of boys
for the priesthood. As the empire grew and tribute was asked and
received from many tribes and countries, many scribes--copyists and
accountants--were needed in the service of the government, and schools
were opened in connection with the court to educate boys to meet this
new demand.
Having spent a few years in the elementary school, the average boy was
set to work to assist with the cattle, gather fuel, care for the ducks
and geese about his home, and later was put to learn a trade--generally
the trade of his father. However, if a boy showed special aptitude for
learning or seemed more alert and clever than ordinary, he was sent to
the school for scribes. Here the training was vigorous. The scribe would
waken the youth, calling: "The books are already in the hands of thy
companions, take hold of thy clothes and call for thy sandals!"
Discipline was rigid indeed. An old adage held that a boy's ears are
placed on his back--he hears if he is flogged.
You will remember how complex were the Egyptian styles of writing--both
hieroglyphic and demotic. Consequently to be able to read and write was
considered a great accomplishment. Having mastered the art of writing,
the youth was set next to copying. Many of the old copy books still
exist, for it was customary to place them in the tomb with the deceased.
Three pages a day was the usual lesson. "By the age of ten or twelve,"
says Maspero, "the child was ... apprenticed to a scribe in some office,
who would undertake to make him a _learned scribe_. The boy accompanied
his master to the office or work-yard, and there passed entire months
copying letters, circulars, legal documents, or accounts, which he did
not at first understand, but which he faithfully remembered.... The
pupil copied and copied, the master inserted forgotten words, corrected
the faults of spelling, and drew on the margin the signs or groups
unskillfully traced. When the book was finished and the apprentice could
write all the formulas from memory, the master entrusted him with the
composition of a few letters, gradually increasing the number and adding
new difficulties. As soon as he had fairly mastered the ordinary daily
routine his education was ended, and an unimportant post was sought."[2]
The Egyptians never investigated a subject until they reduced it to a
science. A certain knowledge of geometry was necessary to determine
boundaries of land, so valuable along the river that very small areas
were sometimes in dispute. A knowledge sufficient for this purpose the
Egyptians possessed, but they never delved deeper into the matter and
became proficient in it. They studied astronomy and made charts of
portions of the heavens. They studied arithmetic, but never, for
example, wrote a fraction with a numerator larger than 1; instead of
writing 2/3 or 5/8 they wrote: 1/3, 1/3; 1/2, 1/8. It has taken much
patience and some ingenuity to understand problems found already worked
out in the copy books.
The subject of medicine was deemed important, but the ancient Egyptians
knew nothing about it, generally speaking. Magic, drugs, herbs and
incantations were used together. Believing that the welfare of the soul
depended upon the preservation of the body, students never had the
opportunity of dissecting bodies, either animal or human. They had no
idea of the vital organs, and when they were successful in relieving a
patient, it was when, like some old herb woman, they had learned the
properties of healing plants and had watched their effects in many cases
until they became skillful in administering them. When one was ill, it
was thought that an evil spirit had entered his body. By magic words
this must be driven out before recovery could be hoped for. Magic
greatly aided medicine, according to this view. Here is a formula for a
magic mixture: "Take two grains of incense, two fumigations, two jars of
cedar oil, two jars of tas, two jars of wine, two jars of spirits of
wine. Apply it at the place of thy heart. Thou art protected against the
accidents of life; thou art protected against a violent death; thou art
protected against fire; thou are not ruined on earth, and thou escapest
in heaven."
LITERATURE.
Egypt seems to have been lacking in any considerable number of literary
works. Records were kept in the temples; treatises on religion, magic
and medicine have been found. The Book of the Dead was familiar to the
living and indispensable to the departed. Some folk lore, hymns of
worship and of victory, and a few stories, more or less complete,
remain. Vast numbers of papyri have undoubtedly perished, but reference
would probably be made in existing manuscripts to great productions, and
these are lacking. Giving all credit to what has been recovered and
allowing for the destruction of time, the fact remains that in
literature Egypt was not productive.
There are no literary remains antedating the Middle Empire; however, we
have traces of folk songs and of myths which were earlier known. The old
belief that the Egyptians had no secular literature was mistaken. Our
greatest sources of knowledge regarding their literature have been the
tombs and temples, and these were not places in which a people would
have chosen to preserve its lighter literature.
It is probable that just as the workmen sing today, while they work
along the Nile, so too they chanted in earliest times. Under the most
trying conditions in Egypt, laborers sang as they worked. The scribes
did not think it worthy of their dignity to chronicle folk songs.
Probably little thought was ever given to them. Occasionally a few lines
are quoted beneath some tomb pictures to make it more vivid.
"The herdsman wading in the mud as he drives his sheep over the fields
from which the flood has not yet entirely retreated, says to his flock:
'In the water walks your shepherd with the fishes; with the catfish
talketh he; with the fish he changeth greeting.' Another song
accompanied the work equivalent to threshing. The ancient Egyptians,
like the Israelites, did not use flails, but after scattering the corn
on the threshing-floor, they drove oxen over it to tread out the grain.
Then was sung with variations: 'Thresh, oh ye oxen! Thresh for
yourselves! Oh ye oxen thresh for yourselves! Thresh straw for your
fodder, thresh grain for your master. Take ye no rest, cool is the air
this day.'"[3]
Mythological tales grew out of an attempt to explain natural
phenomena--the rising or setting sun, the struggle between light and
darkness. All phenomena which attracted sufficient attention furnished
material for myths. It has been observed for instance, that certain
stars never set, whereas others after performing their courses sank
below the horizon. The Egyptians expressed this by the myth of the
Crocodile of the West, which fed upon the setting stars.
"The sunrise and sunset, alternation of day and night, the solar drama
in all its details, furnished the subject of Egyptian mythology. In
other countries the sun-god rode in a chariot; in Egypt he rode in a
boat. Hence the sky is considered an expanse of water, the Nile being
the earthly representative. Seb is the earth, Nut the heaven. Osiris
their son, is the sun and is wedded to Isis, the dawn. From their union
sprang Horus, the Sun in his full strength. Set the destroyer, is
another child of Seb and Nut. He is darkness and weds Nephthys, the
Sunset. The contest between Seb and Osiris is the constant subject of
mythological story."
Traces of these early folk songs and early myths survived in Egyptian
literature. The literature of the Middle Empire shows an eager interest
in travel. Of the few books that remain from this period several relate
adventures in distant parts.
Most of the remaining literature belongs to the New Empire. Lyrical and
didactic poems, stories, records and documents were then produced in
considerable number. It would appear that the Egyptians never wrote a
history of their country. Accounts, more or less in detail, cover
several reigns, but nothing like a chronological treatise of their
development was apparently undertaken. The New Empire knew far less of
the Old Empire than we know today.
In the realm of religious writing, the Book of the Dead was most
important. Its negative confession to be made before the judges of the
dead would imply a high degree of morality, but the truth was that it
came into being in an early stage when words were thought identical with
the thing itself. We find all peoples passing through a period when
great importance was given the spoken word. "I have not been idle; I
have not been intoxicated; I have not told secrets; I have not told
falsehoods; I have not defrauded; I have not slandered; I have not
caused tears; I have given food to the hungry; drink to the thirsty, and
clothes to the naked." That confession was probably formulated in this
early period when such stress was given to the spoken word. Later, when
people understood the difference between the name and the thing itself
the confession remained the same, because all things pertaining to
religion are last to change.
The _Precepts of Ptah-hotep_, prince of the Fifth dynasty, is one of the
oldest known books in the world. It is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale
at Paris and is made up of what would be equivalent to twenty printed
pages of precepts written to admonish the young. The following indicate
their nature:
"Be not arrogant because of that which thou knowest, no artist being in
possession of the perfection to which he should aspire."
"If thou hast become great after having been little, harden not thy
heart; thou art only the steward of the good things of God."
"Let thy face be cheerful as long as thou livest; hast any one come out
of the coffin after having once entered it?"
Before leaving this brief consideration of Egyptian writing, we should
understand what supplied the writing material of Egypt. The papyrus
reeds have frequently been mentioned with no explanation of their use.
From this word papyrus has been derived our word _paper_.
The reeds grew thick along the sides of streams. Their stems were three
cornered and about three inches wide at the base. By peeling off the
outer tough green covering, a white pith was obtained. Splitting it and
laying strips together, the edges lapping, and upon a surface so formed
placing a second layer running the other way, sprinkling the whole with
the muddy Nile water, and putting it all under a press made up the
process of manufacturing a composition which could be cut into thin
sheets. These afforded all the writing material known until the seventh
century after Christ, when prepared skins, or parchment, were sometimes
substituted.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCRIBES]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From inscription on a tomb; trans. in "Dwellers on the Nile."
[2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt, 9.
[3] Popular Literature of Ancient Egypt. Wiedermann.
CHAPTER XIII.
RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
The life of the ancient Egyptians was in a great measure controlled by
their religious beliefs. In prehistoric times, as has already been
explained, each nome, or province, was independent, and was the home of
some tribe or tribes. Just as we find the American Indian worshipping
the stick that was powerful enough to throw him in the forest, so these
primitive people worshipped animals and trees. Each animate object was
conceived as possessing a soul or spirit, and this spirit accounted for
the qualities or characteristics of the object--were they good or ill. A
lion possessed savage tendencies--hence they would worship him and
propitiate his spirit, and their attitude was the same toward the
crocodile, the ram, the elephant, and many other animals. The date-palm
brought them great blessings--therefore they would worship the tree and
insure a continuance of these blessings. As time went on, they grew to
worship gods, and to the gods these trees and animals, worshipped
earlier on their own account, were thought sacred.
Each village and town had its own local deity and special objects of
worship, while the nome as a whole recognized gods of a more general
character. In this way, each province of Upper Egypt--which was older in
civilization than the Delta--and various portions of Lower Egypt,
developed religions complete and independent of one another. After many
hundred years, when all Egypt was united under one government and one
king, the priests attempted to comprise these various beliefs into a
common faith, to recognize the principal gods of all the nomes in the
temples, and to evolve one religious system from the many local systems.
This they never succeeded in fully accomplishing. They included in their
lists some seventy deities, and harmonized some features of worship, but
each locality clung to its ancient deity and several different religions
can be traced throughout Egyptian history.
Like most primitive people, the Egyptians worshipped the sun. This god
revealed himself in many forms, but chiefly as Horus, represented by a
falcon, and Re or Ra, represented by the Scarabaeus.
Osiris ruled in the kingdom of the dead, and he was thought to be just
and good. With his wife, Isis, and his son, Horus, he was worshipped
throughout the land, while everywhere Set was regarded as the principle
of Evil.
Qeb was the god of Earth and Nut, his wife, the queen of the heavens,
which in this connection signifies the skies. Their children were
Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nebthet (Nephthys). Mat was the goddess of truth
and justice.
One finds similarities between some of these divinities and the
divinities of the Greeks--as for example, Nut reminds one of Hera, and
Set was feared as much as Pluto; but it is dangerous to make these
comparisons, for the religious conceptions of the two nations were
fundamentally different.
The Egyptians usually represented their deities with human bodies and
the heads of the animal sacred to each. So, for example, Horus always
has the head of a sparrow-hawk; Thot, that of an Ibis, and so on. The
prominent feature of this religion was the veneration of animals. It was
believed that sometimes the god-spirit took up his abode within certain
animals, and for this reason certain animals were regarded as sacred and
were therefore, objects of worship. Ptah was the god of Memphis. He, it
was believed, took the form of the Apis-bull, hence this bull was
regarded as sacred.
"The Apis bull dwelt in a temple of his own near the city, had his train
of attendant priests, his meals of the choicest food, his grooms and
currycombers who kept his coat clean and beautiful, his chamberlains who
made up his bed, his cup-bearers who brought his water, and on certain
days was led in a festive procession through the main streets of the
town, so that the inhabitants might see him, and come forth from their
dwellings and make obeisance. When he died he was carefully embalmed,
and deposited, together with magnificent jewels and statuettes and
vases, in a polished granite sarcophagus, cut out of a single block, and
weighing between sixty and seventy tons. The cost of an Apis funeral
amounted sometimes, as we are told, to as much as $100,000. Near
Memphis the number of Apis bulls buried in this fashion was found to be
sixty-four."[1]
In another locality the crocodile was the object of adoration, because,
as in the case of the Apis bull, it was believed that some god dwelt
within it.
"The crocodile was principally worshipped about Lake Moeris. A chosen
number of these animals were kept in the temples, where they were given
elegant apartments and treated to every luxury at public expense. Let us
imagine a crocodile, fresh from a warm, sumptuous bath, anointed with
the most precious ointments and perfumed with fragrant odors; its head
and neck glittering with jeweled earrings and necklace, and its feet
with bracelets wallowing on a rich and costly carpet to receive the
worship of intelligent human beings! Its death was mourned as a public
calamity; its body, wrapped in linen, was carried to the embalmers,
attended by a train of people weeping and beating their breasts in
grief; then having been expensively embalmed and bandaged in gaily
colored mummy cloths, amid imposing ceremonies it was laid away in its
rock sepulchre."
For these absurdities the Egyptians were ridiculed by other nations of
their own times. Their adoration of animals led to most degrading
excesses. The cat was considered sacred throughout the land, and
punishment of death was meted out to persons injuring one.
WORSHIP OF THE NILE.
HYMN TO THE NILE.
Hail to thee O Nile!
Thou shewest thyself in this land
Coming in peace, giving life to Egypt;
O Ammon (thou) leadest night into day,
A leading that rejoices the heart!
Overflowing the gardens created by Ra.
Giving life to all animals;
Watering the lands without ceasing,
The way of heaven descending,
Lover of food, bestower of corn,
Giving light to every home, O Ptah!
Bringer of food! Great Lord of provisions,
Creator of all good things!
Lord of terrors and of choicest joys!
All are combined in him.
He produceth grass for the oxen,
Providing victims for every god.
The choice incense is that which he supplies.
Lord in both regions,
He filleth the granaries, enricheth the storehouses,
He careth for the state of the poor.
Thou shinest in the city of the King;
Then the householders are satiated with good things,
The poor man laughs at the lotus.
All things are perfectly ordered.
Every kind of herb for thy children,
If food should fail,
All enjoyment is cast on the ground,
The land falls in weariness.
O inundation of Nile, offerings are made to thee:
Oxen are slain to thee:
Great festivals are kept for thee;
Fowls of the field are caught for thee,
Pure flowers are offered to thee.
Offerings are made to every god
As they are made unto the Nile.
Incense ascends unto heaven,
Oxen, bulls, fowls are burnt!
Nile makes for himself chasms in the South;
Unknown is his name in heaven,
He doth not manifest his forms,
Vain are all representations!
Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile, shine forth
Giving life to his oxen by the pastures,
Giving life to men by his oxen,
Shine forth in glory, O Nile!
More natural seems to us the worship of the Nile. There was a certain
beauty which we today can still appreciate in the festivals celebrated
each year on the banks of the rising water--which alone brought
happiness and prosperity to all. Hapi was the god of the Nile and he was
worshipped alike throughout Upper and Lower Egypt. Hymns were chanted to
him, as it was believed he might be importuned to rise high enough to
insure sufficient water, while if neglected, only a partial flood might
occur. One of these hymns was something like this:
Hail to thee, Hapi
Who descendeth upon earth
And giveth life unto Egypt.
Thou who art hidden in the unknown
Whose waters spread upon the fields
Which the sun-god hath created;
And giveth life to all who are athirst.
Thou, the Creator of corn,
The Maker of barley----
Do thy waters cease to flow,
Then are all mankind in misery;
When thou wanest in heaven
The gods and all living things perish.
It would be useless for us to attempt to become familiar with all the
Egyptian divinities. In the age when people conceived and worshipped
them, the gods of a given locality were often unknown in a neighboring
city, and the animals held to be sacred in one town might be eaten as
food in another.
In addition to all their deities, ancestors were worshipped by the
Egyptians, and an altar was erected to the departed in every home.
It was believed that the soul left the body after death in the form of a
bird (ba), dwelled apart from the body, but would often return to it for
nourishment and earthly comforts. In early days, therefore, food in
great abundance was placed in the tomb, or the priests were paid to
provide daily food for the deceased. Later it was felt that the ka--or
that portion of the dead which required nourishment--was a mere shadow,
a ghost, a phantom, and so pictures of things to eat would satisfy as
well as the articles themselves. Carrying out this idea, the Egyptians
pictured upon tomb walls all stages of growing grain, from the time the
seed dropped upon the mellow soil until the ground flour was served in
loaves for the feast; meat was shown, in all its forms: from the ox,
feeding in the pasture, to the juicy roasts, made ready for the table.
Such scenes as these adorned the interior chambers of the tomb; upon
them, it was believed, the phantom-like ka might look and be appeased.
In a recently excavated tomb, liquid honey was discovered. Meats too,
encased for at least 3,000 years, for the sustenance of the deceased,
were here, while a lengthy menu covered a wall, stating the amount of
food at the disposal of the departed. 5,006 geese, so it read, were at
his command, but the number 5,006 was simply written beneath one
pictured goose!
Beds, chairs, toilet articles, chariots, and countless other objects
were left in the tomb of the well-to-do Egyptian, but were placed apart
from the mummy, which was sealed up in a private apartment by itself,
while a statue or image of the deceased was left near the belongings.
It was believed that at death the ba--or soul--went on a long journey to
the land where Osiris reigned, and so great were the dangers of the way
that many amulets and charms were laid by the departed to assist him in
passing the obstacles of the road he must needs encounter. He who
arrived at last at the land of Peace, where the joys of life abided
without the sorrows of earth, came into the presence of Osiris. Here he
made a negative confession, similar to the following: "Hail unto you, ye
lords of Truth! hail to thee, great god, lord of Truth and Justice! I
have not committed iniquity against men! I have not oppressed the poor!
I have not laid labor upon any free man beyond that which he wrought for
himself! I have not starved any man! I have not caused any to weep!...
There is no crime against me in this land of the Double Truth!"
[Illustration: DROMOS AND SECOND PYLON, TEMPLE OF KARNAK.]
These and many more denials of sin were made and it sometimes happened
that the confession was inscribed on one wall of a tomb while elsewhere
were shown captives taken in war, slaves oppressed by labor, and other
incidents in the earthly career of the departed which lead us to infer
that the gods were supposed to be too mighty to take notice of most
remarkable contradictions.
After the confession of the candidate for admission to the realm of
Osiris, his good and evil deeds were weighed in a balance and if his
virtues outweighed his failings, he was admitted to the land of the
departed, a counterpart of his own Egypt.
A vast priesthood was required to preside over a religious system so
complex as that of Egypt and the priests gained great influence over the
people. The reason for this is apparent when we consider the prevailing
ideas of the country. The body of the dead must be preserved, for upon
its preservation depended the fate of the soul. To this end the body
must be properly embalmed and entombed. The embalmers were under the
control and supervision of the priests. Again, the soul of the departed
must be assisted upon its perilous journey to Osiris by prayers said
over each finger and each portion of the body. These prayers could be
offered only by the priests themselves. Such a condition as this gave
the priesthood of Egypt an opportunity to make itself supreme in the
land, and this opportunity it was quick to seize upon.
TEMPLES.
Many questions concerning Egyptian worship still remain unanswered. What
part did the citizen take in the worship of his national gods? What
effect did the worship of these gods have upon his life? We do not
know--we cannot tell. It appears that his ancestral gods, worshipped at
an altar in his own house, where of first importance. Some understanding
of the temples and temple ceremonies cannot fail to throw light upon
this old religion. Several of the old ruined temples may be seen today,
standing like forest trees which have outlived their neighbors.
There is not in all Egypt a temple perfectly preserved; but by locating
here an avenue of approach, there, a gateway, finding courts in other
places, and halls and chapels, one comes at length to piece the whole
together and to get some conception of the original entirety of the
ancient temple.
In Greece the people built temples to their gods. In Egypt the king
built them. Offerings were brought to the shrines of the Greek gods by
every citizen in the land. In Egypt most of the gifts came from the
king. To be sure there were special offerings made by all on feast days,
but the king and the priests were alone responsible for the Egyptian
temples; and while throngs accompanied processions thither on days of
sacred festival, there is nothing to show that they had any part in the
ceremonies.
The general plan of the temple was this: an avenue of approach--varying
in length, and lined usually on either side by rows of sphinxes--led to
a gateway, guarded by towers. In the Old Empire these towers served for
defense, and seem later to have been preserved for decorative purposes.
The gate admitted one to a court, open to the sky and outlined by
pillars. In direct line with the gateway was the entrance to a large
hall, supported by columns and lighted by small openings under the roof.
Within this hall were celebrated the sacred festivals. At the end of the
hall a small chapel was built which contained an image of the god of the
temple. Sometimes two other chapels were placed, one on each side of
this, and contained images of the god's wife and son, or his wife and
daughter. The images sometimes represented the animal sacred to the god,
or, again, would have a human body and merely the head of the sacred
animal or bird. Later an image of the god himself was attempted. The
tiny room or cell wherein these were kept was called the Holy of Holies.
Before the door were inscribed these words: Four times must he purify
himself who enters here.
Some temples were much more elaborate and complex than the simple one
just described.
The doors of these chapels were always left sealed, and whenever they
were opened, a clay seal was affixed. Having purified himself, the
priest would fill the hall with the smoke of incense, break the seal,
open the door and fall down, offering incense and kissing the ground
before the image. Then a hymn of praise was probably sung.
RISE OF THE NILE.
"King and Father, gift and giver,
God revealed in form of river,
Issuing perfect and sublime,
From the fountain-head of time;
"Whom eternal mystery shroudeth,
Unapproached, untraced, unknown;
Whom the Lord of heaven encloudeth
With the curtains of his throne;
"From the throne of heaven descending,
Glory, power, and goodness blending,
Grant us, ere the daylight dies,
Token of thy rapid rise."
Ha, it cometh! Furrowing, flashing,
Red blood rushing o'er brown breast;
Peaks and ridges, and dome dashing
Foam on foam, crest on crest!
But the time of times for wonder
Is when ruddy sun goes under;
And the dust throws, half afraid,
Silver shuttles of long shade.
Opens then a scene, the fairest
Ever burst on human view;
Once behold, and then comparest
Nothing in the world thereto.
Every skiff a big ship seemeth,
Every bush with tall wings clad;
Every man his good brain deemeth
The only brain that is not mad.
'Tis the signal Thebes hath waited,
Libyan Thebes, the hundred-gated;
Rouse and robe thee, River-priest
For thy dedication feast!
--Blackmore: Florilla.
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
The Egyptian believed that his god had needs similar to those he himself
experienced. Consequently each day the god needed to be clothed and fed.
"The priest laid his hands on him (the image of the god), he took off
the old rouge and his former clothes, all of course with the necessary
formulae. He then dressed the god in the robe called the Nems, saying:
'Come white dress! come white dress! come white eye of Horus, which
proceeds from the town of Nechebt. The gods dress themselves with thee
in thy name _Dress_, and the gods adorn themselves with thee in thy name
_Adornment_.' The priest then dressed the god in the _great dress_,
rouged him, and presented him with his insignia: the sceptre, the staff
of ruler, and the whip, the bracelets and anklets, as well as the two
feathers which he wore on his head, because 'he has triumphed over his
enemies, and is more splendid than gods or spirits.' The god required
further a collarette and an amulet, two red, two green, and two white
bands; when these had been presented to him the priest might then leave
the chapel."[2]
Food and drink must needs be placed daily on his table. Lists of
offerings made by the Ramesides have come down to us. One records
offerings in the temple as follows: each day were received 3,220 loaves
of bread, 24 cakes, 144 jugs of beer, 32 geese, besides honey, flowers
and incense. This food was probably used to feed the corps of assistants
around the temple--the priests, servants and laborers. On feast days the
people sent offerings. A large number of loaves of bread are recorded on
certain days; these probably came from the poorer people. Again, an
overwhelming number of cakes and jugs of wine would indicate offerings
from the wealthy.
On feast days the king would himself perform part of the ceremonies, and
as a king he would worship himself as a god. It sometimes seems as
though the offerings and the ceremonies were made more to do honor to
the king than to the god. When Ramses called for plans for a new grotto
temple and heard the reports of his architects, an inscription tells us
that he answered them after this fashion: "The temple we have in mind
already lies hidden by the gods in yonder mountain. You have but to
clear away the waste material and your work is done. See to it, however,
that the deities Ra and Isis and Ptah and I are all represented in
becoming size on the facade as guardians--two on each side of the pylon.
And mark you: see that no god has choice of position over the king; let
the likeness and the form of them all be mine. Osiris must man the eight
piers which support the roof, and we four be seated in the sanctuary,
side by side."
Many buildings surrounded the temple, and the whole was enclosed by a
wall. Various buildings were needed in order that all the functions of
the temple could be performed. On one side was a court where the animals
and birds intended for sacrifice were prepared. To the rear was a
kitchen. The priests often received private revenues for providing food
for the departed. This food as a rule was prepared in the kitchens of
the temple. Dwellings for the priests, and the servants, store houses,
granaries, the treasure house, gardens and an artificial lake lay within
the temple wall. In the sacred lake the priests bathed, and in it they
washed the vessels pertaining to the sanctuary.
The priestly duties were manifold. Certain priests poured out drink
offerings; others recited from holy books; others kept the annals of the
temples. Their incomes were paid in kind--like all other obligations of
the time. So many loaves of bread, so many jugs of wine, beer and cakes
made up their annual revenue.
While we may gain some feeble idea of these places of worship, built to
do honor to the god--and to the king,--any description of them must
necessarily be inadequate. "We may agree that neither the boldest
imagination nor the most exact study, can enable us to form an adequate
conception of the splendors of an Egyptian temple in its perfect state.
The vast space it occupied; its lofty gateways; the long avenues of
sphinxes; the glittering obelisks and the lifelike expressions of the
monstrous statues, form a combination of the most imposing architectural
grandeur. The æsthetic qualities of these structures cannot briefly be
summed up. As we ponder them we shall be willing to acknowledge, for we
shall discover, the exceptional constructive power of the ancient
architects; we shall see how closely they followed Nature, and at times
drew as well upon foreign art, though always preserving their own
principles of form. There is always one grand imaginative vein running
through all their work--which expresses the principal idea of their
faith--_imperishability_.
"The ancient Egyptians copied no one. Their art sprang from their
surroundings. What they have left continues to baffle us in many ways.
We may understand perspective better than they did; we are their
superiors in the use of light and shadow. We dare to build higher, and
we are willing to trust thousands of lives to walls which would be
wrecked if a single Egyptian column should fall against them; but we do
not yet understand how they lifted their great masses to such lofty
places, nor do we know where their architects studied art."[3]
Little has thus far been said of the sphinxes which ordinarily flanked
the avenues leading up to these temples. These imaginary creatures were
carved in stone, and having the body of a lion, had either the head of a
ram or a human head. When the _Sphinx_ is mentioned reference is usually
made to the huge stone monument lying near the Great Pyramid. This was a
natural rock, to which was given, more or less accurately, the external
appearance of that mythological animal. The head was sculptured; the
body was sculptured; the body was formed of the rock itself, filled out
where necessary, by rather clumsy masonry of limestone. The total height
of the Sphinx is 65 feet. The ear measures 6 feet 5 inches; the nose, 5
feet 10 inches; the mouth, 7 feet 8 inches. Its ponderous human face,
grave in its eternal repose, rising in the midst of desert wastes, has
been a great puzzle to people for thousands of years. It was probably
hewn out of the rock as a symbol of the power of some Pharaoh of the
Pyramid-age. The sphinxes which lined approaches to the temples were of
course much smaller than this, and were carved merely for decorative
purposes. An Egyptian god was given the image of the sphinx, and whether
it was in honor of him, or merely because the symbol was a favorite
one, that so many of these mystic animals were used, is not known.
A final word regarding the faith which prompted the building of the
Egyptian temples should perhaps be added. We hear much about the absurd
and corrupt side of the Egyptian religion, but few have taken the
trouble to acquaint themselves with its brighter side. Our ideas on the
subject have been determined largely by the writings of the Greeks and
Romans who knew only the last decadent period of Egyptian history. The
decipherment of the hieroglyphs has enabled us to study the contemporary
documents and inscriptions, and as a result the religious ideas
developed by the Egyptians have not only aroused our deepest interest,
but are commanding our admiration.
Like all other peoples in the same stage of culture, the primitive
Egyptians feared and tried to render harmless, and perchance useful, the
powers of nature, always mysterious because not understood. Thus arose
the worship of natural phenomena, plants, animals and the dead. If we
remember that among our own ignorant masses many of the religious ideas
of our primitive forefathers survive in what we call superstition, we
will not judge the common people of Egypt for holding fast to the
beliefs of their ancestors, for it is true that they did so all through
Egypt's long history. Hence the ridicule of the Greeks.
But there is another side to the picture. No people has ever developed a
culture like that of the Egyptians without also reaching a purer
conception of God. Way back in the Fifth dynasty we find the beginnings
of a monotheistic tendency in the religion of Egypt. Indeed even earlier
the priests of Heliopolis had taught the idea of the unity of the deity
who manifested himself in the creative energy of the Sun. The Pharaohs
of the Fifth dynasty took up the cult of Re (or Ra) as this god was
called, raising mighty obelisks on the edge of the desert back of
Memphis, before which stood altars of alabaster under the open sky: for
this god could not be represented by any image and consequently needed
no temple, no house of god.
As time went on this idea of the unity of the deity--largely, it is
true, as a "mystery" understood only by the priests and other
"initiated" ones, spread over the whole of Egypt. As a result the local
deities, no matter what their origin, came to be regarded as
manifestations of the one god Re, whose name was added to those of the
local gods. We are all familiar with Amon of Thebes. This god, whose
origin is very obscure, was of course a local deity, and when Thebes
became the capital of the Empire, was raised to the kingship of all the
gods. But it will be observed that to do this, the priests felt it
necessary to identify him with Re and to speak of him henceforth not as
Amon, but as Amon-Re.
But this was not a step forward. The priests of Re had taught that god
is one and might be worshiped anywhere. It was not even necessary to
have temples. When, however, such a local divinity as Amon of Thebes was
identified with Re, as one of this god's manifestations, he received all
the attributes of the one god, but at the same time remained god of
Thebes and the priests never raised any theological objections when the
Pharaohs erected the mighty temples of that city for the glory of their
god and the perpetuation of their own deeds. Indeed the Pharaohs
regarded themselves as his viceroys on earth. The attempted "reform" of
Amen-hotep IV., which, as we saw, was so disastrous for his line, was
largely an attempt to restore the purer worship of the Sun-god, not as
Re but as Aton. But the priests of Amon-Re, who had already looked with
disfavor, which they dared not express, upon the claims of the earlier
Pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty--Amen-hotep III. during his lifetime
had gone so far as to build a temple in which he worshipped his own
_ka_, broke with Amen-hotep IV., were persecuted by him after he had
removed to his new city, but in the end were able to overthrow the
dynasty and place upon the throne kings who would recognize them as the
intermediaries between god and man. In the end they themselves seized
the throne--and it was not long before Egyptian history was at an end.
"God is the Eternal One. He is eternal and infinite; and endureth
forever and ever. He hath endured for countless ages and He shall
endure to all eternity.
"No man knoweth how to know Him. His name remaineth hidden. His
name, is a mystery unto His children. His names are innumerable;
they are manifold and none knoweth their number."
--_Trans. from Brugsch; quoted in Budge, Egyptian Religion._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Mariette's Monuments of Upper Egypt.
[2] Ancient Egypt, 274.
[3] Edward Wilson, Scribner, Oct. '88.
CHAPTER XIV.
ART AND DECORATION.
During the Old Empire certain rules regulating drawing were invented
which were adhered to throughout the history of Egypt. The stiff,
unnatural appearance of all Egyptian figures was due to strict
observance of these rules, which became binding upon artists and
prevented any perfection of art in the valley of the Nile.
Egyptian painting consisted of mere outline sketching. The human body
was first entirely drawn; then clothing was added. The artists knew no
more of anatomy than did the physicians. They did not even follow each
his own ideas, but there was _one_ established way of drawing the head,
the arms, the limbs, and all felt obliged to hold to this conventional
method. The extended arms show no elbows, the fingers no joints. An
endeavor to draw the body in profile resulted in portions of it facing
the spectator, other parts in profile, and still other sharing the
characteristics of both positions. For many years the human figure,
animals and birds could only extend the foot or arm--in case of a
person--farthest away from the spectator, and each figure must be shown
with the right side to the front. In course of time artists drew people
of the lower classes with more freedom, but it would have been deemed
disrespectful to have portrayed those of high rank in any but the
conventional positions. Thus, in a picture of a noble being served by a
slave, the latter might be drawn in a natural pose, while the noble
still retained the stiff, grotesque position of early times. Again, the
king was given colossal proportions, to indicate his power and strength,
while children may be distinguished only by their tiny forms.
Side by side with this conventional school of art there developed a
realistic school that exercised greater freedom with the human body.
Tomb pictures remain wherein persons are shown with their backs to the
spectator, and in many positions not permissible according to
established rules. However, these paintings are invariably in the tombs
of the lower classes. It would not have been deemed fitting that such
freedom be used in decorating the tombs of nobles, or of persons of high
social standing. Artists of this school seem to have been in disfavor in
ancient Egypt. To be sure, in the matter of portraying scenes where
captives, slaves or the humble people were gathered, artists of the
conventional school drew these with considerable degree of freedom and
ease. In the same picture the king, or noble, or high official was
represented according to the established custom.
All Egyptian drawing of human figures, birds and animals is plain, and
it is possible for any one today to read the stories of long series of
tomb pictures--studying them out, one by one. However, when it came to
representing a temple, a house, or a garden, the desire to show every
portion of it resulted in some confusion. The artist was in doubt as to
how to portray it all. "In treating such an important and complex object
he wished if possible to show every part of it; he therefore did not
draw the house from the front nor from the side, but made a picture of
both sides together, and when the house had an upper story with three
chambers, he put these three rooms close by also. He considered his duty
accomplished when he had placed all the details before the spectator,
but he did not care whether the spectator understood how these details
fitted together.
"We have to face another difficulty in order to comprehend these
pictures; the Egyptian artist has no sense of proportion between the
different parts of the representation. If, for instance, the king is
standing in one of the rooms of the building in question, our artist
would, regardless of truth, draw that room ten times as large as all the
others together, and even in one picture he frequently changes his
standard of measurement."[1]
All pictures were painted, some only in outline, some entirely. The
interiors of tombs were made to assume a gay appearance since tomb
colors were always bright. Red, the color of the sun, and blue, the sky
reflected in the Nile, were thought to be sacred.
Sculpture served two needs: it furnished statues of the dead for
relatives to worship, and statues of the kings and gods, with the
animals sacred to each, for the ornamentation of the temples. Thus the
scope of the sculptor was limited in the beginning. Furthermore, the
proportion, form, color and expression of every statue was fixed by laws
prescribed by the priests. The aim of the artist was in every case to
show absolute repose.
When we realize that many of the surviving monuments were chiseled from
granite as hard as iron, upon which the artist could work with only a
small metal chisel, we view them as monuments of the artist's untiring
patience, as well as of kingly greatness and statues of the gods. These
artists also knew how to make good use of poor material. In soft
limestone their task was easier; scenes were frequently cut in this,
covered with stucco and then painted. Inexpensive statues were often
made in this way.
Art seems at first to have taken rapid strides in Egypt, but after
reaching a certain point, it was prevented by established laws, enforced
by the priesthood, from going farther. So it deteriorated. Unfortunately
we know little of the artists who wrought these works and nothing of the
training they received.
Decorative art, as developed by the dwellers on the Nile, has perhaps
greater interest for the modern artist than their paintings or statuary.
The modern conventional school of decorative art finds much to copy and
adapt from patterns which survive in Egypt. In the first place, the
hieroglyphics were in themselves decorative. They were often used as
friezes, and never do we find them cut across figures, as was the case
in Assyria. Among designs commonly called geometrical, but in the
beginning the representation of something familiar, the zigzag line was
popular. A double zigzag formed little squares, and by various
arrangements, many combinations were possible. The scroll was also a
favorite decoration. There was an old legend to the effect that the
spiral represented the wanderings of the soul, but just what connection
existed between the two--if indeed there had ever been one--was lost in
distant ages.
Coils, hooks, links and endless scrolls were used, and the fret patterns
were but modifications of the spiral. The checkered design was
originally worked out by the shepherds and herdsmen who wove baskets and
mats of rushes. The source of one of the earliest imitations was the
feather, with its variety of forms. Only a few flowers were copied. The
lotus, papyrus, daisy, convolvulus, vine and palm were the only ones
used to any great extent. By far the most popular of these was the
lotus. This water lily has been worshipped in many countries. The
Egyptians did not regard it as a national flower--by no means. It was
considered the emblem of immortality.
"The lotus is the symbol of 'life,' ... of resurrection. Bouquets of it
were presented to guests at funerals. It was sometimes called the symbol
of the Sun. 'The solar significance of the lotus is elementary and most
important. A text reads: The Sun, which was from the beginning, rises
like a hawk from the midst of its lotus bed. When the doors of its
leaves open in sapphire-colored brilliancy, it has divided the night
from the day.'
"A confessional chapter of the Book of the Dead closes with the words: I
am a pure lotus, issue of the field of the Sun.... The Egyptian idea of
the resurrection and of a future life was connected with a worship of
the creative and reproductive forces of nature, which were conceived and
worshipped as solar in character and origin. It is the supposed passage
of the sun at night through a lower world, during its return to the dawn
of a following day which makes Osiris--the Sun at night--the God of the
lower world and of the dead, hence himself represented as a mummy. As
the God of the resurrection, his special and emphatic character, he
represents the creative energy of the Sun-god. Hence, the lotus as
attribute of Osiris is at once a symbol of the sun, of the resurrection,
and of creative forces and power. Since the doctrine of a future life
and a belief in a spirit world were ever present to the Egyptian mind,
we cannot too strongly insist on the funeral symbolism of the lotus."[2]
This brief explanation of the lotus' significance given by one who has
made a detailed study of this particular Egyptian symbol, helps us to
understand its universal use. It was pictured with the gods, given as
offerings to them, employed as capitals for columns, and had many
significant uses. It has been suggested that the bright yellow ovary
stigmas of this water-lily, with its rayed appearance, might have been
thought a symbol of the sun. As time went on, the flower developed into
a monstrosity, and became so conventionalized that it has been difficult
in many cases to determine what the artist intended to represent.
The grape vine, with its fruit, was a popular decoration. Ceilings were
often painted golden yellow, with vine leaves and bunches of grapes
hanging down. In glazed work grapes, convolvulus and thistle were used.
Golden stars on a blue-black background found favor as a ceiling
decoration.
In prehistoric times, ideas of ornamentation were often gained in
curious ways. Jars of pottery were sometimes tied with a string to
support them while drying. The string naturally left an impression in
the clay. This suggested the notion of twisting the string and so
obtaining not only an impression but a pattern. From this very
illustration we may realize how completely many origins of decoration
have been lost in obscurity.
[Illustration: CEILING DECORATION.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 174.
[2] Goodyear: Grammar of the Lotus.
CHAPTER XV.
TOMBS AND BURIAL CUSTOMS.
We have seen in a former chapter that the Egyptians believed one to be
composed of three parts: his earthly body, his soul, or ba, and his ka,
the ghostlike phantom that grew up with him in life and after death
experienced the same needs that he had known while living. All three
parts were essential to the existence of any one of them. On this
account the Egyptians made every effort to perpetuate the body and to
provide necessities for the ka, lest the soul should wither up and be no
more. Granting the truth of these beliefs, all that the Nile dwellers
did in consequence of a faith in them was logical and natural.
When an Egyptian was ill, a physician and one skilled in magic were
summoned. They did what they could to restore him. When their efforts
failed, they usually discovered that from his birth it had been decreed
that he would meet with an early death, and in this ingenious way they
maintained their influence unimpaired.
Upon the death of a relative, all the women of the house rushed into the
street with disheveled hair, shouting loud lamentations. In this way
their loss was made public. Then they returned and the body was sent to
the embalmer.
Three methods of embalming were commonly employed. The most costly
method involved seventy days and absorbed perhaps the total income of
the year, unless the family was wealthy. The second was less costly and
required less time; finally there was a comparatively inexpensive method
which had to satisfy the poor.
The vital organs and those parts of the body hardest to preserve were
removed. This was strictly necessary according to later Egyptian ideas,
yet so dreadful did they regard any mutilation of the body that the men
who performed this task were intensely hated and considered as unclean.
They were not allowed to mingle with other classes, nor could one rise
out of his class. When they had done their work, they were stoned away
from the house.
The body was now put into a bath of chemicals to remain for many days.
When at last it was taken out, it was filled with linen and sweet
smelling powders and made to look as lifelike as possible. Then it was
wrapped in linen bands, the quality of the linen used depending upon the
purse of the family.
"Each separate limb of the deceased was dedicated to a particular
divinity by the aid of holy oils, charms and sentences; a specially
prepared cloth was wrapped round each muscle, every drug and bandage
owed its origin to some divinity, and the confusion of sounds, of
disguised figures, and of various perfumes, had a stupefying effect on
those who visited this chamber. It need not be said that the whole
embalming establishment and its neighborhood was enveloped in a cloud of
powerful resinous fumes, of sweet attar, of lasting musk, and of pungent
spices."
Prayers and magical charms were said, scarabs and amulets enclosed, and
finally the body was placed in a coffin so constructed that it would
stand upright, as though the person were standing erect. It was then
taken home, and lamentations were made for some days. These finally gave
way to festivals. Banquets were held in honor of the mummy, which was
placed near the table and offered portions of food. Sometimes mummies
were kept in the home for a long time, and were worshipped with the
household gods. When at length the day for burial came, the family and
friends accompanied the body across the Nile to the Necropolis. They
took offerings with them,--food, furniture, toilet articles, and some
literature--certainly some pages from the Book of the Dead. All the way
across the river, the women wept. That the exhibition of grief might be
sufficient, wailing women were hired to increase the lamentations.
Seeing the sun which they worshipped disappear each night in the west,
the Egyptians grew to think that it went to a mysterious country, the
land of Osiris. In course of time they located the land of the Blest in
the west, and where-ever possible, placed their tombs facing the
west--the direction which the departed took for his long journey. All
through the river ride the women cried: "To the West; to the West!"
Upon reaching the place of burial, the priest performed certain
ceremonies. Then the mummy in its coffin, and the jars containing the
vital organs, were sealed up in the chamber prepared to receive them.
There were always three essential parts to an Egyptian tomb: the chapel,
or room used by the relatives to worship the deceased and bring him
offerings; the sepulchral chamber which contained the mummy; and the
serdab, or secret cell, where images of the deceased were sealed up for
the ka to look upon, since the features of the earthly body were now
changed by death. This secret chamber was connected by a small aperture
with the chapel, in order that the smoke of burning incense and
proffered prayers might be the more easily experienced by the Ka. On the
west wall of the tomb was the stela, or a false door, upon which was
engraved the name of the deceased, his parentage, titles, and a record
of the offerings made to his ka. In early times offerings alone were
made with no record of them, but as the people grew more enlightened,
they realized that a time must come when even the best known would be
forgotten and neglected. Therefore they conceived the notion of
enumerating the articles of food contributed, believing that the ka
would look upon the record and be satiated through the ages.
Compared to the earthly abode, which was temporary, the tomb was
eternal; hence the care that was lavished upon the tomb by the
Egyptians. While yet young, a man began to build his final resting
place. If he died before it was completed, some relative supervised its
completion, but in most cases tombs left thus unfinished show signs of
hasty conclusion. The survivor was chiefly interested in his own tomb,
and could give but passing attention to that of the departed.
In the Old Empire, tombs were constructed of brick masonry. The mummy
was placed some distance below the brick work which was elevated a few
feet above the ground. During the Middle Empire, grotto tombs came into
favor. These were hewed out of the living rock. A large excavation was
made and chambers were sometimes formed by masonry, sometimes hollowed
from the rock itself. It was during this period that pictures of food
offerings were made in addition to the food formerly offered alone.
During the New Empire tombs were generally cut in rocks, and now it
became customary to have the heart removed from the deceased and placed
in a jar. The idea of reward and punishment was emphasized. "From the
calm assurance of purely material happiness which the earliest Egyptian
loved to dwell on, there developed a keener sense of the trials through
which the soul must pass, together with a higher ideal of the future
life, a strong conviction of the moral qualities and acts essential to
the justification of the individual. Later this spiritual degenerated
into a reliance upon ritual and formulas in a merely magical sense."[1]
The nature of the burial depended upon the means of the family. The
middle class interment was less pretentious than that of the noble, and
the poor appropriated some old, neglected tomb, or paid for space in a
public tomb. Even in such cases, some offerings were made. The burial of
royalty was splendid, as tombs recently discovered in the Valley of the
Kings have attested. Furniture, receptacles, toilet articles--even a
boat and a chariot were in some cases provided.
In the tombs of the wealthy were enclosed little images of servants, or
"answerers." To the unimaginative Egyptian, the future world could only
be a place, like his own Egypt, where he would sow and reap, under
conditions most favorable. Water would be plentiful, and work would be
so easy that it would be a joy to perform it. This satisfied the masses,
who knew only how to reap and sow. But the wealthy had not been
accustomed to cultivate the soil in this life and were not pleased with
the prospect of doing so through countless ages. Lest such menial tasks
be required of them in the realm of Osiris, they had with them these
images of servants--these answerers--who might respond when they were
called upon: "Here am I, thy servant." Thus the noble would have his
work performed by others, as it had always been.
Amulets and scarabs were also deposited with the mummy. The amulets were
charms supposed to bring good luck, and the scarabs had a deeper
significance. The word _scarab_ means _beetle_. A certain kind of
beetle deposited its eggs in the sand. From the earth, in course of
time, a fully developed beetle would come forth. The Egyptians, who knew
nothing of insect life, believed the beetle, long since dead, had the
power of restoring itself to life anew. Hence the scarab was an emblem
of the resurrection and immortality. Just as the cross is a symbol dear
to the hearts of Christians, so, to the followers of the Egyptian
religion, the scarab was significant. It was made of various kinds of
stone, variously colored, and was worn by the Egyptian during life, and
buried with him at death. During periods when religious revivals were
strong, large numbers of these emblems were produced; during ages when
greater indifference to religious matters were shown, fewer seem to have
been made. As little Greek vases have been found in all lands where
Greek merchantmen went, so the Egyptian trade of antiquity can be traced
by the little scarabs. Large collections of them have been made in
recent years, and many are exhibited today in museums.
In the New Empire, when it became necessary to remove the heart of the
deceased, a sacred scarab was substituted in its place. The idea
prompting such action was that the heart was sinful, and if removed,
might not be able to testify against its owner. The scarab, being a
symbol of faith, might be of some assistance.
A copy of the Book of the Dead was supplied the deceased because it
contained a list of the dangers his soul would have to meet in
journeying to the abode of Osiris. The topography of the future world
was included and all invocations to be uttered at different stages of
the progress were given. Only with a perfect knowledge of all these
things could the soul hope to reach the land of the blest. Advice was
given him about meeting the forty-two judges of the western world, who
judged him for forty-two sins. If his good deeds outweighed his
shortcomings, he remained forever with Osiris; otherwise he was
transformed into some unclean animal, and never knew the joys of eternal
life.
It has been estimated that some 200,000,000 people died in Upper Egypt
during its active history and found a resting place in the favorite
strip of desert less than 450 miles in length. Of course only the most
substantial of the tombs are preserved. The dryness of the country has
helped to preserve ancient monuments.
It is small wonder that to the very poor, whose huts have always been in
the Necropolis--the wealth concealed in tombs has always been a strong
temptation. Records reach through the Middle and New Empires testifying
that robbers pillaged tombs for jewelry and gold, and today the Arab
traffics constantly in the spoils of the tombs--above which, in many
cases, he lives.
[Illustration: THE FUNERAL PROCESSION: THE WEAPONS AND JEWELS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Blimmer: Essays on History, Religion and Art of Ancient Egypt.
CHAPTER XVI.
EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT.
We have spoken frequently of recent discoveries in Egypt, and of objects
found within old tombs. The question naturally arises: Who makes these
discoveries, and under what circumstances are the secrets of the tombs
revealed?
Modern excavations in Egypt are of recent date. In 1798 the military
expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte drew attention to Egyptian monuments.
One of his soldiers, excavating for some fortifications in the delta,
discovered a stone covered with an inscription, and this was preserved.
Being found near the mouth of the Rosetta river, it was called the
Rosetta stone. The stone had been inscribed during the reign of Ptolemy
III., a Greek king. Because some of his subjects in Egypt were Greeks
and some Egyptians, he had caused the decree to be inscribed (1) in
Greek, (2) in hieroglyphics, (3) in demotic. The Greek sentences were
easily read, and since it seemed probable that the other writing simply
repeated the decree, scholars set to work to decipher it. By 1832 they
had prepared an Egyptian grammar and vocabulary.
The earliest attempt at systematic investigation was begun in 1822, when
the government of Tuscany sent a number of scholars into Egypt to study
inscriptions. Champollian and Rosellini were among them. In 1840 Germany
sent out an expedition under the leadership of Lepsius. This party began
work at Memphis, among the pyramids. In course of time the Tuscan
expedition supplied volumes of copied inscriptions and explanatory
material.
August Marietta went to Egypt in 1850 and was active there until 1880.
He made the first great discovery when he came upon the burial place of
the Apis bulls in Memphis. Sixty-four tombs were found, together with
amulets and funeral ornaments. In 1857 he was made director of a new
museum, which was founded at Cairo. He received the monopoly of the
right to excavate in the vicinity of Thebes, and while he allowed others
to study what was unearthed under his direction, he would not permit
them to do any excavating. Maspero succeeded him as curator of the Cairo
Museum. Into this museum has been placed all the great finds of recent
years and here one who would make detailed study of ancient Egypt must
go.
As a result of his explorations in the valley of the Nile, and of his
personal knowledge of all gifts made to the Cairo Museum, Maspero has
prepared many books pertaining to the life of the ancient Egyptians. His
conclusions are drawn entirely from the revelations of old monuments and
remains, and are of first importance.
Means have been provided by the Egyptian Exploration Fund and by the
Egyptian Research Account to make it possible for young students to
undertake explorations in behalf of public museums. Nothing found by
those thus engaged can be sold, whether publicly or privately, but must
be presented to some museum where people generally can have an
opportunity to see and examine such objects. Reports of all discoveries
are published at the earliest possible moment. In marked contrast to
such generous principles have been the undertakings carried on by many
who have used recovered objects for their personal profit, or have
withheld knowledge of them indefinitely.
W. M. Flinders Petrie, professor of Egyptology in University College,
London, took charge of the expedition sent out by the Egypt Exploration
Fund in 1884. Later he organized the Egyptian Research Account, in order
to give young students an opportunity to do active work themselves. In
late years Petrie has carried on his efforts alone. On the basis of his
observations, discoveries and knowledge, he has prepared a history of
Egypt, recently published. This is a chronological account of royal
tombs unearthed by him, rather than a complete history of Egypt's
development.
Gardner, Griffith and Naville have been sent out at different times by
the Egypt Exploration Fund, and have each prepared reports of their
finds.
The Tell el Amarna Letters should be mentioned with the great finds in
Egypt. In 1887-8, Arabs, who were carrying off bricks for their houses,
came upon a record chamber, containing many hundred letters inscribed on
bricks. They were shown to experts who did not appreciate their value.
They were put in sacks and carried around, from one place to another,
with the hope of making something from their sale. When many of them had
been ground to powder and others were hopelessly ruined, they were
bought up by museums at London, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Cairo. They
have since been translated and it appears that they belonged to the
record chamber of the capital built by Amenhotep IV., and called by him
the Horizon of the Solar Disk. As now translated, they are found to be
letters written during the peaceful reign of Amenhotep III. and early in
the reign of Amenhotep IV.; others recount the North Syrian war, and
certain others, the Palestine war. They reveal the condition of the
empire during the reign of the fanatical king who attempted to bring
about a religious revolution at home, while hostile tribes assailed his
empire on the east. The Tell el Amarna letters have done much to clear
up a portion of Egyptian history, previously not understood. Their
revelations have been supplemented by two wonderful discoveries made
within the last two years: the discovered tomb of the parents of Queen
Tiy--mother of Amenhotep IV., in 1905, and early in 1907, the tomb of
Queen Tiy herself. These finds are so remarkable that we may well give
them brief consideration.
In recent years, Theodore M. Davis has undertaken systematic excavations
in the Valley of the Kings--the great Necropolis west of Thebes--for the
benefit of the Cairo Museum. This work has been directed by
Archaeologist Quibell, maintained by the present Egyptian government.
Quoting from one who was present at the exciting moment when the tomb of
Queen Tiy's parents was opened:
"Squeezing their way between the wall and rock ceiling, M. Maspero and
Mr. Davis were soon in the midst of such a medley of tomb furniture
that, in the glare of their lighted candles, the first effect was one of
bewilderment. Gradually, however, one object after another detached
itself from the shimmering mass, shining through the cool air, dust-free
and golden. Against the wall to the left stood a chair, and beyond it a
gilded coffin-cover lay upside down. In it was a conventional mask that
gleamed golden through dark veiling; and the mummy whose head this mask
had covered lay farther off, its body partly incased in gilded
openwork. Against the wall to the right leaned two 'Osiris beds,' flat
surfaces on which seed had been sown, which in sprouting, had outlined
the figure of the god. Not far off, along the wall opposite the door,
stood a row of sentry-boxes, each containing a statuette. In front of
these rose the outermost case for a mummy. To the left stood a bed.
Nearer again lay a silvered mummy case; and on this, and on a mummy
beyond it, the second in the tomb, a shaft of cold blue light struck
down from the outer day.
"By day-light then, mingled with the light of flickering candle flames,
the discoverers examined the second mummy. By candle light alone they
searched the first. Both had been plundered by the thief of long ago.
Throwing the mummy cases hither and yon, he had taken from both mummies
everything of intrinsic value except a plate of gold closing the
aperture through which the heart of one had been removed by the
embalmers. Not a jewel, and only part of one necklace, remained of all
those with which the dead must once have been bedecked. But if such
trophies were lacking, others of surpassing splendor and significance
still packed the tomb-chamber, from wall to wall. In the bottom of a
mummy-case, from which the thief had removed the cover, he had left a
cushion and a graceful alabaster vase. In another mummy-case he had
neglected an alabaster jar and the cover of an embroidery-box which he
must have carried across the chamber to a second bed, on which it now
lay beside a superb gilded chair. Near by, where the floor suddenly fell
one deep step to a lower level, he had thrown, among a multitude of
sealed jars, half of the gilded openwork casing which had encircled one
of the mummies. Near these jars again he had propped a coffin-cover
against one corner of the tomb. Here, too, he had left a third bed and
one of the most important finds in the tomb, a chariot, the curving
front and wheel-rims of which shone through the darkness golden and
scarlet.
"Except for its broken pole and the partly bare spokes of its gilded
wheels, this chariot was in perfect condition; with the yoke already
found in the corridor and a whip soon to be discovered, it lacked
nothing to be complete.
"Maspero studied the hieroglyphics on their gleaming mummy-cases.
'Tioua,' he read after a time; and after further study he went on,
'Ioua, hereditary prince, chief friend among the friends of the
sovereign.' There were the names of the dead in the tomb; and these
dead, as Maspero therefore knew, had been the parents of Tiy, a queen of
the eighteenth dynasty, whose changing of the national religion had once
caused such uproar and violence that the burial of her parents in the
sacred Valley of the Kings would have had to be hasty and secret.
"The probable history of the tomb, accordingly, was clear. During a
period of unrest Queen Tiy, who wished a royal burial for her father and
mother, either chose an old tomb on which the work had been abandoned or
stopped work on one which was being hewn out. In it she had placed the
mummies, with their funeral offerings, till the tomb could be reopened
and finished, or its contents transferred to a fitter resting place.
Quiet times had perhaps never returned during her reign; and however
that may be, the tomb had been reopened, not by Queen Tiy, but first by
a robber, and now at last, by modern archaeologists."[1]
[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF PHILAE AND THE NILE.]
Even more gratifying than the discovery just recounted was the finding
of Queen Tiy herself. Again we can get into the spirit of the discovery
best by reading the description of an eye-witness:
"The excitement of entering a newly opened tomb is naturally
considerable; but when the first inscriptions to be seen revealed the
fact that the tomb of Queen Tiy, which had been so long sought for, had
been found, a glamour was added to the moment which will not easily be
forgotten by any of the party. Inside the tomb chamber the gold covered
coffin and outer coffin, gleaming in the light of the electric lamps,
formed a sight of surprising richness.... The mummy of the queen
protruded from beneath the lip of the beautiful coffin, which was made
in human form. A vulture-headed diadem of gold could just be seen
passing around her head, and one could see here and there the shining
sheets of gold in which the body was wrapped. There must have been
thousands of dollars worth of gold-foil and leaf in the chamber, and the
post-Akhnaton officials seem to have carried away many of the
portable gold ornaments, probably amounting to many times that value. In
a recess cut in the wall of the chamber stood four fine canopic vases of
alabastrum, containing the queen's heart and intestines; and in one
corner of the room there were several charming little pots and toilet
utensils of blue glazed ware. One of these, in the form of a graceful
girl carrying a pot upon her shoulder, is perhaps the most perfect
specimen of miniature figure-molding known in Egypt....
"After the tomb had been opened for a few hours, the air, of course,
became very much better, but its bad effects on the antiquities was at
once discernible. Even before the first quick record had been finished,
some of the scenes on the gold showed signs of dropping to pieces....
"It is to be hoped that most of the antiquities will be able to travel
to Cairo, though their fragile condition makes it difficult to deal with
them. Probably much of the rotten wood work, and even some of the fine
reliefs on the gold-leaf, will have to be left in the tomb, which will
be closed with Portland cement."[2]
Greatest care has to be exercised to protect finds from the Arabs. In
spite of the vigilance of the government, pilfering of the old
Necropolis is constantly carried on. Every fragment or curio which might
bring profit is snatched up by those in the employ of speculators.
DIFFICULTIES CONFRONTING THE EXPLORER.
Petrie has given in detail many of the difficulties which have
confronted him in his excavations among ancient Egyptian tombs. On one
occasion, in preference to living in an Arabian village, he hunted out
an old tomb, occupied the three chambers above, where the deceased had
been fed and worshipped, and with his guide as a guard in an adjoining
tomb, found the place secure and comfortable.
A little account of his experience in the summer of 1888, while
excavating in the Fayoum, will give us some notion of the perplexities
that often beset the archaeologist. Whenever possible, quotation is made
from Petrie's own report. The district he selected--the Fayoum--calls to
mind Amenemhet III., who first irrigated the region and thus added
materially to the arable land of his country. To this particular section
Petrie was drawn, because, as he explains: "The exploration of the
pyramids of this district was my main object, as their arrangement,
their dates, and their builders were yet unknown."[3]
"So soon as we began to turn over the soil we found chips of sandstone
colossi; the second day the gigantic nose of a colossus was found, as
broad as a man's body; then pieces of carved thrones, and a fragment of
inscription of Amenemhet III. It was evident that the two piles of stone
had been the pedestals of colossal seated monolithic statues, carved in
hard quartzite sandstone, and brilliantly polished. These statues faced
northward, and around each was a courtyard wall with sloping outer face
and red granite gateway in the north front The total height of the
colossi was about 60 feet from the ground. The description of Herodotus,
therefore, is accounted for; and it shows that he actually saw the
figures, though from a distance, as any person who visited them closely
would not have described them in such a manner."[4]
Petrie took his corps of native workmen next to Hawara, for the pyramids
there had not been opened in modern times. Finding no trace of an
entrance, they tunneled for many weeks in the solid tomb. Finally a
small opening was effected into the old chamber of the tomb, and there,
by the flickering light of a candle, could be seen two empty sarcophagi.
A modern canal has saturated this part of the land and the explorer was
obliged to wade through mud to the tombs.
Quoting from his description of what was found: "The pyramid had been
elaborately arranged so as to deceive and weary the spoilers, and it had
apparently occupied a great amount of labor to force an entrance." After
explaining a dozen ways they had tried and failed, he says: "At last the
way had been forced by breaking away a hole in the edge of the
glassy-hard sandstone roofing block, and thus reaching the chamber and
its sarcophagi. By a little widening of the spoilers' hole I succeeded
in getting through it into the chamber. The water was up to the middle
of my body, and so the exploration was difficult; but the floor was
covered with rubbish and chips, which might contain parts of the funeral
vessels, and therefore needed searching. The first day I got the coveted
prize, a piece of alabaster vessel with the name of Amenemhet III.,
proving finally to whom the pyramid belonged. Still there was a puzzle
as to the second sarcophagus, which had been built up between the great
central one and the chamber side. On clearing in the chamber which led
to the sepulchre, however, a beautiful altar of offerings in alabaster
was found, covered with figures of the offerings all named, over a
hundred, and dedicated to the king's daughter, Neferuptah.... The
chamber itself is a marvellous work; nearly the whole height of it is
carved out of a single block of hard quartzite sandstone, forming a huge
tank in which the sarcophagus was placed. No trace of inscription exists
on either the walls or the sarcophagi; and but for the funeral
furniture, even the very name would not have been recovered."[5]
Next they located what had in all probability been the old Labyrinth. No
trace of the building itself could be discovered, but the vast extent
showed it to have been larger than any temple known in Egypt. Pliny, a
Roman historian, has told us that for centuries this Labyrinth served as
a quarry for this section of the country, and that a small town of
quarrymen lived near by.
In the cemetery of Hawara, Petrie made some explorations. He succeeded
in finding one tomb, which had been missed by the spoilers--this
naturally was the coveted find. It belonged to the twenty-sixth dynasty,
a period of the decline of Egyptian power. It was the tomb of a great
noble, Horuta. Standing deep under water, it was more difficult to
manage than usual.
"But the sarcophagus itself was most difficult to open. The lid block
was nearly two feet thick, and almost under water. It was too heavy for
us to move entire, so some weeks were spent in cutting it in two. One
piece was then raised, but it proved to be the foot end; and though I
spent a day struggling with the inner coffins, sitting in the
sarcophagus up to my nose in water, I yet could not draw them out from
under the rest of the stone lid. So after some days the men raised
that, enough to get one's head in between the under side of it and the
water; and then I spent another gruesome day, sitting astride of the
inner coffin, unable to turn my head under the lid without tasting the
bitter brine in which I sat." At last the coffin was recovered.
"Anxiously opening it, we found a slight inner coffin, and then the body
of Horuta himself, wrapped in a network of beads of lazuli, beryl, and
silver, this last decomposed.... Then came the last and longed-for
scene, for which our months of toil had whetted our appetites--the
unwrapping of Horuta. Bit by bit the layers of pitch and cloth were
loosened, and row after row of magnificent amulets were disclosed, just
as they were laid on in the distant past. The gold ring on the finger
which bore his name and titles, the exquisitely inlaid gold birds, the
chased gold figures, the lazuli statuettes delicately wrought, the
polished lazuli and beryl and carnelian amulets finally engraved, all
the wealth of talismanic armory, rewarded our eyes with a sight which
has never been surpassed to archaeological gaze. No such complete and
rich a series of amulets has been seen intact before; and as one by one
they were removed all their positions were recorded, and they may now be
seen lying in their original order in the Ghizeh Museum."[6]
We have noted repeatedly the various articles found within the tombs,
such as funeral furniture, vases, food, and amulets. Some rather unusual
disclosures were brought to light in this old cemetery in the Fayoum.
Children's toys, and their personal belongings were found entombed with
their mummies. One tomb of a much later date than yet mentioned--of
Roman Egypt indeed--contained one of the books of the Iliad. More
valuable than any of these were wreaths of flowers with which the dead
had been adorned. These were perfectly dried and from them and accounts
given us by Pliny, the ancient flora of Egypt has been worked out by the
patience and painstaking of noted botanists.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Century, Nov., '05.
[2] Century, Sept., '07.
[3] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 81.
[4] Ibid. 82.
[5] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 86.
[6] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 93, ff.
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT.
I.
The Nile had overflowed its bed. The luxuriant corn fields and blooming
gardens on its shores were lost beneath a boundless waste of waters; and
only the gigantic temples and palaces of its cities (protected from the
force of the water by dikes), and the tops of the tall palm-trees and
acacias could be seen above its surface. The branches of the sycamores
and plane-trees drooped and floated on the waves, but the boughs of the
tall silver poplars strained upward, as if anxious to avoid the watery
world beneath. The full moon had risen; her soft light fell on the
Libyan range of mountains vanishing on the western horizon, and in the
north the shimmer of the Mediterranean could faintly be discerned. Blue
and white lotus flowers floated on the clear water, bats of all kinds
darted softly through the still air, heavy with the scent of
acacia-blossom and jasmine; the wild pigeons and other birds were at
roost in the tops of the trees, while the pelicans, storks and cranes
squatted in groups on the shore under the shelter of the papyrus reeds,
and Nile-beans. The pelicans and storks remained motionless, their long
bills hidden beneath their wings, but the cranes were startled by the
mere beat of an oar, stretching their necks, and peering anxiously into
distance, if they heard but the song of the boatmen. The air was
perfectly motionless, and the unbroken reflection of the moon, lying
like a silver shield on the surface of the water, proved that, wildly as
the Nile leaps over cataracts, and rushes past the gigantic temples of
Upper Egypt, yet on approaching the sea by different arms, he can
abandon his impetuous course, and flow along in sober tranquility.
On this moonlight night in the year 528 B.C. a bark was crossing the
almost currentless canopic mouth of the Nile. On the raised deck at the
stern of this boat an Egyptian was sitting to guide the long
pole-rudder, and the half naked boatmen within were singing as they
rowed....
As Phanes uttered these words they landed at the garden wall, washed by
the Nile.... The garden of Rhodopis was as full of sound, and scent and
blossom as a night in fairy land. It was one labyrinth of acanthus
shrubs, yellow mimosa, the snowy gueldres rose, jasmine and lilac, red
roses and laburnums, overshadowed by tall palm-trees, acacias and
balsam-trees. Large bats hovered softly on their delicate wings over the
whole, and sounds of mirth and song echoed from the river.
This garden had been laid out by an Egyptian, and the builders of the
Pyramids had already been celebrated for ages for their skill in
horticulture. They well understood how to mark out neat flower-beds,
plant groups of trees and shrubs in regular order, water the whole by
aqueducts and fountains, arrange arbors and summer-houses, and even
inclose the walks with artistically clipped hedges and breed gold-fish
in stone basins....
At noon on the following day the same boat, which, the evening before,
had carried the Athenian and the Spartan, stopped once more before
Rhodopis' garden. The sun was shining so brightly, so warmly and
genially in the dark blue Egyptian sky, the air was so pure and light,
the beetles were humming so merrily, the boatmen singing so lustily and
happily, the shores of the Nile bloomed in such gay, variegated beauty,
and were so thickly peopled, the palm-trees, sycamores, bananas and
acacias were so luxuriant in foliage and blossom, and over the whole
landscape the rarest and most glorious gifts seemed to have been poured
out with such divine munificence that a passerby must have pronounced it
the very home of joy and gladness, a place from which sadness and sorrow
had been forever banished.
--_An Egyptian Princess._
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. II.
The feast of Neith, called in Egyptian "the lamp-burning," was
celebrated by a universal illumination, which began at the rising of the
moon. The shores of the Nile looked like two long lines of fire. Every
temple, house, and hut was ornamented with lamps, according to the means
of its possessors. The porches of the country houses and the little
towers on the larger buildings were all lighted up by brilliant flames,
burning in pans of pitch and sending up clouds of smoke, in which the
flags and pennons waved gently backward and forward. The palm-trees and
sycamores were silvered by the moonlight and threw strange fantastic
reflections onto the red waters of the Nile--red from the fiery glow of
the houses on their shores. But, strong and glowing as was the light of
the illumination, its rays had not power to reach the middle of the
giant river where the boat was making its course and the pleasure party
felt as if they were sailing in dark night between two brilliant days.
Now and then a brightly lighted boat would come swiftly across the river
and seem as it neared the shore to be cutting its way through a glowing
stream of molten iron.
Lotus-blossoms, white as snow, lay on the surface of the river, rising
and falling with the waves and looking like eyes in the water. Not a
sound could be heard from either shore. The echoes were carried away by
the north wind and the measured stroke of the oars and the monotonous
song of the rowers were the only sounds that broke the stillness of this
strange night--a night robbed of its darkness....
The pyramids lay on the left bank of the Nile, in the silver moonshine,
massive and awful, as if bruising the earth beneath them with their
weight; the giant graves of mighty rulers. They seemed examples of man's
creative power and at the same time warnings of the vanity and
mutability of earthly greatness. For where was Chufu[1] now--the king
who had cemented that mountain of stone with the sweat of his subjects?
Where was the long-lived Chafra[2] who had despised the gods, and,
defiant in the consciousness of his own strength, was said to have
closed the gates of the temples in order to make himself and his name
immortal by building a tomb of superhuman dimensions? Their empty
sarcophagi are, perhaps, tokens that the judges of the dead found them
unworthy of rest in the grave, unworthy of the resurrection, whereas,
the builder of the third and most beautiful pyramid, Menkera,[3] who
contented himself with a smaller monument, and reopened the gates of the
temples, was allowed to rest in peace in his coffin of blue basalt.
[1] Khufu.
[2] Khafre.
[3] Menkure.
There they lay in the quiet night, these mighty pyramids, shone on by
the bright stars, guarded by the watchmen of the desert--the gigantic
sphinx--and overlooking the barren rocks of the Libyan stony mountains.
At their feet slept the mummies of their faithful subjects....
But their boat sped on before the north wind; they left the city of the
dead behind them and passed the enormous dikes built to protect the city
of Menes from the violence of the floods; the city of the Pharaohs came
in sight, dazzlingly bright with the myriads of flames which had been
kindled in honor of the goddess Neith, and when at last the gigantic
temple of Ptah appeared, the most ancient building of the most ancient
land, the spell broke, their tongues were loosed, and they burst out
into loud exclamations of delight.
It was illuminated by thousands of lamps; a hundred fires burned on its
pylons, its battlemented walls and roofs. Burning torches flared between
the rows of sphinxes which connected the various gates with the main
building, and the now empty house of the god Apis was so surrounded by
colored fires that it gleamed like a white limestone rock in a tropical
sunset. Pennons, flags and garlands waved above the brilliant picture;
music and loud songs could be heard from below.
--_Egyptian Princess._
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. III.
By the walls of Thebes--the old city of a hundred gates--the Nile
spreads to a broad river; the heights, which follow the stream on both
sides, here take a more decided outline; solitary, almost cone-shaped
peaks stand out sharply from the level background of the many-colored
limestone hills, on which no palm-tree flourishes and in which no humble
desert-plant can strike root. Rocky crevasses and gorges cut more or
less deeply into the mountain range, and up to its ridge extends the
desert, destructive of all life, with sand and stones, with rocky cliffs
and reef-like, desert hills.
Behind the eastern range the desert spreads to the Red Sea; behind the
western it stretches without limit, into infinity. In the belief of the
Egyptians beyond it lay the region of the dead....
In the fourteenth century before Christ--for to so remote a date we
must direct the thoughts of the reader--impassable limits had been set
by the hand of man, in many places in Thebes, to the inroads of the
water; high dykes of stone and embankments protected the streets and
squares, the temples and the palaces, from the overflow.
Canals that could be tightly closed up led from the dykes to the land
within, and smaller branch-cuttings to the gardens of Thebes.
On the right, the eastern bank of the Nile, rose the buildings of the
far-famed residence of the Pharaohs. Close by the river stood the
immense and gaudy temples of the city of Amon; behind these and at a
short distance from the Eastern hills--indeed at their very foot and
partly even on the soil of the desert--were the palaces of the king and
nobles, and the shady streets in which the high narrow houses of the
citizens stood in close rows.
Life was gay and busy in the streets of the capital of the Pharaohs. The
western shore of the Nile showed quite a different scene. Here too there
was no lack of stately buildings or thronging men; but while on the
further side of the river there was a compact mass of houses, and the
citizens went cheerfully and openly about their day's work, on this side
there were solitary splendid structures, round which little houses and
huts seemed to cling as children cling to the protection of a mother.
And these buildings lay in detached groups....
And even more dissimilar were the slow-moving, solemn groups in the
road-ways on this side, and the cheerful, confused throng yonder. There,
on the eastern shore, all were in eager pursuit of labor or recreation,
stirred by pleasure or by grief, active in deed and speech: here, in the
west, little was spoken, a spell seemed to check the footsteps of the
wanderer, a pale hand to sadden the bright glance of every eye, and to
banish the smile from every lip.
And yet many a gayly-dressed bark stopped at the shore, there was no
lack of minstrel bands, grand processions passed on to the western
heights; but the Nile boats bore the dead, the songs sung here were
songs of lamentation, and the processions consisted of mourners
following the sarcophagus. We are standing on the soil of the City of
the Dead of Thebes.
Nevertheless even here nothing is wanting for return and revival, for
to the Egyptian his dead died not. He closed his eyes, he bore him to
the Necropolis, to the house of the embalmer, or Kolchytes, and then to
the grave; but he knew that the souls of the departed lived on; that the
justified absorbed into Osiris floated over the Heavens in the vessel of
the Sun; that they appeared on earth in the form they chose to take upon
them, and that they might exert influence on the current of the lives of
the survivors. So he took care to give a worthy interment to his dead,
above all to have the body embalmed so as to endure long; and had fixed
times to bring fresh offerings for the dead, of flesh and fowl, with
drink-offerings and sweet-smelling essences, and vegetables and flowers.
Neither at the obsequies nor at the offerings might the ministers of the
gods be absent, and the silent City of the Dead was regarded as a
favored sanctuary in which to establish schools and dwellings for the
learned.
So it came to pass that in the temples and on the site of the
Necropolis, large communities of priests dwelt together, and close to
the extensive embalming houses lived numerous Kolchytes, who handed down
the secrets of their art from father to son.
Besides these there were other manufactories and shops. In the former,
sarcophagi of stone and of wood, linen bands for enveloping mummies, and
amulets for decorating them, were made; in the latter, merchants kept
spices and essences, flowers, fruits, vegetables and pastry for sale.
Calves, gazelles, goats, geese, and other fowl were fed on inclosed
meadow-plats, and the mourners betook themselves thither to select what
they needed from among the beasts pronounced by the priests to be clean
for sacrifice, and to have them sealed with the sacred seal. Many bought
only a part of a victim at the shambles--the poor could not even do
this. They bought only colored cakes in the shape of beasts, which
symbolically took the place of the calves and geese which their means
were unable to procure. In the handsomest shops sat servants of the
priests, who received forms written on rolls of papyrus which were
filled up in the writing room of the temple with those sacred verses
which the departed spirit must know and repeat to ward off the evil
genius of the deep, to open the gate of the under-world, and to be held
righteous before Osiris and the forty-two assessors of the subterranean
court of justice.
What took place within the temples was concealed from view, for each was
surrounded by a high inclosing wall with lofty, carefully closed
portals, which were only opened when a chorus of priests came out to
sing a pious hymn, in the morning to Horus the rising god, and in the
evening to Turn the descending god. As soon as the evening hymn of the
priests was heard, the Necropolis was deserted, for the mourners and
those who were visiting the graves were required by this time to return
to their boats, and to quit the City of the Dead. Crowds of men who had
marched in the processions of the west bank hastened in disorder to the
shore, driven on by the body of watchmen who took it in turns to do this
duty and to protect the graves against robbers. The merchants closed
their booths, then embalmers and workmen ended their day's work and
retired to their houses, the priests returned to the temples, and the
inns were filled with guests, who had come hither on long pilgrimages
from a distance, and who preferred passing the night in the vicinity of
the dead whom they had come to visit, to going across to the bustling
noisy city on the further shore.
The voices of the singers and of the wailing women were hushed, even the
song of the sailors on the numberless ferryboats from the western shore
of Thebes died away, its faint echo was now and then borne across on the
evening air, and at last all was still.
_Uarda._
KARNAK.
"I am Karnak, and a thousand million men have lived and died
Since open have my gates been thrown for kings through them to ride:
My massive walls have echoed to the tread of Egypt's hosts,
But now they are a skulking place for goblins and for ghosts."
"I stand once more among those mighty columns, which radiate into
avenues from whatever point one takes them. I see them swathed in coiled
shadows and broad bands of light. I see them sculptured and painted with
shapes of gods and kings, with blazonings of royal names, with
sacrificial altars and forms of sacred beasts, and emblems of wisdom and
truth. The shafts of these columns are enormous. I stand at the foot of
one--or of what seems to be the foot; for the original pavement lies
buried seven feet below.... It casts a shadow twelve feet in
breadth--such a shadow as might be cast by a tower. The capital that
juts out so high above my head looks as if it might have been placed
there to support the heavens. It is carved in the semblance of a
full-blown lotus, and glows with undying colors--colors that are still
fresh, though laid on by hands that have been dust these three thousand
years and more. It would take not six men, but a dozen, to measure round
the curved lip of that stupendous lily.
"Such are the twelve central columns. The rest (one hundred and
twenty-two in number) are gigantic, too, but smaller. Of the roof they
once supported, only the beams remain. Those beams are stone ... carved
and painted, bridging the space from pillar to pillar, and patterning
the trodden soil with bands of shadow.
"Looking up and down the central avenue, we see at the one end a
flame-like obelisk; at the other, a solitary palm against a back-ground
of glowing mountain. To right, to left, showing transversely through
long files of columns, we catch glimpses of colossal bas-reliefs lining
the roofless walls in every direction. The king, as usual, figures in
every group, and performs the customary acts of worship. The gods
receive and approve him. Half in light, half in shadow, these slender,
fantastic forms stand out sharp and clear and colorless; each figure
some eighteen or twenty feet in height. They could scarcely have looked
more weird when the great roof was in its place and perpetual twilight
reigned. But it is difficult to imagine the roof on and the sky shut
out. It all looks right as it is; and one feels, somehow, that such
columns should have nothing between them and the infinite blue depths of
heaven....
"How often has it been written, and how often must it be repeated, that
the great hall at Karnak is the noblest architectural work ever designed
and executed by human hands? One writer tells us that it covers four
times the area occupied by the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Another
measures it against St. Peter's. All admit their inability to describe
it; yet all attempt the description. To convey a concrete image of the
place to one who has never seen it, is, however, as I have said,
impossible. If it could be likened to this place or that, the task would
not be so difficult; but there is, in truth, no building in the wide
world to compare with it. The pyramids are more stupendous. The
colosseum covers more ground. The parthenon is more beautiful. Yet in
nobility of conception, in vastness of detail, in majesty of the highest
order, the hall of pillars exceeds them every one. This doorway, these
columns, are the wonder of the world. How was that lintel-stone raised?
How were these capitals lifted? Entering among those mighty pillars,
says a recent observer, 'you feel that you have shrunk to the dimensions
and feebleness of a fly.' But I think you feel more than that. You are
stupefied by the thought of the mighty men who made them. You say to
yourself: 'There were indeed giants in those days.'
"It may be that the traveler who finds himself for the first time in the
midst of a grove of _Wellingtonia gigantea_ feels something of the same
overwhelming sense of awe and wonder; but the great trees, though they
have taken three thousand years to grow, lack the pathos and the mystery
that comes of human labor. They do not strike their roots through six
thousand years of history. They have not been watered with the blood and
tears of millions. Their leaves know no sounds less musical than the
singing of the birds, or the moaning of the night-wind as it sweeps over
the highlands of Calaveras. But every breath that wanders down the
painted aisles of Karnak seems to echo back the sighs of those who
perished in the quarry, at the oar, and under the chariot-wheels of the
conqueror."
MEMPHIS.
"And this is all that remains of Memphis, eldest of cities--a few huge
rubbish-heaps, a dozen or so of broken statues, and a name! One looks
round and tries in vain to realize the lost splendors of the place.
Where is the Memphis that King Mena[1] came from Thinis to found--the
Memphis of Chufu[2] and Chafra,[3] and all the early kings who built
their pyramid-tombs in the adjacent desert? Where is the Memphis of
Herodotus and Strabo? Where are those stately ruins which, even in the
middle ages, extended over a space estimated at half a day's journey in
every direction? One can hardly believe that a great city ever
flourished on this spot, or understand how it should have been effaced
so utterly. Yet here it stood--here where the grass is green, and the
palms are growing, and the Arabs build their hovels on the verge of the
inundation. The great colossus marks the site of the main entrance to
the Temple of Ptah. It lies where it fell, and no man has moved it. That
tranquil sheet of palm-fringed back-water, beyond which we catch a
distant glimpse of the pyramids of Gizeh, occupies the basin of a vast
artificial lake excavated by Mena.
[1] Menes.
[2] Khufu.
[3] Khafre.
"No capital in the world dates so far back as this or kept its place in
history so long. Founded four thousand years before our era, it beheld
the rise and fall of thirty-one dynasties; it survived the rule of the
Persians, the Greek and the Roman; it was, even in its decadence, second
only to Alexandria in population and extent; and it continued to be
inhabited up to the time of the Arab invasion. It then became the quarry
from which old Cairo was built; and as the new city rose on the eastern
bank the people of Memphis quickly abandoned their ancient capital to
desolation and decay....
"Memphis is a place to read about, and think about, and remember; but it
is a disappointing place to see. To miss it, however, would be to miss
the first link in the whole chain of monumental history which unites the
Egypt of antiquity with the world of today. Those melancholy mounds and
that heron-haunted lake must be seen, if only that they may take their
due place in the picture gallery of one's memory."
--_A Thousand Miles Up the Nile._
A HYMN TO THE GOD RA.
Incline thine ear towards me, thou rising Sun,
Thou who dost enlighten the two lands with beauty;
Thou sunshine of mankind, chasing darkness from Egypt!
Thy form is as that of thy father Ra rising in the heavens,
Thy rays penetrate to the farthest lands.
When thou art resting in thy palace,
Thou hearest the words of all countries;
For indeed thou hast millions of ears;
Thine eye is clearer than the stars of heaven;
Thou seest farther than the Sun.
If I speak afar off, thine ear hears;
If I do a hidden deed, thine eye sees it.
O Ra, richest of beings, chosen of Ra,
Thou king of beauty, giving breath to all.
[Illustration]
AN OLD KINGDOM BOOK OF PROVERBS.
There is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, a
papyrus roll, which was discovered at Thebes by M. Prisse, and is
now distinguished by his name. It was first described in 1857 by M.
Chabas. The papyrus dates from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom
(_Ca._ 2100 B.C.), and belongs to the rather extensive didactic
literature of the Egyptians. According to the Egyptian custom, the
words of the book were put into the mouth of a sage of the olden
time, Ptah-hotep by name, who was said to have lived in the time
of King Assa of the Fifth Dynasty (_Ca._ 2600 B.C.). There is no
reason for doubting the correctness of the tradition. Of course
it is not to be supposed that all of the proverbs really go back
to Ptah-hotep. The author is stated to have been 110 years old,
and his book opens with a remarkable description of old age. It
proceeds in a style which recalls the Proverbs of Solomon, the
Greek didactic poems, and even the homely "Poor Richard." It
inculcates obedience, diligence, patience, and other virtues
belonging to an official or servant. The Papyrus Prisse also
contains the Proverbs of Kagemni, vizier of King Snefru (_Ca._
2900 B.C.) of the Fourth Dynasty.
PRECEPTS OF PTAH-HOTEP.
The words of the Lord Prefect Ptah-Hotep, who lived in the reign of
Assa, King of Northern and Southern Egypt, who liveth forever.
Thus saith the Lord Ptah-Hotep: O Lord Osiris, whose feet are upon the
crocodiles!
A man waxeth old, his strength decayeth, he getteth in years, his
youth fadeth away:
Day by day the heart of an old man fainteth and is troubled:
His eyes see not, his ears hear not, his power is lessened and abated:
Behold, his mouth speaketh not as of yore, his mind is feeble, and
remembereth not the deeds of yesterday:
Yea, his whole body is afflicted, good is to him as evil, his tongue
savoreth no longer.
Alas, the old age of a man is full of misery, his nostrils drink not
the breath of heaven, his lungs wax feeble, he delighteth neither to
stand nor to be seated.
Who shall give unto my tongue authority to utter unto the young men
the counsels from of old? or who vouchsafeth unto me to declare the
counsels received from on high?
O Lord Osiris, let thy favor be poured out upon thy servant, and
suffer that these evils be removed from those who are unenlightened.
Then answered the Lord Osiris and said: Instruct them in the counsels
from of old; for verily, wisdom from of old maketh the weak strong;
knowledge giveth freedom to him that heareth; wisdom cries aloud, and
the ear is not satisfied with hearing.
Here beginneth the book of the wise sayings of the Lord Prefect
Ptah-Hotep, the first-born, the son of the King, the well-beloved of
the Lord:
That the ignorant and the foolish may be instructed in the
understanding of wisdom.
Whoso giveth ear, to him shall these words be as riches;
To him who heedeth them not, to the same shall come emptiness forever.
Thus speaketh he, giving counsel unto his son.
Be not thou puffed up with thy learning; honor the wise, neither
withhold thou honor from the simple.
The gates of art are closed unto none; whoso entereth thereat, though
he seeketh perfection, yet shall he not find it.
But the words of wisdom are hid, even as the emerald is hid in the
earth, and adamant in the rock, which the slave diggeth up.
Yield unto him whose strength is more than thine, who falleth upon
thee in anger: be not thou inflamed, neither lay thy hands upon him;
so shalt thou escape calamity.
He is froward, it shall not profit thee to contend against him; be
contained, and when he rageth against thee, oppose him not; so in the
end shalt thou prevail over him.
If one rail against thee, and flout thee, answer him not again, but be
as one who cannot be moved; even so shalt thou overcome him. For the
bystanders shall declare that he who, being provoked, holdeth his
tongue, is greater than he who provoketh; and thou shalt be honored of
those who have understanding.
If thou do evil, being thereto commanded by one having authority over
thee, the gods shall not condemn thee.
Know the master, and the slave: be not froward: obey and reverence him
to whom is given dominion over thee:
None may know adversity, when it cometh, nor prosperity, when it shall
relieve him, for the will of fate is hid from all:
But he that abuseth his servant shall be confounded, and God who gave
him authority shall suddenly take it away; and great shall be his
overthrow.
Be diligent, and do more than thy master commandeth thee; for the
slothful servant shall be discomfited, and he that is idle shall be
chidden.
See thou neglect not thy household; if thou find opportunity to
increase thy wealth improve it; business begetteth business, but
poverty is the lot of the slothful.
The wise traineth his child to walk devoutly and to serve the Lord; he
maketh him obey his law, and do that which is bidden; so shall the
love of the father be justified.
The son of a man is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; let not
thy heart be cold towards him. But if he be froward, and transgress
thy law, and, being tempted of evil, turn himself from thy
instruction, then do thou smite the mouth that smote thee.
Delay not to bring the erring to obedience, and to chastise the
rebellious; so shall he not stray from the path of righteousness, nor
stumble among pitfalls.
Hide not thy path, let not thy way be hidden; though thou stand in the
council of thy master, declare the truth that is in thee.
Be not as those who go backward, who eat the words of their own mouth,
lest peradventure they offend:
Be not like unto them; feigners, answering, He that perceiveth the
error of others, the same is wise: when the wise man uplifteth his
voice against error, deny him not, but keep silence; for surely none
but the wise have understanding.
If thou be wise guard thy house: honor thy wife, and love her
exceedingly: feed her belly and clothe her back, for this is the duty
of a husband.
Give her abundance of ointment, fail not each day to caress her, let
the desire of her heart be fulfilled: for verily he that is kind to
his wife and honoreth her, the same honoreth himself.
Withhold thy hand from violence, and thy heart from cruelty; softly
entreat her and win her to thy way; consider her desires, and deny not
the wish of her heart.
Thus shalt thou keep her heart from wandering; but if thou harden
thyself against her, she will turn from thee. Speak to her, yield her
thy love, she will have respect unto thee; open thy arms, she will
come unto thee.
Blessed is the son who gives ear to the instruction of his father, for
he shall escape error.
Train thou thy son to obedience; his wisdom shall be pleasing unto the
great.
Let his mouth have respect to thy sayings; by obedience shall his
wisdom be established. Day by day shall his walk be perfect; but error
shall be the destruction of fools. The ignorant and the froward shall
be overthrown, but knowledge shall uplift the wise.
He that lacketh prudence and inclineth not his ear to instruction, the
same worketh no good. He thinketh to discover knowledge in ignorance,
and gain in that which profiteth nothing; he runneth to mischief, and
wandereth in error, choosing those things which are rejected of the
prudent; so subsisteth he on that which perisheth, and filleth his
belly with the words of evil. Yea, he is brought to shame, seeking to
be nourished with whatsoever the wise hold in abomination, shunning
profitable things, led astray by much foolishness.
[Illustration]
THE VOYAGE OF THE SOUL.
In the 15th chapter of "The Book of the Dead" we find an account
of the passage of the soul in a boat across the firmament, to the
abode of the blessed.
This fable reappears in the religious writings of other nations,
as, for instance, in, the Greek story of Charon, ferrying departed
spirits across the Styx, and in the traditions of the ancient
Mexicans. The soul is called by the Egyptians Osiris, in connection
with the proper name of the individual (_N_), to indicate that the
latter already partakes of the divine nature. Ra is the sun-god,
approaching the west. The following translation is by P. Le Page
Renouf:
Here is the Osiris _N_.
Come forth into Heaven, sail across the firmament and enter into
brotherhood with the stars, let salutation be made to thee in the
bark, let invocation be made to thee in the morning bark. Contemplate
Ra within his Ark, and do thou propitiate his orb daily. See the fish
in its birth from the emerald stream, and see the tortoise and its
rotations. Let the offender (the dragon) fall prostrate, when he
meditates destruction for me, by blows on his backbone.
Ra springs forth with a fair wind; the evening bark speeds on and
reaches the Haven. The crew of Ra are in exultation when they look
upon him; the Mistress of Life, her heart is delighted at the
overthrow of the adversary of her Lord.
See thou Horus at the look-out at the bow, and at his sides Thoth and
Maat. All the gods are in exultation when they behold Ra coming in
peace to give new life to the hearts of the Chu, and here is the
Osiris _N_ along with them.
[_Litany._]
Adored be Ra, as he setteth in the land of Life.
Hail to thee, who hast come as Tmu, and hast been the creator of the
cycle of the gods,
_Give thou delicious breezes of the north wind to the Osiris N._
Hail to thee, who hast come as the Soul of souls, revered in Amenta,
Hail to thee, who art above the gods, and who lightenest up Tuat with
thy glories,
Hail to thee, who comest in splendor, and goest around in thine orb,
Hail to thee, who art mightier than the gods, who art crowned in
Heaven and King in Tuat,
Hail to thee, who openest the Tuat and disposest of all its doors,
Hail to thee, supreme among the gods, and weigher of words in the
nether world,
Hail to thee, who art in thy Nest, and stirrest the Tuat with thy
glory,
Hail to thee, the great, the mighty, whose enemies are laid prostrate
at their blocks,
Hail to thee, who slaughterest the Sebau and annihilatest Apepi (the
dragon).
[After each invocation, the italicized line is repeated.]
Horus openeth: the Great, the Mighty, who divideth the earths, the
Great One who resteth in the Mountain of the West, and brighteneth up
the Tuat with his glories and the Souls in their hidden abode, by
shining into their sepulchres.
By hurling harm against the foe thou hast utterly destroyed all the
adversaries of the Osiris _N_.
THE SOUL'S DECLARATION OF INNOCENCE.
This declaration was to be made by the soul in the Judgment Hall of
Osiris in the presence of the council of forty-two gods. The heart
being weighed against the symbol of truth and found correct was
then restored to the deceased who entered upon the life of the
blessed.
"O ye Lords of Truth! I have brought you truth.
I have not privily done evil against mankind.
I have not afflicted the miserable.
I have not told falsehoods.
I have had no acquaintance with sin.
I have not made the laboring man do more than his daily task.
I have not been idle.
I have not been intoxicated.
I have not been immoral.
I have not calumniated a slave to his master.
I have not caused hunger.
I have not made to weep.
I have not murdered.
I have not defrauded.
"I have not eaten the sacred bread in the temples.
I have not cheated in the weight of the balance.
I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings.
I have not slandered any one.
I have not netted sacred birds.
I have not caught the fish which typify them.
I have not stopped running water.
I have not robbed the gods of their offered haunches.
I have not stopped a god from his manifestation.
I have made to the gods the offerings that were their due.
I have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothes to
the naked.
I am pure! I am pure!"
[Illustration: WEIGHING THE HEART IN THE JUDGMENT HALL OF OSIRIS.]
THE ADVENTURES OF THE EXILE SANEHAT.[1]
(2000 B.C.)
The fact that three copies of this tale have been found indicates
that it was popular. Sanehat was a high official, and probably a
member of the royal family; but on the death of King Amenemhet, the
founder of the twelfth dynasty, Sanehat, fearing for his life, fled
to Syria and lived there many years. In his old age he desired to
return, that he might die in his native land. The narrative was
probably prepared for inscription on the wall of his tomb. The
translation is from W. M. Flinders Petrie's "Egyptian Tales."
In the thirtieth year, the month Paophi, the seventh day, the god
entered his horizon, the King Sehotepabra flew up to heaven and joined
the sun's disc, the follower of the god met his maker. The palace was
silenced, and in mourning, the great gates were closed, the courtiers
crouching on the ground, the people in hushed mourning.
[Illustration]
His majesty had sent a great army with the nobles to the land of the
Temehu (Libya), his son and heir, the good god, King Usertesen,[2] as
their leader. Now he was returning, and had brought away living
captives and all kinds of cattle without end. The councillors of the
palace had sent to the West to let the king know the matter that had
come to pass in the inner hall. The messenger was to meet him on the
road, and reach him at the time of evening: the matter was urgent. "A
hawk had soared with his followers." Thus said he, not to let the army
know of it. Even if the royal sons who commanded in that army sent a
message, he was not to speak to a single one of them.
But I was standing near, and heard his voice while he was speaking. I
fled far away, my heart beating, my arms failing, trembling had
fallen on all my limbs. I turned about in running to seek a place to
hide me, and I threw myself between two bushes, to wait while they
should pass by. Then I turned me toward the south, not wishing to come
into this palace--for I knew not if war was declared--nor even
thinking a wish to live after this sovereign. I turned my back to the
sycamore, I reached Shi-Seneferu, and rested on the open field. In the
morning I went on and overtook a man, who passed by the edge of the
road. He asked of me mercy, for he feared me. By the evening I drew
near to Kher-ahau (Cairo) and I crossed the river on a raft without a
rudder. Carried by the west wind, I passed over to the east to the
quarries of Aku and the land of the goddess Herit, mistress of the red
mountain. Then I fled on foot, northward, and reached the walls of the
prince, built to repel the Sati. I crouched in a bush for fear of
being seen by the guards, changed each day, who watch on the top of
the fortress. I took my way by night, and at the lighting of the day I
reached Peten, and turned me toward the valley of Kemur. Then thirst
hasted me on; I dried up, and my throat narrowed, and I said, "This is
the taste of death."
When I lifted up my heart and gathered strength, I heard a voice and
the lowing of cattle. I saw men of the Sati, and one of them--a friend
unto Egypt--knew me. He gave me water and boiled milk, and I went with
him to his camp; they did me good, and one tribe passed me on to
another. I passed on to Sun, and reached the land of Adim (Edom).
[Illustration: HAREM WINDOW AND COURT.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.]
When I had dwelt there half a year Amu-an-shi--who is the prince of
the Upper Tenu--sent for me and said: "Dwell thou with me that thou
mayest hear the speech of Egypt." He said thus for that he knew of my
excellence, and had heard tell of my worth, for men of Egypt who were
there with him bore witness of me. Behold he said to me, "For what
cause hast thou come hither? Has a matter come to pass in the palace?
Has the king of the two lands, Sehetepabra, gone to heaven? What has
happened about this is not known." But I answered with concealment,
and said, "When I came from the land of the Temehu, and my desires
were there changed in me, if I fled away it was not by reason of
remorse that I took the way of a fugitive; I have not failed in my
duty, my mouth has not said any bitter words, I have not heard any
evil counsel, my name has not come into the mouth of a magistrate. I
know not by what I have been led into this land." And Amu-an-shi said,
"This is by the will of the god (King of Egypt), for what is a land
like, if it know not that excellent god, of whom the dread is upon the
lands of strangers, as they dread Sekhet in a year of pestilence?" I
spake to him, and replied, "Forgive me, his son now enters the palace,
and has received the heritage of his father. He is a god who has none
like him, and there is none before him. He is a master of wisdom,
prudent in his designs, excellent in his decrees, with good-will to
him who goes or who comes; he subdued the land of strangers while his
father yet lived in his palace, and he rendered account of that which
his father destined him to perform. A king, he has ruled from his
birth; he, from his birth, has increased births, a sole being, a
divine essence, by whom this land rejoices to be governed. He enlarges
the borders of the South; but he covets not the lands of the North; he
does not smite the Sati, nor crush the Nemau-shau. If he descends
here, let him know thy name, by the homage which thou wilt pay to his
majesty. For he refuses not to bless the land which obeys him."
And he replied to me, "Egypt is indeed happy and well settled; behold
thou art far from it, but whilst thou art with me I will do good unto
thee." And he placed me before his children, he married his eldest
daughter to me, and gave me the choice of all his land, even among the
best of that which he had on the border of the next land. It is a
goodly land; Iaa is its name. There are figs and grapes; there is wine
commoner than water; abundant is the honey, many are its olives; and
all fruits are upon its trees; there is barley and wheat, and cattle
of kinds without end. This was truly a great thing that he granted me,
when the prince came to invest me, and establish me as prince of a
tribe in the best of his land. I had my continual portion of bread and
of wine each day, of cooked meat, of roasted fowl, as well as the wild
game which I took, or which was brought to me, besides what my dogs
captured. They made me much butter, and prepared milk of all kinds. I
passed many years, the children that I had became great, each ruling
his tribe. When a messenger went or came to the palace, he turned
aside from the way to come to me; for I helped every man. I gave water
to the thirsty, I set on his way him who went astray, and I rescued
the robbed. The Sati who went far, to strike and turn back the princes
of other lands, I ordained their goings; for the Prince of the Tenu
for many years appointed me to be general of his soldiers. In every
land which I attacked I played the champion, I took the cattle, I led
away the vassals, I carried off the slaves, I slew the people, by my
sword, my bow, my marches and my good devices. I was excellent to the
heart of my prince; he loved me when he knew my power, and set me over
his children when he saw the strength of my arms.
A champion of the Tenu came to defy me in my tent: a bold man without
equal, for he had vanquished the whole country. He said, "Let Sanehat
fight with me;" for he desired to overthrow me, he thought to take my
cattle for his tribe. The prince counseled with me. I said, "I know
him not. I certainly am not of his degree, I hold me far from his
place. Have I ever opened his door, or leaped over his fence? It is
some envious jealousy from seeing me; does he think that I am like
some steer among the cows, whom the bull overthrows? If this is a
wretch who thinks to enrich himself at my cost, not a Bedawi fit for
fight, then let us put the matter to judgment. Verily a true bull
loves battle, but a vain-glorious bull turns his back for fear of
contest; if he has a heart for combat, let him speak what he pleases.
Will God forget what he has ordained, and how shall that be known?" I
lay down; and when I had rested I strung my bow, I made ready my
arrows, I loosened my dagger, I furbished my arms.
At dawn the land of the Tenu came together; it had gathered its tribes
and called all the neighboring people; it spake of nothing but the
fight. Each heart burnt for me, men and women crying out; for each
heart was troubled for me, and they said, "Is there another strong one
who would fight with him? Behold the adversary has a buckler, a
battle-axe, and an armful of javelins." Then I drew him to the
attack; I turned aside his arrows, and they struck the ground in vain.
One drew near to the other, and he fell on me, and then I shot him. My
arrow fastened in his neck, he cried out, and fell on his face: I
drove his lance into him, and raised my shout of victory on his back.
Whilst all the men of the land rejoiced, I, and his vassals whom he
had oppressed, gave thanks unto Mentu (the god of war). This prince,
Amu-an-shi, embraced me. Then I carried off his goods and took his
cattle, that which he had wished to do to me, I did even so unto him;
I seized that which was in his tent, I spoiled his dwelling. As time
went on I increased the richness of my treasures and the number of my
cattle....
[But at last the exile desired to return to his native land, and sent
a petition to the King of Egypt, asking permission.]
Then the majesty of King Kheper-ka-ra, the blessed, spake upon this my
desire that I had made to him. His majesty sent unto me with presents
from the king, that he might enlarge the heart of his servant, like
unto the province of any strange land; and the royal sons who are in
the palace addressed themselves unto me.
_Copy of the decree which was brought to lead me back into Egypt._
"The Horus, life of births, lord of the two crowns, King of Upper
and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ka-ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat, ever
living unto eternity. Order for the follower Sanehat. Behold this
order of the king is sent to thee to instruct thee of his will.
"Now, although them hast gone through strange lands from Adim to
Tenu, and passed from one country to another at the wish of thy
heart--behold, what hast thou done, or what has been done against
thee, that is amiss? Moreover, thou reviledst not; but if thy word
was denied, thou didst not speak again in the assembly of the
nobles, even if thou wast desired. Now, therefore, that thou hast
thought on this matter which has come to thy mind, let thy heart
not change again; for this thy Heaven (queen), who is in the palace
is fixed, she is flourishing, she is enjoying the best in the
kingdom of the land, and her children are in the chambers of the
palace.
"Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee,
altogether. When thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and
when thou shalt enter the palace, bow thy face to the ground before
the Great House; thou shalt be chief among the companions. And day
by day behold thou growest old; thy vigor is lost, and thou
thinkest on the day of burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the
blessed state, they shall give thee the bandages from the hand of
Tait, the night of applying the oil of embalming. They shall follow
thy funeral, and visit the tomb on the day of burial, which shall
be in a gilded case, the head painted with blue, a canopy of
cypress wood above thee, and oxen shall draw thee, the singers
going before thee, and they shall dance the funeral dance. The
weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud the
prayers for offerings: they shall slay victims for thee at the door
of thy pit; and thy pyramid shall be carved in white stone, in the
company of the royal children. Thus thou shalt not die in a strange
land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be laid in a
sheep-skin when thou art buried; all people shall beat the earth,
and lament on thy body when thou goest to the tomb."
When this order came to me, I was in the midst of my tribe. When it
was read unto me, I threw me on the dust, I threw dust in my hair; I
went around my tent rejoicing and saying, "How may it be that such a
thing is done to the servant, who with a rebellious heart has fled to
strange lands? Now with an excellent deliverance, and mercy delivering
me from death, thou shalt cause me to end my days in the palace."
I made a feast in Iaa, to pass over my goods to my children. My eldest
son was leading my tribe, all my goods passed to him, and I gave him
my corn and all my cattle, my fruit, and all my pleasant trees. When I
had taken my road to the south, and arrived at the roads of Horus, the
officer who was over the garrison sent a messenger to the palace to
give notice. His majesty sent the good overseer of the peasants of the
king's domains, and boats laden with presents from the king for the
Sati who had come to conduct me to the roads of Horus. I spoke to each
one by his name, and I gave the presents to each as was intended. I
received and I returned the salutation and I continued thus until I
reached the city of Thetu (Thebes).
When the land was brightened, and the new day began, four men came
with a summons for me; and the four men went to lead me to the palace.
I saluted with both my hands on the ground; the royal children stood
at the courtyard to conduct me: the courtiers who were to lead me to
the hall brought me on the way to the royal chamber.
I found his majesty on the great throne in the hall of pale gold. Then
I threw myself on the ground; this god, in whose presence I was, knew
me not. He questioned me graciously, but I was as one seized with
blindness, my spirit fainted, my limbs failed, my heart was no longer
in my bosom, and I knew the difference between life and death. His
majesty said to one of the companions, "Lift him up, let him speak to
me."
The royal children were brought in, and his majesty said to the queen,
"Behold, Sanehat has come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced."
She cried aloud, and the royal children spake with one voice, saying
before his majesty, "Verily it is not so, O king, my lord." Said his
majesty, "It is verily he." Then they brought their collars, and their
wands, and their sistra[A] in their hands, and displayed them before
his majesty; and they sang--
"May thy hands prosper, O king;
May the ornaments of the Lady of Heaven continue.
May the goddess Nub give life to thy nostril;
May the mistress of the stars favor thee, when thou sailest south and
north.
All wisdom is in the mouth of thy majesty;
Thy uræus[B] is on thy forehead, thou drivest away the miserable.
Thou art pacified, O Ra, lord of the lands;
They call on thee as on the mistress of all.
Strong is thy horn. Thou lettest fly thine arrow.
Grant the breath to him who is without it;
Grant good things to this traveller, Sanehat the Pedti, born in the
land of Egypt,
Who fled away from fear of thee,
And fled this land from thy terrors.
Does not the face grow pale, of him who beholds thy countenance;
Does not the eye fear, which looks upon thee?"
[A] The sistrum was a musical rattle, usually consisting of a thin
oval metal band, crossed with metal rods and having a handle.
See cut. p. 39.
[B] The serpent, with raised, projecting head, which was an emblem
of sovereignty.
Said his majesty, "Let him not fear, let him be freed from terror. He
shall be a Royal Friend amongst the nobles; he shall be put within the
circle of the courtiers. Go ye to the chamber of praise to seek wealth
for him."
When I went out from the palace, the royal children offered their
hands to me; we walked afterwards to the Great Gates.
Years were removed from my limbs: I was shaved, and polled my locks of
hair; the foulness was cast to the desert with the garments of the
Nemau-shau. I clothed me in fine linen, and anointed myself with the
fine oil of Egypt; I laid me on a bed. I gave up the sand to those who
lie on it; the oil of wood to him who would anoint himself therewith.
There was given to me the mansion of a lord of serfs, which had
belonged to a royal friend. There many excellent things were in its
buildings; all its wood was renewed. There were brought to me portions
from the palace, thrice and four times each day; besides the gifts of
the royal children, always, without ceasing. There was built for me a
pyramid of stone amongst the pyramids. The overseer of the architects
measured its ground; the chief treasurer wrote it; the sacred masons
cut the well; the chief of the laborers on the tombs brought the
bricks; all things used to make strong a building were there used.
There were given to me peasants; there was made for me a garden, and
fields were in it before my mansion, as is done for the chief royal
friend. My statue was inlaid with gold, its girdle of pale gold; his
majesty caused it to be made. Such honor is not done to a man of low
degree.
May I be in the favor of the king until the day shall come of my
death.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] More correctly rendered as Sinuhe.
[2] Sesostris.
[Illustration]
THE SONG OF THE HARPER.
(Sixteenth century B.C.)
The Song of the Harper was found in the tomb of the priest
Neferhotep, near Thebes. It was designed to be sung on the
anniversary of his death. He is shown sitting with his wife, son
and daughter, while the harper chants. Other copies of this song
have come down to us. _Ra_ or _Re_ is the general appellation of
the Sun-god; _Tum_ or _Tmu_ denotes the Sun setting; _Shu_ is the
light of the Sun in its life-giving function.
Neferhotep, great and blessed, sleepeth; we protect his sleep.
Since the day when Ra began his race, and Tum hastened to its ending,
fathers have gone down to death, and children have arisen in
their place.
Even as Ra has his birth in the morning, fathers beget sons;
Even as Tum begetteth night, mothers conceive and bring forth;
The breath of the morning is in a man's nostrils;
Man that is born of a woman vanisheth when his race is run.
Holy Father, vouchsafe that the day return with blessing;
Smell thou the fragrant oils that we pour on thy altars, receive the
flowers that we bring for an offering.
Lo, thy sister dwelleth in thy heart as in a temple;
Give these lotus flowers into her arms, place them in her bosom;
Lo, she sitteth at thy right hand; let the harp and the sound of
singing be pleasing unto thee, and drive sorrow away.
Rejoice even unto the day when we, pilgrims, enter Amenti, welcomed
by him who went before us.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, that the day come quickly;
Pure of heart and deed was he whom we loved:
The life of earth passeth away, even so passed he away;
Behold, he was, and he is not, and no man knoweth his place.
So hath it been, since Ra went forth, O Man, and so shall it be
forever.
The eyes of a man are opened, and are quickly closed again.
His soul drinketh of the sacred waters, he drinketh with them that are
gone of the waters of the River of Life.
Give unto the poor, who cry to thee when the harvest faileth; so shall
thy name be magnified forever.
And to the feast of thy sacrifice multitudes shall come, worshipping;
And the priest, clothed with a panther's skin, shall pour out wine unto
thee;
And shall offer cakes, and sing songs before thy altars,
In that day when thy servants stand before Ra, the Sun-god.
Shu shall bring forth the harvest in its season,
And glory shall be thine, but destruction shall overtake the wicked.
Return quickly, O Neferhotep, let the day of thy honor return:
Lo, the works which thou didst upon earth, thou didst leave them in the
day of thy going;
Rich wast thou, but of thy riches only these ashes are left.
In the day of thy going thou tarriedst not, nothing didst thou save in
that day:
Yea, though a man have much grain, yet the day of his poverty shall
come;
Death regardeth not his riches; Death heedeth not the pride of a man.
Friends, the day of your going shall come; let your hearts have
understanding.
Whither ye go, thence shall ye not return forever.
The upright man shall prosper, but the transgressor shall perish.
Be ye just, for the just man shall be blessed.
But neither the brave man, nor he that feareth, nor he that hath
friends, nor the forsaken one,
None shall escape the grave, no man small prevail against Death.
Vouchsafe unto us, therefore, of thine abundance, and be thou blessed
forever of Isis.
PRESENT-DAY EGYPT
ALEXANDRIA.
Where East and West Meet.
Alexandria is the great commercial center of the southern
Mediterranean. Approached from the sea, the coast is so level that the
city is not visible until the harbor is almost reached. Modern docks
and warehouses are crowded along the shore.
In spite of its modern appearance, Alexandria is an old city, founded
by Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C. He evinced his usual insight and
good judgment in the site chosen, it being sufficiently far west to
escape the deposits brought down by the Nile and carried to sea by its
various outlets. The only important city of all those founded by the
great conqueror, Alexandria became a center of culture and education.
Scholars and men of genius were encouraged to come here by the
Ptolomies, who were determined to make the place a second Athens. A
museum was founded and a library established, some 900,000 rolls of
manuscript being accumulated. This we may feel sure embraced the
wealth of ancient learning.
When the city was besieged by the Romans in the time of Cæsar, this
priceless collection of books was destroyed. The loss to the future
was irreparable. However, an earnest effort was put forth to replace
as many as possible of the writings, and for years scribes copied
precious rolls sent them from other educational centers and from
private collections. Indeed, it was plainly hinted by those best
informed that the originals were never returned to rightful owners,
but that copies were invariably returned and the original kept to
grace the public library. When Omar overcame Egypt in the seventh
century, he proclaimed the Koran sufficient for all, saying that it
included whatever wisdom men needed. Whereupon he commanded the
destruction of this second library. It is recorded that the contents
were distributed among four thousand public baths of Alexandria and
that fires were kept burning for six months before the books were
consumed. Lovers of antiquity can never cease to regret these two
wanton wastes of ancient literature.
Pompey's Pillar[A] may be seen towering high above the city as one
draws near. While its significance is not absolutely proved,
nevertheless it is thought to have been erected in honor of Diocletian
in the third century. It is made of red granite and was originally
crowned by a statue. Aside from it and the catacombs, there is little
to suggest the venerable age of the place. The catacombs were used
here, as in Rome, by early Christians for interment.
[A] The shaft is erroneously associated with Pompey.
In many respects Alexandria is like certain European cities. Its
streets are well paved, it has broad avenues in its newer sections,
and the local activities center around a great public square, named
after Mohammet Ali, who loved the place and did much to beautify it.
Except for the ruinous policy of Saïd and Ismail, who involved their
country in heavy debt, Alexandria would be a very wealthy metropolis,
for its yearly shipment of cotton alone is nearly one million bales.
Nevertheless, while as conspicuous a commercial center as Liverpool,
its commerce is slight compared to what it was before shipping
interests were diverted around the Cape of Good Hope.
In no other locality can one see such a meeting of the nations. All
languages are heard in a general babel around the harbor and in the
streets. Numbering about three hundred and forty thousand people, its
population includes Asiatics and Europeans of every description, who
offer a striking contradiction to Kipling's couplet:
"For East is East, and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet."
CAIRO.
The ride from Alexandria to Cairo leads across the level plains of the
delta. Fields of grain, occasional palms, scattering villages of mud
huts, and the ever-evident canals make up the landscape. As one draws
near the city a sight of the Pyramids is gained; then the suburbs of
Cairo appear.
Unlike Alexandria, Cairo is a comparatively modern city. The seaport
was twelve hundred years old before a stone of Cairo had been set in
place. Now having a population of about six hundred thousand, it, too,
shows great diversity of people. While the Arabs make up the bulk of
the inhabitants, representatives of all countries and climes are seen.
The domed mosques stand on every hand, monuments to the teachings of
Mohammed.
Much as Venice attracts artists by its lavish display of color, Cairo
also offers visions for one who is skillful with the brush. Its
sapphire skies, gorgeous sunsets with their marvellous after-glow, the
gleaming sands of the desert and Pyramids turned to gold in the
setting sun, are intoxicating. It is the land of Arabian Nights, and
slight imagination is required to make the visitor fancy himself back
in story land. Strange and unfamiliar sights greet him everywhere;
even the odor of the oriental city, incapable of description, is
present when darkness has eliminated many of the scenes, and slumber
has lessened many of the sounds.
Although few spend much time in Alexandria, all visitors to Egypt
devote as many days or weeks as may be possible to Cairo. From there
one may visit the great Pyramids, going by train if limited in point
of time; going by donkey or camel if fond of following historic
customs. Here, too, one starts upon the trip up the Nile, without
which any visit to Egypt would be incomplete. The bazaars afford much
entertainment for the sojourner in Cairo. Even those who for some
reason have made this city their abode for a protracted time never
tire of the street scenes or the bazaars. Unlike our shops, each
bazaar displays in a series of booths one commodity; rugs and carpets
have a bazaar given up to them alone; jewels and ornaments are
displayed at another, and so on. It would seem as if each article was
priced according to the purse of the customer. It is impossible in
oriental lands to shop expeditiously, as in western countries. The
oriental makes bargains with his customers; he names a price
considerably larger than he expects to receive; the would-be customer
names another considerably less than he expects to pay; and sometimes
for hours the bickering is continued, each satisfied in the end and
probably far better pleased than if the matter had been speedily
adjusted.
Many festivals are observed in Egypt. The year is lunar: if New Year's
Day be ascertained, it is very easy to account for the months, each
being twenty-eight days in length. Within a period of thirty-three
years a complete circuit is made and another begun. The fact that a
given holiday was celebrated last year in one month proves immediately
that this year it will fall at another time. Mohammedan feasts and
fasts are strictly observed. The month of Ramadan is the holy month,
corresponding in some measure to our Lent. None of the faithful will
allow a morsel of food or a drop of water to pass their lips during
that month from sunrise to sunset. But the moment the golden orb has
fallen below the horizon the feasting begins, often to last throughout
the night. When this month of daily fasting falls in the hot
summer-time, the mortality is very great, not only because of
immoderate indulgence through the night, but because of the suffering
for lack of water through the day.
The yearly departure of the caravan for Mecca is a remarkable sight.
Every true Mohammedan hopes to some day make a pilgrimage to
Mecca--the sacred city of his prophet. Each year those who are able
set out upon their journey. A carpet which has been woven for this
purpose is sent to the sacred shrine, to take the place of the one
placed there the previous year. The procession of pilgrims winds
through the streets of Cairo, witnessed by the entire population, who
throng the streets to catch sight of the carpet and, if possible, to
touch it Reaching Mecca, the carpet which has absorbed holiness during
the past year is torn up, the pieces being distributed among the
pilgrims, who treasure them as their dearest possessions.
Upon his return home, each pilgrim is looked upon with envy and honor
by his Mohammedan brethren. He and all who behold him know that his
entrance into Paradise is secure; henceforward he is distinguished for
his piety, and those less fortunate can but dream of the day when
they, too, may be able to follow his worthy example.
THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM.
Only in comparatively recent years have antiquities been adequately
prized or cared for. Early in the nineteenth century Lord Elgin, then
on diplomatic service to Turkey, was so dismayed by the spectacle of
Parthenon fragments lying about unprotected on the Acropolis at
Athens, that he succeeded in obtaining permission from the Sublime
Porte to remove them to England. Subsequently the British Museum
purchased them from him for much less than had been the expense
incurred in removing and exporting them from Greece. Similarly,
valuable recoveries in Egypt were left for private individuals to take
away as they saw fit; sometimes they were finally collected by
national museums, but quite as often they became the possessions of
the favored few, or in some cases were even wholly lost.
In 1863 Mariette obtained the exclusive right to excavate in Egypt He
also awakened the government to the need of placing all recoveries
under its exclusive control. Since the time of Napoleon scarcely a
vessel had left Alexandria without carrying some priceless treasure to
be added to the collections of the Louvre or the British Museum. In
1878 Mariette founded the Egyptian Museum at Balak, and for a long
time it was known as the Balak Museum.
Although small and without the slightest protection against fire, it
nevertheless provided a place for antiques; some were merely stored in
sheds, for lack of room, and others remained unclassified because
there was no opportunity to display them. In 1889 the need for another
building was keenly felt. Egypt could not build at this time, but the
Palace of Gizeh was placed at the disposal of the collection. While
somewhat larger than Balak, it was neither commodious nor safe.
On the first day of April, 1897, the corner stone of a national museum
was laid in Cairo by the Khedive. This substantial and fireproof
building, constructed at a cost of almost $900,000, was completed
November 15, 1902, and is now the repository of the largest and most
valuable collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world.
This museum has been fortunate in its curators--all men of scholarly
attainments and well versed in Egyptian history. Mariette was
succeeded by M. Maspero, whose voluminous work upon Egyptian history
is well known to many. Later he resigned this position to resume his
literary work in Europe, only to return by a fortunate circumstance in
1899, in time to supervise the transfer of the many priceless
treasures to their present abode.
Leaving the busy streets of Cairo, one turns from Mohammedan to
ancient Egypt. On every hand the past looms up; pharaohs and beings of
a period far remote populate this little world, and so far as life can
express itself in material things, these are available for examination
and study. The plan followed in the arrangement is the chronological
one used also in the earlier buildings. The heavier objects have been
given place on the ground floor; the lighter and smaller articles on
the floor above. The first six rooms on the ground floor are devoted
to the remains of the Old Empire--particularly of the fourth, fifth
and sixth dynasties. The diorite statue of Khafra, so often shown in
prints, is here; also the squatting statue of a scribe, second only in
beauty to the one in the Louvre. The next series of rooms are given
over to the remains of the Middle Empire. The statue of Amenemhet III,
of the twelfth dynasty, is worthy of special mention. Moreover,
statues and sphinxes of the Hyksos period are also found here.
The New Empire left evidences of regal splendor, eclipsing all earlier
periods; gilded chairs, chariots, dishes of gold and silver, as well
as statues of the kings themselves attract attention. Other rooms
record Egypt's decay--when Ethiopians ruled the land; the period of
Egyptian Renaissance, productive of wonderful sculpture; the coming of
Alexander and Greek supremacy; the period of Roman rule; and finally
Byzantine Egypt.
The second floor is the treasure house for the more varied remains.
One may see the mummies of the priests of Ammon, funerary furniture,
dolls and other toys, alabaster vases, domestic furniture, funerary
barks, terra-cottas of the Græco-Roman period, statues of the gods,
amulets and "answerers" and, most imposing of all perhaps, the royal
mummies.
In one of the rooms is an example of the finest surviving Egyptian
painting: a picture of geese feeding. This, like other paintings of
ancient Egypt, was found in an old tomb.
The _Galerie des Bijoux_ is also on this upper floor. Some of its
wonderful treasures rival the workmanship of Tiffany; others are even
more perfect. The stones most frequently used were lapis lazuli,
carnelian, jasper and garnets. The favorite ornaments were rings,
collars, chains, amulets and bracelets.
One might spend months in this museum and fail to exhaust its marvels.
Few can do this, and for those whose visit to Cairo must be brief, it
is better to see only a little and see it well than to attempt to
hurriedly pass through all the rooms. The British Museum, the Louvre
and the Metropolitan Museum in New York all have departments of
Egyptian antiquities.
Since the work of excavation and discovery still goes on, it may
reasonably be expected that further light will be thrown upon the past
by the labor of the next few years. For this reason only recent
publications regarding the Nile dwellers have any great value.
THE SUEZ CANAL.
The Suez Canal has been the cause of Egypt's late international
importance. It exemplifies several striking paradoxes. Opposed
bitterly by England at first, it is now largely under her control;
made possible by the heavy investments of the viceroy of Egypt, this
country has no shipping today to profit by the canal nor does it
receive any benefit whatever because of it. On the contrary, it has
been the real cause of Egypt's loss of independence. Before the
building of the canal began Egypt had no debt; while the viceroy
acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey, in a large
measure he was free to conduct all internal affairs, and hoped in time
to gain full sovereignty. The enormous amounts supplied by Viceroy
Saïd for the canal with the idle hope of dazzling the eyes of Europe
were the first of a long series of extravagances which so burdened his
country with debt that progress finally ceased and activities became
paralyzed. To protect their subjects, who had loaned money at a rate
of interest prohibited in their own lands, European countries stepped
in and assumed control of Egyptian finances. Today it is impossible
to foresee how Egypt can regain the independence she has lost.
In ancient times canals provided Egyptians access to the Red Sea. When
the expedition was made to Punt during the early years of the New
Empire, it is probable that ships built at Thebes were dispatched
directly to the sea by means of some constructed water way. Again, we
know that a canal was built two or three hundred years before the
Christian Era and that Cleopatra tried to save the remnant of her
fleet after the battle of Actium by means of it; but owing to its
impaired condition and the low water at that season, her attempt
failed.
When Egypt became a Roman province a water way connecting the Red and
Mediterranean seas was projected but not constructed. Napoleon was
quick to see its opportunities during his Egyptian campaign and set
his engineers to work upon the plan, which was abandoned upon his
withdrawal from Africa. The idea prevailed that the two seas were of
different levels. In 1847 England, France and Austria sent out a
commission to ascertain the facts, and their surveys proved that the
levels were the same. However, nothing was done and the matter was
forgotten save by a French engineer by the name of De Lesseps, who
continued to brood over the undertaking. In 1856, having unusual
opportunities to cultivate the acquaintance of Viceroy Saïd, De
Lesseps obtained from him a concession for the construction of a canal
to join the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, it being distinctly stated
that this should cost Egypt nothing, that fifteen per cent of the
profits should fall to her share, and that in ninety-nine years, upon
payment of the actual improvements made by the canal company along the
banks, the canal should revert to Egypt. To prevent the importation of
vast hordes of laborers, Saïd agreed to supply peasant labor at a
nominal price, De Lesseps and his associates to provide them with
adequate food and care; likewise to bring fresh water to the scene of
action for their use. The concession was made conditional to the
approval of the Sultan of Turkey, suzerain of Egypt, whose consent was
to be obtained by De Lesseps without mediation of the viceroy.
When it came to procuring capital sufficient to promote the
enterprise, De Lesseps found it far more difficult than he had
imagined. England had completed a railroad from Alexandria to Suez in
1858 and vigorously opposed the canal project; private funds might
have been forthcoming from Englishmen but for the fact that the
government disapproved so heartily; French capital was needed largely
at home. The canal company issued 400,000 shares, which for some time
went begging. De Lesseps finally persuaded Saïd to take 177,662
shares, which marked the beginning of Egypt's enslavement and at the
same time the beginning of De Lesseps' success. Stock was readily sold
now, and in 1859 the digging began.
In 1863 Saïd died and Ismail became viceroy of Egypt. He fell into the
mistake of his predecessor and became a willing victim for the canal
company. The work upon the canal was but one-fourth completed;
twenty-five thousand peasants had been impressed every three months,
but their insufficient food and cruel treatment had resulted in the
death of thousands. Protests were made by civilized countries
everywhere--particularly did the English government take a stand for
humane conditions, "her philanthropy and political interests being
roused to simultaneous action."
It is amusing to review articles written during the years when the
canal was first discussed as a possibility, then as an actual
undertaking. The following lines have been taken from a magazine
published in 1860:
"We have once more to advert to the monster folly of the nineteenth
century. It is now understood that our government perceives the wisdom
of leaving a project so insane to the fate and ridicule which
inevitably await it. It was their opposition alone that gave it any
importance, and by exciting the national prejudices of France, enabled
the projectors to raise funds which they never could have got without
it....
"The project is to cut a ship canal three hundred feet wide and thirty
feet deep over ninety miles of flat sand. As the level of the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea are the same, the canal will be near
thirty feet below the level of both, and hence it will be a stagnant
and in all likelihood a pestilential ditch....
"The Suez Canal will be begun but never completed nor half completed.
Its wreck, as useless as the Pyramids, but far less interesting, will
like to be exhibited to posterity probably under the name of the
'French Folly.'"[A]
[A] Living Age, December, 1860.
England's appeal to the Sublime Porte to have the work upon the canal
stopped brought to light the fact that the Sultan's sanction to the
undertaking had never been procured. The work done so far had followed
very primitive methods, peasants digging the sand up by handsful,
putting it in palm-leaf baskets and carrying these up the steep bank
to empty. France made great effort to obtain the Sultan's approval,
for the situation was critical. His reply was that he confirmed the
concession granted by Viceroy Saïd, but that the work henceforth
should not be done by impressed peasants. The company's treasury was
again empty; it chose to hold the viceroy responsible for the
predicament caused by the withdrawal of the peasants and brought him a
bill for damages. The claims made could not have been substantiated in
any court, for there was no contract, and the concession distinctly
stated that the canal was to cost Egypt nothing. However, the viceroy
was peculiarly situated; he was dreaming of a day when he might shake
off the suzerainty of Turkey and be recognized by the powers as a
monarch of independent might. Moreover, he valued the friendship of
France--which was to cost him dear. He had been educated in Paris and
hoped to make Cairo the Paris of Egypt. Refusing to pay the damages
asked, De Lesseps prevailed upon him to submit the matter for
arbitration and--strange as it may seem--the emperor of France was
agreed upon, his judgment to be final. Napoleon III ruled that the
clause wherein the viceroy had agreed to provide peasant labor
amounted to a contract; that by the decree of the Sultan this labor
was now unavailable; hence the company had suffered severe loss. The
fact that the water was already filtering in from the sea,
necessitating the use of dredges, was not brought to light. Not only
sustaining the company's claim, he added other injuries which they had
overlooked. The result was that the viceroy paid a large amount, which
added to Egypt's rapidly increasing debt, and at the same time enabled
the canal company to continue operations.
In 1869 the canal was finished, and its completion was celebrated by
sumptuous festivities. The Empress of France, Emperor of Austria,
Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince of Wales, and many other important
members of royalty were present. Forty-eight ships were required to
convey the guests thither; the celebration lasted one month--the
entire cost defrayed by the viceroy, or the Egyptian government. It
amounted to about $21,000,000. It was for this occasion that Verdi
wrote his opera Aïda, the great Egyptologist Mariette Bey studying
ancient costumes and settings to give added interest and reality,
while the Egyptian Museum supplied jewels for the gifted musicians
brought from various parts of Europe to present the opera.
A few years later it was found that the debt of Egypt amounted to over
$450,000,000. Securities for this vast amount were held by English,
French and German subjects. Even the stipulated fifteen per cent of
the canal profits had been used as security; the Nile valley suffered
from insufficient water supply, and the inflated price of cotton,
obtaining during the Civil War in the United States, fell. In the face
of impending ruin, something had to be done. At the clamorous demands
of Europe, the Sultan deposed Ismail, whose reckless policy, together
with that of Saïd, had brought this overwhelming trouble upon his
country. The British government bought the stock held by the
viceroy--177,662 shares--for $20,000,000, thus obtaining a controlling
voice in the company. France and England established what was known as
the "dual control" in Egypt, which continued until the revolt of 1882,
at which time France refused to go to the extreme of bombarding
Alexandria and withdrew--thus ending her control in Egyptian affairs.
Since 1882 English "occupation" has continued and bids fair to
continue for an indefinite time. It is even now evident that if the
canal reverts to the Egyptian government upon the expiration of
ninety-nine years, this may be a very different government from that
which gave the original concession.
From the standpoint of commercial history, few events have been more
signal than the completion of the Suez Canal. Heretofore vessels have
saved little except time by making use of it, for the tolls exacted
have been equal to the expense of about three thousand miles ocean
travel. One dollar and ninety cents per vessel tonnage and two dollars
per passenger, crews excepted, have been required, thus making the
cost of large vessels passing through amount sometimes to $10,000;
$400 has been charged for a small yacht. However, it is now
contemplated to make the tolls for both Panama and Suez canals
uniform--one dollar and twenty cents per vessel tonnage and no charge
for passengers being the proposed change. The distance has been
greatly reduced by means of the canal; from England to Bombay lessened
from 10,860 to 4,620 miles; from New York to Bombay from 11,520 to
7,920 miles.
The Suez Canal is one hundred miles in length, four hundred twenty
feet wide surface measure, and one hundred eight feet on the bottom;
it was originally twenty-seven feet nine inches deep but has been
since dredged to a depth of thirty-one feet, lakes making it deeper in
some places. It takes about fifteen hours and forty minutes to pass
through, electricity making night passage possible.
The majority of ships passing through fly under the English flag; next
in number are those sailing under the French flag; fewer still
belonging to Germany. Except for passenger vessels and men of war, few
United States crafts have been seen in these waters. However, in view
of the opening of Panama, the shipping of this country may be expected
to rapidly increase.
[Illustration: _A "SHIP OF THE DESERT."_
Here one sees ladies of modern Cairo out taking the
air--"smelling the air," as they call it. Since one of them
has removed her veil, it is safe to conclude that they do
not belong to the upper class. Brides are usually transported
in such a conveyance as this upon their wedding day, and the
tinkling bells and smart trappings of the camel add to the
pleasure of the occasion.]
* * * * *
BABYLONIA AND HER NEIGHBORS
PREFATORY CHAPTER
"_Aus den fruehesten Anfaengen erklaeren sich die spaetesten
Erscheinungen."--Heine._
If the German poet was justified in writing the words just quoted much
more are we in repeating them. The interpretation of the present is to
be sought in the light of the past. _Ex oriente lux_ is an old and
familiar saying. In the last century there flashed from this quarter a
light that astonished the world, and like the wise men of old, it came
from the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. The consequent increase in
our knowledge has revolutionized much of the thought of the past, and so
quietly has this been done that none but those who have been more
particularly interested in the new discoveries are aware of the
importance and extent of the changes made. Our views of ancient history,
literature, life, religion have been greatly altered and enlarged.
Europe and America have been for almost two millennia under the potent
spell and inspiration of a little people who lived at the eastern end of
the Mediterranean. Prophets and teachers arose among them who lifted the
world off its hinges, set Greece, the home of intellect, to thinking
anew, and uttered their messages through the successors of the Caesars.
A wonderful people, indeed! How are they to be explained? Most certainly
we must seek for their explanation in the light of their antecedents and
racial affinities. It was, and is, no more possible to understand them
and correctly interpret their literary remains, the Bible, apart from a
knowledge of the great family of which they formed numerically only an
insignificant part than it would be to understand the spirit and thought
of the people of the United States if the early relations to Great
Britain were unknown or ignored. The Old Testament, in its late written
traditions, records that the ancestors of the Hebrews emigrated from Ur
of the Chaldees, an ancient city, even in the days of Abraham, of
southern Babylonia and a principal seat of the worship of the moon-god,
Sin. But of the great family of the Semites--the Arabians, Babylonians,
Assyrians, Canaanites, Aramaeans, Syrians, etc., little was known a
century ago. Practically all scholarly interest in this group until the
middle of the nineteenth century was confined to the literature and
civilization of the Arabs since the Mohammedan era.
No better evidence of the universal ignorance of this past, extending
down to modern times, can be found than in Sir Isaac Newton's
"Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended," published in 1728. This
foremost scholar of his day writes, page 268: "However we must allow
that Nimrod founded a kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into
Assyria; but this kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the
empires that rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of
Chaldea, Chalonitis, and Assyria, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates;
and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it
being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his
territories amongst his sons. So Noah was king of all the world, and
Cham was king of all Afric, and Japhet of all Europe and Asia Minor."
Nimrod, Noah, Ham and Japhet were all as truly historical persons to the
great scientist Newton and his age as were David, Isaiah and the apostle
Paul.
More than a century and a half have passed since this famous son of a
Lincolnshire farmer wrote his Chronology, but the limitations under
which he wrote were destined to remain for succeeding historians until
quite recently. Even trained historians have found it difficult within
the last two or three decades to adjust themselves to the new
discoveries. Not long ago serious writers contended that the world was
created 4004 B.C., in six days of twenty-four hours each, and anathemas
were in store for those that questioned it. Writing in 1855, Professor
Lewis in his "Six Days of Creation," declares that the Biblical story of
the Creation was given "by inspiration to the earliest times, and to the
earliest men, and in the earliest language that was spoken on the
globe."--Hebrew! Less than twenty-five years ago one of the present
writers' colleagues in a theological seminary, was teaching his students
that the use of the plural name for God in Hebrew, and the thrice
repeated "Holy, holy, holy," furnished collateral evidence in support
of the doctrine of The Trinity. He was quite unaware that the
polytheistic Assyrians used the same thrice repeated _ashru, ashru,
ashru_, in praise of their gods.
Today scholars are agreed that the first twelve chapters of Genesis are
largely a _refacimento_ of mythical deposit found among the Semites and
genetically closely related to the Babylonian cosmologies and epic
stories. The Hebrew writers purged the old myths of their polytheism,
breathed into them a new spirit, and made them the bearers of higher
religious truth. But Adam and Eve are as genuinely semitic mythical
creations as _Adapa_, or _Eabani_ and Ukhat, the spouse of the latter,
who, like Adam, was created out of clay. When we read in the 10th
chapter of Joshua the account of Joshua's miraculous victory over the
combined forces of the five Amoritic kings we can now parallel it with
like marvels in Assyria: "And it came to pass as they fled before
Israel ... that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them
unto Azekah, and they died: there were more who died with the
hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."
In the same way, the enemies of Esarhaddon are to be slain by the
goddess of war, Ishtar.
Owing to the political relations into which the people of Israel and
Judah were brought to the empires of the Tigris and Euphrates valley,
the compilers of the historical books of The O. T., and the prophets
have given us incidental, valuable, but not always unprejudiced notices
of their kinsmen to the East. The II. Book of Kings touches upon some
noteworthy events from the time of Tiglathpileser II. including the fall
of Israel and Judah. Characteristic of these notices is the complete
omission of Sargon's name except in Isaiah 20:1, where until the
discovery of the inscriptions it was thought to be an official title,
although he was the one who completed the conquest of the northern
kingdom, the "House of Omri," as he calls it, and deported its
inhabitants. It is difficult indeed for an Assyriologist to imagine an
Assyrian _rabshak_ speaking to the messengers of Hezekiah as that
officer is reported to have done in II. Kings 18:25f.: "Am I now come up
without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said unto
me, Go up against this land and destroy it." This Yahwe (Lord) Isaiah
declares the Assyrian blasphemed, an act, which, to say the least, was
more in accord with his usual temper. Yahwe was no more in the
estimation of Sennacherib than the gods of the petty principalities of
Hamath and Arpad. The truth seems to be that the writer in the book of
Kings makes the _rabshak_ speak as he is alleged to have spoken just as
the babylonian priests declared that Cyrus had been called to the
conquest of Babylon by the Babylonian god Marduk.
The books, especially of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum and Ezekiel, contain
some interesting material upon the cultus of Babylonia. It is, however,
the darker features that the prophets delight to draw, and the picture
they present to us does not in all points resemble the one we find in
the palaces of the kings. The animus displayed toward the enemy is far
removed from the precept which enjoins that he shall be loved. The
fourteenth chapter of Isaiah is a standing witness to the correctness of
this observation. It is a magnificent paean of prophetic feeling, but it
is necessary to observe that the fate of Nabonidus, the last king of
Babylon, was not so wretched as here described. When Cyrus conquered the
city he made Nabonidus governor. It may, however, be that this perfervid
and vengeful utterance of irrepressible joy related originally to Sargon
II., king of Assyria, conqueror of Samaria, who, as his successor
Sennacherib tells us "was not buried in his house," and that after the
fall of Babylon the latter name was interpolated. At all events this
king, unlike "the kings of the nations," did not "sleep in his own
house" (vss. 18-19), and the introductory verses are obviously late.
Optimistic and pessimistic patriots who writhed under the domination of
a foreign power, religious zealots conscious of their possession of a
purer and practically religious faith, it is little wonder they
portrayed only the harsher features of their spoilers and conquerors.
The apocalyptic book of Daniel, so long interpreted as a sober recital
of historic events, is distinctly and admittedly at variance on some
points with the monumental records of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, and
Cyrus. It would, however, be an unjustifiable inference were any one to
conclude from the foregoing that the records of the Old Testament had
all, or in great measure, been relegated to the hazy region of myth and
fiction by the revelations of the contemporary records of the monuments.
The historical presentation of events from the age of Saul onwards have
on the whole received welcome corroboration. The inscriptions on stone
and clay have confirmed the story of the parchment rolls, completing,
amending, elucidating it and always enabling us to interpret it more
accurately.
Sufficient has been said in the foregoing to suggest the far-reaching
importance of Babylonian and Assyrian archaeology and literature for the
understanding of the Old Testament. We are able now not only to bring
new material in contemporary documents to aid us in its study, we are
able also to interpret the life and thought of its people in the light
of the larger history, political, institutional, social, moral, legal
and religious, of the great family to which Israel belonged. The life of
the various members of the ancient semitic stock has been illuminated by
the discoveries which began with Botta and Layard. The conditions
existing in Canaan prior to the conquest, for example, became clear only
with the discovery of the Tell-Amarna tablets in 1887. They were found
in the palace of Amenophis on the bank of the Nile about 180 miles south
of Cairo and they cast an unexpected light upon the period of the
Exodus. Israel, her history, her conquests, her captivities and her
religion no longer stand as things apart in which the supernatural has
been imminent and active in a manner nowhere else discoverable in the
history of the race. A "Thus saith Jehovah," however spiritual the
content, can no longer be interpreted as essentially different from a
divine communication from the gods of Israel's neighbors and kinsmen.
While the Old Testament gave us some information about Babylonia and
Assyria prior to the discoveries of their own monuments, a brief account
of which is given in the following pages, it must be admitted that it
has gained by these discoveries incomparably more than it gave. But we
have learned not only about Israel and the Bible, we have learned also
much about the earlier Amoritic inhabitants of Palestine who had entered
there and spread into Egypt and Babylonia as early as the second half of
the third millennium B.C. Much has been won from these records about
Egypt and Ethiopia, about the peoples of Arabia, the Hittites, the
Aramaeans, Armenians, Elamites, Medes and Persians as well as the early
inhabitants of Babylonia, the Sumerians, the original inventors of the
cuneiform writing, which was a later development of pictographic
symbols. We have learned with astonishment of the advances made in
Babylonia in early times in the arts and architecture. Deprived by the
nature of their country, in which wood and stone were not to be found,
we read of Gudea (Circa 3000 B.C.) bringing diorite from Magan, West
Arabia, for his sculptures, some of which are now to be seen in the
Louvre collection. The skill of the lapidarist in connection with the
cunningly engraved cylinder seals is today the admiration of the best
workers in the art of engraving, and the wounded lioness from the palace
of Ashurbanipal in the seventh century B.C. is the best portrayal of
animal life that has come to us from ancient times. As Professor Sayce
has recently shown, the lamp in use in Greece in the historical age, and
not before, and later borrowed by the Romans, and after the Greek
conquest, by the Egyptians, was Babylonian in origin and a common
utensil in Mesopotamia prior to the fourteenth century B.C. The
composite symbols of Babylonia were adopted by the people of Western
Asia. The eagle of the southern city-kingdom of Lagash (Telloh) was
transported to the Hittites. The eagle symbol, wherever found,
double-headed or single, is a bird from the land of Paradise. The winged
horse is found upon Hittite seals, and from Asia passed over the
Hellespont and became the Greek Pegasos. The native fetish deities of
Asia Minor were replaced by gods in human form, and the idea of a
trinity, or triad of deities, followed in the wake of Babylonian
culture. In architecture the Babylonians invented the arch. This
achievement had always been attributed to the Etruscans on the basis of
the statements of the classical writers. But it was used by the
Babylonians, as we now know, three thousand years before there is any
evidence of its use on classical soil. Columnar construction dates back
to the same period. Both the arch and the column were found in the
buildings unearthed a few years ago at Nippur by the expeditions from
the University of Pennsylvania. Owing to the dearth of wood and stone
these pioneers in the arts of civilization were forced to have recourse
to clay, the only material available. They therefore invented the pillar
made of brick. Babylonia was the land _par excellence_ of brick
buildings. Their land abounded in asphaltum and this they used instead
of mortar, as the Hebrew writer tells us they did when they built the
tower of Babel, "the temple with the lofty tower," in Babylon. "Their
technical skill rested on scientific principles no less unattainable in
modern architecture than the Grecian idea of beauty in the plastic art.
The buildings which they constructed with brick must have been built
according to rules and laws unknown to modern architecture, which views
many of these ancient works with the same astonishment as is evoked by
the pyramids of Egypt." Babylonia can at least claim to have made early
advances in astronomical observations. The movements of the heavenly
bodies were carefully watched from the earliest times and records made
of them. Even in the late Roman period the Chaldeans were still looked
upon as the founders of astronomy. It is true that Egypt had also at a
very early age successfully cultivated this science and had introduced a
practical calendar which began the year on the day when Sirius was first
observed on the eastern horizon at sunrise 4200 years before the
Christian era. Some Egyptologists hold that this calendar was the
precursor of the Julian, which in turn was modified by Pope Gregory in
1582, thus giving us the Gregorian calendar which was adopted in England
by the Calendar Amendment Act of 1751. But it is more probable that we
are indebted to the Babylonians for our calendrical system, Greece and
Rome borrowing from them. The naming of the days of the week after the
sun and moon gods and the five planets known to them seems beyond
dispute. It was they who divided the circle into 360 degrees in
connection with their sexagesimal system of numerals, the day into 24
hours, and the hour into 60 minutes. The faces of our watches bear daily
and hourly witness to our obligations to this old people of the land of
Shinar. There are 24 hours in the day, but our time-pieces divide them
into two periods of 12 hours each, just as the Babylonian day was
reckoned as 12 _double_ hours. By what routes and means these transfers
of scientific achievements were made from the mother-land of science to
the peoples of Europe we are not yet able to decide. Further
discoveries, however, will doubtless reveal still more clearly the
historic connections of modern culture with the people of the Tigris and
Euphrates valley who themselves speak of their cities as "ancient"
before the deluge.
All of this increase of knowledge hinted at in the preceding paragraphs,
and all too briefly sketched in this work, is the acquisition of our
own times. The Greeks, who in haughty disdain regarded all others as
"barbarians," knew little of this ancient of days--nothing whatever of
the great ruler Sargon I. or Hammurabi, imperialist and great law-giver
fifteen hundred years before the enactment of the laws of Draco and
Solon at Athens.
Among the Greek writers Herodotus is the only one that can be considered
as a direct source. He may have visited Babylon about the middle of the
fifth century B.C. Much of what he has written, however, is clearly a
matter of hearsay or romancing. The judgment passed on him by his
contemporaries and successors was certainly not without foundation. His
critics accused him, as the Arabian historians did Ibn Ishaq, the
biographer of Mohammed, of direct falsification, and even a superficial
study of his writings is sufficient to prove that the accusation was not
without apparent warrant. One seeks in vain, for example, in the
Babylonian literature for evidence of the custom, which he describes as
one of the most beautiful and wisest of the Babylonians, of putting the
marriageable girls once a year upon the market to be sold to the highest
bidders! Naively he adds that this was an earlier custom that was no
longer practised in his time. Of the history of Babylon he knew
little--of its latest rulers and even of the great Nebuchadnezzar he had
not an inkling as Tiele, the Dutch historian, has said. Ctesias, the
Carian physician who lived for seventeen years at the Persian court of
Artaxerxes Mnemon in the fourth century, did not know that Babylon had
an independent existence. Those who followed were for the most part
merely excerptors from those who preceded them. In view of the paucity
and unreliability of the sources an impenetrable veil was drawn between
us and the ancient orient. At last it has been lifted, and in the
language of the old poets of Babylon, "brother again sees brother."
[Illustration: CLAY JARS OF CHALDEA.]
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
CHAPTER I.
EARLY CIVILIZATION OF ASIA.
In studying the history of Babylonia and Assyria, our attention is drawn
to one of the earliest inhabited portions of the globe--so far as is now
known: to the valley of the Euphrates. Biblical tradition favored the
view that this was the Cradle of the Human Race. Here the Yahvistic
writer placed the fabled Garden of Eden, the best explanation he could
devise for the origin of mankind. The valley was a regular thoroughfare
for early tribes journeying to and from Arabia, and reaching out to the
east, west, or north for new homes, often remaining for long succeeding
generations in the fertile region itself. It was a land where men of
various tongues and dialects met, only to again diverge. The effort of
the Hebrew to explain how so many languages had come into being resulted
in the story of the Tower of Babel. Before the beginnings of the Hebrew
race as distinct from the general Semitic family, an old civilization
had developed here in Chaldea. In connection with his worship, the
Chaldean built high ziqqurats--temple-towers of from three to seven
platforms, rising one above the other, each platform smaller than the
one below. The story handed down from one generation of the Hebrews to
another was that the Chaldeans had once tried to build a tower to reach
the very heavens. Alarmed at their presumption, God confounded their
speech so they could no longer understand one another. Thus was man
punished and thus the various speeches originated.
In following the history of the mixed race known as the Babylonians, and
of those who pressed north of the home-country to found the state of
Assyria, we shall become acquainted with the only great nation of
antiquity whose civilization may have been older than that of the
Egyptians. We have up reliable record of the Chinese until late in the
third millennium, and their civilization, if more ancient still, was
isolated at least, and affected no other people. When Thutmose I.
penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates, some years after the
expulsion of the Hyksos, he came upon a nation, of whose culture,
script, and language, as the recently discovered Tell-el-Amarna tablets
indicate, were already familiar to his own people.
The recorded life of Egypt reaches back more than 6,000 years;
civilization in Mesopotamia may have been more ancient. Many monuments
have been unearthed in the sites of ancient cities which throw light
upon great antiquity. In Egypt visible monuments have borne witness
through long succeeding centuries of early strength; in Babylonia and
Assyria the very site of cities was forgotten, and men no longer
remembered where these two influential powers of antiquity had
developed. Though in the last century only anything like a complete
history of Egypt has been possible, yet evidences of a nation long since
extinct, were preserved in temples and tombs, and hieroglyphics covering
walls and columns indicated that whoever should discover their meaning
would learn of their mighty builders. Far different was the case of
Babylonia and Assyria. They too had once been proud and wealthy nations,
taking foremost rank; their cities filled the valleys of the Euphrates
and Tigris, and their fertile fields yielded even more abundantly than
the rich Nile valley. Their palaces rose to the glory of their kings,
and their commerce penetrated to every corner of the ancient world. Then
changes came upon the life of antiquity. New peoples pushed to the
front; the tide of commerce shifted into other channels. These nations
were conquered by their yet stronger neighbors, and their temples and
palaces, built not of enduring stone but of perishable brick, fell into
heaps of nameless mounds. When the waters of the mighty rivers were no
longer guided through canals to irrigate the land, the soil ceased to
be productive. Desert sands spread over the desolate region and
reclaimed wide areas which became the tenting ground for nomadic tribes.
The very words of the late writer in the Book of Isaiah concerning these
nations rang true through the ages:
"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild
beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be
full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in
their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and
her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
"Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man;
and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him; but he shall
flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he
shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall
be afraid of the ensign."[1]
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, disappeared suddenly. In Alexander's
day its site was unknown. Babylon, however, was not destroyed by Cyrus,
but continued its importance until the rise of its rival Seleucia, and
was still inhabited in the Middle Ages. But the two nations were
forgotten in the west for hundreds of years. Then with the dawn of peace
and order in Europe during the later Middle Ages, came the desire to
know about the past. Monks who made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, during
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, sometimes pressed farther east,
and made mention of strange mounds seen in the valleys of these ancient
rivers. Travelers told of curious inscriptions found among the ruins
there. In rare cases, they even went to the length of copying one or
two, with greater or less accuracy. It was left finally for the
eighteenth century to locate the old sites of Babylonian cities, and for
the nineteenth century to discover the hidden meaning of the
wedge-shaped letters inscribed upon their ruins.
To the patient efforts of the men who persisted in their difficult and
often disheartening task of unearthing ruins, and to the scholars who
toiled year after year to read the forgotten language these ruins
brought to light, we owe most that is now known regarding the early
inhabitants of the Euphrates valley. These nations, so long destroyed,
their cities, so long abandoned, we shall try to bring before us as they
have been reconstructed by historians in more pretentious volumes.
Naturally, any account of the Babylonians and Assyrians will involve
some consideration of their neighbors, whose civilizations developed by
their side, and whose fortunes frequently mingled with theirs.
THE RECOVERY OF FORGOTTEN CITIES.
Were we to proceed at once to the development of the Babylonian and
Assyrian states without first pausing to note what far-reaching efforts
have been made to read their early civilization from their remains,
entombed within the earth, we would deprive ourselves of one of the most
interesting pages in modern historical research.
Since the middle of the twelfth century we find references made to the
ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, by monks and travellers who greatly
confused the ancient cities, repeatedly mistaking Baghdad for Babylon.
In 1613 there was published by an English nobleman an account of his
distant travels. "Sir Anthony Sherley; His Relation of His Travels into
Persia." This is what he wrote of these ancient capitals: "I will
speak ... of Babylon; not to the intent to tell stories, either of the
huge ruins of the first Towne or the splendour of the second, but
because nothing doth impose anything in man's nature more than
example--to shew the truth of God's word, whose vengeances, threatened
by His Prophets, are truely succeeded in all those parts....
"All the ground on which Babylon was spred is left now desolate; nothing
standing in that Peninsula between the Euphrates and the Tigris, but
only part, and that a small part, of the greate Tower, which God hath
suffered to stand (if man may speake so confidently of His greate
impenetrable counsels) for an eternal testimony of His work in the
confusion of Man's pride, and that Arke of Nebuchadnezzar for as
perpetual a memory of his greate idolatry and condigne punishment....
"Nineve, that which God himself called That greate Citie, hath not one
stone standing which may give memory of the being of a towne. One
English mile from it is a place called Mosul, a small thing, rather to
be a witness of the other's mightinesse and God's judgment than of any
fashion of magnificence in it selfe."[2]
These words struck the note which was to lead to extensive labors for
discovery. Europe was at the time passing through a period of deep
religious fervor, which was felt in many classes of society and walks of
life, and people who cared not at all for the history of ancient nations
were roused by the possibility offered to verify statements found in the
Old Testament and prove its inspiration by showing the fulfillment of
its prophecies. Although nothing of importance was accomplished at this
time, the religious motive survived.
The first systematic investigation was made by Claudius James Rich,
appointed in 1811 as resident of the East India Company at Baghdad. He
made a thorough examination of all the large mounds in that particular
locality and prepared a survey of the most important ones. This proved
very useful to those who came later to the field. He had besides made a
small collection of finds at Hillah and Mosul--a box only three feet
square--which were sent with his charts to the British Museum. These
later furnished the inspiration to further exploration.
In 1842 the French government sent Paul Emil Botta to Mosul as consular
agent, and his name was destined to be connected with all discoveries
made in Assyria during the early part of the nineteenth century.
Stimulated by Julius Mohl, who had examined Rich's meagre but suggestive
finds, he was the first to actually dig into the mounds of ruins. After
coming upon nothing noteworthy during three months' excavation in
Kujundjik, a peasant told him that strange objects had been found at
Khorsabad, about four hours to the northeast, and thither Botta sent his
workmen.
The poor Arabian laborers of this region are ignorant Mohammedans, and
they suspected that Botta was digging for gold, while they conceived the
unique idea that the fragments bearing inscriptions, now and then
brought to light, were charms which in some way guided him on to hidden
treasure. The Turkish Pasha put all possible obstacles in his way, but
the very first shaft Botta sank came upon the walls of an old palace--a
find especially valuable at a time when only the most enthusiastic
scholars had faith in the undertaking, and people generally regarded the
project as misguided. No less than 209 rooms were laid bare by Botta and
his successor, Victor Place.
Austen Henry Layard, an English boy of Huguenot descent, had devoured
all available books of travel and adventure. He came to the work of
Assyrian exploration as an enthusiastic young man about the time of
Botta's widely noised discovery. On November 9, 1845, Mr. Layard began
to excavate at Nimrud, some distance south of Nineveh, and before the
first day's work was done he had the promise, and, in part, the
satisfaction of realizing his "visions of palaces under ground." He had
discovered the North-West palace of Nimrud, built by Ashurnatsirpal,
884-861 B.C., upon the foundations of one laid by Shalmeneser, 1300 B.C.
After a little more than a year and a half he returned to England having
discovered no less than three palaces. The funds necessary for his work
were obtained from Sir Stratford Canning, the English ambassador at
Constantinople.
In 1849 excavations were begun again with the assistance of Hormuzd
Rassam at the expense of the British Museum. "The excavations carried on
under these auspices, and with the powers Layard then possessed, were
successful beyond his wildest dream. As the trenches followed round the
walls of room after room they uncovered great slabs of alabaster, with
which the chamber walls were wainscoted, and these were found to be
richly carved in relief with scenes of hunting, of war, and of solemn
ceremony. The very life of palace, camp and field in Assyrian days came
back again before the astonished eyes of the explorer, while these
received an addition to their verisimilitude by the discovery in some
of the ruins of pieces of iron which had once formed parts of the same
kind of armor as that portrayed on the reliefs, together with iron and
bronze helmets, while in others were found vases and ornamentally carved
pieces of ivory. Here were the pictures and there were the objects which
they represented. As the trenches were dug deeper or longer, monuments
carved or inscribed were found daily."[3]
Whatever objects could be transported were sent to the British Museum in
London, and went far to arouse interest and thus secure funds to enable
Layard to continue his operations. During this expedition the palace of
Sennacherib, the walls of which had been partly laid bare during the
first period, was still further explored, and in addition to the
valuable bas-reliefs an ancient library, consisting of thousands of clay
tablets, was found in two of the rooms, and this was greatly increased
by Rassam's discovery of the North-West palace in 1854.
In 1850 William K. Loftus began his labors in this field, but none of
his discoveries proved so valuable as his descriptions of various
mounds, used as guides to this day. Concerning the appearance of the
mounds he wrote: "I know of nothing more exciting or impressive than the
first sight of one of these great Chaldean piles looming in solitary
grandeur from the surrounding plains and marshes. A thousand thoughts
and surmises concerning its past eventful history and origin--its
gradual rise and rapid fall--naturally present themselves to the mind of
the spectator. The hazy atmosphere of early morning is peculiarly
favorable to considerations and impressions of this character, and the
gray mist intervening between the gazer and the object of his
reflections imparts to it a dreamy existence. This fairylike effect is
heightened by mirage, which strangely and fantastically magnifies its
form, elevating it from the ground, and causing it to dance and quiver
in the rarefied air. No wonder, therefore, that the beholder is lost in
pleasing doubt as to the actual reality of the apparition before
him."[4]
Of all the Assyrian discoveries which were crowded into the last
century, unquestionably the most important was made by Rassam in 1852
and 1853 when he laid bare the magnificent palace of Assurbanipal, in
which was found the royal library. Here the king had caused to be
collected tablets embodying the literature of both Babylonia and
Assyria, and numberless royal inscriptions of both states, from the
earliest time. Owing to the circumstance of their having been inscribed
upon tablets of clay, many had been destroyed as the building in which
they were kept fell in ruins. Many were found in an almost perfect state
of preservation and thousands of others have since been joined by the
patient labors of scholars. At this point Assyrian excavations largely
ceased, for it was felt that unless some understanding of these tablets
could be gained, it was scarcely worth while to amass more of them at
such great outlays. Archæologists realized that the inscriptions must be
deciphered before funds would be forthcoming for fresh undertakings.
We have seen how difficult a task Egyptologists had in discovering the
meaning of the hieroglyphics, and how the Rosetta stone, giving one
decree in three different languages, at last led to an understanding of
the whole. The Babylonians and Assyrians used a series of wedge-shaped
letters or symbols, which has given the name _cuneiform_ to their
written language. These wedge-shaped signs were impressed on the clay by
a stylus, and several of them are united to form a _syllabic_ character.
There are about 400 of these complex syllabic signs in the syllabary,
instead of 26 letters as in English. Where the writing on the tablets is
very close, as it frequently is, it is often very difficult to read the
signs correctly. In the earlier Babylonian period, moreover, the form
differs from that of the later Babylonian and Assyrian period. To make
the reading still more puzzling they are polyphonic, _i. e._, have
several syllabic values, and are also used ideagraphically, _i. e._, may
be used for entire words. If we should read _b_ either b, p, m, d, etc.,
and also for break, run, beside with only the context to guide us we
would have a parallel case. There was no Rosetta stone to help this
time, and the tablets long remained sealed books. We have only to look
at a page of the characters to wonder that their meaning at last dawned
upon the tireless workers.
Prominent among linguists engaged upon Assyrian inscriptions were Sir
Henry Rawlinson, Fox Talbot, Jules Oppert, and a talented Irish scholar
by the name of Hincks. At last translations of certain inscriptions were
offered by these men, but critics looked at the apparently meaningless
signs and questioned the versions rendered. At least, they insisted,
there was no way to prove that a meaning had not been worked into them,
rather than out of them.
Finally it was suggested that a single inscription, hitherto unread, be
sent to the four scholars just mentioned, and that they be asked to
return their renderings sealed, to a committee appointed to examine
them. To the amazement of the world, the translations made were almost
identical, differences occurring in those portions which the translators
themselves had marked as uncertain. This was, indeed, a triumph for
students of the Assyrian language, and compelled a general agreement
that the cuneiform tongue had at last been mastered. Rapid advances were
made after this test, which was made in 1857. The translation of
numerous tablets was at once eagerly begun.
George Smith, a young man engaged to copy inscriptions required by
Rawlinson for some material he was about to publish, was not content to
copy meaningless signs, but set to work to understand them. So rapidly
did he advance in mastering the language that he became most helpful in
classifying the tablets stored in the British Museum. In connection with
his work there one incident deserves notice.
The clay tablets had been removed as carefully as possible from the
ruins of the library at Nineveh, and had been brought to the London
Museum with as little mishap as could be expected. Some were perfect,
some partly missing, some in fragments. One day George Smith came upon a
deluge story which so strongly resembled the version given in the Old
Testament that he was struck by the similarity. Now recent years have
disclosed that the flood legend has been common among all Semitic
peoples, but the fact was not established in the middle part of the last
century. Finding many portions of the story lacking, Smith felt that he
would like to go in search of them. The whole affair was widely
published, and Edwin Arnold, then editor of the Daily Telegraph of
London, became interested in it. Through his influence the Telegraph
offered five thousand guineas to pay the expenses of an expedition to
Nineveh, under the direction of George Smith, to recover, if possible,
the missing portions of the story. In 1872, accordingly, Smith started
out upon his search for the "Deluge Fragments," under contract to
telegraph his experiences and discoveries to the London paper. When he
actually came upon a fragment of the deluge epic, it was regarded in
England as a great and unexpected triumph. Two other fragments were
found, and then the Telegraph, probably thinking it had been
sufficiently advertised, decided that its venture had succeeded, and
Smith was recalled. Returning in 1873, he died in Assyria three years
later of a fever contracted in the marshy, fever-breeding country.
In recent years, excavations have been carried on in the valley of the
Euphrates under auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of this
work has been done at Nippur, and accounts of the discoveries have been
published. An agreement was made with the Turkish government to the
effect that all remains uncovered be turned over to the Imperial Museum
at Constantinople. So generous did the leaders of this college band
prove in aiding the Turks to classify objects found, accepting no
remuneration for their services, that the Sultan was pleased to present
a large number of them to the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania,
where they are today exhibited.
[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF TIMBER FOR SARGON'S PALACE.
(The God Ea, represented in the lower left-hand corner as half man, half
fish, escorts the fleet.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Isaiah 13, 19-22; 31, 8-9. NOTE.--This is the A. V. version. It
should read:
The Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not a man's,
And a sword, not a human one, shall devour him.
[And he shall flee from the face of the sword,
And his brave ones shall become tributary,
And his rock he will run by in terror,
And his princes in fright shall abandon their flag.]
The destruction is to be _supernatural_, according to Isaiah. The lines
in brackets are probably a later addition.--(CRAIG.)
[2] Sherley: His Relation of His Travels Into Persia.
[3] Rogers: Hist. of Babylonia and Assyria, 154.
[4] Loftus: Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana.
CHAPTER II.
SOURCES OF BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN HISTORY.
In considering the four important sources of Babylonian and Assyrian
history, we may note first, Old Testament writings.
Unquestionably the Bible has gained more through Assyrian excavations
than it has itself contributed to the history of that country. As has
been said before, the Old Testament consists of Hebrew writings which
portray various phases of Hebrew life, and mention is made of other
nations only when the Chosen People by force of circumstances were
thrown in direct contact with them. Since their kingdom was overcome by
Babylonians, we could scarcely expect Hebrew writers to hold
unprejudiced opinions regarding their own conquerors; nevertheless
whatever facts concerning them crept into their writings have been
verified by modern discovery.
Much is often revealed in a few words, as is characteristic of Biblical
expression. For example, see how much is condensed in the following
sentence: "And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his
land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the
river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt."
Not alone have the facts recorded in the Old Testament proved useful to
those engaged in reconstructing the history of the Tigris-Euphrates
nations, but the desire of religious adherents to confirm the truth and
accuracy of ancient Hebrew writings has served as an incentive both to
those who did the work and to those who by contributions made the task
possible.
The writings of the early Greeks concerning Babylonia and Assyria supply
another source. Berosus was a Babylonian priest connected with a temple
sacred to Bel. He lived during the fourth century before Christ, when
Babylonia and Assyria had become Greek provinces. For the Antiochus he
wrote a lengthy history of his country, which would have been of
greatest value to us had it been preserved. Unfortunately it was
destroyed, and only excerpts, made by Polyhistor and Apollodoras of the
first century B.C., are now in existence.
Herodotus devoted more than twenty chapters of his first volume to
Babylonia, but owing to certain faults we have found characteristic of
his writings, he has led some scholars to even declare that he never saw
the country at all. While they cannot be wholly depended upon, his
writings have some value. Other Greek writers have thrown so little
light on Babylonian life that we shall not consider them here at all.
Thirdly, we may mention Egyptian records as a source for Mesopotamian
history. The Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform symbols of the
Assyrian tongue were translated about the same time, so that little
actual help was gained through Egyptian sources. Nevertheless, campaigns
waged by Egyptian kings within the very borders of Asiatic countries,
with detailed accounts as set forth upon the walls of Egyptian temples,
cannot fail to aid in the reconstruction of Assyrian growth and
development.
Lastly and most important of all are the monuments and remains unearthed
in Mesopotamia itself. More than one hundred thousand clay record
tablets have been recovered; temples and palaces have been excavated,
and within these were found alabaster slabs carved with many scenes
characteristic of Assyrian life; armour, utensils and numerous other
articles have each thrown some light upon the ancient civilization. The
value of this first hand, or original material, is priceless indeed,
since without it no detailed knowledge of these old kingdoms could ever
have been hoped for. Explorations among the ruins are still carried on,
and it is possible that the present century may add much to what has
already been gained concerning the ancient dwellers in the once fertile
valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
If you will look closely at a map of the eastern hemisphere, you will
see that a great tract of desert extends across northern Africa, and
reaching beyond the Mediterranean Sea, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red
Sea, traverses the entire width of Asia to the Pacific Ocean. This
desert waste is so broken by plateaus and mountain ranges that its vast
extent is scarcely realized. Rivers occasionally cross it, producing
fertile valleys which, generally speaking, support the life of the whole
area.
We are now concerned with the location and topography of the ancient
Babylonian and Assyrian kingdoms, and of those districts lying adjacent.
North of the Persian Gulf some considerable distance, we find the
Armenian mountains. These ranges are loftier than most in Western Asia,
piercing high above the eternal snow-line. During winter their sides and
gorges are massed with snow, which melts rapidly with the warmth of
spring and heat of summer. The drainage of the mountains has resulted in
many streams, which unite to form the Euphrates on the western slopes,
and on the eastern slopes, form the Tigris. Ages ago these two rivers
emptied into the Persian Gulf at points some distance from each other.
But such heavy deposits of rich mountain loam have been brought down by
the streams, that they have extended the land far into the gulf, pushing
the water back for some hundred miles. Joining one another in the area
thus formed, the waters of the two streams reach the gulf today as one
mighty river with many mouths. We may judge how great changes this
land-building process has wrought by the fact that the town of Ur, now
nearly two hundred miles from the gulf, was a sea-port at the time of
which we are now studying. The annual increase of the land is about 115
feet.
Herodotus' statement that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile," might have
been made with equal truth of the Euphrates and Babylonia. Here again an
annual overflow refreshes a valley, while in antiquity a network of
canals provided water, fertility, and humidity for districts sloping off
gently on either side.
Today this territory is held by the Turks, and with their ruinous policy
of trying to extract all possible revenue from their lands while doing
nothing to improve them, the old canals are abandoned, none others take
their place, and the rivers wander today at will, leaving part of the
area parched and unproductive, and converting the rest into
fever-breeding swamps and marshes.
The Euphrates is the longer of the two rivers. Taking its rise west of
a lofty mountain, it receives several tributaries near its source, but
none join it during the last eight hundred miles of its course. The
snows melt gradually; in March the stream begins to overflow its
channel; high water mark is reached by the first of June, and July finds
the waters receding. This river is very winding in its course, at one
place being but one hundred miles from the Mediterranean Sea and near
Babylon running along within twenty-five miles of the Tigris, only to
immediately branch off again to the south. Its entire length is about
eighteen hundred miles, and most of the water is spent before it reaches
the Gulf.
The Tigris is somewhat different from its sister stream. Its name
signifies "the swift," or the "arrowy," and indicates its rapid current,
whereas the Euphrates flows more gently. Not so broad as the Euphrates,
the Tigris is much deeper. On the east of the high mountains wherein
this river has its rise, spring comes quickly; the water rises rapidly,
and the period of its overflow is short. Beginning to rise in March, the
first of May sees the high water mark, and by the last of June the
stream is fast finding its usual volume.
The territory between the Tigris and Euphrates the Greeks called
Mesopotamia, meaning "between two rivers," but they applied the name to
the northern portion of the district--the home of the Assyrians. As
generally used today, the term Mesopotamia signifies the whole region.
The southern portion, bordering on the Persian Gulf, has a deep alluvial
soil, built up by the yearly deposit of the rivers. Like the valley of
the Nile, it has been the repository of fine silt. This portion from its
capital city Babylon was called Babylonia. As we might expect, this was
the country first settled because it was the more accessible. Its wide,
monotonous plains, enriched with the fertile mountain loam, afforded the
most productive farm lands in the world. Herodotus told of their
prodigious yield of grain: "This territory is of all that we know the
best by far for producing grain; as to trees, it does not attempt to
bear them, either fig, or vine or olive, but for producing grain it is
so good that it returns as much as two-hundred-fold for the average,
and, when it bears its best, it produces three-hundred-fold. The blades
of the wheat and barley there grew to be four fingers broad; and from
millet and sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall
not record, being well aware that even what has already been said
relating to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in
those who have not visited Babylonia." Theophrastus wrote: "In Babylon
the wheat fields are regularly mown twice, and then fed off with beasts
to keep down the luxuriance of the leaf; otherwise the plant does not
run to ear. When this is done the return in lands that are badly
cultivated is fiftyfold, while in those that are well farmed it is a
hundredfold."
The land of Babylonia has been happily compared with the southern half
of our state of Louisiana, which it resembles in marshy districts. Again
it might be likened to the Egyptian Delta, being of course,
larger,--something like Denmark in point of area. Possessing no rocks or
mountains, the country seemed at first to be devoid of building
material. It has been supposed that its primitive people first sheltered
themselves in huts built of reeds which grew abundantly along the river
banks. After awhile it was discovered that clay mud furnished a fair
material when shaped into bricks and dried in the sun. A more enduring
brick was later made by baking the brick in ovens. This oven-baked brick
as well as the sun-dried brick constituted the great building material
of Babylonia for all subsequent time.
The district north of the alluvial line, enclosed by rivers and
mountains, in time became the kingdom of Assyria. This region differed
greatly from the southern land. It was made up of low ranges on the
north, rolled gently to the south, and supplied excellent pasturage.
Stone and material suitable to building purposes were available, but the
people, accustomed to the clay bricks of their old home in Babylonia,
never made use of the more substantial building stuff. Indeed the
Assyrians were not at all of an inventive mind, as another illustration
will plainly show. In Babylonia, because the ground was low and level,
the people were obliged to construct artificial heights for building
sites, thus to escape marshy exhalations and troublesome insects. They
erected huge piles of sun-dried brick and crowned these with their
palaces and temples.
Now the Assyrians were in the beginning colonists who had gone out of
the mother state to find less populated regions farther north. There
were hills and elevations in abundance in Assyria, but holding to the
custom they had so long followed, they continued to construct great
foundations of bricks for their buildings. It is curious indeed to find
them, throughout their history, expending time, labor and resources to
produce what nature had already provided.
Assyria was somewhat larger than Babylonia, and has been compared to the
state of Illinois in size. While the northern mountains and the Gulf
afforded definite boundaries, the limits to the east and west were never
certain and both Babylonians and Assyrians pushed out in each direction
as they became more powerful, contracting again if their strength
weakened. On the west a desert separated them from the Mediterranean,
and while various tribes held the country east of the Tigris in early
times, the Medes later conquered the region east of Assyria, and Persia
reached away to the southeast.
There are two seasons in these valleys--the rainy period, lasting from
November to March, and the dry season, filling out the remainder of the
year. Babylonia was never subject to the cold storms of Assyria, and the
kings of the latter country, after they conquered Babylonia, frequently
maintained winter palaces in the old capital, Babylon. Summer is
intensely hot near the Gulf. In recent years this has been a serious
obstacle to confront those carrying on excavations here.
In ancient times an extensive system of canals and ditches made it
possible to keep the land under constant cultivation, thus preventing in
a large measure the sand storms that now spread over the country,
causing much suffering and even death. Under Turkish rule at present,
the whole region is left desolate.
In spite of Herodotus to the contrary, certain kinds of trees grew in
Babylonia. The fig, apple, almond and walnut were native. The date palm
ministered to the wants of the people in manifold ways. An old Persian
poem sung of its 360 uses, while the Greeks claimed that it supplied the
Babylonians with bread, wine, vinegar, honey, rope, fuel, wood for
furniture, and food for cattle. A wide variety of grains and vegetables
were produced.
Wild animals were plentiful. The Mesopotamian lion was thought milder
than its jungle cousin. Buffaloes were domesticated. Leopards, hyænas,
wild boars, gazelles, foxes and hares were found, while birds and fishes
abounded.
Altogether this was a spot where life was favorable for man, and it was
natural that wandering tribes that came thither should soon abandon
their roving habits for the surer livelihood promised by a fixed home.
[Illustration: SARGON'S STANDARD (WITH FIGURE OF ASSHUR).]
CHAPTER III.
PREHISTORIC CHALDEA.
We have already noted that prehistoric periods are those preceding
written records. Uncertainty enters into all attempts to reconstruct
such a period for any people, and especially has this been true of
Babylonia. However, when the library of Nineveh was unearthed, tablets
were discovered which shed some light on those remote ages.
The land we call Babylonia was once called Chaldea. So we shall call it
during its prehistoric age--as we call the British Island Britain in the
beginning of its history, and later, England. By the term Chaldea we are
to understand that portion of the valleys which extended around the
Persian Gulf. It was inhabited at the earliest period known. Probably
its first settlers were a branch of the Turanian or Yellow Race, to
which the Chinese, Japanese, Monguls and present-day Turks belong. That
the Chaldeans came from some other locality into this land is not
doubted, but from whence they came is not known.
The southern part of Chaldea was called Shumir--the Hebrews writing it
_Shinar_; the land immediately north they called Accad. The dwellers in
both districts came from the same stock and spoke practically the same
language. The name _Accad_ means mountains, or highlands, and it has
been surmised that it may have attached to the inhabitants from some
earlier home.
These early people may have migrated to Chaldea five or six thousand
years before the Christian era. Of their coming and first settlements,
nothing is known. When we first learn of them, they had reached quite a
degree of civilization, having canals for irrigating the lands unreached
by the river; they had also devised the cuneiform system of writing--an
advance on the picture system, earlier in use.
The history of their strange symbols was probably this: in ages bygone
they had invented a system of picture writing, as all primitive people
seem to have done. As they advanced, too much time was required to copy
the elaborate pictures in their entirety, and so the principal outlines
were used to represent the pictures themselves. When these people
migrated to Chaldea, and were reduced to clay tablets on which to write,
it was easier to make straight lines than curved ones. In this way the
written language continued to undergo changes until it was eventually
made up of wedge-shaped symbols, one of the clear results of the use of
the clay tablets.
Our principal knowledge concerning the Chaldeans pertains to their
religion, which is believed to have been one of the earliest religions
of the world.
The religious instinct seems to have been inborn with man. Some form and
degree of worship has been found among all primitive people and is
cruder or more elevated according to the stage of development. Primitive
man felt himself able to cope with many of the conditions around him,
but he soon found that the very agencies which helped might also injure
him. The sun, whose light and warmth gave life to his growing crops,
might also wither them with its intense heat. The rain which renewed and
refreshed the fields, might come in torrents and lay them low. Gradually
all these agencies were regarded as _Beings_, which must be importuned.
The religion of the Chaldeans taught man how to guard himself against
the harmful forces in the world, and every animate and inanimate thing
was endowed with a spirit.
A series of tablets treating of this ancient religion was recovered by
Rassam, and they fall into three divisions: those treating of "Evil
Spirits," others concerning diseases, and last, those devoted to prayers
and hymns of praise.
The Accadian conceived of the earth as resembling a huge, inverted bowl.
The thickness represented the earth's crust; the hollow beneath was
thought of as a bottomless pit, destined to be the final dwelling place
of man, and was the abode of demons. Above the earth were two heavens;
the higher, supported by a lofty mountain; the lower containing seven
kind and friendly planets, which wandered at will through its wide
domains. Opposed to these were seven fiery phantoms. Over all dwelt the
great Spirit Ana.
"Between the lower heaven and the surface of the earth is the
atmospheric region, the realm of Mermer, the Wind, where he drives the
clouds, rouses the storms, and whence he pours down the rain, which is
stored in the great reservoir of Ana, in the heavenly Ocean. As to the
earthly Ocean, it is fancied as a broad river, flowing all around the
edge of the imaginary inverted bowl; in its waters dwells Ea, the great
Spirit of the Earth and Waters, either in the form of a fish, whence he
is frequently called "Ea the fish," or "the exalted fish," or on a
magnificent ship, with which he travels around the earth, guarding and
protecting it.
"The minor spirits of the earth are not much spoken of except in a body,
a sort of host or legion. All the more terrible are the seven spirits of
the abyss, the Maskim, of whom it is said that, although their seat is
in the depths of the earth, yet their voice resounds on the heights
also; they reside at will in the immensity of space, 'not enjoying a
good name either in heaven or on earth.' Their greatest delight is to
subvert the orderly course of nature, to cause earthquakes, inundations,
ravaging tempests."[1]
The Maskim were ever feared and hated as is shown by the following,
translated from one of the tablets:
"They are seven! they are seven!--Seven are they in the depths of
Ocean,--seven they are, disturbers of the face of Heaven.--They arise
from the depths of Ocean, from hidden lurking-places.--They spread like
snares.--Male they are not, female they are not. Wives they have not,
children are not born to them.--Order they know not, nor
beneficence;--prayers and supplications they hear not. Horses grown in
the bowels of the mountains--foes of EA--they are throne-bearers of the
gods--they sit in the roads and make them unsafe.--The fiends! The
fiends! They are seven, they are seven, seven are they!
"Spirit of Heaven, be they conjured! Spirit of Earth, be they conjured!"
A CHARM.
Seven are they, they are seven;
In the caverns of ocean they dwell,
They are clothed in the lightnings of heaven,
Of their growth the deep waters can tell;
Seven are they, they are seven.
Broad is their way and their course is wide,
Where the seeds of destruction they sow,
O'er the tops of the hills where they stride,
To lay waste the smooth highways below,--
Broad is their way and their course is wide.
Man they are not, nor womankind,
For in fury they sweep from the main,
And have wedded no wife but the wind,
And no child have begotten but pain,--
Man they are not, nor womankind.
Fear is not in them, nor awe;
Supplication they heed not, nor prayer,
For they know no compassion nor law,
And are deaf to the cries of despair,--
Fear is not in them, nor awe.
Cursed they are, they are cursed,
They are foes to wise EA'S name;
By the whirlwind are all things dispersed
On the paths of the flash of their flame,--
Cursed are they, they are cursed.
Spirit of Heaven, oh help! Help, oh Spirit of Earth!
They are seven, thrice said they are seven;
For the gods they are Bearers of Thrones,
But for men they are Breeders of Dearth
And the authors of sorrows and moans.
They are seven, thrice said they are seven.
Spirit of Heaven, oh help! Help, oh Spirit of Earth!
--_Rendered into verse by Dyer._
Besides these seven hated ones, there were numberless demons who could
work all manner of evil for man. They were invisible and brought
sickness, sorrow, insanity, and grief. No house was secure against them,
and no bolt strong enough to keep them out.
To contend against so much evil, it was necessary to employ conjurers
and those skilled in magic, who by incantations and mixtures of herbs
might discover the demons and put them to flight. Like the Egyptians,
the Chaldeans believed that when one was ill, a demon had taken
possession of his body, which must be driven out before recovery would
be possible. As a result of this belief, the science of medicine never
developed in Babylonia. Even in its advanced period, magicians treated
the sick.
Charms and talismans were in great demand to ward off demons. They were
worn by the living and adorned the dead. Many articles of furniture were
made to serve two purposes--as household conveniences or ornaments, and
talismans. Thus the winged bulls which have been found guarding the
portals of royal palaces were placed there to keep out demons who would
manage in some way to creep in unless prevented by eternal vigilance.
It was believed that certain of these demons were so forbidding in
aspect that should they but catch sight of their own faces, they would
be frightened away. Therefore a most dreadful demon was fashioned, as
terrible and fierce as human ingenuity could conceive. This impersonated
the south-west wind--the wind which brought burning heat and drought in
its wake. An image thus made was placed in southwest windows, with the
hope that the approaching demon might look upon himself and flee in
terror.
As time went on, the Chaldeans progressed in their religious beliefs,
and the third series of tablets record prayers and hymns of adoration.
Nothing was more natural than that they should worship the sun, as a
manifestation of divinity which provided heat, light and life itself,
for the children of the earth. Some of these hymns are beautiful in
their conception.
"O Sun, I have called unto thee in the bright heavens. In the shadow of
the cedar art thou; Thy feet are on the summits--The countries have
wished for thee, they have longed for thy coming, O Lord! Thy radiant
light illumines all countries. Thou makest lies to vanish, thou
destroyest the noxious influence of portents, omens, spells, dreams and
evil apparitions; thou turnest wicked plots to a happy issue.
"O Sun! thou hast stepped forth from the background of heaven, thou hast
pushed back the bolts of the brilliant heaven,--yea, the gate of heaven.
O Sun! above the land thou hast raised thy head! O Sun! thou hast
covered the immeasurable space of heaven and countries!"
The sun disappeared at evening tide, and during the night contended with
the spirits of darkness. Some other protection was needed for man while
darkness reigned. So fire was brought into existence, and was also
regarded as worthy of worship:
"Thou who drivest away the evil Maskim, who furtherest the well-being of
life, who strikest the breast of the wicked with terror,--Fire, the
destroyer of foes, dread weapon which drivest away Pestilence."
Certain wandering Turanian tribes today cling to a religion much like
the one so briefly described. Like their remote ancestors, they have
conjurers instead of priests.
When they had reached this stage of development, the Chaldeans were
overpowered by a vast barbaric horde.
THE STORY OF GENESIS RELATIVE TO THE FIRST SETTLEMENT IN SHUMIR.
"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came
to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the
land of _Shinar_; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go
to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for
stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build
us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make
us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children
of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they
have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will
be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us
go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand
one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel;[2] because the Lord did there
confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord
scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
* * * * *
"And Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said,
Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of
his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calnch, in the land of
Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the
city Rehoboth, and Calah. And Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same
is a great city.
* * * * *
"And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son,
and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth
with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and
they came unto Haran, and dwelt there."--_Genesis 10 and 11._
The first great Semitic invasion took place probably about the beginning
of the fourth millennium B.C., and it seems impossible to assign to it a
more definite date. The later Babylonians, like the Chinese, gave great
antiquity to their nation, reckoning back into hundreds of thousands of
years. Their beginnings belonged to so remote a time that adding years
inconceivably was but another way of saying that certain events happened
very long ago, so long, indeed, that no record or monument remained to
give evidence of events which had survived only in stories handed down,
from father to son, for thousands of generations.
Like the Hebrews and Arabs, these people belonged to the Semitic race,
and from whence they came has long been a matter of conjecture. Scholars
are now agreed that Arabia had been their home and that there they had
lived as shepherds and herdsmen. They poured in overwhelming forces into
the land of Chaldea, killing some of the inhabitants, driving others
out of the country, and assimilating the rest.
The Chaldeans had reached a much higher degree of culture than their
conquerors, who rapidly took on the civilization of their adopted
country. As in England the Saxon and Norman for some generations after
the conquest pursued each his native life and customs, little influenced
by the other, so in Chaldea at first the Semitic herdsman followed his
pastoral life outside the brick-walled cities of the Chaldeans.
Some have thought that an invasion of Cushites, or Ethiopians, had
preceded the invasion of the Semites in Chaldea, and have claimed that
the language, customs and culture in the land when conquered by the
Semites was the result of a blending of Turanian and Ethiopian. The
theory has been vigorously opposed by other authorities who contend that
the invading Semites found only pure Turanian stock. However that may
be, the civilization and culture of Chaldea, whether simply Turanian, or
Turanian-Cushite, was soon taken on by the newcomers. Adopting the
Chaldean language, they used it for all their inscriptions, writings and
literature. Even after the speech of the people had become quite a
different tongue, as a result of its assimilation with the Semitic,
still in all written records the early Chaldean language--or Sumerian,
as it is generally called--was alone used. Assyriologists have often
noted that "while the language was Sumerian, the spirit of the writings
was Semitic."
Because the land of Chaldea was so accessible, and offered advantages so
superior to surrounding countries--plentiful water and a fertile
soil,--it became a veritable bee-hive of humanity. When the Semites
first came thither, they were a fierce, warlike people; but soon, under
new conditions, they became peace-loving, as the Turanians before them
had been. Shortly they were unable to hold the valley against new tribes
that unceasingly swarmed into the country.
Prior to 2000 B.C. Ashur had been settled probably in part at least, by
emigrants from the south who may have united with other Semites from
North Mesopotamia and in time they founded the state of Assyria.
Somewhat later, the ancestors of the Hebrews, according to one of the O.
T. traditions, departed from the land of Chaldea for Harran in
Mesopotamia, and later entered Canaan, on the east coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. Each of these little bands founded states which
developed such peculiar characteristics, that after the lapse of a few
ages, it would scarcely have occurred to an observer that the ancestry,
early environment, and traditions of all had been the same.
It was not strange, then, that the Hebrews of later time, trying to
account for the diversity of languages and nations, made this swarming
valley the site of the scattering of the tribes and the confusion of
tongues.
Those who remained in Chaldea became a peaceful farming people, caring
not at all for war. The Assyrians, while of the same stock, developed
very differently. There were several reasons for this. First, their
country was less accessible than Chaldea, whose shore was washed by the
Persian Gulf, and so it suffered less from invasions, and was allowed to
keep a more purely Semitic civilization. Again, having gone out from
Chaldea before they became devoted to peaceful pursuits, the Assyrians
retained and fostered their original warlike dispositions. The more
temperate climate of Assyria was more invigorating and produced men of
greater endurance than did the kingdom to the south.
Both Chaldea and Assyria alike, developed small states, each led by a
city in which had been built a temple sacred to some local deity. Each
community was presided over by one who combined the duties of king and
priest.
Such was the condition of affairs when the first written records, more
or less complete, bring some degree of certainty and less conjecture
into the development of these nations. And here we arrive at the
beginning of Mesopotamian history, properly so-called.
[Illustration: A JAR-SHAPED COFFIN OF CLAY.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Ragozin: Chaldea.
[2] This is a late popular etymology. Babel means "the gate of God," and
has no connection with the Hebrew verb _balal_ "to confound."
CHAPTER IV.
CITY-STATES BEFORE THE RISE OF BABYLON.
We have seen that the Chaldeans were in time assimilated with the
invading Semites, producing eventually a new nation. It is not to be
supposed that this was at once accomplished, or that the dawn of
authentic history found such a process completed. Rather, the Chaldeans
held tenaciously to the south, the Semites kept farther to the north,
and for many centuries the two races fought for dominance in the valley.
As early as 4500 B.C., a record inscribes one as "king of Kengi," but
his kingdom probably included but a few cities added to his own.
Several cities had been founded at a remote time and these now grew
rapidly in importance. Each was built around a temple dedicated to some
particular divinity. Eridu worshipped the god EA, father of waters; Ur
was sacred to Sin, the moon-god, and later kings, of the dynasty of Ur,
added the name Sin to their own, as for example, Ine-Sin, Pur-Sin.
Larsam was sacred to the sun-god Shamash; Uruk to the goddess Ishtar;
Nippur to En-lil, father of the gods, and so on. Each city believed that
its god--Bel or Lord--was the greatest of all gods, and often its
inhabitants were inspired to go out to conquer other cities and
territories in order to extend the prestige of the local deity. Probably
at the same time the people were stimulated to fight because certain
cities had grown up in the very heart of the fertile valley, while
others had been obliged to locate in poorer sections. Naturally these
last looked with envious eyes upon the richer soil of their neighbors,
and desired to win it for themselves. Each city watched for the first
sign of weakness in her sister cities, and when it appeared, tried at
once to incorporate them into her own domains.
The political history of the Euphrates valley before the dominance of
Babylon is the history of these cities as they grew into little states.
Some grew strong; others weakened and became tributary to the more
vigorous few.
En-shag-kush-ana, "Lord of Kengiu," was the name of the first king to
appear in the Babylonian records. Erech was probably his capital, and
Nippur the religious center of his little kingdom. We have already
connected Nippur with the excavations made by the University of
Pennsylvania. The ruins there unearthed have enabled scholars to
understand in the main sacred cities of Babylonia. En-shag-kush-ana was
priest as well as king. Although his race was not mentioned, he was
probably a Chaldean, like the people over whom he ruled.
A little to the north, a Semitic kingdom with the city Kish as its head,
was growing rapidly in power, and threatened to absorb even Erech
itself. On this account, Chaldeans attacked it and gained the victory,
whereupon their god, En-lil of Nippur was celebrated in festival and his
temple received numerous trophies of the triumph, since he had enabled
those of the south to overcome the cruder Semitic city.
Their defeat only led the Semitic kingdom of Kish to strengthen its
forces, and about 4000 B.C., under leadership of Lugalzaggisi, the vigor
of the new race overcame the nearly expended force of the Chaldeans.
This conquering Semitic king set forth his position thus: "Lugalzaggisi,
king of Erech, king of the world, priest of Ana, hero of Nidaba, son of
Ukush, he who is looked upon favorably by the faithful eye of En-lil.
"When En-lil, Lord of the lands, invested Lugalzaggisi with the kingdom
of the world, and granted him success before the world, when he filled
the land with his power, and subdued the country from the rise of the
sun to the setting sun--at that time he straightened his path from the
lower sea of the Tigris and Euphrates to the upper sea, and granted him
the dominion of everything from the rising sun to the setting of the
sun, and caused the countries to dwell in peace."[1]
For some generations the Semites now held the valley and the Chaldeans
are lost sight of in surviving records. Then a southern kingdom,
Shirpurla, with Sungir its chief city, became strong enough to throw off
Semitic rule. This victory of the Chaldeans was widely celebrated in the
annals of the waning race. Not only did they now gain the upper hand of
all the cities in the valley, but they pushed into Elam, a kingdom to
the east and dominated both it and its tributary lands.
While comparisons in history may sometimes be misleading, they often aid
the student to better understand certain conditions. There is some
similarity between these two races in this valley contending for
supremacy--the stronger being sometimes held in check, the weaker
gradually losing ground--in certain aspects, it calls to mind the period
in English history when Saxons, Jutes and Angles struggled for
leadership. The Saxons had developed the higher civilization; the Danes
were the more vigorous and aggressive. Sometimes the Saxons would be
able to set up their king, again the Danes would enthrone one of their
number. Now the waning light of Saxon power would seem to be well-nigh
spent, when suddenly it would burst out again with a flame that would
illumine all England, only again to be eclipsed by the fresh strength of
the other nation. Not to push the comparison further, either country
offers a fair example of the usual course events take whenever two
races, somewhat equal in strength, seek to gain the upper hand in a
given territory.
A northern city, hitherto unmentioned, was to give the palm once more to
the Semitic. Agade, the home-city of Shargani-shar-ali, or Sargon I.
Many legends cluster around this king, an early Semitic hero. Since our
knowledge of him comes mainly through legendary sources, it is difficult
to separate the grain from the chaff. A tradition which in the course of
history has been related many times of men in many lands, was told first
of this Semitic king.
"Sargon, the powerful king, King of Agade, am I.
"My mother was of low degree, my father I did not know.
"The brother of my father dwelt in the mountain.
"My city was Azupirani, situated on the banks of the Euphrates.
"(My) humble mother conceived me; in secret she brought me forth.
"She placed me in a bask-boat of rushes; with pitch she closed my door.
"She gave me over to the river, which did not (rise) over me.
"The river bore me along; to Akki, the irrigator, it carried me.
"Akki, the irrigator, ... brought me to land.
"Akki, the irrigator, reared me as his own son.
"Akki, the irrigator, appointed me his gardener.
"While I was gardener, Ishtar looked on me with love.
* * * * *
"Four years I ruled the kingdom."[2]
Sargon I. and his son, Naram Sin, had great capacity for organization.
They were prolific builders, and bricks have been found bearing their
names and titles. The material for their temples they brought some
distance--the famous cedars of Lebanon forming the beams. Sargon was
called "Lord of Nippur, Shirpurla, Kish, Babylon and Uruk." Naram Sin
extended his sway to the Mediterranean on the west, east into Elam, and
south into Arabia and the isles of the Persian Gulf. He took for the
first time the title: "King of the Four World-Regions." His vast kingdom
thus built up disappeared, however, as quickly as it came into being,
and after some changes, Ur became the capital center. Three thousand
eight hundred B.C. has been accepted as the date of Sargon's reign and
this is the first definite date in Babylonian history.
The kings of the Ur dynasty erected several temples, and because Ur was
easy of access, they imported many of their building materials. Dolerite
was brought from Arabia, cedar from Syria, gold and precious stones from
the east. This town was sacred to Sin, the moon-god, and several hymns
praising this deity have been found.
Isin, Erech, and other cities strove now for leadership, and internal
dissensions offered opportunity for the Elamites on the east, now
advancing on a wave of prosperity, to invade the land. It is known that
they advanced as far as Erech, and carried off a statue of the goddess
Nana. They set up their own king, whose line continued on the throne for
some time. One of these invading kings called himself: "exalter of Ur,
king of Larsa, king of Sumer and Accad." Under Elamite administration,
temples were built and the religious and commercial centers continued to
grow.
Of this whole period Maspero has said: "We have here the dust of history
rather than history itself; here an isolated individual makes his
appearance in the record of his name, to vanish when we attempt to lay
hold of him; there the stem of a dynasty which breaks abruptly off,
pompous preambles, devout formulas, dedications of objects of buildings,
here or there the account of some battle, or the indication of some
foreign country with which relations of friendship or commerce were
maintained--these are the scanty materials of which to construct a
narrative."
To summarize the period as a whole, we may note that thus far no united
kingdom had been evolved. To weld that together was the work of the next
period. This was, on the other hand, an age of city-states, each one
contesting for leadership. While the struggle began with the mere hope
of annexing cities in the valley, it expanded to include outlying lands
as well. The assimilation of the two races was, generally speaking,
effected, and henceforth the Chaldeans disappear as a distinct element
of the country, having been absorbed politically by the Semites.
A PART OF A HYMN TO THE MOON-GOD.[3]
(Composed in the city of Ur before the age of Abraham.)
Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness,
Whose hands uphold the life of all mankind!
First born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity,
There is none who may fathom it!
In heaven, who is supreme?
Thou alone, Thou art supreme.
On earth, who is supreme?
Thou alone, Thou art supreme.
As for Thee, Thy will is made known in heaven,
And the angels bow their faces.
As for Thee, Thy will is made known upon earth,
And the spirits kiss the ground.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hilprecht: Old Babylonian Inscriptions.
[2] Trans. quoted by Goodspeed: Hist. of the Bab. and Assy., p. 62.
[3] Translated by Sayce.
CHAPTER V.
DOMINANCE OF BABYLON, 2100-1100 B.C.
In early times Babylon had not been a city of sufficient size to demand
royal attention. No king had thought it of enough importance to include
with his enumerated possessions, although in all probability, it was
founded as early as 4000 B.C.--perhaps earlier still. Sumu-abi was its
first king, but of him and his immediate successors, we know little. The
sixth king was destined to bring greatness to his city and to the whole
country--for it was he who united the many states of Babylonia into one
strong kingdom and drove the usurping Elamites from the throne.
Hammurabi, sixth king of Babylon, ruled in the twenty-first century
B.C. His reign and the reigns of his family were regarded by the
Babylonians as their "Golden Age." Down to the last days of Babylon,
Babylonian kings emulated his example, modelling even their inscriptions
after his.
How Hammurabi freed the land from Elamite rule is not known, but his
name was soon established as an able soldier. He assumed the titles:
King of Sumer and Accad, King of the Four-Quarters of the World, King of
Babylon. Having annexed all the little city-states to his original
kingdom of Babylon, the capital city gave its name to the whole country.
To make this union lasting, Hammurabi himself appointed officers of
administration for each political division of the kingdom, and so made
the entire system dependent upon the government at the capital. The
pre-eminence now given the capital turned the tide of commerce and
traffic from other places and made Babylon the great center, not only
for matters of government, but for industrial and social life as well.
Hammurabi was not only a distinguished warrior, but a statesman. When he
had made secure his recently united kingdom, he turned to internal
improvements. A post-envoy system for royal messages was established.
This tended to make the roads and highways between different parts of
the country safe. He established royal granaries in the valley of the
Euphrates--as we have found them maintained in the valley of the
Nile--to store grain for use in time of famine.
As each succeeding city was exalted to leadership in Babylonia, we have
found that the patron deity of that community rose to highest place in
the pantheon. Originally, Marduk was accorded a minor position in the
category of gods. By enabling Babylon to gain supremacy over all other
cities, he had now proven himself greatest of all gods; so while Nippur
and other religious centers, long established, retained their deities
and their cults, there came forward a large priesthood devoted to the
worship of Marduk. These priests, centered as they were around Babylon,
probably had much to do with that city's rapid progress in becoming the
center of culture, art and literary effort. Long years after, when the
kings of warlike Assyria had added Babylonia to their numerous
possessions, they turned to the archives of this city for its literary
productions and one of the most productive periods was the reign of
Hammurabi.
Perhaps the most stupendous undertaking of this king was the
construction of a vast canal which reclaimed a large tract of land, long
unproductive. An inscription left by him has been found, and sets forth
his effort in this fashion:
"Hammurabi, the powerful king, king of Babylonia, ... when Anu and Bel
gave unto me to rule the land of Sumer and Accad, and with their scepter
filled my hands, I dug the canal Hammurabi, the Blessing-of-Men, which
bringeth the water of the overflow into the land of Sumer and Accad. Its
banks upon both sides I made arable land; much seed I scattered upon it.
Lasting water I provided for the land of Sumer and Accad. The land of
Sumer and Accad, its separated peoples I united, with blessings and
abundance I endowed them, in peaceful dwellings I made them to live."[1]
He was a tireless builder, spending much care in repairing old temples
and constructing new ones. Indeed King Hammurabi stands forth, after
four thousand years have passed, as a ruler of exceptional executive
ability. Prosperity long attended his people because of the personal
supervision he gave to all branches of the administration.
Among the lasting benefits assured his subjects was means of getting
legal redress. A court of appeals was instituted at Babylon to which any
citizen might come to state his wrongs. He codified the laws of the land
in 282 laws and inscribed them on monoliths, one of which was found ten
years ago in Susa, whither it had been carried by the Elamites about
1100 B.C. In the prologue to the Code he states, "When Marduk sent me to
rule the people ... I established law and justice in the land and
promoted the welfare of the people."
Long after his death his son and successors reaped the benefits of
Hammurabi's splendid rule, and the memory of his strength and capacity
held the country in check as long as his house endured. Probably for
some time before the close of this prosperous era, which came to an end
cir. 1700 B.C., mountaineers threatened the eastern borders, and the
death of the last king of the dynasty was the occasion for an invasion
of the Kassites, a people who emerged from Elam-Media. They seem to have
been one of the many bands of mountaineers who gained a livelihood from
the products of the mountainous regions and by frequent plundering raids
directed against those living on either side of their strongholds. They
well knew that Babylon's long devotion to the arts of peace had weakened
her military strength, and regarded the time as favorable for winning
the fertile valleys for themselves. At all events, they placed their
king upon the throne. The inhabitants of southern Babylonia were never
possessed of strong patriotism. So long as the land was allowed to rest
in peace and the taxes were not increased, there seems to have been no
especial interest on the part of the people generally as to who wore the
crown. The material development of the country did not suffer long on
this occasion, and for nearly 600 years the Kassite dynasty ruled in
Babylon. They rapidly took on the culture of their newly acquired state,
built temples and directed their attention to the prosperity of the
land. As time went on, they wellnigh ceased to be regarded as usurpers.
One of their kings set forth his titles thus: "I am Agumkakrime, the son
of Tashshigurumash; the illustrious descendant of god Shuqamuna; called
by Anu and Bel, Ea and Marduk, Sin and Shamash; the powerful hero of
Ishtar, the warrior among the gods.
"I am a king of wisdom and prudence; a king who grants hearing and
pardon; the son of Tashshigurumash; the descendant of Abiru ... the
crafty warrior; the first son of the great Agum; an illustrious, royal
scion who holds the reins of the nation (and is) a mighty shepherd....
"I am king of the country of Kashshu and of the Akkadians; king of the
wide country of Babylon, who settles the numerous people in Ashnunak;
the King of Padan and Alman; the king of Gutium, a foolish nation; (a
king) who makes obedient to him the four regions, and a favorite of the
great gods."
This enumeration of tributary lands shows these kings to have been good
warriors.
For a hundred years before the end of the Kassite dynasty, the kingdom
of Assyria, founded before 3000 B.C. in all probability, was growing in
strength and importance. When the Babylonians were unable to hold out
against invading kings, naturally the Assyrians felt in no way bound to
render the tribute they had paid Babylonia to usurping foreigners, and
took advantage of the occasion to assert their sovereignty.
As has been previously noted, the Assyrians were of pure Semitic stock,
and, as their own artists represent them, apparently had not
intermarried with the Chaldeans, as the Semites farther south had done.
They were warlike in disposition, and knew neither the luxuries of the
southern state nor its enervating climate. They had even become powerful
enough to make treaties with the rulers of Babylon regarding disputed
lands, and this fact in itself was significant. For some considerable
period after the invasion of the Kassites, Assyria was concerned with
her own affairs, but the time was coming when she would make her power
felt in the mother country.
Generally speaking, the Kassite rule was an age of peace. Among the Tell
el Amarna letters, unearthed upon the ancient site of the "Horizon of
the Sun's Disk," correspondence has been found between some of these
Asiatic rulers and the kings of Egypt. The letters open with the
preliminaries customary in oriental correspondence: "To Kadashman-Bel,
king of Kardunyash, my brother; thus saith Amenophis, the great king,
the king of Egypt, thy brother: with me it is well. May it be well with
thee, with thy house, with thy wives, with thy children, with thy
nobles, with thy horses and with thy chariots, and with thy land may it
be well; with me may it be well, with my house with my wives, with my
children, with my nobles, with my horses, with my chariots, with my
troops, and with my land, may it be very well." Regarding this
particular letter and others of the same period, Rogers says: "No
historical material of great moment is offered in these letters. They
reveal a period of relative peace and prosperity, and deal, in
considerable measure, with the little courtesies and amenities of life.
It is, for example, curious to find the Babylonian king reproving the
king of Egypt for not having sent an ambassador to inquire for him when
he was ill. When kings had time for such courtesies, and could only
excuse themselves for failing to observe them on the ground of their
ignorance of the illness, and the great distance to be covered on the
journey, there must have been freedom from war and from all distress at
home and abroad."[2]
It was not destined to long continue peaceful, however. By 1285 B.C. the
Assyrian king felt himself powerful enough to invade Babylonia.
Penetrating even to the capital itself, he carried away the statue of
the god Marduk--a great indignity. He allowed the Babylonia king to
become his vassal. This state of affairs continued for seven years,
whereupon the Babylonians succeeded in driving the Assyrians north
again, taking from them some of the territory they had seized. When next
the Assyrians threatened, the Semites instituted a revolution, forced
the Kassites from the throne, and established the dynasty of Isin.
Now began the struggle for supremacy in the valley, waged by two great
nations. The strength of Babylonia was waning, but their king,
Nebuchadnezzar I., held the kingdom together with a strong hand. He only
delayed the inevitable. The future belonged to the more vigorous kingdom
to the north, and to her power Babylonia soon fell subservient.
To follow the main thread of activity in the Euphrates valley, we must
now turn to Assyria, while the life so characteristic of Babylon
continued until it could be said: "No capital in the world has ever been
the center of so much power, wealth, and culture for so vast a period of
time."
[Illustration: WINGED LION.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Quoted in Rogers: Hist. of Baby. and Assy., 391.
[2] Rogers: Hist. of Baby. and Assy., Vol I., p. 418.
CHAPTER VI.
BEGINNINGS OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.
The beginnings of the Assyrian state are lost in obscurity. Nineveh was
possibly founded before 3000 B.C., but like Babylon, its origin is not
known. Asshur was long the important city of the country, overshadowing
the later capital.
About 1490 B.C. Thutmose III. pushed into Asia and roused the western
portion of that continent with his conquests. Assyria, like many other
weak states, hastened to send gifts to the conquering pharaoh. These
signified submission, and Thothmes gave no further evidences of his
military power. The next mention of Assyria occurs when the state had
become sufficiently important to enter into a treaty with the Kassite
king of Babylonia, regarding disputed territories. As we have already
noted, Assyria, long subservient to the older kingdom, felt in no way
bound to submit to the foreign rule of Kassite princes, and had already
established her own independence, which was acknowledged by the
Babylonian king when he negotiated a treaty with her. Later, the
daughter of an Assyrian king was married to the king of Babylonia. Their
son came to the throne at an early age, and the Babylonians, seeing an
intrigue to allow Assyrian influences to dominate their land, made way
with the boy-king, substituting another in his place. Thereupon the
Assyrian ruler, grandfather of the murdered prince, invaded Babylonia,
killed the monarch popularly crowned, and placed his own candidate upon
the throne. The result of this Assyrian interference was not immediately
important, but it was the first of a long series of difficulties between
the two countries, which ended ultimately in the recognition of the
Assyrian king as ruler of Babylonia as well.
About 1290 B.C., troubles having again arisen, the northern king came
once more to the city of Babylon, this time carrying away the statue of
the god Marduk, as we have already seen. He left Assyrian officials in
the land as his representatives. Seven years later, these were driven
out by a popular uprising of the Babylonians, who seized certain
outlying districts which had recently been appropriated by the
Assyrians. When the Kassite princes were finally dethroned,
Nebuchadnezzar I., of the dynasty of Isin, was strong enough to hold the
Babylonian state intact against the power which constantly threatened at
the north.
To this point we had come in the preceding chapter, and this recast of
the situation is made that we may have its essential features clearly in
mind.
Coming now to the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I., 1120 B.C., we meet one of
the great warriors of antiquity, and with his administration, a new era
opened for Assyria. The first five years of his reign were occupied with
campaigns to the north, east, and west, in which directions tribes had
been menacing the borders of his kingdom. In these campaigns we see the
beginnings of those cruel, relentless punishments, amounting often to
mere savagery,--which fill the pages of Assyrian history. These were
meted out to all who failed to submit to Assyrian arms. An inscription
commemorating the victories of the warrior says: "With their corpses I
strewed the mountain passes and the heights. I took away their property,
a countless booty. Six thousand warriors, the remnant of their army, who
had fled before my arms, embraced my feet. I carried them away and
counted them among the inhabitants of my own land." And again: "In those
days, ... Asshur, the Lord, sent me, who knows no victor in war, no
rival in battle, whose rule is righteous over the four quarters of the
world, towards distant kingdoms on the shores of the Upper Sea, which
knew not submission, and I went forth. Across impracticable heights and
through precipitous defiles the inside of which no king had beheld
before, I passed. Through sixteen mountain ridges I marched in my
chariot where the ground was good; where it was inaccessible, I cleared
away with axes, and bridges for the passage of my troops I constructed
excellently well. I crossed the Euphrates.... Twenty-three kings of the
land of Nairi, assembled their chariots and troops in the midst of their
countries and came forth to do battle against me. By the impetuous
onslaught of my mighty arms I conquered them. I destroyed their numerous
armies like Raman's thundershower; with the corpses of their warriors I
strewed the mountain heights and the enclosures of their cities as with
straw. Their 120 chariots I destroyed in the battle; sixty kings of the
lands of Nairi, with those who had come to their assistance, I pursued
to the Upper Sea. Their great cities I took, their spoils, their
possessions I carried off, their towns I burned with fire, I destroyed,
laid them waste, made heaps of them and land for the plough. Numerous
herds of steeds, colts, calves, and implements without number I carried
home. The kings of the lands of the Nairi my hand captured alive, all of
them. To these same kings I granted favor. Captive and bound, I released
them before Shamash, my lord, and made them swear allegiance forever.
Their children, the offspring of their royalty, I took as hostages. I
imposed on them a tribute of 1,200 steeds and 2,000 bulls and dismissed
them to their respective countries.... The vast lands of Nairi I took in
all their extent, and all their kings I brought low to my feet."
When five years, filled with similar campaigns, had passed, a large
number of tribes paid tribute to Assyria. Before this period, Calab had
served as capital. Tiglath-Pileser now rebuilt Asshur. Rare trees were
brought from conquered lands, to beautify the town. Temples were
restored, to the honor of the gods. Of the restoration of the temple of
Ana and Adad, the king caused to be inscribed: "I built it from
foundation to roof larger and grander than before, and erected also two
great towers, fitting ornaments of their great divinities. The splendid
temple, a brilliant and magnificent dwelling, the habitation of their
joys, the house for their delight, shining as bright as the stars on
heaven's firmament and richly decorated with ornaments through the skill
of my artists, I planned, devised, and thought out, built and completed.
I made its interior brilliant like the dome of the heavens; decorated
its walls like the splendor of the rising stars, and make it grand with
resplendent brilliancy. I reared its temple towers to heaven, and
completed its roof with burned brick; located therein the upper terrace
containing the chamber of their great divinities; and led into the
interior Anu and Adad, the great gods, and made them to dwell in their
lofty house, thus gladdening the heart of their great divinities."[1]
The memory of this stern warrior lived long after his death, holding
tribes in subjection and enabling his successors to rule in comparative
peace. The greatness of the future kingdom has been attributed in no
small measure to the foundations laid by Tiglath-Pileser I.
A period of reaction followed. Tribute, which had been paid only for
fear of a strong, well disciplined army, was no longer forthcoming.
Babylonia and Assyria have left so few records for these years that they
are almost sure to have been years of inaction. On the alluvial bottoms
of Babylonia, a new dynasty arose, known as the dynasty of the Sea
Lands. Both the rulers and the subjects they governed were comparatively
newcomers, who easily gained the upper hand in the decadent state,
especially as no interference came from Assyria.
While the inertia of Babylonia allowed the latest comer to rule, so the
inaction of Assyria allowed countries on the west--Syria and
Palestine--to gain strength. On the north, the Armenians, a nation of
traders, extended their territories and their commercial affairs.
In 950 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser II. became king. From this time forward
records become more numerous, and we are able to trace the stages of
development with greater accuracy. Assyria once more wakened to her
possibilities, while Babylonia continued in her helpless, prostrate
condition. Nothing of note is chronicled until Asshur-natsirpal III.
became king in 885 B.C. He promptly marched against the earlier
conquered tribes on the north who no longer paid their tribute. He
slaughtered a goodly number at the start, and this report spread like
wildfire among the tribes, who hastened to send gifts. For some years he
continued to bring countries under tribute, quelling revolts with such
severity as only an Assyrian could have directed. One inscription is
sufficient to let us understand his customary procedure:
"I drew near to the city of Tela. The city was very strong; three walls
surrounded it. The inhabitants trusted to their strong walls and
numerous soldiers; they did not come down or embrace my feet. With
battle and slaughter I assaulted and took the city. Three thousand
warriors I slew in battle. Their booty and possessions, cattle, sheep, I
carried away; many captives I burned with fire. Many of their soldiers I
took alive; of some I cut off hands and limbs; of others the noses,
ears, and arms; of many soldiers I put out the eyes. I reared a column
of the living and a column of heads. I hung up on high their heads on
trees in the vicinity of their city. Their boys and girls I burned up in
the flame. I devastated the city, dug it up, in the fire burned it; I
annihilated it."[2]
Babylonia and nations on the east united against the relentless
conqueror, but in vain. They were defeated and some of their cities laid
waste.
Having carried on campaigns in this fashion for some time,
Asshur-natsirpal found himself at the head of a large army, well
disciplined, invincible, inured to slaughter and devastation--a menace
to the state if kept idle, and if disbanded, removing at a stroke the
fear which prompted the payment of tribute.
Something should perhaps be said of tribute, which we find kings
demanding of all subjected people. The habit of compelling the payment
of tribute was tolerated only in an age when might made right. None of
the earliest nations gave anything in exchange for tribute exacted. No
effort was made to defend tributary tribes from the attacks of other
tribes. Tribute was merely the price paid by a people for the privilege
of being in other respects left alone. A king who dreamed of a wide
reaching empire, tried to bring as many nations as possible under his
tribute. The payment of this tribute was the formal acknowledgment of
the emperor's over-lordship. Until the age of Persian dominance, no
monarch was able to do much more than compel the annual payment in
joining alien territories to his own. Assyria attempted on a smaller
scale what Persia effected, but little more than the _conception_ of a
great empire was contributed by Assyria; it was given reality by Persian
conquerors.
Asshur-natsirpal realized the only course open to him was that of
conquest, and to that he now turned. Setting out for the west, his march
was a continual triumph. His reputation was so well established, and the
strength of his army so well understood that tribes on either side sent
gifts as soon as he drew near.
Reaching the Euphrates, he was unable to make any adequate provision
for the transportation of his troops. The Assyrians were an inland
people and knew nothing of maritime affairs. Each soldier was expected
to get himself across the stream, partly swimming, partly buoyed up by
inflated skins of animals.
Drawing near the Mediterranean Sea, he found that commerce occupied the
people in that region to the exclusion of war. Indeed, they would pay
heavily to avoid war, which seriously interfered with their trade. The
king of the Hittites--once a nation of importance but at this time
retaining little of its former strength--stated his position very
frankly. His policy was direct and simple. He was willing to pay down
the sum of twenty talents of silver, one hundred talents of copper, two
hundred and fifty talents of iron, along with chains and beads of gold
and much other treasure, if he were simply let alone.... National pride
counted for nothing. The primary desire was to get the Assyrians out of
the country as soon as possible; and well might they pay a heavy tribute
to gain such a boon as that.[3]
It was apparent that there would be no particular opportunity for
military skill against people of such convictions as these. The Assyrian
army moved on and at length drew near the green slopes of the Lebanon,
in sight of the Mediterranean waters, dotted over by Phoenician ships,
busily plying their trade. While no city was besieged, no blood shed,
the effect was marked upon the entire region. All acknowledged
Asshur-natsirpal as conqueror. In some cases, Assyrian officials were
stationed to keep the home government in touch with these distant parts;
in other places, Assyrian colonists were induced to settle, far from
their native homes. Cities were walled by the labor of Assyrian
soldiers, and were temporarily protected by Assyrian fortifications.
While such demonstrations had a lasting effect on the western states,
the Assyrian king, on his part, was deeply impressed by one thing, and
this omened ill for their future; the people of this region cared more
to protect their commerce than their country. They valued the protection
of their wares above the honor and independence of their respective
states. We shall see that this one fact as understood by the Assyrian
king developed a definite western policy.
Unable to supply military action for his troops, the king set them to
cutting down trees--cedar, cypress, and juniper. These were taken to
Assyria. The army returned home without approaching Damascus, where
opposition was certain to be strong. Too much glory had been won to have
it overshadowed by any chance issue.
While the western conquest had been in progress, officers at home had
been carrying out the king's plans by rebuilding Calah, and constructing
a large canal. The king now returned to personally supervise the
construction of a royal palace.
"A palace for my royal dwelling-place, for the glorious seat of my
royalty, I founded forever and splendidly planned it. I surrounded it
with a cornice of copper. Sculptures of the creatures of land and sea
carved in alabaster, I made and placed them at the doors. Lofty
doorposts of ... wood I made, and sheathed them with copper and set them
up in the gates. Thrones of costly woods, dishes of ivory containing
silver, gold, lead, copper, and iron, the spoil of my hand, taken from
conquered lands I deposited therein."
In 860 B.C. Asshur-natsirpal died, leaving the future to regard him as
the most ferocious king in all Assyrian history; yet he had accomplished
more for his country than any of his predecessors, and left it more
united and in a more prosperous condition. His son, Shalmaneser II.,
like the father, found himself obliged to keep an army active,
collecting tributes and making fresh conquests. He repeated the westward
march, and met an alliance formed against him at Damascus. To that
city's forces were joined those of Israel and of Phoenicia. While their
armies were defeated, no tribute was exacted, and this fact in itself
shows that the victory was not complete.
This first coalition formed against Assyria, made up of Mediterranean
peoples, is important. Such a union might have effectually stayed the
great military power of the age had not jealousies among the states
themselves hindered permanent union. By 846 B.C. the alliance had been
broken, and Jehu of Israel sent gifts to the Assyrian ruler. This
furnished him his first hold on the independence of the Hebrews.
The next hundred years saw a union of Babylonia and Assyria, and an
attempt, on the part of one king at least, to blot out all differences
between the two peoples by showing among other things that their
religions were the same. To give weight to the claim, he constructed
temples in Nineveh, after the model of those of Babylon.
In the following chapter we shall note the height of Assyrian dominance
and the proudest years of her history.
[Illustration: FLOCKS AND CAPTIVE WOMEN CARRIED AWAY.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Quoted in Goodspeed, p. 171.
[2] Quoted in Goodspeed, p. 197.
[3] Rogers: Hist. of Baby. and Assy., Vol. II, 64.
CHAPTER VII.
ASSYRIA--A POWERFUL EMPIRE.
A dynasty of weak kings followed and seemed to be leading Assyria on to
ruin, but in 746 B.C. the people rose up in rebellion, driving them out
and crowning a ruler selected by themselves. It is supposed that the one
they chose had already proven his worth and capacity either at the head
of a large division of the army, or possibly in the management of some
Assyrian province. In any event, he was firmly established at once and
spent no time trying to inspire his subjects with awe. His own name has
not been recorded but he took the crown name of Tiglath-Pileser III.,
seeking to emulate him who had borne it first. He is the Pul of the Old
Testament.
Babylonia demanded first attention. The Armenians had established
themselves in the southern part of the kingdom and threatened to crush
out the old life and culture by their rapidly increasing numbers.
Tiglath-Pileser III. was hailed by the native Babylonians as a
deliverer. Forcing the usurpers back, he divided the former kingdom into
four provinces, placing Assyrian governors over each. He also brought
many captives into these provinces to make their homes, hoping in this
way to weaken the national spirit which tried every little while to gain
back old-time freedom for the state.
The Medes on the east required some curbing, but their independence was
not destroyed. These matters attended to, Tiglath-Pileser III. was free
to give attention to the west.
The city of Arpad stood in the way of Assyrian progress and since it
refused tribute, it was besieged. The plucky town held out for two long
years, but when finally taken, was laid waste with great slaughter. All
neighboring tribes hastened to send tribute, and were incorporated into
the Assyrian empire.
Heretofore we have seen people brought under tribute and some faint
efforts made to hold them. Now we have reached the imperial period of
Assyrian development when the government, established at home, sought
to increase its actual possessions abroad, and to bind them to the
original kingdom with strong ties.
An alliance had been made among the sea-coast states, with Judah at the
head. This had been formed, of course, to stay the western tide of
Assyrian power. Notwithstanding, the king of Samaria yielded the moment
the Assyrian army drew near, paying the tribute with no display of
force. Judah alone seems to have remained unyielding and undisturbed.
Thirty thousand captives were brought into these districts to find new
homes, while many of the natives were deported to make room for them.
Several methods were employed by Assyria to make conquests lasting. If a
tribe or city acknowledged the Assyrian king as conqueror, no recourse
was made to arms; an annual tribute was usually imposed and an Assyrian
governor placed in the territory to hold revolts in check and to
generally represent the empire, of which the province was now a part.
The native king was frequently allowed to rule over the people, even
though his main duty in some instances seems to have been to raise the
required tribute. If, on the other hand, a tribe or city resisted, a war
or siege followed. One battle might reduce a tribe to submission; in the
case of a city, all supplies were shut off, and eventually the
inhabitants would be starved into surrender, whereupon, the city was
often made "land for the plough" by the exasperated king, and the people
subjected to all sorts of cruel punishments.
When a kingdom was conquered, it was thought desirable to destroy its
old patriotism by removing all chances for its development. With that
end in view, some of its citizens would be sent out of the country to
seek homes in other lands, while those from distant regions would be
brought in to take their places. Naturally the newcomers knew nothing of
the traditions of their newly found country and cared not at all to
fight for them. In this way, nations ceased to retain their venerated
customs, but as the kings often record: "I made them all to speak one
language"--and that Assyrian. One far-reaching effect of this policy was
that when a revolt did break out in some district, it no longer spread
like wildfire in all directions, but the governor of the province was
himself able to put down any uprising, and the colonists recently
imported, caring nothing for the older inhabitants, could be depended
upon to help him.
Tiglath-Pileser III. turned now to Gaza, whose king fled to Egypt there
to get aid in behalf of his state. Deserted, the city soon surrendered
and the Assyrian king, having sent the old gods home to Assyria,
installed Assyrian gods in the temples. Thence he marched to Palestine.
He who had held out against Assyria before was dead and a weak king now
ruled in Judah. Had the kings of Samaria and Damascus formed an alliance
with Judah, the power of Assyria might yet have been broken; instead
they united their forces to invade Judah and appropriate the territory
of the weak king for themselves. Isaiah, the great statesman of the
Hebrews, counselled the ruler in vain. To protect himself against his
aggressive neighbors he appealed to Assyria for help. This drew
Tiglath-Pileser III. to Samaria and Damascus, while Judah, sending
gifts, was not at this time molested. The Samarians themselves rose up
against their king. Having killed him, they asked the Assyrian ruler to
allow Hoshea to rule over them as an Assyrian vassal. This sifted the
opposition down to Damascus, which city prepared for a siege. Some five
hundred outlying towns were laid waste and their inhabitants sent into
other districts. Not all the army being constantly required to guard the
besieged town, part of the troops marched into Arabia, demanding tribute
and receiving it. In 732 B.C. Damascus fell and became an Assyrian
province.
By this time, Babylonia was in a state of turmoil. Under Assyrian
government the people had at first been free to develop their arts of
peace, and literature had flourished. Then the Chaldeans to the south,
established originally in the region around the gulf, known once as
Chaldea--tried again to rule the land. In 726 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III.
marched into Babylonia, where, taking the hands of the god Marduk, he
was crowned king of Babylonia. According to the ancient custom, he who
wore this crown must return each year and celebrate this same ceremony.
Two years later Tiglath-Pileser having again performed the rites, died
before the year elapsed.
During the short reign which followed interest again reverted to the
west. Hoshea refused to pay tribute in 725 B.C., looking to Egypt for
help. He was taken captive and Samaria made ready for a siege. Strange
to say, the town held out for three years and the king of Assyria died
before it was taken. Sargon II. at once succeeded. (722-705 B.C.) He
again was not of royal blood and he too chose a popular crown name.
Samaria soon fell, and quite possibly neither the besieging army or the
stricken town knew of any change in rulers. Twenty-seven thousand two
hundred and ninety of the inhabitants of Samaria--the flower of the
land,--were deported to the Median mountains, while colonists were
brought in from Babylonia and other provinces to take their places. This
loss it was impossible to retrieve. Assyrian governors were set over the
land, now merely an Assyrian province.
In 721 B.C. attention focused once more in Babylonia, where the
Chaldeans had again usurped the crown. In the battle Sargon waged, the
result was so indecisive that neither side gained much. The usurpers
were simply checked.
Suddenly an alliance was formed in the west, made up of stricken
Samaria, Damascus and Gaza. Sargon marched rapidly west before their
armies were ready, and defeated them separately and carried "the ten
tribes into captivity." Now again more strangers were brought in, and
more citizens sent out. It is little wonder, after all these mixtures of
peoples, that in later years the Jews regarded the Samarians as not of
their kin, but an inferior race, so that in the time of Christ one could
say: "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a
woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans!"
It was during this campaign that the Hittite king was taken prisoner and
his kingdom, once so powerful, was merged into the Assyrian Empire.
Not long after, Hezekiah, king of Judah, attempted to stir up an
opposition to the Assyrian tribute payment. Isaiah, the far-seeing
statesman, again counselled against it,--vainly to be sure, yet
constantly, for this was an unfavorable moment. As might have been
foreseen, the coalition was short-lived.
Sargon's work in time of peace was extensive. He built a palace, like
his predecessors, but outdoing them, he constructed a royal city for
its location. This was a custom new in Assyria, but we have seen that it
was usual in Egypt, during the Middle and New Empires. Choosing a spot
not far from Nineveh, at the base of a mountain, he had a rectangular
area laid out, its corners pointing to the four cardinal points. First
temples were built to the gods, whose favor he sought in every possible
way, even going to the length of paying for the site of the city, and
compensating those who asked no money. After the temples, the palace
itself arose--built of ivory, palm-wood, cedar, cypress, having gates of
wood overlaid with bronze. The eight gates of the city were named for
the eight leading divinities, the walls for Asshur, and the ramparts for
Niveb. An invocation was inscribed to the gods: "May Asshur bless this
city, and this palace! May he invest these constructions with an eternal
brightness! May he grant that they shall be inhabited until the remotest
days! May the sculptured bull, the guarding spirit, stand forever before
his face! May he keep watch here night and day, and may his feet never
move from this threshold!" The palace is said to have contained
"twenty-four bulls in relief and two miles of sculptured slabs." Since
the work was only begun in 712 B.C., and he came to reside within in 707
B.C., he was apparently able to command a large army of workmen. This
was the palace whose ruins Botta unearthed in 1846, and each part
remaining appeared to be as perfect as workmanship could make it.
The new city was peopled in a unique way. "People from the four quarters
of the world, of foreign speech, of manifold tongues, who had dwelt in
mountains and valleys, ... whom I, in the name of Asshur my lord, by the
might of my arms had carried into captivity, I commanded to speak one
language and settled them therein. Sons of Asshur of wise insight in all
things, I placed over them, to watch over them; learned men and scribes
to teach them the fear of God and the King."
It is supposed that Sargon II. was murdered in 705 B.C. and his son
Sennacherib succeeded to the throne. He had observed his father's
difficulties in keeping order in Babylonia, and had concluded before
ever he came to the throne that to indulge the pride of Babylon by
longer conforming to her venerated custom of crowning her king each
year--thus requiring his annual appearance,--was mere folly. He believed
that Babylonia, whatever her history, was now an Assyrian province, and
hence the king of Assyria was her king. So he himself did not go at all
to Babylon, but was merely crowned in Nineveh as King of Assyria. Now
the Babylonians, far from submitting to this train of logic, in course
of a brief time, crowned their own king. Thereupon the Chaldeans, ever
watchful for an opportunity to re-establish their power, set up a ruler
in the same country, farther south. In 702 B.C., because of this
confusion, Sennacherib marched to Babylon, laid waste many Chaldean
cities, deported 200,000 people and crowned as king a young nobleman,
Babylonian by birth but educated at the Assyrian court. Having so
vigorously asserted his strength, he was soon needed in the west.
The situation there was critical. Hezekiah, king of Judah, had
successfully conducted a war against the Philistines, and was therefore
regarded by his subjects as a great and mighty warrior. There was a
strong faction in the kingdom who opposed the annual payment of tribute
to Assyria and who believed that against them also Hezekiah might assert
himself and free them from this hated tribute service. Isaiah,
understanding the vast difference in the resources of the two countries,
counselled against a war, but it remained for future generations to
discern the clear, far sighted reasoning of this statesman, and the
king, even had he chosen to heed good counsel, was shortly plunged into
a war which was the popular demand of his people. Jerusalem prepared for
a siege, and water was brought into the city from some distance by an
aqueduct. Egypt promised aid, for the Ethiopian king who ruled that
country and the native princes who were struggling to regain the throne,
all felt that an opportunity opened in this way to win glory in Asia
which should serve as a lever to them at home. Judah had yet to learn
how fallen was this ancient state and how incapable of giving material
assistance.
The rebellion spread, for freedom was dear to nations in those days when
submission meant at least heavy tributes, and often deportation and a
dismantled country. In the city of Ekron the people, stirred by a hope
of independence, seized the Assyrian governor and led him captive to
Hezekiah. As usual, the Assyrian king made forced marches and appeared
before he was expected and before the armies were massed, so he had the
less difficult task of defeating each nation separately. Tyre, one of
the rebel cities, was first attacked. It was not possible to materially
injure her, since her defenses on the sea were strong; Sidon surrendered
and an Assyrian ruler was set over the city; now many of the allies were
consumed with fear and dropped out of the coalition, sending tribute
with all haste. In Ekron those who had led the rebellion were killed or
deported. As had long been the case, the Assyrian king was meeting with
brief resistance. Judah held out, however. Hezekiah watched for
re-enforcements from Egypt, but before they drew near, Sennacherib
opened battle, winning with heavy losses. Hezekiah withdrew his forces
into Jerusalem to undergo a siege, while the Assyrian army turned to
meet Egyptian allies and captured the leaders. Forty-six cities around
Jerusalem were taken, and when it seemed futile to longer hold out,
Hezekiah sent an embassy to Sennacherib to ask for terms of peace. A sum
of money approaching $1,000,000 in our money, was demanded, and although
it was raised with difficulty in Judah, it was paid over to the
conqueror. However, Hezekiah did not come out to meet Sennacherib and
acknowledge him as overlord, and the Assyrian king, feeling that his
victory was yet indecisive, dispatched his most trusted generals to
demand the surrender of Jerusalem. Meanwhile he marched with the great
mass of Assyrian forces to intercept more Egyptian armies now
approaching. Encamping at Pelusium, a place noted for its plagues before
that day and since, the army was stricken in the night. In a few days
only a remnant of the great force remained and a homeward march was
begun at once.
The Hebrews, according to their custom, interpreted this issue to
signify direct intervention of Providence in their behalf. Instead of
being led captives of Assyrian provinces and having their land
devastated, they gained fame and glory by the expedition. The Egyptians
also claimed a victory--all because of the pestilence.
The two accounts of the campaign, the Hebrew version of the story as
chronicled in the Old Testament, and the Assyrian version, as translated
from their tablets, are both so interesting that we quote them at
length. Such differences as they show are easily explained in view of
the standpoints of each writer.
Returning home, Babylonia was found to be in a state of insubordination,
having once more asserted her independence. Sennacherib now placed his
own son on the throne, but still difficulties multiplied. At last the
Babylonians united with the Chaldeans, their long-sworn enemies, against
Assyria. At this juncture, in 689 B.C., Sennacherib determined to strike
at the root of the trouble. He marched into the land and set fire to the
city of Babylon, after plundering its temples and palaces. Over the
desolate site of the city he then turned a canal, converting the region
into a swamp.
It is almost staggering even at this remote time to think of the pride
and glory of Babylonian life, the splendor of its palaces, the wonder of
its temples, being thus wantonly destroyed. Long periods of peace in the
kingdom had given opportunity for art and literature to develop, and
there can be no question that countless records of priceless worth
were destroyed by the deed of this fierce Assyrian. The culture of
Babylonia had indeed succumbed to the barbarism of Assyria. The
inhabitants--scholars, artists, artisans, were taken captives, and
deported to various points of the empire.
The following reign saw all that was possible done to atone for this
reckless act, but far beyond what we can now calculate, the loss was
irreparable.
HEBREW ACCOUNT OF THE WAR WITH ASSYRIA.
"Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish,
saying, 'I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me
will I bear.' And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, king of
Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
"And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the
Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did
Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and
from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid, and gave
it to the king of Assyria.
"And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from
Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they
went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up they came and
stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the
fuller's field. And when they had called to the king, there came out to
them Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joan the son of Asaph, the recorder.
"And Rab-shakeh said unto them: Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the
great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this wherein thou
trusteth? Thou sayest (but they are vain words) I have counsel and
strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest
against me?
"Now, behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of this bruised reed, even
upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce
it: so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust on him.
"But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he,
whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath
said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in
Jerusalem?
"Now, therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of
Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on
thy part to set riders upon them. How then wilt thou turn away the face
of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust
on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Am I now come up without the
Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up
against this land, and destroy it.
"Then said Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joan, unto
Rab-shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language;
for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the
ears of the people that are on the wall. But Rab-shakeh said unto them,
Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words?
hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall? Then Rab-shakeh
stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake,
saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: Thus saith
the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to
deliver you out of his hand. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the
Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not
be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria: Harken not to
Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me
by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own
vine and every one of his own fig-tree, and drink ye every one the
waters of his cistern: Until I come and take you away to a land like
your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a
land of oil, olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and
harken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will
deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his
land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of
Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among all the
gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine
hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? But the
people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's
commandment was, saying, Answer him not....
"And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, ... O Lord our God, I
beseech thee save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.... Therefore
thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come
into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with
shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same
shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For
I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my
servant David's sake.
"And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five
thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all
dead corpses.
"So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned and
dwelt at Nineveh."--_II. Kings, 18 and 19._
CONCERNING THE REVOLT OF JUDAH: FROM AN ASSYRIAN TABLET.
"But as for Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke,
forty-six of his strong walled cities and the smaller cities round about
them, without number, by the battering of rams, and the attack of
war-engines, by making breaches by cutting through, and the use of axes,
I besieged and captured. Two hundred thousand, one hundred and fifty
people, small and great, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels,
cattle and sheep, without number, I brought forth from their midst and
reckoned as spoil. (Hezekiah) himself I shut up like a caged bird in
Jerusalem, his royal city. I threw up fortifications against him, and
whoever came out of the gates of his city I punished. His cities, which
I had plundered, I cut off from his land and gave to Mitinti, King of
Ashdod, ... and made his territory smaller. To the former taxes, paid
yearly, tribute, a present for my lordship, I added and imposed on him.
Hezekiah himself was overwhelmed by the fear of the brilliancy of my
lordship, and the Arabians and faithful soldiers whom he had brought in
to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him. Thirty talents of
gold, eight hundred talents of silver, precious stones, ... couches of
ivory, thrones of elephant skin and ivory, _ushu_ and _urkarinu_ woods,
of every kind, a heavy treasure, and his daughters, his palace women,
male and female singers, to Nineveh, my lordship's city, I caused to be
brought after me, and he sent his ambassador to give tribute and to pay
homage."
CHAPTER VIII.
LAST YEARS OF ASSYRIAN GREATNESS.
"And it came to pass, as Sennacherib was worshipping in the house of
Nishroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with
the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his
son reigned in his stead." Thus did the Hebrew chronicle the death of
Sennacherib, and since Assyrian tablets recounting the dire plot have
long since been destroyed, we are thrown wholly upon the fact as stated
without explanation or detail.
Esarhaddon, who succeeded to the throne in 680 B.C., had already acted
as regent in Babylonia, and had there acquired deep veneration and love
for the Babylonian past, as well as for its life and culture. He wished
to win the favor of its people, scattered though they were, and so in
addition to being crowned king of Assyria, he had himself proclaimed
viceroy of Babylonia, for this office would not require his annual
presence in celebration of the yearly rites. Thus had his grandfather
done, and Sennacherib only had ruthlessly thrust aside the national
prejudice. His father had laid Babylon waste, changing its very site
into a swamp and scattering its proud people to the four winds.
Esarhaddon immediately planned to rebuild the city and so far as
possible, bring those departed back to their old homes.
In an age given over to cruelty, devastations, selfish plots and
intrigues, it is surprising to find that this king allowed no
reflections to be cast upon his father's memory by condemning his
Babylonian policy. He had it set forth on tablets that the gods had been
displeased with the wrong doing of Babylon, and that a king, merely
their instrument, had in this way visited divine wrath upon the heads of
the people; while now, he, Esarhaddon, again acting as agent for the
gods, ready once more to give their favor in hope of future obedience,
would now rebuild the ancient capital.
Slowly the city rose, more splendid and magnificent than before. First
the old temples were replaced, and around these the city came into
being. Chaldeans had taken possession of the land after the nation was
disrupted. The new king now forced them back, restoring property
wherever possible to its rightful owners.
Such being the situation at home, abroad the state of affairs was
critical. Tyre had not submitted, nor Judah. Sidon no longer paid
tribute. Vast sums of money were needed to carry on the gigantic
building project, and these commercial sea-port towns offered a rich
reward to the conqueror.
Having heard that Esarhaddon was determined to make a westward march,
the sea-coast cities prepared to offer resistance. Sidon was besieged
and held out for nearly three years. When at last it fell into the hands
of the exasperated Assyrians, it was utterly destroyed. Both king and
soldiers were infuriated by the long delay and plundered until weary.
The walls of the town were broken down and cast into the sea; the
luxurious homes of the merchantmen were stripped of their wealth and
razed to the ground. The entire city was blotted out of existence. Then
the king set about erecting a new town on its site, naming it for
himself, and peopling it with those taken captive in the nearby
mountains while the siege was carried on. Over all he placed an Assyrian
governor, and then set out for Nineveh.
Reaching his capital, he made a triumphal entry, laden with spoils,
captives and cattle. Some of the noblest citizens of Sidon swelled his
train. Gold, silver, precious stones, rare woods, dress-stuffs,--these
had fallen to his share after three years of waiting.
The siege of Tyre had been begun about the same time that Sidon was
attacked, but Tyre was more favorably situated. She could not be cut off
from the sea and so could not be starved into submission. Baal was king
and he proposed to hold out against the besiegers. The Assyrians walled
up the land side of the city and it was wholly cut off from its land
commerce, so in the long run, it would have to yield. After a time, the
siege was raised, but over-land commerce was no longer possible.
Esarhaddon knew well that the frequent disturbances in Syria which so
annoyed him and had so troubled previous reigns, were largely instigated
by unceasing efforts of Egypt to stir the cities to rebellion, hoping
in some unquiet times that she might gain a foothold in western Asia and
share in the plunder of Syria, as pharaohs in early times had done. To
understand her position it is necessary to go back and see how Egypt had
fared after losing first place among the nations.
The Ethiopians, having taken on Egyptian culture and customs centuries
before, had gained political control as the country weakened. Native
princes gained power in the nomes and tried incessantly to regain
possession of the throne. As usual there was so much personal jealousy
among them that concerted action was impossible. Egypt's name had stood
for power and great resources so many centuries, that even though the
state was weak--even tottering within, abroad it was still judged by its
former strength. Assyrian rulers had doubtless known better its truer
condition, for Sennacherib's generals told those of Judah that looking
thence for aid was like leaning on a bruised reed.
Esarhaddon determined to strike at the root of Syrian dissension, and in
673 B.C. led an army for the first time in Assyrian history against
Egypt. An army met his own outside the borders and the result was
indecisive. The Assyrians did not enter the land at all. Three years
later they defeated an Egyptian army sent to meet them, crossed the
border now unhindered, and marched rapidly to Memphis. The city, wholly
unprepared for such unexpected attack, fell at once into their hands. It
was plundered generally and laid waste. Unquestionably much of great
historic value was wantonly destroyed by soldiers who were allowed to
pillage at will. Statues of gods were removed to Nineveh, together with
great booty--and this was the work of a man who deplored the loss of
Babylon, and had undertaken to rebuild a capital not yet known when
Memphis stood the wonder of the world!
The Assyrians never outgrew their ferocity, their savage thirst for
ravage and murder, and their culture in Assyria's most enlightened days
was but a veneer encasing old tendencies, characteristics and desires.
Over the twenty-one nomes, native princes were allowed to rule, as
vassals of an Assyrian governor, set over the whole land. The king
further undertook to change the names of ancient towns, giving them
Assyrian names, but this never became a change at all--simply a useless
attempt.
The youngest world-power had now conquered the oldest. Surely these were
years wherein chart-makers would have had a sorry time trying to
indicate a nation's possessions.
On its homeward march the Assyrian army made a raid into Arabia, but
desert marches told quickly on the soldiers, and no lasting results came
of it.
At this point Assyrian possessions--even the original kingdom
itself--were threatened alarmingly by a migration starting from the
southern portion of present Russia. Thither had come the Medes in an
early day, and now thousands upon thousands came pouring eastward in
search of new and less crowded homes. It was hopeless to stay such an
onset of troops--it would wear out many an army. Places vacated today
would be filled shortly by those pressing in the rear. Besides, these
people had no plan of conquest or occupation of the land. They simply
spread out like so many hungry cattle, seeking food where it might be
found. All that could be done was to turn aside the main stream of
progress. These new comers settled down in Syria, reaching east to the
land of the Medes and far beyond it. In spite of watchful care, many
fertile lands were lost to Assyria.
In 668 a second Egyptian campaign was planned by the king, but before
starting out, he had his son, Asshur-banipal, recognized as regent of
Babylonia. This was to cause much trouble in the future, because it once
more divided the now united country, and made an opportunity for old
jealousies to creep in again. On the march, Esarhaddon died, leaving the
future to regard him as noblest among Assyrian kings--the most just and
fair-minded of his race.
Asshur-banipal who succeeded to the throne in 668 B.C., was naturally
fond of learning and was a prodigious book-collector. By using that term
for Assyrian days we mean of course a collector of clay tablets whereon
were inscribed literary productions.
The Egyptian campaign had already opened, for it was plain that the
conquests of two years before were practically lost. Sea-coast towns in
Egypt submitted at once. Little opposition was encountered in the Land
of the Pyramids, and Assyrian government was soon re-instated. The
suspicion of the generals was awakened by the simplicity of their task
and withdrawing their army, they loitered not far away. No sooner had
they left than the Assyrian government, tolerated in the presence of the
army, was thrown off and old forms instituted. Now it was the Egyptian's
turn to be surprised when the army, supposed to be far on its homeward
march, reappeared in the land. The revolt was quickly put down, and the
leaders killed with as great cruelty as ever blackened Assyrian pages.
In 660 B.C. Egypt declared her independence and this was the first great
loss of the Assyrian empire, soon to be followed by many more.
Probably before this Tyre had been forced to yield, and the king had
sent his son and daughter to the Assyrian court as an indication of
submission.
A raid was made into Media, some of its cities being taken and their
inhabitants deported. For such experiences the Medes grew to hate the
Assyrians with increasing fervor. Asshur-banipal was finding some
difficulty in holding together the empire of his fathers, and when
revolts occurred, they were put down with greatest severity.
Babylonia had maintained peace for fifteen years, but the people clung
to the traditions of their early history, and harked back to a time when
Babylon was the greatest city of the world. Now, except for freedom from
tribute, they ranked as any other Assyrian province. Encouraged by the
feelings of those under him, the prince-regent conceived the notion of
stirring up all the provinces to revolt at the same time, hoping that
Babylonian independence might be gained in time of confusion. He was
urged on to this course, which was misguided and ill timed, with little
chance for success. Its only hope lay in keeping secret the plot so far
as the Assyrian king was concerned. There were, however, many who would
gladly try to benefit themselves by unearthing any plan for revolt.
There might also be governors of provinces sufficiently far-sighted to
have nothing to do with any treasonable plot, and these could not be
expected to guard such a secret.
At last the Chaldeans on the south, Palestine, some provinces of Syria
and some Arabian tribes, promised help. The Babylonians were destined to
learn how different was that from actually giving it. To allay any
suspicions Asshurbanipal might have, an embassy of Babylonian nobles
visited his court to give him assurance of his brother's loyalty. When
the news came that the Babylonians had seized Ur and Uruk, the Assyrian
king was much astonished. He spent some little time in complaint of his
faithless brother; an inscription ran:
"At that time Shamash-shum-ukin, the faithless brother, to whom I had
done good, and whom I had established as king of Babylon, and for whom I
had made every possible kind of royal decoration, and had given him, and
had gathered together soldiers, horses, and chariots, and had intrusted
them to him, and had given him cities, fields, and woods, and the men
dwelling in them, even more than my father had commanded--even he forgot
that favor I had shown him, and he planned evil. Outwardly with his lips
he spoke friendly things, while inwardly his heart plotted rebellion."
Asshur-banipal waited for a favorable omen before starting out to quell
the rebellion, and it came at last in this way: "In those days a seer
slept in the beginning of the night and dreamed a dream, thus: 'On the
face of the Moon it is written: Whoever deviseth evil against
Asshur-banipal, king of Asshur, makes enmity, a violent death I appoint
for them. With the edge of the sword, the burning of fire, famine, and
the judgment of the Pest-god, I will destroy their lives.' This I heard
and trusted to the will of Sin, my lord. I gathered my army; against
Shamash-Shum-ukin I directed the march."
Help came to the revolting Babylonians from few of the promised allies.
Arabia, Chaldea, and the land of the Elamites sent troops, but in the
battle waged they suffered fearful defeat. Babylon underwent a severe
siege and at last the king committed suicide. Then the gates of the city
were thrown open and great was the slaughter. Asshur-banipal had himself
proclaimed king, and pushed on to punish the allies for their part in
the rebellion. Much of the land of the Elamites was laid waste, and left
smoking by this man who patronized learning. The weakening of these
people left Assyria open to attacks later from the Medes.
The later years of Asshur-banipal's reign were filled with peaceful
interests. He rebuilt the great palace of his father, and in one of its
upper chambers was amassed the great number of tablets, referred to as
the library of Nineveh. In 626 B.C. the king died.
Our knowledge of the reigns immediately following is scanty. Babylonia
asserted her independence and the Assyrian king had a difficult task to
hold the empire together. Determined to recover the kingdom to the
south, he marched against its capital while its king was distant with
his army. Cut off from Babylon, the king appealed to the Medes for aid.
They cared not at all to help the Babylonian, but they hated with
undying hatred the very name of Assyria. Their numbers had often been
increased by refugees, driven from their homes by Assyrian armies, and
they themselves had experienced defeat at the hands of Assyrian troops.
The possibility of crippling the great power of Asia stimulated them to
aid the Babylonians. They soon repulsed the Assyrian army near Babylon
and drove it north. Still they pursued the fleeing army and forced the
king and his army to retire into Nineveh. At last the fate the Assyrians
had so often meted out to others was measured out to them. Great wealth
was stored in Nineveh, and this the besieging army wished for
themselves. The walls were strong and were long defended, but an assault
finally carried all before it. Nineveh, built by the wealth of spoils,
beautified by plunder from the known world, became the spoils of the
Medes, who stripped the temples and palaces and then set fire to the
city.
Nineveh fell in 606 B.C. The Assyrians were scattered to the four winds
and grass grew over the once smoking ruins. Two hundred years later,
when Xenophon led his army over this spot on his return to Greece, none
knew that they passed over the site of the once great world-city.
The civilization developed by the Babylonians had been passed on to the
Assyrians. It was now left a heritage for the Chaldeans, to whom
descended the legacies of both countries, and in turn they dominated the
valley of the Euphrates. As for Assyrian greatness, so far-reaching and
wide, the Hebrew told the story in poetic language centuries ago, and
today none could set it forth more vividly.
"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and
with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among
the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on
high, with her rivers running round about his plants and sent out her
little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was
exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were
multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of
waters, when he shot forth.
"All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his
branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and
under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his
greatness, in the length of his branches; for his root was by the great
waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir
trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his
branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his
beauty.... All the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied
him....
"Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left
him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen,
and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the
people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the
beasts of the field shall be upon his branches. To the end that none of
all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither
shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees shall
stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are delivered
unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the
children of men, with them that go down to the pit."--_Ezekiel 31._
CHAPTER IX.
THE CHALDEAN EMPIRE IN BABYLONIA.
We have found frequent mention of the Chaldeans, and it is now necessary
to understand just what was their position at the fall of Nineveh.
The Chaldeans belonged to the Semitic race and their home had long been
in the Sea-lands, which included districts in eastern Arabia as well as
lands in Babylonia washed by the Persian Gulf. Originally a pastoral
people, they had taken to trade and though long in Babylonia, they had
not mingled greatly with others. They looked with envious eyes upon the
fertile valley of the Euphrates and coveted the wealth of its cities. On
this account they would willingly follow any leader who might enable
them to gain these lands and riches for themselves. Because such a
victory would unquestionably give kingship over the people, many of
their princes made efforts to gain political control, causing no end of
trouble to the Babylonian or Assyrian officials in charge of maintaining
the peace. This makes clear the motive prompting the numerous attempts
to usurp the government, already noted.
The old Babylonians had received so many infusions of blood from the
Elamites, Kassites, and colonists settled in their territory by
different Assyrian rulers, that the pure Babylonian stock no longer
existed to any extent, although Babylonian ideas, culture and
characteristics had been absorbed by those who came to dwell in the
land. The empire which now grew up in the valley was essentially
Chaldean. It has been called the New Empire of Babylonia.
Upon the death of Asshur-banipal, he who had previously been king-regent
asserted himself as king of Babylonia, and so Nabopolassar has sometimes
been called the founder of the New Chaldean Empire, although in truth he
was merely one who declared Babylonian independence at a time when none
were strong enough to dispute the claim. The empire, established in this
way, followed Babylonian precedence in all matters. The kings concerned
themselves with war only when compelled to do so, their works being
works of peace--the building of temples, the construction of canals.
One foreign war of some importance occurred during the first reign--the
reign of Nabopolassar. Necho II., pharaoh of Egypt, desired to regain
those Asiatic possessions which Thothmes III. and later warrior kings
had won for the Nile kingdom. To this end he led an army north,
demanding the submission of the sea-coast towns. Gaza was quickly won,
and this city was key to the east. Tyre and Sidon would pay tribute to
any nation rather than have their commerce again destroyed by war. Judah
alone resisted. Too long had this little country held out against a
various enemy to yield tribute upon demand. Josiah was now Judah's king.
He led an army against the Egyptian forces but was repulsed and he
himself killed. In confusion the Hebrew army fled to Jerusalem where a
younger brother of Josiah was proclaimed king. The Egyptian pharaoh now
collected a heavy fine from the people of Judah and he named a king for
them in place of the one just popularly crowned.
The old Assyrian empire, so long the fear of all nations, was now under
control of three distinct peoples: the Chaldeans held the Euphrates
valley, the Medes held the north, and Egypt had appropriated western
Syria. Now the pharaoh determined to further extend his empire. He would
reach the very banks of the Euphrates. This plan threatened the Chaldean
state, and Nabopolassar being too old to undertake active service in the
field, sent his son Nebuchadnezzar to meet the Egyptian force. This was
soon put to flight. The Babylonian prince pursued and had not word come
of the death of the king, his father, the Babylonian army would have
been able to march victorious into Egypt. It was, however, more
important to hold the kingdom at home than to pursue fleeing troops
abroad, so the prince went home to be crowned Nebuchadnezzar II., king
of Babylonian, and to enjoy one of the longest reigns in Babylonian
history. The city of Babylon became his pride, and the erection of
temples and palaces attracted him more than conquests.
Notwithstanding, the kingdom of Judah compelled attention by refusing
after three years' peace to longer pay tribute. The war-party in this
little state seems often to have been strong and always to have been
eager for independence, while its adherents were generally so blinded by
their own enthusiasm that they were unable to estimate correctly their
probable chance for success. Isaiah had long been dead. Jeremiah held
his place of influence and he labored diligently to show his people the
folly of their intent. He succeeded only in drawing censure upon himself
and in 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to besiege Jerusalem. The
Judean king Jehoiakim, suddenly died, and a youth about eighteen years
of age ascended the throne. He thought best to surrender, whereupon he,
his mother and court, were taken as captives to Babylon, together with
7,000 soldiers and 1,000 artisans. The remainder of the inhabitants were
left to pay tribute and remain subservient to Babylonian rule.
In Egypt, Hophra had come to the throne. Like his predecessor, he longed
for Syrian possessions, and now tried to stir up the sea-coast states to
rebellion. No folly could have been plainer--for Judah it meant
destruction itself to set its strength against the forces of Babylonia.
Jeremiah thundered his bitterest reproaches. He sought vainly to bring
his countrymen to their senses and save them from utter ruin. But the
spirit of rebellion was abroad, and many times it has spread similarly
through a land, drawing to its cause voices seldom heard, and kindling a
desire which cannot be put down by cool argument and reason. So Jeremiah
continued to grow in disfavor, and was finally held a prisoner by those
he tried to aid.
It has been pointed out with much force that the stricken nation of
Judah had become the prey of neighboring tribes and that an insufferable
situation impelled it to war, but Babylonia could alone protect it, and
Babylonian protection was not to be won by rebellion against its rule.
Egypt was to again prove the "bruised reed" which would fail utterly
when leaned upon.
From the Babylonian standpoint the situation was this: here was a little
state which for hundreds of years had been the center of western
dissensions. Its revolts had already cost Babylonia and Assyria dear in
fighting men and tiresome sieges, and now it must be forever quelled if
attention was to be given to home affairs. Crippling its strength would
not avail, for that had been already tried. Trusting to the vows of its
kings was manifestly useless, since the king who led the revolt had
sworn by his mighty God to be faithful to Babylon. That solemn pledge he
had now broken. Nothing short of laying waste the land and scattering
the people would apparently put an end to the trouble.
Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon were now in league with Judah and Egyptian
aid was promised. The war party in Jerusalem went about shouting that
Jehovah was with them--no matter, seemingly, what folly they undertook.
In 587 B.C. the Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem, intending to starve
the city into submission. The siege was raised when Egyptian
reinforcements drew near, long enough to defeat them and send them home
in confusion. Then it went on again. In 586 B.C. the Babylonians broke
through the walls of Jerusalem and the city was destroyed. The king who
had broken faith was taken to Babylon and blinded, while his sons were
slain. Such punishments as these had not been common with the old
Babylonians, and they show that the Chaldeans were not of the ancient
temperament,--merciful and kind. The best citizens of Jerusalem were
taken captives, while the poorer ones were left to cultivate the soil.
The great prophet Jeremiah was thought to be friendly to the government
of Babylon, and was given permission to go where he would. He remained
with the stricken band of Hebrews, who soon after journeyed into Egypt.
Tyre, as an ally, was besieged but here the problem of cutting the city
off from outside communication again arose. The siege lasted for
thirteen years and in the end the city paid tribute. In 567 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar's army invaded Egypt, but it was merely a raid to
terrorize the Egyptians and put an end to Egyptian interference.
The king was now free to give his energy to internal affairs, and his
attention was chiefly centered in building and beautifying Babylon.
Notable among his undertakings were the walls of the city--counted among
the seven wonders of the world. They were so well constructed that had
they been defended, the city could never have been taken save by
treachery inside the capital itself. In 562 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar
died--the last great king of an ancient nation.
Of the following reign little is known, the king being assassinated in
the second year of his rule. Two other uneventful reigns followed, and
then Nabonidus ascended the throne. This man was a student--not a king.
He did one good service for future ages; being devoted to rebuilding the
temples of the gods, he had his workmen excavate deep down into the old
foundations of the temple of the sun-god in Sippar, which he says had
not been seen for 3200 years, for the record-tablet, always placed in
the corner. Then he caused a new tablet to be inserted, repeating the
history of the temple and enumerating his repairs. Modern excavators
have been greatly aided by these tablets of Nabonidus. While he was thus
absorbed, his country was fast plunging on to ruin. His was an age when
the mere existence of a nation depended upon its aggressive policy.
While the entire resources of the country were being expended upon
shrines sacred to the gods, there was neither time nor money for the
maintenance of an army. Matters were allowed to take their own course
for awhile, and later the king's son, Belshar-usur, or Belshazzar, was
left to manage government concerns. For this reason, the Hebrews
recorded him as the last Babylonian king, while in truth his father bore
the kingly title.
Even when danger threatened the state to such an extent that the
scholar-king himself, poking around among his ancient record-tablets,
was finally forced to take notice of it, he gave no thought to his
kingdom or his subjects, but was simply alarmed for the safety of his
statue-deities. These he had hurried into the capital from all parts of
the land. So occupied was he lest perchance a god or two might some way
escape him, that he had no time to prepare the city for attack, and in
the end Babylon, the pride of its age, came into the hands of the
conqueror without a blow!
The fact was that there were many within the kingdom who would gladly
welcome outside interference. The Hebrews had settled down in their
quarter and had become the leading people of commerce and loaners of
money. One commercial firm alone--Egibi & Sons--filled a place for that
age not unlike the modern Rothschilds. These people, who may have been
of Jewish descent, hated the king who had destroyed their city of
Jerusalem and his descendants, and would willingly help any one who
might rob Babylonian kings of their empire. It has been surmised that
for aid rendered they were allowed to go back to their own country and
rebuild Jerusalem on its early site.
Not only were the Hebrews an element to be reckoned with; the priests of
the Babylonian gods had been repeatedly offended by Nabonidus, and they
too joined the opposition, beyond doubt.
So great a city as Babylon had never before existed. No city since has
had so long a history, and yet, without a blow struck in its defense, it
passed into the possession of a people just taking on the ways of
civilized life. It was little wonder that it fell shortly into ruins,
soon to be grass-covered and like Nineveh, forgotten!
Since 606 B.C. the Medes, conquerors of Assyria, had been extending
their territory. They were now a people of strength, united under King
Astyages.
In the land earlier called Elam, now Persia, a great conqueror
appeared--Cyrus the Great. He defeated the Medes under Astyages, and so
rapidly did his empire come into being, that all civilized nations were
roused to the danger of a world-conqueror. In 546 B.C. Egypt, Babylonia,
Lydia and Sparta arrayed their forces against Cyrus, to check his power,
but his camels put their cavalry to flight, and he won the decisive
battle. Having annexed Asia Minor, he turned to Babylon. As we have
seen, the city of Babylon might have held out indefinitely against
attack, but when Belshazzar led an army against a detachment of Persian
troops, none were left to defend the capital. The old tale of Herodotus
that Cyrus turned the Euphrates out of its course and entered the city
through its channel, is mere fiction. Such exertion was unnecessary, for
the city gates swung open wide to the conqueror.
And thus we come to the end of the political history of the
Tigris-Euphrates states--a mere skeleton of framework, which we can now
fill out with some account of their social, industrial and religious
life.
[Illustration: ASSYRIAN PALACE AT NINEVEH.]
CHAPTER X.
THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN COMPARED.
To understand the Babylonian, we must take into consideration both the
nature of his country and the origin of his race. Apart from these two
important factors, the marked differences between himself and his
Assyrian brother would not be clear.
We have found that Babylonia was an alluvial plain, sloping gently to
the Persian Gulf, and made fertile by the annual overflow and deposits
of two rivers. As in Egypt, so here remarkable yields of grain rewarded
the sower if he but supplied necessary moisture by maintaining a system
of well-regulated canals. Regarding the origin of the Babylonians, we
found that they sprang from a union of Semitics with the earlier
Turanian settlers of the country, receiving later infusion of blood from
the Kassites and Elamites. This intermingling of races and peoples
resulted in a nation whose characteristics differed widely from the
purer Semitic stock that peopled Assyria.
"The Babylonian was a stout, thick-set man, somewhat short, with
straight nose, wide nostrils, and square face. The Assyrian, on the
other hand, was tall and muscular, his nose was slightly hooked, his
lips were full, his eyes dark and piercing. His head and face showed an
abundance of black curly hair....
"The Babylonian was essentially an irrigator and cultivator of the
ground. The cuneiform texts are full of references to the gardens of
Babylonia, and the canals by which they were watered. It was a land
which brought forth abundantly all that was entrusted to its bosom....
But the fear of floods and the reclamation of the marsh lands demanded
constant care and labor, the result being that the country population of
Babylonia was, like the country population of Egypt, an industrious
peasantry, wholly devoted to agricultural work, and disinclined to war
and military operations. In the towns, where the Semitic element was
stronger, a considerable amount of trade and commerce was carried on,
and the cities on the sea-coast built ships and sent their merchantmen
to distant lands....
"The character of the Assyrian was altogether different from that of the
Babylonian. He was a warrior, a trader, and an administrator. The
peaceful pursuits of the agricultural population of Babylonia suited him
but little. His two passions were fighting and trading. But his wars, at
all events in the later days of the Assyrian Empire, were conducted with
a commercial object.... It was to destroy the trade of the Phoenician
cities and to divert it into Assyrian hands, that the Assyrian kings
marched their armies to the west; it was to secure the chief highways of
commerce that campaigns were made into the heart of Arabia and Assyrian
satraps were appointed in the cities of Syria. The Assyrian was indeed
irresistible as a soldier, but the motive that inspired him was as much
the interest of the trader as the desire for conquest."[1]
Side by side with the Babylonian's farming concerns, grew his love for
study and his development of the peaceful arts. An elementary education
was general in Babylonia. As industry and commerce brought wealth and
created thus a leisure class, education and learning flourished in
Babylonian cities. Schools grew into prominence, and in the realm of
astronomy and certain of the sciences, some advance was made by which
the Greeks later profited. Quite the reverse was true in Assyria. A
feverish desire for commercial gain and for military conquest prevented
progress in the arts of peace. Learning was confined to a
few--professional scribes supplied secretaries for the state and even
wrote private letters for private citizens. When the luxuries of the
ancient world could be won as tribute, the Assyrian scorned to produce
them for himself. With blood unmixed with any peace-loving people, he
retained the characteristics of his earlier Arabian home. He left the
cultivation of the country to slaves and dwelt in cities, when war and
trade left him intermittent periods at home.
Both Babylonian and Assyrian were religious, but here again we find
differences due to environment. The Babylonian, inheriting the conjuring
and magic of the earlier Chaldean, possessed a religion which held him
in constant dread of demons. The greatest aid and solace his religion
afforded was to assist him in driving away foes which assailed him at
every turn. The Assyrian on the contrary, showed the same proud bearing
in his religious concerns as in other aspects of life. Asshur was his
mighty God, strong in battle and unequaled in courage. Firm in his
conviction that Asshur would give him victory, he went forth, like his
Hebrew brother, to overcome all others and destroy other gods which
offended the true God.
In origin and traditions alike, the Assyrian and the Hebrew in early
times present many similarities, and the religion of the one is
comparable at many points with that of the other.
HOUSES.
It is supposed that in earliest times the dwellers in the Euphrates
valley built their huts of reeds which grew in profusion along the river
and the canals. These in time were replaced by huts of sun-dried brick.
We have already learned that the low level plains of Babylonia afforded
little or no stone for building purposes. Oven-dried brick was the most
substantial building material known and this was so costly, on account
of the scarcity of fuel, that only the temples, kings' palaces, and
homes of the wealthy were made of it. The great majority of houses then,
were constructed of clay mud, shaped in bricks and dried in the sun.
The more pretentious dwellings of nobles and kings were placed on
artificially constructed heights--huge piles of brickwork, in order to
raise them above the gnats and the malaria-breeding fogs of the marshes.
The huts of the poor were located wherever opportunity offered. While
these contained but one or two rooms with small apertures in the clay
walls for windows, and had no floor save the ground, the houses of the
wealthy were frequently several stories high, the upper floors being
reached by outside stairways. The use of the arch was known in Babylonia
from 4000 B.C., a perfect keystone example having been found at Nippur
by the University of Pennsylvania expedition. Windows were furnished
with tapestries to exclude the storms and intense heat of noonday. Flat
roofs supplied a place for the women to perform many household duties,
or, if these were performed by slaves elsewhere, they sat here to
embroider their tapestries and to chat with their friends. Here too, on
hot nights, mattresses were thrown down for the hours of sleep.
Wherever possible a garden surrounded the house. The pride of the
Babylonian, as of the Egyptian, was his carefully tended garden, whether
it was a tiny plot of land or a vast overhanging terrace like that of
Babylon's queen.
Streets were narrow and exceedingly dirty, for into them all refuse and
rubbish from the houses accumulated. We learn that sometimes the entire
street would be filled up to the very doors of the dwellings, and then,
instead of clearing them out, an upper story was added to the houses,
new doors provided, and the occupants started anew on a fresh elevation.
In homes of the wealthy the furniture was simple, and in the huts of the
poor it was scanty indeed. Chairs, stools, and tables were in use; a mat
often constituted the bed, although pictures of most uncomfortable
looking bedsteads have been preserved, these being possessed only by the
wealthy.
The Assyrians who went from Babylonia into their northern land, took
with them the habits and customs there acquired. While stone was
plentiful, they used it only for foundations, or for the less important
portion of their buildings, continuing to make mud brick for the rest,
as they had done before. While hills and elevations were now available
on every hand, they still erected huge piles of brick or stone and
crowned these by their buildings. The Assyrian blood, unmixed with other
tribes or peoples, produced no ingenuity, no inventive genius. The
Assyrian remained an imitator--never a creator. For this reason, we find
close similarity between the houses of the two countries.
Certain features which became inseparable with later architecture had
their beginnings in Babylonia. In early times the roof which covered the
mud hut was supported by dried palm stems; gradually a more substantial
support was substituted, and in this way the column had its origin and
was adopted and improved upon by the Greeks. Again, interior house
decoration may be traced back to these Babylonian houses built of brick.
In houses of the well-to-do, the unsightly bricks were covered by a
coating of stucco and upon this were painted various scenes and
ornamentations. In Assyria, slabs of soft lime-stone were used instead
of the stucco, and figures of horses and men, hunting scenes and
battles, were carved in bas-relief upon them. Indeed much of our
knowledge concerning the life of the people has been gained from a study
of the reliefs discovered in buried palaces.
Regarding the daily lives of those who dwelt within these mud brick
houses, we have less detailed information than concerning the ancient
Egyptian. Fewer scenes of ordinary life were painted in the
Tigris-Euphrates valleys, and whatever was entrusted to the clay stood
far greater chance of being destroyed than that committed to Egyptian
stone.
FAMILY LIFE.
In considering the family life, the position accorded to woman and the
marriage laws and regulations are of first importance.
In early times in Babylonia, a man received a dowry with his wife.
Polygamy was not infrequent but a strong check was placed upon it by
requiring the husband, in case of divorce, to return the wife's dowry to
her and allow her to return home or maintain her own establishment. The
income from the dowry was enjoyed by both husband and wife, but it
remained the portion of the wife and could be willed according to her
pleasure. In case of a woman's second marriage, her first dowry belonged
to her, subject to the claim of her children for one-half of its value.
In both Babylonia and Assyria married women enjoyed many liberties. They
might carry on business enterprises, borrow or loan, manage their own
property and dispose of it at their will. They could seek justice in the
courts, and if they belonged to the middle classes, could come and go at
pleasure. The women of noble families were more carefully guarded, and
seldom appeared unattended in public.
Girls who were not provided with dowries might be purchased and so
become superior slaves of their husbands. Children might be sold by
their parents and brothers might sell their sisters, but in these
countries, slaves were not despised as inferiors and inhumanly treated.
They were often adopted into families, and since those of noble birth
were not infrequently taken captives in war, the slave might be
superior to the owner. However, this last was not so common in
Mesopotamia as it was later in Rome. The fact which alone assured slaves
of good treatment was that there was generally no race difference to
engender feeling between slave and master. Indeed one case is cited in
those days of quickly reversed fortunes, where the slave in a few years
became the master and his former owner became his property!
Marriage was both a civil and a religious ceremony, and the contract was
signed in the presence of a priest. In a code of Babylonian laws
compiled about 2250 B.C., a law provided that "If a man has taken a wife
and has not executed a marriage-contract, that woman is not a wife."
Another provided for one who is helpless: "If a man has married a wife
and a disease has seized her, if he is determined to marry a second
wife, he shall marry her. He shall not divorce the wife whom the disease
has seized. In the home they made together she shall dwell and he shall
maintain her as long as she lives."[2]
Both sons and daughters could inherit property, and according to
Babylonian law, whosoever possessed property, could will it, or dispose
of it, with certain well established restrictions. In case there were no
children to inherit an estate, it was a common practice to adopt them.
Thus families were prevented from dying out.
Children were cared for, sent to school, taught trades or professions,
and probably a certain amount of family life was enjoyed while they were
growing up. The rights of each member of the family were definitely
recognized by law. Home life as we today understand the phrase, was
unknown in antiquity.
We can contrast the condition in Babylonia, where the individual,
instead of the family, was recognized by the law to that in Rome of a
later time, when the family was the unit of the state, and the pater
familias managed all family affairs without state interference or
restriction.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sayce: Social Life Among the Assyrians and Babylonians, 18.
[2] Johns: Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters, 56, 58.
CHAPTER XI.
MORALITY OF THE ANCIENT BABYLONIANS.
For some years past, the French explorer De Morgan has been making
extensive excavations at Susa, the capital of ancient Persia, and before
the rise of Persia, the capital of Elam as early as 3000 B.C. In the
winter of 1901-1902, having removed layers of earth containing ruins of
Persian palaces, he reached deposits contemporary with some of the old
Elamite kings. Here was discovered a stone monument inscribed with the
code of Hammurabi. As we have seen, this king ruled Babylonia about 2000
B.C. He it was who united all the little city-states into one kingdom
with its capital at Babylon. Proving himself a statesman as well as a
warrior, he devoted himself to the welfare of his subjects. He repaired
old canals and constructed new ones, restored the temples and above all,
gave the country a uniform system of laws. These laws were not made by
Hammurabi--generally speaking at least. They had been long established
by custom and he merely codified such customs and earlier decisions into
a system so that justice might be administered alike throughout the
realm. The laws were then inscribed upon stone slabs and erected at
certain places where the people could read them, and those who felt
themselves injured might know what redress lay open to them.
The particular stele unearthed by De Morgan had been set up originally
in the town of Sippara. Later Elamite kings became powerful enough to
invade Babylonia and lay the country under tribute. During this period,
one Elamite king had removed the stone monument from Sippara and taken
it home with his spoils. It had graced his triumphal procession upon his
return and was set up at his capital. 49 columns of inscription were
engraved upon it, but the Elamite king caused 5 to be removed and the
stone to be re-polished, in order that his name might be therein
inserted. For some reason this was forgotten or omitted.
Of the 282 laws once carved upon the stele, all are still legible. Their
discovery is most important for the history of ancient Babylonia, as it
has enabled scholars to reconstruct the standards of morality and
justice current when the country came into its first strength and power.
We may be sure that these laws were in vogue much earlier than the time
of Hammurabi and they lived on with little change for many years after.
They without doubt furnished the basis for the legal code throughout the
history of Babylonia, and without some knowledge of them we would never
have been able to understand the civilization of the country as it is
known today. It is comparable to the "Mosaic Code," which is made up of
different strata from different periods, cir. 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C. The
similarity between the two codes harks back to an early period when the
two peoples had not yet left their Arabian home, and indicates general
Semitic customs. Hammurabi's code "is concerned little, if at all, with
religious matters; the chief content is almost entirely civil and
criminal, dealing with such subjects as marriage, the family, property
rights, agricultural and commercial activities."
It is on the basis of these laws now translated that the morality of the
ancient Babylonians has been worked out. We find that the people were on
the borderland of retaliation, and punishments often took the form of
fines. There was still the old tribal "group responsibility"--that is,
the children often had to suffer for the sins of the father. Distinction
was now made between intentional and unintentional injury. Trial by
ordeal was sometimes allowed, especially when magic was thought to have
been used. Death was a frequent punishment. Banishment might be
inflicted. On the whole, the practices in Babylonia, before and after
2000 B.C., were not so severe as those common in England a century ago,
when petty larceny was met by extreme punishment.
The Babylonians carried the idea of contract and written agreement
farther than any other ancient people. Understandings which are today
made verbally between men were inscribed on clay tablets, duly impressed
by the seals of the parties concerned, and carefully preserved. We find
the law required receipts and written contracts as early as 2000 B.C.
For example, "If a merchant has given to an agent corn, wool, oil, or
any sort of goods to traffic with, the agent shall write down the money
value, and shall return that to the merchant. The agent shall then take
a sealed receipt for the money that he has given to the merchant. If
the agent forgets and has not taken a sealed receipt for the money he
gave to the merchant, money that has not been acknowledged by receipt
shall not be put down in the accounts."[1] Regarding money given
bankers: "If a man has given another gold, silver, or any goods whatever
on deposit, all that he gives shall be shown to witnesses, and take a
bond and so give on deposit. If he has given on deposit without
witnesses and bonds, and has been defrauded where he made his deposit,
he has no claim to prosecute."[2]
"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" was demanded by the Code of
Hammurabi.
"If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be
knocked out.
"If he has broken the limb of a patrician, his limb shall be broken.
"If he has knocked out the eye of a plebeian or has broken the limb of a
plebeian, he shall pay one mana of silver.
"If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal,
his tooth shall be knocked out. If he has knocked out the tooth of a
plebeian, he shall pay one-third of a mana of silver.
"If a man has struck another in a quarrel, and caused him permanent
injury, that man shall swear, 'I struck him without malice,' and shall
pay the doctor."[3]
Theft at a fire was made a capital offense. "If a fire has broken out in
a man's house and one who has come to put it out has coveted the
property of the householder and appropriated any of it, that man shall
be cast into the self-same fire."[4]
Fees of the surgeon were graded by law, and severe penalties were
inflicted for unskillful operations. Probably these were not strictly
enforced but were intended to prevent malpractice.
Marriage laws and regulations governing inheritance were necessarily
definite in a country where a man might have more than one wife. Since
perpetuation of a family through adoption was frequent, laws protected
both foster children and foster parents.
"If a man has brought up a child, whom he has taken to be his son, but
has not reckoned him with his sons, that foster child shall return to
his father's house.
"If a craftsman has taken a child to bring up and has taught him his
handiwork, he shall not be reclaimed. If he has not taught him his
handicraft, that foster child shall return to his father's house."
Injury which today would necessitate the payment of damages, in ancient
Babylonia might even be punished with death. "If a builder has built a
house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built
has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put
to death. If it is the owner's son that is killed, the builder's son
shall be put to death.
"If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he
has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he
built, and it fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that
fell."
Workmen were required to do faithful work or make good consequent
losses. "If a boatman has built a boat for a man, and has not made his
work sound, and in that same year that boat is sent on a voyage and
suffers damage, the boatman shall rebuild that boat, and, at his own
expense, shall make it strong, or shall give a strong boat to the
owner."
In a land where the cultivation of the soil was the great industry,
naturally many regulations refer to the lease of ground and the rent to
be paid by the farmer to the owner of the estate. Because the very
production of the soil depended upon the maintenance of canals, neglect
in the care of the dikes was severely punished.
"If a man has hired a field to cultivate and has caused no corn to grow
on the field, he shall be held responsible for not doing the work on the
field and shall pay an average rent.
"If a man has given his garden to a gardener to farm, the gardener, as
long as he holds the garden, shall give the owner of the garden
two-thirds of the produce of the garden and shall take one-third
himself.
"If a man has neglected to strengthen his dike and has not kept his
dike strong, and a breach has broken out in his dike, and the waters
have flooded the meadow, the man in whose dike the breach has broken out
shall restore the corn he has caused to be lost. If he be not able to
restore the corn, he and his goods shall be sold, and the owners of the
meadow whose corn the water has carried away shall share the money.
"If a man has opened his runnel for watering and has left it open, and
the water has flooded his neighbor's field, he shall pay him an average
crop."
That justice might be administered uniformly throughout the realm,
courts were established in different cities, and Hammarabi insured the
well-being of his subjects by further creating a court of appeals, held
in Babylon. To this superior court anyone, thinking himself unfairly
treated in the lower courts, might have a hearing. Perjury was severely
punished. "If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or has not
established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital
trial, that man shall be put to death.
"If he has borne false witness in a civil law case, he shall pay the
damages in that suit." Judges were always restricted by law and were
held to strict account in administering justice. Any suspicion of
bribery expelled the judge from his seat.
"If a judge has given a verdict, rendered a decision, granted a written
judgment, and afterwards has altered his judgment, that judge shall be
prosecuted for altering the judgment he gave and shall pay twelvefold
the penalty laid down in that judgment. Further, he shall be publicly
expelled from his judgment-seat and shall not return nor take his seat
with the judges at a trial."
Other public servants were required to deal justly with the people.
Governors of provinces who oppressed the inhabitants or in any way were
unjust to those dependent upon them, laid themselves liable to a death
sentence if charges against them could be proven.
In the light of these laws we would conclude that the Babylonians had
reached a high stage of morality when authentic history of their kingdom
begins. Honesty, truth, fair-dealing,--these were demanded by the laws
of the realm, and penalties attached to crimes violating them. One who
was injured must bring his cause before a judge and allow disinterested
persons to render a decision. Instead of retaliation upon the assailant,
money was sometimes received as compensation for injury. In more
flagrant cases, the law imposed the penalty of death. A man could not
slander his neighbor without risk of punishment.
"If the claimant of lost property has not brought the witnesses that
know his lost property, he has been guilty of slander, he has stirred up
strife, he shall be put to death.
* * * * *
"If a man has not his witnesses at hand, the judge shall set him a fixed
time not exceeding six months, and if within six months he has not
produced his witnesses, the man has lied; he shall bear the penalty of
the suit."
Protection was assured the weak and helpless by this code. It was
customary to receive hostages as security for debt--the debtor's son and
slave. Such a hostage was entitled to fair treatment and a law made it
an offense to misuse him. "If a hostage has died of blows or want in the
house of the creditor, the owner of the hostage shall prosecute his
creditor, and if the deceased were free-born, the creditor's son shall
be put to death; if a slave, the creditor shall pay one-third of a mana
of silver, furthermore, he shall lose whatever it was that he lent."
Regarding intemperance among the Babylonians, they used beer freely, but
appear to have gone to no such excesses as were common among the
Egyptians. The price of beer was fixed by law and an overcharge was
punishable by drowning.
The morality of the people seems to have been very slightly influenced
by their religion. While all Semitics have been strongly religious
people, the Babylonians had reached a certain degree of secularism in
their religion. Their temples were financial centers for the country and
were of more direct interest to the people because from them they might
negotiate small loans to tide them over emergencies perhaps than because
the deity of the locality had there his center of worship.
A lengthy prologue setting forth the titles of Hammurabi and the gods
that gave him power, preceded his code of laws. These were followed by
an epilogue similar in nature. The king calls down curses upon any
future ruler who should cause his wholesome regulations to be altered.
"In the future, in days to come, at any time, let the king who is in the
land, guard the words of righteousness which I have written on my stele.
Let him not alter the judgment of the land which I judged nor the
decisions I decided. Let him not destroy my bas-relief. If that man has
wisdom and is capable of directing his land, let him attend to the words
which I have written upon my stele, let him apprehend the path, the
rule, the law of the land which I judged, and the decision I decided for
the land, and so let him guide forward the black-headed race; let him
judge their judgment and decide their decision, let him cut off from his
land the proud and violent, let him rejoice in the flesh of his
people."[5]
Blessings were given him who should respect this code of laws and
terrible curses heaped upon any who might disregard it. Much of
Babylonia's prosperity appears to have resulted from the enforcement of
these impartial judgments.
[Illustration: BABYLONIAN BRICK. THE KING'S NAME AND TITLES WERE
INSCRIBED ON EACH BRICK.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Johns: Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Letters and Contracts;
Hammarabi's Code, 104, 105.
[2] Ibid., 122, 123.
[3] Ibid., 196, 197, 198, 201, 206.
[4] Ibid., 25.
[5] Johns: Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Letters and Contracts;
Hammarabi's Code, 104, 105.
CHAPTER XII.
LITERATURE AND LEARNING.
The Babylonians produced quite an extensive literature. Their writings
treated of religion, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and geography,
while some attempt was made to explain animal and plant life. History in
Babylonia was limited almost wholly to royal inscriptions and lists of
kings. In Assyria, on the other hand, the greater portion of the
literature related to history, and the kings set forth the happenings of
their reigns with directness and considerable detail. Diplomatic
affairs, correspondence with Babylonia and foreign provinces, official
letters, tribute lists and royal decrees, make up a large part of the
surviving tablets.
We have already spoken of the library of Asshurbanipal, or the Ninevan
library, and have seen what a world of light was thrown upon Assyrian
civilization when its surviving tablets were at last deciphered.
Babylonia maintained libraries, however, before Nineveh was founded.
These clustered, for reasons which we shall soon see, around the
temples. At Erech were early collected writings which were concerned
with the religion of the ancient Chaldeans, together with the myths and
legends of the country. So many tablets were preserved in this temple
that Erech was called the "city of books." A library, rich in
mathematical lore, grew up at Larsa, another at Nippur, and still
another at Cathah. Smaller libraries were attached to all the great
temples.
When we speak of "libraries" in Mesopotamia, collections of clay tablets
are meant. Rooms were frequently provided within the temples for the
storing of these clay books. The size of the tablet varied greatly. The
largest were flat and about 9 by 6-1/2 inches; smaller ones were
slightly convex, while tiny ones, not more than one inch long,
containing but a line or two, have been found. Sometimes the lettering
is so fine that it could have been done only with the aid of a lens, and
it cannot be read without one.
In these valleys, the cheapest, most available writing material was the
soft clay, ever in evidence. When bricks had been partially dried in the
sun, a substance was formed which readily received impressions, and
these became firm as the tablet hardened. Both sides and sometimes the
edges as well, were written upon, and little pegs of wood provided legs
for the brick to rest upon when reversed, that the soft impressions
might not be injured. To make the whole proof against fire and water, it
was finally baked in an oven. When so treated, a material was made which
proved more enduring against action of the elements than either
parchment or papyrus.
It is quite certain that papyrus and possibly parchment as well were
used for writing purposes, especially in the later period, but no
fragment of either has survived.
Certain disadvantages attached to the cheap tablets. They were heavy and
unwieldy to hold or carry, but more especially, they allowed no
embellishments or lengthy descriptions. Owing to the laborious method of
transcribing records, everything was of necessity abbreviated and
simplified. Thus we see how one thing acts upon another--the country
afforded only clay tablets for writing material; these, limited because
of size and weight, curtailed speech and so influenced the style of
expression.
Occasionally one tablet constituted a book, but more often several
tablets were needed to contain the entire writing. Thus the Deluge Story
is the eleventh tablet, or chapter, of a series numbering twelve in all.
Seventy tablets composed a single work on astronomy, while the three
books comprising the earliest religious texts covered 200 tablets. Each
tablet was carefully numbered and known by the first line of the book;
as, for example, one work treated on the creation and began: "Formerly
that which is above was not yet called the heaven;" so the first tablet
of the series was entitled: "Formerly that which is above, No. 1;" the
second, "Formerly that which is above, No. 2," and so on through the
entire series.
[Illustration: MUSICIANS AND ATTENDANTS IN THE GARDEN OF ASSHURBANIPAL.]
The ancient Chaldeans believed that literature and the art of writing
were gifts from the gods, and in the myth which to them explained how
knowledge came into the world, it was numbered among the things taught
them by the Man-Fish, Oannes. This is the myth as Berosus told it:
"There was originally at Babylonia a multitude of men of foreign race
who had colonized Chaldea, and they lived without order, like animals.
But in the first year (of the new order of things) there appeared from
out the Persian Gulf where it borders upon Babylonia, an animal endowed
with reason, who was called Oannes. The whole body of the animal was
that of a fish, but under the fish's head he had another head, and also
feet below, growing out of his fish's tail, similar to those of a man;
also human speech, and his image is preserved to this day. This being
used to spend the whole day amidst men, without taking any food, and he
gave them an insight into letters, and sciences, and every kind of art;
he taught them how to found cities, to construct temples, to introduce
laws and to measure land; he showed them how to sow seeds and gather in
crops; in short, he instructed them in everything that softens manners
and makes up civilization, so that from that time no one has invented
anything new. Then, when the sun went down, this monstrous Oannes used
to plunge back into the sea and spend the night in the midst of the
boundless waves, for he was amphibious."
It was believed that learning and letters were under the special
protection of the gods, and for this reason it was fitting to preserve
books in the temples. The libraries thus established were cared for by
scribes and were open to the public. Many were engaged constantly in
copying, repairing and taking care of the tablets. An order of celibate
priests, not unlike the monks of the Middle Ages, devoted itself to the
task of book-making, regarding the work as a pious undertaking.
Among the most ancient books recovered is one containing bits of
folk-lore, popular songs and maxims. One of the maxims runs:
"Like an oven that is old
Against thy foes be hard and strong."
A fragment of a ploughman's song says:
"My knees are marching--my feet are not resting;
With no wealth of thy own--grain thou makest for me."
The Creation legends were among the most ancient writings.
"A plant had not been brought forth, a tree had not been created.
A brick had not been made, a beam had not been formed.
A house had not been built, a city had not been constructed.
A city had not been made, earthly things had not been made glorious.
Nipur had not been built, (its temple) E-kura had not been constructed.
Erech had not been built, (its temple) E-Ana had not been constructed.
The deep had not been made, Eridu had not been constructed.
As for the glorious temple (of Eridu), the house of the gods, its seat
had not been made.
The whole of the lands, the sea also, (had not been formed).
When within the sea the current was
In that day Eridu was made. E-Sagila was constructed,
E-Sagila which the god Lugal-du-azagga founded within the deep;
Babylon (also) was built, E-Sagila was completed.
The gods and the spirits of the earth were made altogether.
The glorious city, the seat of the joy of their hearts, supremely they
proclaimed.
Merodack (Marduk) bound together the slime before the water.
Dust he made and he poured it out with the flood.
The gods were made to dwell in a seat of joy of heart.
He created mankind.
The god Aruru, the seed of mankind, they made with him.
He made the beasts of the field and the living creatures of the desert.
He made the Tigris and Euphrates, and set (them) in (their) places
Well proclaimed he their name.
The ussu-plant, the dittu-plant of the marshland, the reed and the
forest he made.
He made the verdure of the plain;
The lands, the marshes, and the greensward also;
Oxen, the young of the horse, the stallion, the mare, the sheep,
the locust;
Meadows and forests also.
The he-goat and the gazelle brought forth to him."[1]
Babylonian myths often took the form of epics. The epic of Gilgamesh was
popular. Twelve tablets composed it, each corresponding to a zodiacal
sign. The Deluge Story made up the eleventh chapter. Another epic, the
Descent of Ishtar into Arallu, or Hades, was well known. Ishtar, herself
a goddess, mourned a departed god, her consort, so greatly that she
braved the terrors of the underworld to find him and to carry him water
from the fountain of life, that he might rejoin her. This was the
earliest form of a myth which later appeared in many lands.
Astronomy had its birth in astrology--the so-called science which sought
to discover the influences of the planets upon the destinies of mankind.
This science was firmly believed in and strongly supported for centuries
after the Christian era, and has its followers even today.
Mathematics had a similar beginning. Geometrical figures were used for
augury. In arithmetic, 60 was a favorite number for computation, and the
division of a circle into seconds, minutes and degrees, dates from this
time.
Geography consisted merely of lists of seas, mountains, rivers, waters,
nations, and cities then known. Grammars and dictionaries were plentiful
because they were needed even at that time for an understanding of a
language, already "dead," but still the language of literature.
In the realm of history, royal inscriptions may be included. With the
rise of Assyria these came to be more complete. Fewer set phrases,
copied by each king from most ancient times, were used and more
information was included concerning the subject at hand. For example, an
inscription of Tiglathpileser I. (about 1100 B.C.) filled eight sides of
a clay cylinder, and contained 809 lines. It consisted of (1) an
invocation to the gods who had given him power; (2) set forth his titles
and summed up the deeds of his reign; (3) 500 lines recounted the
campaigns of his first year; (4) 200 lines described his royal hunts and
his temples built and restored; (5) finally a blessing was pronounced
upon those who shall honor his deeds and a curse is given those who
ignore them.
Both nations loved justice and delighted in formality. All kinds of
agreements were put into writing and were duly witnessed. To the
original code of laws in Babylonia, court decisions were added and
together comprised the later law of the land. All important cases were
abstracted and the decision of the judges given at length on tablets
which have been preserved in many cases with the signature of the judge.
The judges were appointed by the king. Priests were eligible, but others
often served. There was probably a court in the vicinity of every
important temple, which has given a general impression that the priests
took entire charge of court proceedings.
Education was much more widely diffused in Babylonia than in Assyria. In
the former country both girls and boys seem to have received some
elementary training in the art of reading and writing. Schools for the
training of scribes were maintained in connection with each of the great
temples. Tutors were doubtless employed in families of the nobility, but
little is known of the training of the young. The art of writing was a
difficult one to master and required the memorizing of a large number of
symbols. There must have been much truth in the sentence found often in
the children's copy-books: "He who would become a scribe must rise with
the dawn." In the school of Sippara a tablet has been found which is
supposed to have been either a medal or a diploma given by the school.
An inscription upon it reads: "Whosoever has distinguished himself at
the place of tablet writing shall shine as the light." The calling of
the scribe was an honorable one and his social position was good.
One indication that people of the better classes in Babylonia could
write is to be found in the number of personal letters which have been
found. These are not written, as in Assyria, in one uniform handwriting,
but show many variations and degrees of perfection.
In Assyria writing was a profession, and only trades-people whose
business compelled them to understand rudimentary writing, public
officials and the upper classes understood the art. Public scribes wrote
many private letters, much in the same way as a lawyer of today might
draw up some document, and to the letter so written, the sender affixed
his seal.
Learning was limited in the northern kingdom to the favored few. Some of
the kings, notably Asshurbanipal, was a book collector and sent his men
everywhere to gather up tablets of worth and antiquity.
Letters which have been translated help to bring these early days before
us. This one was probably sent by a lover to the object of his
adoration:
"To Bibea say, thus saith Gimil-Marduk: May Shamash and Marduk for my
sake preserve thy health forever. I have sent for thy health. Tell me
how thou art. I went to Babylon and did not see thee. I was greatly
disappointed. Send me the reason of thy leaving, and let me be cheered.
In Marchevan do thou come. For my sake keep well always."[2]
The next is written by the captain of a river barge to King Sennacherib,
concerning the transporting of colossal bulls.
"To the king my lord, thy servant Asshur-mukin has ordered me to
transport in boats the colossal bulls and cherubim of stone. The boats
are not strong enough and are not ready. But if a present be kindly made
to us, we will see that they are got ready, and ascend the river."
If the writer of the third failed to have his request granted, it could
scarcely be for lack of persistence in making it known. It is a letter
written by a tenant to his landlord, and belongs to the age of Abraham:
"To my lord say, thus saith Ibgatum thy servant: As, my lord, thou hast
heard, the enemy has carried off my oxen. Never before have I sent to
thee, my lord. Now I have caused a letter to be brought to thee, my
lord, Do thou, my lord, send me one young cow. I will weigh out and send
five shekels of silver to thee, my lord. My lord, what thou sayest,
under the command of Marduk, thy protector, what pleases thee, no one
can hinder thee, my lord. My lord, do thou make her worth the five
shekels of silver that I have weighed out and sent to thee. Do thou, my
lord, treat seriously this request, do not trifle with my wish. Let my
lord not wonder at this request, which I send my lord. I am thy servant.
I will do thy will, my lord. As to the young cow, which thou, my lord,
dost send, let her be on credit, and either to Basu, or wherever is
convenient to my lord, do thou send. With Iliikisham, my brother, let
the young cow come. And I, in order that my lord should quickly consent
and send the young cow, will forthwith weigh out and send fifteen
shekels of silver to thee, my lord."[3]
Sayce has suggested that the five shekels of silver was the amount he
paid annually for the lease of his farm, and that he sent it at this
time to further influence the landlord to grant his request. Another
interpretation has been put upon it that he sent the five shekels as a
payment down, but did not propose to pay the full price until he saw the
particular cow sent him.
Letters were enclosed generally in an envelope of clay. Powdered clay
was sprinkled over the letter to prevent its clinging to the cover.
Because the envelope of clay had to be broken before the letter was
read, safety and privacy was proven by the unbroken cover. Again the
tablet upon which the letter was inscribed was sometimes covered with a
linen wrapper and the ends held by a seal--a lump of clay pressed down
with the impression of the seal upon it. Few of these clay or linen
envelopes have been found, for they were regarded as valueless and were
cast aside. A very fair postal system was maintained in Mesopotamia.
"Babylonian and Assyrian letters were treated much as ours are when they
are put into a post-bag to which the seals of the post-office are
attached. There were excellent roads all over Western Asia, with
post-stations at intervals where relays of horses could be procured.
Along these all letters to or from the king and the government were
carried by royal messengers. It is probable that the letters of private
individuals were also carried by the same hands.... The civilized and
oriental world was bound together by a network of postal routes over
which literary intercourse was perpetually passing. They extended from
the Euphrates to the Nile and from the plateau of Asia Minor to the
confines of Arabia. These routes followed the old lines of war and trade
along which armies had marched and merchantmen had traveled for
unnumbered generations. The Tell-el-Amarna tablets show that
letter-writing was not confined to Assyria and Babylonia on the one
hand, or to Egypt on the other. Wherever the ancient culture of
Babylonia had spread, there had gone with it not only the cuneiform
characters and the use of clay as a writing material, but the art of
letter-writing as well."[4]
Fifteen hundred and seventy-five letters alone were found in the library
of Asshurbanipal, unearthed by Layard. This great Assyrian king sent
scribes throughout Babylonia to visit ancient temples and copy tablets
on which were preserved ancient writings. Some thirty thousand were
collected before his death and they treated of all subjects known at
that time. It was remarkable that when this splendid palace fell into
ruins, many of these tablets remained uninjured, and, having laid
undisturbed for twenty-five hundred years, were finally brought to light
some fifty years ago to give the world of today their old-time messages.
DELUGE STORY--COLUMN III.
"The surface of the land like fire they wasted;
they destroyed all life from the face of the land;
to battle against men they brought the waters.
Brother saw not his brother; men knew not one another.
In heaven the gods feared the flood and
hastened to ascend to the heaven of Anu.
The gods, like dogs in the kennel, crouched down in a heap.
Six days and nights ...
the wind, the flood, and the storm go on overwhelming.
The seventh day, when it approached, the flood subsided, the
storm which had fought against men like an armed host
was quieted. The sea began to dry, and the wind and the flood ended.
I beheld the sea and uttered a cry,
for the whole of mankind was turned to clay;
like trunks the corpses floated.
I opened the window, and light smote upon my face;
I stopped and sat down; I wept;
over my face flowed my tears.
I beheld a shore beyond the sea;
a district rose twelve times distant.
On the mountain of Nizir the ship grounded;
the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship, and it was not able to pass
over it.
The first day, the second day, the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship.
The third day, the fourth day, the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship.
The fifth day, the sixth day, the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship.
The seventh day when it approached
I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went in and returned
and found no resting place, and it came back.
Then I sent forth a swallow, and it left. The swallow went and returned,
and found no resting place, and it came back.
I sent forth a raven, and it left.
The raven went, and saw the going down of the waters, and
it approached, it waded, it croaked; it did not return.
I sent the animals to the four winds; I sacrificed a sacrifice
I built an altar on the peak of the mountain.
I sent vessels ... by sevens;
underneath them I spread reeds, cedar-wood, and herbs.
The gods smelt the savour; the gods smelt the good savour;
the gods gathered like flies over the sacrifices.
Thereupon the great goddess at her approach
lifted up the mighty bow which Anu had created according to
his wishes.
These gods, by my necklace, never will I forget."
[Illustration: ISHTAR. FROM AN ASSYRIAN CYLINDER.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] George Smith: Babylonia, 46.
[2] Johns: Baby. and Assy. Laws, Letters and Contracts, 336.
[3] Johns: Baby. and Assy. Laws, Letters and Contracts, 334.
[4] Sayce: Life and Customs in Baby. and Assy., 228.
CHAPTER XIII.
CLOTHING.
The Babylonians and Assyrians were very fond of dress. There were three
essentials to Mesopotamian dress, and accessories depended upon the
taste and purse of the wearer. A head-dress, a tunic and a robe were the
main features of one's apparel, although all were not of necessity worn
by the lower classes. The head-dress was frequently of felt and was some
times quilted; the tunic was generally made of linen when worn in
Babylonia and of wool in Assyria; the robe was long, falling to the
ankles; it was often of wool and was finished with a deep fringe. The
tunic and some times the robe as well were belted at the waist by a wide
and elaborate girdle. Women's garments were similar to those worn by
men, but their robes fell in more ample folds. Naturally fashions
changed and a garment worn in the days of the Semitic invasion would
have appeared odd and out of date in the age of Asshurbanipal.
Early portraits of kings show them clad in thick quilted skirts falling
to the ankles, while quilted turbans covered their heads. Later robes
took the place of the skirt. Parasols were carried in Babylonia as
protection against the heat, but in Assyria they gradually became the
privilege of the royal family. In portraits of later Assyrian kings, the
parasol is frequently shown. This custom may have been borrowed from
Persia.
Ordinarily no head-dress was worn by the lower classes in Babylonia
unless, perhaps, to denote some special calling. Certain musicians
appear with caps. The devotees of fashion probably donned head-dresses
at pleasure.
Jewelry was popular with both men and women, even the poor being adorned
with necklaces, bracelets, anklets. Shoes and sandals were seldom worn
in the southern kingdom. In Assyria, naturally a colder climate brought
about some variations of dress. High boots and leather breeches were
worn by the soldiers of later periods; shoes were needed to protect the
feet from frosty ground, and cloaks were required in addition to the
usual robe.
Embroidered and imported robes, smart hats and other details of wearing
apparel were characteristic of later periods when wealth and leisure
gave opportunity for such indulgences. Certain it is that the simple
tunic sufficed in early days, and rank was indicated by its greater or
abbreviated length.
The ancient Chaldeans or Sumerians always shaved their heads and faces.
Influenced by this custom, the Babylonians did not wear long beards. The
Assyrians, more purely Semitic, wore long ones and had hair dressers
largely in the place of barbers, who curled both their beards and hair.
A word should be said of the costumes of the priests. They may always be
distinguished on the monuments by their long, flounced robes, reaching
nearly to the ground. Because the goat was an animal of special
sanctity, a goat-skin was invariably thrown over the shoulder--quite as
the Egyptian priest wore the skin of a leopard.
In connection with the jewelry worn by men, we may consider the little
cylinders which served as seals. In Babylonia, because of the scarcity
of stone, even tiny pebbles were valued, and it came to be the custom to
have these cut in cylindrical shapes by expert stone-cutters. An opening
was made throughout their length to allow a cord or chain to pass
through. This attached the cylinder to the owner's wrist. Upon the round
surface of the cylinder were engraved various designs and figures, and a
few words explaining the identity of the wearer, name of his father and
other noteworthy facts regarding him. His name was affixed, and with
this he stamped his letters and all documents. To be without a cylinder
was almost as inconvenient as to be without a name. The very poor, who
could not afford such a seal, were obliged to make a nail-mark in the
soft clay, while some one wrote the name of the person to whom that
particular mark belonged. The possessor of a cylinder had only to pass
it over the clay and his signature was made. Many of these little
cylinders have been recovered, and some lack the name of an owner,
showing that they had been made by a gem-cutter, but had not yet found a
buyer.
FOOD.
Food was easily obtained in Mesopotamia, and consisted mainly of grains
and dried fish. Cereals were made into little cakes and seasoned with
dates or some other fruit. Fish and fowl were plentiful; many kinds of
fruits and vegetables were grown, and wine and beer were universally
used. Lacking the tomb-pictures of Egypt, we know less about the food
and its preparation in the Euphrates valley.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES.
For our knowledge of ancient Babylonian and Assyrian life, we are
dependent largely upon scenes depicted on palace walls, especially the
walls of royal dwellings. These scenes commemorate the doings of the
king particularly, and where laborers, slaves and the common people are
shown at all, they are seen at work, building palaces and temples,
marching to battle, swelling the triumphal processions, or they are
cultivating the fields, storing away the grain--all to the glory of the
realm and consequently to the king. Naturally then, we know little about
the pastimes of the masses. They no doubt thronged the streets on
festivals, for then they were free from work. Even labor on royal
palaces--always pushed with all possible speed--was then suspended.
Every day in the year had its own significance, but five days each month
were of particular importance, being sacred to the gods, and were duly
observed. Worship and merry-making were in a measure mingled. Other days
for popular observance were those in which the king and the army
returned from successful wars. A triumphal procession passed slowly
through the streets on its way to the temple, where thanksgiving was
rendered the gods who had made victory possible. Such occasions were
always holidays, and the people in gay attire, gathered to witness the
home-coming of their sovereign, and to gaze in wonder at the booty and
the captives.
Two recreations pictured on the palace walls were enjoyed only by the
nobles and the wealthy classes--the hunt and the banquet. In modern
times, when those in high position have occasionally laid down important
matters for a brief while to seek recreation in hunting, fishing and out
of door life, they have taken opportunity to throw off much of the
conventionality surrounding their every-day life and have found some
diversion in "roughing it,"--in sharing the varying fortune likely to
befall those who leave the certain comforts of home for the uncertain
conditions to be met away from the centers of civilization. Such was not
at all the case with the kings of Assyria when they left their capitals
to hunt the lion in its distant jungles and marshes. In the palace of
Sennacherib and Asshurbanipal, hunts have been depicted throughout their
progress. We may see the king marching out of the city in his state
chariot, his charioteer at his side, while behind him an attendant holds
high an embroidered parasol over his kingly head to protect him from the
rays of the sun. Nobles accompany him on horses and they, together with
the guards and retinue of servants, make up a small army. Goats and
cattle are driven along, that his majesty and his nobles may have fresh
milk and meat throughout their absence; a sumptuous tent shelters the
king when the procession stops for the night, while each noble tries to
pitch his tent near the more splendid one of his king. Maspero has
graphically described the hunt. Some wild oxen have been discovered, and
the king gives chase:
"In less time than we can speak, three of the bulls are rolling on the
ground, pierced with several arrows; the four others but slightly
wounded, turn round and gallop towards the river. Asshurbanipal follows
the largest of them, which he is almost sure is wounded in the shoulder;
then gradually he overtakes it, skillfully drives his chariot beside it
without checking speed, and laying aside his bow, grasps one of the
poignards he wears in his belt. With one hand he seizes one of the
animal's horns, with the other he plunges his weapon into his neck; the
short, wide blade divides the spine, between the neck and shoulder, the
bull falls like a stone. A flight of arrows arrests the fugitives before
they can reach the water; the whole herd is killed, except the old bull
that escaped at first.
"The return to the camp is a triumphal march. As soon as the sentinels
signal the arrival of the party, soldiers, slaves, women, all who are
not bound by etiquette or military duty, hurry to meet it, and form two
lines, watching the procession. The sight of the seven bulls, each
carried by five or six men, almost causes them to forget the respect
due to royalty. They exclaim upon the size of the animals, the strength
of their horns, the savage aspect given by their manes; they praise
their master's skill, and loudly thank the gods who have favored him
with such rare and terrible game. Asshurbanipal has left his chariot in
front of his tent, and now prepares to return thanks for his success to
the lord Asshur and the lady Ishtar. Two priests with their harps are
waiting to commence the hymns of praise. The bearers place the oxen side
by side in a single line. The king, accompanied by his fly-flap and
sunshade-bearers, stands on the right, the bow in his left hand. He
takes the cup full of sacramental wine, which the vizier presents to
him, touches it with his lips, then partly empties it over the victims
whilst the musicians play. The same evening a messenger will start for
Nineveh to have the new exploit graven upon stone. The picture will
portray the departure, the chase, the death, the solemn entry, and an
inscription placed above the last scene will tell posterity the name of
the victor. 'I, Asshurbanipal, king of multitudes, king of Assyria,
whose power is secured by Asshur and Beltis, I have killed seven oxen; I
have strung the mighty bow of Ishtar, queen of battles, against them, I
have made an offering over them and poured wine upon them.'
"On the following day the dogs rouse three lions from their jungle.
These are killed after having made a desperate resistance. The three
bodies are carried back to the camp, then presented to Ishtar with the
same ceremonies that had celebrated the triumph over the wild bulls, and
the sculptors were ordered to represent the hand-to-hand struggle of the
sovereign and his savage foe. 'I, Asshurbanipal, king of peoples, king
of Assyria, alone on foot, in my majesty, I seized a lion of the desert
by the ear; and by the mercy of Asshur and Ishtar, queen of battles, I
pierced its loins with my lance, with mine own hands.'"[1]
A banquet sometimes celebrated the return from a fine and successful
hunt, but it faded into insignificance when compared with the one held
after the return from a war of pillage and conquest. The entire
population of the capital became temporary guests of the king.
"After the procession, the day is passed in a perfect frenzy of joy by
the whole nation. It is customary for all the inhabitants of the city,
slaves and freemen, to eat and drink at the king's expense during the
festival; this is a method of giving them a share of the booty. For
seven days the palace gates are open to all comers. Many colored stuffs
suspended over the walls by means of ropes have transformed the courts
into immense banqueting halls. The crowd is coming and going from
morning till night; the people install themselves upon state-seats and
ask for whatever they like; the slaves have orders to give them anything
they wish for, and to bring each person whatever he desires as many
times as he asks for it. Women and children are admitted to these
festivals as well as men. The soldiers kept in barracks by their duty
are not forgotten; the king sends them the food and wine they cannot
fetch for themselves in so great profusion that they have nothing to
regret. The loaves disappear by thousands, by thousands also the oxen,
sheep, goats, and birds of all kinds are sacrificed to satisfy the
public appetite. But what they eat is nothing to what they drink. The
Assyrian is sober in ordinary life, but he does not know how to stop if
he once allows himself any excess. Wines of Assyria and Chaldea, wines
from Elam, wines from Syria and Phoenicia, wines from Egypt, the skins
are emptied as soon as opened, without visibly quenching the universal
thirst. After one or two days no brain is strong enough to resist it,
and Nineveh presents the extraordinary spectacle of a whole city in
different degrees of intoxication; when the festival is over, several
days are required before it resumes its usual aspect.
Whilst the people are becoming tipsy outside, Asshurbanipal feasts the
leading chiefs and the ministers of state within the palace. Unlike the
common people, the nobles eat but little, so that few dishes of meat are
set before them, but cakes and fruits of different kinds, grapes, dates,
apples, pears, and figs are brought in continual relays, by long lines
of slaves. On the other hand, they drink a great deal--with more
refinement, perhaps, than the common people, but with equal avidity.
The only persons who do not drink, or who drink little, through the
necessity of retaining their sobriety, are the guards, the servants and
the musicians. No festival is complete without the presence of singers,
and the king's musicians conscientiously perform their finest melodies.
Perhaps some one listened to them at the beginning of the feast, but now
that the great silver bowls have been filled and emptied several times,
their music is literally wasted. They may sing out of tune, or remain
silent, just as they please, no one will listen or care.
The court poet has placed the recital of the hero's life and exploits,
from the hour of his birth until the day of his triumph, in his own
mouth. He concluded by saying:
"'I am a strong warrior, beloved of Asshur and Ishtar, the child of
royalty. The gods have been gracious to me. The wheat has grown to five
cubits, and its ears of corn are always one cubit long; during my reign,
abundance has overflowed; during all the years of my reign, the divine
blessing has been poured out upon me like a heavy dew. The gods have
raised me higher than any king ever ascended before me. Whilst Asshur
and Ishtar support me, who can prevail against me? My power is
everlastingly founded by their hands, the duration of my race is
established; they shall reign for many days, and for everlasting
years.'"[2]
[Illustration: ASSYRIAN KING IN ROYAL ROBES.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Maspero: Ancient Egypt and Assyria, 260.
[2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt and Assyria, 368, ff.
CHAPTER XIV.
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION.
Architecture is evolved from religion as well as from nature. Generally
speaking, we find temples of worship to be the first buildings erected
by every people.
Because the Babylonians were limited by lack of other material to sun or
kiln-dried brick, and the Assyrians, devoid of originality, limited
themselves to the same baked clay, we would scarcely expect to find
pleasing or artistic buildings in either state. Even in the dwellings of
rich and poor, the great difference was one of size. It was impossible
to make a clay wall very ornate, but the wealthy could have more walls
and broader expanse of bricks. Size, or hugeness, then, signified
superiority. It naturally followed that the temple, the noblest
structure attempted by the Mesopotamians, was especially large, being
called by a word which meant "mountain house."
Large tracts of land were dedicated to the temples. Having been
consecrated by libations of wine, oil and honey, the temple proper,
consisting of halls or rooms surrounding an inner court, was first
erected. Near this arose the ziggurat or tower, and many smaller
buildings, not unlike private dwellings. These served as residences for
the priests, for the temple school, store-houses for the sacred oil and
other articles pertaining to worship, and many other purposes. The
entire area was enclosed by a wall, and was ordinarily remote from the
noises of the city. Within this large enclosure other walls surrounded
buildings of special sanctity and importance. Within the temple proper
was an inner room where the statue of the god was kept. This
corresponded to the "holy of holies" in a Jewish synagogue, and was
entered only by the priest or king.
The ziggurat or mountain house--for this alone was massive and
high--built as symbolic of the mountain form which the whole earth was
supposed to assume, was a tower, some times three, some times five or
even seven stories high. The remains of one of these ziggurats was
discovered by Dr. Peters and his explorers at Nippur, and is supposed to
have been built as early as 2700 B.C.
The ziggurat at Borsippa had a base of earthwork 272 feet on each side,
and was 26 feet high. Above this foundation arose two stories, 26 feet
in height, each 42 feet less on a side than the story below. Four
stories, each 15 feet high, followed, decreasing 42 feet on a side like
the lower ones, and the last, or seventh, story, was just 29 feet
square. Stairways wound around the outside of the tower, and it was
thought pleasing to the gods that worshippers should ascend to the top.
Each story was sacred to some particular god whose statue it contained
while the shrine of the most important deity was placed on top.
Sometimes each story was painted a different color.
The mass of worshippers, however, assembled at the temple rather than
the tower, and offerings were made at the base of the ziggurat instead
of at the top.
It was the ambition of the kings that the inner walls of their
buildings, whether temples or palaces, should "shine like the sunlight,"
and to this end gold, silver and precious stones lent their gleams and
glows to mural decorations.
Next in importance to the temples were royal palaces, and in Assyria,
where religion was given less prominence, the temple was a mere adjunct
of the palace. Here again, a large inner court was surrounded by halls
and rooms. The palace court was paved and decorated and upon the inner
walls of the palace the skill of the artist was expended. The floors
were made of tiles, and these followed ingenious patterns. Sometimes the
floors were formed of bricks or tablets covered with inscriptions deeply
cut; then molten metal--brass or bronze--was poured over the whole, and
filling the depressions, caused the entire floor to look like a curious
and intricate design.
It was comparatively easy to lay floors and raise walls of bricks, but
it was quite another thing to make roofs of them. The longest rafters
were obtained from the cedars of Lebanon and these ranged from 30 to 40
feet in length. This practically determined the width of the halls and
rooms, which seem to have been even four times their width in length.
The monotony of the inner walls was relieved by alabaster reaching
around the halls from twelve to fifteen feet above the floors, and held
in place by strong iron clamps. On this soft, yielding substance were
portrayed scenes in the life and exploits of the king--his campaigns,
hunts, works of peace, and acts of worship. These were executed in
bas-relief after the slabs were fitted into place. Above them extended a
frieze perhaps three feet in width, made of tiles painted in delicate
colors and laid in such a way as to form a picture or design. We miss
the gaudy colors so popular in Egypt. It has been well said that the
Assyrian artist sought to please by the elegance of his forms and the
harmony of his hues--not to startle by a display of bright and strongly
contrasted colors. The palace of Sennacherib, second only to the temple
of Karnak in grandeur--covered an area of eight acres, and contained
some eighty apartments. The palace of Sargon at Khorsabad had no less
than 209 rooms. Of the scenes depicted on the slabs of alabaster in the
state apartments Rawlinson writes at length: "The most striking
characteristic of Sennacherib's ornamentation is its strong and marked
realism. Mountains, rocks, trees, roads, rivers, lakes were regularly
portrayed, an attempt being made to represent the locality, whatever it
might be, as truthfully as the artist's skill and the character of his
material rendered possible. The species of trees is distinguished,
gardens, fields, ponds, reeds, are carefully represented; wild animals
are introduced, as stags, boars and antelopes; birds fly from tree to
tree, or stand over their nests, feeding the young who stretch up to
them; fish disport themselves in the water; fishermen ply their craft;
boatmen and agricultural laborers pursue their avocations; the scene is,
as it were, photographed, with all its features.
"In the same spirit of realism, Sennacherib chooses for artistic
representation scenes of a commonplace and everyday character. The
trains of attendants who daily enter his palace with game and locust for
his dinner, and cakes and fruit for his dessert, appear on the walls of
the passages exactly as they walked through his courts bearing the
delicacies in which he delighted. Elsewhere he puts before us the entire
process of carving and transporting a colossal bull, from the first
removal of the huge stone in its rough state from the quarry to its
final elevation on a palace mound, as part of the great gateway of a
royal residence. We see the trackers dragging the rough block, supported
on a low flat-bottomed boat, along the course of a river, disposed in
gangs, each gang having a costume of its own which probably marked its
nation, under taskmasters armed with staves, who urged on the labor with
blows. The whole scene must be represented, and so the trackers are
there, to the number of three hundred, each delineated with as much care
as if he were not the exact image of ninety-nine others. We then observe
the block transferred to land, and carved into the rough semblance of a
bull, in which form it is placed on a rude sledge and conveyed along
level land by gangs of laborers, arranged nearly as before, to the foot
of the mound at whose top it has to be placed. The construction of the
mound is elaborately represented. Brickmakers are seen moulding the
bricks at its base, while workmen with baskets at their backs, full of
earth, brick, stone, or rubbish toil up the ascent--for the mound is
already half raised--and empty their burdens out upon the summit. The
bull, still lying on its sledge, is then drawn up an inclined plane to
the top by four gangs of laborers, in the presence of the monarch and
his attendants. After this the carving is completed, and the colossus,
having been raised into an upright position, is conveyed along the
surface of the platform to the exact site which it is to occupy."
Guarding the portals of the palaces stood the winged bulls and lions, in
pairs. They were thought to ward off demons and to inspire awe in those
who beheld them. They were formed with five legs, in order that the
spectator, whether he viewed them from the front or side, might still
see the usual four. Speaking of these great stone creatures, Layard
wrote: "I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and
muse over their intent and history. What more noble forms could have
ushered the people into the temple of their gods? What more sublime
images could have been borrowed from nature by men who sought, unaided
by the light of revealed religion, to embody their conception of the
wisdom, power and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? They could find no better
type of intellect and knowledge than the head of a man; of strength,
than the body of a lion; of rapidity of motion than the wings of a bird.
These winged human-headed lions were not idle creations, the offspring
of mere fancy; their meaning was written upon them. They had awed and
instructed races which flourished three thousand years ago. Through the
portals which they guarded, kings, priests, and warriors had borne
sacrifices to their altars long before the wisdom of the East had
penetrated to Greece, and furnished its mythology with symbols long
recognized by the Assyrian votaries.
"They may have been buried, and their existence may have been unknown
before the foundation of the Eternal City. For twenty-five centuries
they had been hidden from the eye of man, and they now stood forth once
more in their ancient majesty. But how changed was the scene around
them! The luxury and civilization of a mighty nation had given place to
the wretchedness and ignorance of a few half-barbarous tribes. The
wealth of temples and the riches of the great cities had been succeeded
by ruins and shapeless heaps of earth. Above the spacious hall in which
they stood the plow had passed and the corn now waved. Egypt has
monuments no less ancient and no less wonderful, but they have stood
forth for ages to testify her early power and renown, while these before
me had but now appeared to bear witness, in the words of the prophet,
that once 'the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches....
Now is Nineveh desolate and dry like a wilderness, and flocks lie down
in the midst of her.'"
Babylon was probably the most beautiful city of antiquity.
Nebuchadnezzar II. surrounded the capital with walls of such solidity
that it is supposed the city could never have been taken by assault. His
father began the fortifications, and it was left for the greatest
Babylonian king to complete them and make them even more secure. Between
the outer and inner walls, wide distances were left. Here trees and
gardens were planted. This space was provided for nearby villagers in
times of siege, and it was also intended that here fields of grain might
be grown to sustain the population under such trying conditions.
Herodotus described these walls: "And here I may not omit to tell the
use to which the mould dug out of the great moat was turned, nor the
manner wherein the wall was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat, the
soil which they got from the cutting was made into bricks, and when a
sufficient number were completed, they baked the bricks in kilns. Then
they set to building and began with bricking the borders of the moat,
after which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using
throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposed a layer of
wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks." According to
this writer the outer wall was 14 miles in circumference, 93 feet thick,
and 370 feet in height, but it is supposed that he included the city of
Borsippa, across the river, within the length of wall, and no doubt he
computed the height to include the lofty towers built at intervals along
the wall, to give sentinels a wide outlook over the country. These walls
the Greeks included among the wonders of the world, and probably ancient
warfare could not have destroyed them.
The Hanging Gardens of this great city were also enumerated among the
world's wonders. These are said to have been built by Nebuchadnezzar for
his Median queen, who wearied of the dull, flat country of Babylonia,
and pined for her mountain home. The lowest terrace arose some 500 feet
square, and three other terraces, supported by arches and pillars, were
constructed above it, each smaller than the one beneath. These four
platforms or terraces were covered with soil drawn up in carts, and the
earth was deep enough to grow large trees, as well as all kinds of
plants and vines. A pump house was located on top, water being drawn
from the river and forced all through the structure, while the pipes
were carefully concealed. Broad stairways led up to the uppermost
terraces where a residence was built for the favorite queen. Hanging
gardens had been built in Nineveh by former kings, but none so splendid
as these nor on so gigantic a scale. Seen from afar, overtowering the
high walls of the city, their height accentuated by the vast expanse of
level land, the effect was that of a low mountain, clothed in verdure
and scenting the breeze with the blended fragrance of its beautiful
flowers.
The population of Babylon was probably above 500,000 and the city
contained more wealthy families than any other in Asia. The houses of
these added to the beauty of the place, while two royal palaces, one on
either side of the Euphrates, exceeded all former splendor in the
southland. Streets were laid out at right angles, and the more important
ones terminated in high gates leading out of the city walls. These gates
were made of cedar and covered with bronze plates. Well might
Nebuchadnezzar exclaim: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built
for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power, and for the
glory of my majesty?" And again: "For the astonishment of men I built
this house; awe of the power of my majesty encompasses its walls. The
temples of the great gods I made brilliant as the sun, shining as the
day. In Babylon alone I raised the seat of my dominion, in no other
city!"
[Illustration: DECORATION IN ENAMELED TILES ON ONE OF THE GATES OF THE
HAREM IN SARGON'S PALACE.]
CHAPTER XV.
RELIGION.
We have learned something of the primitive religious ideas of the
Chaldeans, or Sumerians, who originally occupied Babylonia. However,
when the Babylonian religion is mentioned, reference is made to the
later faith of the valley, and this resulted from a blending of the
Sumerian beliefs and the religious system brought in by the Semitic
invaders.
The original inhabitants of the country, in their attempt to explain the
forces of nature, had conceived that spirits belonged to animate as well
as inanimate objects, and that these spirits had power to bless or
injure. The rain could refresh the crops or it might wash them out of
the earth; the sun could cause the grain to germinate or in a day could
dry it up with withering heat. The evil which each spirit was likely to
do so far exceeded the good that gradually these spirits were thought of
as demons. It was a demon which took possession of a man and made him
ill. Famines were brought by the south-west wind. In short, demons
threatened on every hand, and only a diligent use of charms and frequent
incantations could protect humanity and enable each to live out his days
amidst such imminent dangers.
Now it is evident that there is no trace of our conception of a god in
all this, but the early Sumerians had also their gods which were
likewise personifications of nature, and these were later adopted by the
Babylonian Semites, who also took over the earlier beliefs about the
various spirits. In the course of perhaps several hundred years from the
blending of the two beliefs, with such changes as growing intelligence
brought, the religion of the Babylonians was evolved.
The Semites who pushed north and founded the state of Assyria, took with
them the religion of the southern kingdom.
In explaining further the religion of the southland, we must remember
its early political situation. Instead of one united kingdom, it was
made up of a number of little states under leadership of cities. The
leading cities had grown up around the temple of some protecting deity
whose favor was believed to extend over the immediate vicinity. Thus,
for example, Sin, the Moon-god, was not only the patron deity of Ur, but
of the whole state of which Ur was the capital city. To exalt its god, a
state would reach out to incorporate another. The people thus conquered
did not cease to worship their former deity but now gave homage to the
god of their conquerors as well. When several little states were united,
the greatest of their gods was the god of their strongest city, since he
had clearly demonstrated his power by giving victory over the rest. In
truth, it should be explained that such was the official god, for
without doubt the masses knew little of political absorption and
worshipped the god of their infancy rather than new gods honored by the
state.
In course of various unions, En-lil or Bel became the most important god
in Babylonia and remained so until Babylon gained supremacy over all
other states. Then Marduk, her ancient god, was given first place.
A brief consideration of the leading Babylonian gods will help us to
gain some insight into these early ideas and conceptions. As early as
3500 B.C., En-lil or Bel was worshipped in Nippur. The very name
testifies to its Sumerian origin. Lil signifies _demon_, and En-lil was
the _chief of spirits_. In one of the earliest inscriptions in Sumerian
he is mentioned with _Anna_ and Enki, the gods of heaven and the abyss.
These three made up the original triad and as such they continued
throughout the later period as Bel Anu and Ea. Nippur became a strong
political center and this made Bel principal god of the land until his
powers were transferred to Marduk. Bel's consort, like the consorts of
all Babylonian gods, was but a weak reflection of the god himself.
Eridu was a seaport. Ea, god of "that which is below," was its local
deity. He was first considered as god of the earth but the water was of
greater commercial importance and gradually he grew to be regarded as
god of the deep. From merely a local god, protecting Eridu, he extended
his sway over all waters. In both Larsa and Sippar the sun-god Shamash,
known among the Sumerians as _Utu_, was honored. No other deity enjoyed
such continued popularity as the "god of day." From the earliest to the
latest period he was hailed as the "god that gives light and life to
all things, upon whose favor the prosperity of the fields and well-being
of man depend." As light is opposed to darkness, so again light reveals
wrong doing; for this reason this god of light became associated with
justice. Sin, the Moon-god, was given prominence over Shamash, so far as
official order of deities was concerned. Some renown attached to him
because he was the father of Ishtar. Indeed from being the father of
many gods and goddesses, he was remembered as father of this brilliant
goddess, greater than all others. Sin was worshipped more extensively in
early times.
Ishtar, supreme goddess, mother of the gods, was first conceived as a
mild, sympathetic mother-spirit, a goddess of love and care. In Assyria,
however, she was regarded as goddess of war and battle, and was
associated with Asshur in that connection. Nabu, the wise, all-knowing
god, sacred in Borsippa, was also popular in literature and learning. In
addition to being patron of intelligence and wisdom, he was also patron
of agriculture. When his favor was given, storehouses were heaped high
with grain; when his favor was withdrawn, famine afflicted the land.
From the twelfth century B.C. onwards his name appears in royal names
such as Nabo-polasar, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabo-nidus, and in the ninth
century B.C. the worship of this god only was preached: "Put thy trust
in Nebo; trust not in another God." The long proper names so constantly
found in both Babylonia and Assyria were always compounded from several
words and had some particular meaning--as, Sennacherib, or more
correctly Sin-akhi-irib, meaning "Sin has multiplied brethren;"
Buzur-Asshur--"a stronghold is Asshur;" Sargon or Sargina--Sar meaning
king and gin, to establish, "I am the established king."
Anu was the god of the heavens; Ramman the god of storm, and both held
important places in the myths and stories of the people. In later times
Ea was a deity of wide dominion. Father of Marduk, he was god of
humanity. He gave wisdom, and as god of water, fountains were sacred to
him. Oannes or Fish-Man was simply a name given him by Greek travellers.
In time he was regarded as god of civilization, and nothing could have
been more natural, for over the waters he protected came civilization to
Chaldea, and progress was facilitated by navigation. Great works of art
were ascribed to him; likewise he was god of the smith and of the
sculptor.
The great bulls were works of his hand. He was probably made father of
Marduk in later years, when Babylon's god had been given first place in
the nation, and the only way to reconcile all that was believed of Ea
was to show that as father, his wisdom had descended to his son, Marduk.
In addition to these leading deities, there was a host of minor ones but
their enumeration would be useless for our purposes. One tablet in the
British museum contained originally the names of nearly 1,800 gods. They
were early local gods, and as their states were added to the kingdom,
they were included in the temple lists to pacify their worshippers.
The religious faith and worship for any one district was not
complicated. Each little community had its patron deity and paid scant
attention to the numerous gods of temple lists.
In Assyria the political situation had been far different. No large
number of petty states, each with its religious system, had united to
form the kingdom; consequently we miss the numerous gods found in
Babylonia. Asshur was the one great god of the northern people. Alone he
stood, god of all. When Assyria entered upon her military career, Asshur
was regarded as god of war, and because of repeated victory, grew very
popular in this conception. His standard was carried into battle to
encourage the soldiers; knowing that his mighty power was with them,
they could not fail. The standard of Asshur, one of the earliest ensigns
of the battle field, has its own interest for us. On top of a long pole,
guarded on either side by huge wings, perhaps the wings of the eagle, a
circle enclosed the figure of an archer, shooting an arrow. Seen afar by
faltering troops, the standards of the national god gave new strength
and inspired fresh hope of victory.
The similarity between the religion of the Assyrians and the Hebrews has
frequently been noted. Both nations were Semitic and hence their
inheritances were the same. Their origin and early home was identical.
The Hebrews, in course of their wanderings and experiences, grew to
worship one God to the exclusion of all others. The Assyrians retained
their warlike disposition, and worshipped one God as greater than all
others, but they allowed other deities to be honored as well. Both
nations with great regularity ascribed all their victories to the
divinity they worshipped--nay, more by far, they attributed all their
slaughters to the same deity. The Hebrews, during the period when as
tribes they struggled for existence, treated their enemies with great
cruelty. This was done, they insisted, to appease their God, or
generally in furtherance of his direct command. Their brethren, the
Assyrians, proceeded in exactly the same manner, and all their ruthless
deeds were done to gratify Asshur and avenge the insults done him by
revolts against his strength. One divinity commanded the outrages as
much as the other, and they were but expressions of an early and
barbarous development.
Among the masses, the sacrifice was unquestionably that feature of
worship best understood. It seems to have been an instinct born in man
to make offerings to appease the wrath of a god, and to seek by the same
means to win his favor. The priests acted as mediators between the
people and the divinity. To a priest, the farmer, laborer, and slave as
well as the noble and prince, brought each his offering, and such
portions as were considered sacred were offered upon the altar.
As the Egyptian provided food for the _ka_ of the deceased, so also the
Babylonian provided it for the _zi_ of his dead. It is possible that the
belief in the shadowy ka came originally from the valley of the
Euphrates.
Gods were supposed to visit their shrines at intervals and so food was
placed for them. The masses of the people were so ignorant that it is
entirely probable they regarded the image of the god as the god himself,
and that they thought these images of clay and stone actually devoured
the food they brought.[1] The more enlightened had no such crude
notions, but realized that the god-spirit was something apart from
anything they saw and worshipped. If we substitute the name of the
Hebrew deity in place of the Babylonian god, worshippers of Judah might
have used some of the hymns of prayer and praise used in Babylonia:
"The heart of my lord is wroth; may it be appeased!
O lord, my sins are many, my transgressions are great!
The sin that I sinned I knew not,
The transgression I committed I knew not,
The lord in the wrath of his heart has regarded me,
God in the fierceness of his heart has revealed himself to me.
I sought for help and none took my hand;
I wept, and none stood at my side;
I cried aloud, and there was none that heard me.
I am in trouble and hiding; I dare not look up.
To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my prayer;
The sins I have sinned turn into a blessing;
The transgressions I have committed let the wind carry away!
Strip off my manifold wickedness as a garment!
O my god, seven times seven are my transgressions: forgive my sins!"
Another, written first to Sin of Ur, and later incorporated into the
hymns of the nation:
"Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness,
Whose hand upholdeth the life of all mankind!
First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none
who may fathom it!
In heaven who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!
On earth, who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!
As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow
their faces.
As for thee, thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits below
kiss the ground."
Elsewhere we find Ashur appealed to as "lord of the gods, _who has
created himself_."
Services were many. Each day required its own offerings and ceremonies.
The changes of the moon were watched and accompanied by peculiar
services. Taboos were placed on certain days and on these no work was
permitted.
The priesthood was large. Besides the chief priests, there were elders,
anointers,--who anointed the images of the gods and the vessels of the
temple with sacred oil; priests who presided over the oracles and whose
function it was to ascertain auspicious times for war and other
prodigious undertakings, and seers, who interpreted dreams.
Revenues of the temples came from offerings and more regularly, from the
tithe, a tax paid by both king and subjects. In this way, the temples
controlled property. Their lands were usually rented out.
When Babylonia reached her age of greatest prosperity, the religion of
the land had been greatly secularized, and the temples were important
for their business significances quite as much as for their religious
features. "The temple exerted an overwhelming financial influence in
smaller towns. Only in certain large cities was it rivalled by a few
great firms. Its financial status was that of the chief, if not the
only, great capitalist. Its political influence was also great. This was
largely enlisted on the side of peace at home and stability in
business." Its great possessions resulted from the daily and monthly
payments, from lands dedicated to the temple by devout ones, and from
careful investment of revenues.
"The temple was also a commercial institution of high efficiency. Their
accumulations of all sorts of raw products were enormous. The temple let
out or advanced all kinds of raw material, usually on easy terms. To the
poor, as a charity, advances were made in times of a scarcity or
personal want, to their tenants as part of the metayer system of tenure,
to slaves who lived outside its precincts, and to contractors who took
the material on purely commercial terms. The return was expected in
kind, to the full amount of advance, or with stipulated interest....
"The temples did a certain amount of banking business. By this we mean
that they held money on deposit against the call of the depositor.
Whether they charged for safe-keeping or remunerated themselves by
investing the bulk of their capital, reserving a balance to meet calls,
does not appear....
"In certain circumstances the king's officials might borrow of the
temples.... Some kings laid hands on the treasure of the temple for
their own use. Doubtless this was done under bond to repay. The cases in
which we read of such practices are always represented as a wrong....
"The temple could act in all the capacities of a private individual or a
firm of traders."[2]
The religion of Mesopotamia did not require the believer to preserve his
dead, as in Egypt. Cremation was almost always resorted to, and for this
reason we lack the tomb-finds, so elucidating in Egypt. The body was
made ready for burial, with some food and other necessities, then it was
partially burned, at least, and the remains entombed. The conditions of
the country in Babylonia made cremation almost a necessity.
While some degree of purity was occasionally reached in Mesopotamian
conceptions of religion, and far-sighted and high-minded persons lived
in both countries, there was much that was degrading in connection with
the worship. All Babylonian classes were grossly superstitious and
believed always in the demons. The incantations used to drive these away
were not only countenanced by the priesthood, but were taught as a part
of the established worship. Demons were of various kinds and possessed
different degrees of power. They lurked in obscure places, ready to
inflict themselves upon unhappy mortals. All diseases, all misfortunes
were their doings. A sufferer exclaims:
"They have used all kinds of charms
to entwine me as a rope,
to catch me as in a cage,
to tie me as with cords,
to overpower me as in a net,
to twist me as with a sling,
to tear me as a fabric,
to throw me down as a wall."
To this the conjurer replies:
"But I by command of Marduk, the lord of charms,
by Marduk, the master of bewitchment,
Both the male and female witch
as with ropes I will entwine,
as in a cage I will catch,
as with cords I will tie,
as in a net I will overpower,
as in a sling I will twist,
as a fabric I will tear,
as a wall throw them down."
At this juncture, images of witches were burned by fire, having been
tortured first by these specified actions.
The ritual set forth water as a purification for some bewitchment.
"Glittering water, pure water,
Holy water, resplendent water,
The water twice seven times may he bring,
May he make pure, may he make resplendent.
May the evil spirit depart,
May he betake himself outside,
Spirit of heaven, be thou invoked!
Spirit of earth, be thou invoked!
Another remedy was this:
"White wool, which has been spun into thread,
To attach it to his couch in front and at the top,
Black wool which has been spun into thread
To bind at his left side."[3]
In addition to long lists of formulæ for driving away the demons of
sickness, and famine and misfortune, a countless number of omens had to
be taken into account if one wished success to accompany his
undertakings. Some of these concerned the movement of heavenly bodies.
"The moon and sun are balanced.
The subjects will be faithful
The king of the land will reign for a long time."
Another brought a sense of danger in its day:
"On the fifteenth day the sun and moon are seen together,
A powerful enemy raises his weapons against the land,
The enemy will smash the great gate of the city;
The star of Anu appears bright--
The enemy will devastate."
Or this:
"The moon is seen out of season,
Crops will be small.
On the twelfth day the moon is seen together with the sun--
A strong enemy will devastate the land."
A numerous list of omens pertained to the doings of animals. Stray dogs
might bring disaster if they entered houses in unusual ways, and yet it
was necessary that they frequent the streets. By-ways that they left
were not thought lucky. The following omens have been translated from
old tablets:
"If a yellow dog enters a palace, it is a sign of distress.
If a speckled dog enters a palace, the palace will give peace to
the enemy.
If a dog enters a palace and crouches on the couch, no one will
enjoy that palace in peace.
If a dog enters a temple, the gods will not enlarge the land.
If a raven enters a man's house, that man will secure whatever he
desires."
All kinds of dreams were carefully tabulated, and were noted from time
to time in connection with events in the dreamers' lives:
"If in a dream a fish appear on a man's head, that man will be
powerful."
"If a mountain appear on a man's head, that man will be without a
rival."[4]
While all these omens were not directly connected with worship, they
were consistent with the religious teaching of the time, and so are
perhaps rightly considered here.
The Babylonians were more religious than the Assyrians and their
government was far more bound up in religious ceremonies. One fact alone
bears out this statement: In Babylonia the king must each year celebrate
anew the ceremony of taking his temporal power from the god Marduk by
taking the hands of the god's image. This service took place on New
Year's day, and no matter what might be the situation in other parts of
the empire, to Babylon the king must come and observe the ancient custom
would he remain possessor of the kingly crown.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon.
[2] Johns: Baby. and Assy. Laws, Contracts and Letters, 211.
[3] Jastrow: Babylonian Religion.
[4] Jastrow: Babylonian Religion.
[Illustration: The name Nebuchadnezzar in two forms of writing--as found
on brick and in inscriptions.]
CHAPTER XVI.
THE LABORING CLASSES.
Both slave and free labor existed in Babylonia, but, as has been
previously said, there was no special prejudice felt towards the slave.
He was often of the same nationality as the owner, was trusted, and
often adopted into the family. Parents sold their children into slavery,
and in hard times men would even sell themselves to obtain food and
shelter. On the other hand, slaves might become free men and might rise
to positions of high importance in the state. Having been a slave left
no stigma to one who later became free. The slave might accumulate money
and so purchase his freedom; freedom might be secured to him because of
adoption into a family. While still in servitude he might appear as a
witness or party in a suit, and his testimony was valued as much as
though he were free. Nevertheless, while enjoying privileges unusual to
one in slavery, he was still but a chattel given as security for a debt,
offered as part of a dowry, or again, his services might be hired out
for a given period, his earnings to go to his owner.
Various measures were taken to protect the slave, as the Code of
Hammurabi shows. Fines were imposed for any abuses suffered during a
period when he was hired out. This served as a check upon those who
otherwise might have caused him to overwork.
Slaves made up quite a portion of the laborers, both in Babylonia and
Assyria, although in the latter country less friendly relations seem to
have existed between slave and owner, for the great mass of Assyrian
slaves had been taken captives in war, and were foreigners, unaccustomed
to the ways of the land, and less devoted, probably, to the interests of
those who owned them.
Few slaves were bought and sold with the land, and these generally
belonged to temple lands. Private farms were worked by slaves privately
owned.
Free labor was available, but as a consequence of slavery, wages were
low. The grazers were generally free men; they received large herds of
cattle and flocks of sheep from several owners, and these they pastured
for months together on the west slope of the Euphrates. Because the
herds required constant protection from nomadic tribes of the desert,
the grazers had to be men of responsibility.
The oldest occupation of the Euphrates valley was agriculture. The soil
yielded heavily and early won tribes away from their roving state. Taxes
were always paid in kind, and grain was stored for times of scarcity in
royal granaries.
For the Babylonian, the year opened in the fall--in Tisri (September),
the month of harvest. When his crops were harvested, the farmer paid his
tax; if the land was farmed out, the owner paid the tax and the tenant
paid his rent. New contracts for land were made at this time of the
year.
The ordinary arrangement between landlord and tenant seems to have been
that he who rented should pay one-third of the year's produce for the
use of the farm, and that he should keep all buildings and ditches in
repair. This last stipulation was strongly enjoined, and a fine was
inflicted did he fail in this particular.
During the portion of the year when the usual round of sowing and
reaping ceased, the canals and ditches needed attention. The entire
prosperity of the soil depended upon the maintenance of the irrigation
system.
"Ploughing, harrowing, sowing, reaping, and threshing constituted the
chief events of the agricultural year. The winters were not cold, and
the Babylonian peasant was consequently not obliged to spend a part of
the year indoors shivering over a fire. In fact fuel was scarce in the
country; few trees were grown in it except the palm, and the fruit of
the palm was too valuable to allow it to be cut down. When the ordinary
occupations of the farmer had come to an end, he was expected to look
after his farm buildings and fences, to build walls and clean out the
ditches.
"The ditches, indeed, were more important in Babylonia than in most
other parts of the world. Irrigation was as necessary as in Egypt,
though for a different reason. The Chaldean plain had originally been a
marsh, and it required constant supervision to prevent it from being
once more inundated by the waters and made uninhabitable. The
embankments which hindered the overflow of the Euphrates and Tigris and
kept them within carefully regulated channels, the canals which carried
off the surplus water and distributed it over the country, needed
continual attention. Each year, after the rains of the winter, the banks
had to be strengthened or re-made and the beds of the canals cleared
out. The irrigator, moreover, was perpetually at work; the rainy season
did not last long, and during the rest of the year the land was
dependent on the water supplied by the rivers and canals. Irrigation,
therefore, formed a large and important part of the farmers' work, and
the bucket of the irrigator must have been constantly swinging."[1]
Large numbers of sheep were raised in these valleys, and the manufacture
of wool into dress-stuffs, carpets, and tapestries, made Babylonia
famous among the nations of her time. Her rugs and carpets were the
pride of her people and large sums were paid for them. Scenes sculptured
in bas-relief were seen in tapestries which lined the walls of wealthy
homes. Vegetable dyes were used, and gayly colored flowers, bright hues
and tints, made attractive decorations for interiors against dull
back-grounds of brick. A large proportion of the industrial population
was engaged in weaving, dyeing, and preparing these commodities for
shops and other places of sale.
Because of the constantly growing demand for wool, many were induced to
raise sheep and to trade in the raw wool. Records show that Belshazzar,
son of the king and heir to the Babylonian throne, was a wool-merchant
on a large scale, his commercial interests being, of course, managed by
others.
The price of wool varied greatly, being sometimes high, sometimes low.
It cost little in addition to the wages of the shepherd to pasture
flocks west of the river during the greater part of the year, for
pasturage there was free to all. For some months, to be sure, sheep had
to be sheltered and fed inside enclosures, within or near the city. This
was the costly part of sheep-raising.
When the flocks were driven into town, toll per head was exacted at the
city gate. Lists of the various tolls collected and turned into the
general treasury show them altogether to have been considerable; not
only were they collected of all who passed through the gates but a
bridge toll was paid by whoever passed over the bridge connecting
Babylon and Borsippa, across the river; all ships and sailing crafts,
moreover, paid a toll to pass under the bridge.
Enumerations of the trades of Babylonia have been found; these mention
the trades of carpenter, smith, metal-worker, weaver, leather-worker,
dyer, potter, brick-maker and vintner. The carpenter not only raised the
beams and scaffolding of houses, but as well made whatever articles of
furniture the times afforded. The brick-maker made tablets for
inscriptions as well as bricks for building purposes. The brickyards
were always on low land, near the river, where reeds, so useful in
brick-making, were abundant. Building bricks were made in different
sizes--some nearly a foot square by 2-1/2 inches thick; others about 15
by 15 and three inches in thickness. Chopped reeds were frequently mixed
in the bricks themselves, and since the demand for them was constant,
they were cultivated and grown in large areas. In a secluded corner of
the brickyard, the fine tablets for literary purposes were produced; and
here too, dishes and vases of pottery were molded and baked. Thus we see
that great activity and divers interests attached to these yards given
over to the manufacture of clay articles.
The leather worker found material in abundance, owing to the extensive
cattle raising. Harnesses, saddles, and shoes, beautifully decorated,
were chief among leather commodities.
The smith excelled in fashioning articles from gold, silver, copper and
bronze. Ordinarily the metal was melted and run into molds of clay or
stone. The customer usually furnished the ore and paid for the work upon
it. Metal workers were held accountable for the excellence of their
work, as is shown by guaranties found, whereby they promised to pay
heavy fines if during a given term of years, their work should be found
imperfect.
The people of Babylonia never succeeded in mastering the bas-relief
work, so effectively used in Assyrian palaces. Enamelled tiles took the
place of these, and they were either painted in some design and glazed,
or simply tinted. "Quite as old as the trade of the carver in ivory was
that of the porcelain-maker. The walls of the palaces and temples of
Babylonia and Assyria were adorned with glazed and enamelled tiles on
which figures and other designs were drawn in brilliant colors; they
were then covered with a metallic glaze and fired. Babylonia, in fact,
seems to have been the original home of the enamelled tile and therefore
with the manufacture of porcelain. It was a land of clay and not of
stone, and while it thus became necessary to ornament the plain mud wall
of the house, the clay brick itself, when painted and protected by a
glaze, was made into the very best and most enduring of ornaments. The
enamelled bricks of Chaldea and Assyria are among the most beautiful
relics of Babylonian civilization that have survived to us, and those
which are now in the Museum of the Louvre are unsurpassed by the most
elaborate productions of modern skill."
The trade of the vintner was lucrative. Wines were made from dates and
grapes; beer was doubtless made from grain. It seems to have been the
custom to supply laborers with beer with their daily rations.
Organizations among workmen corresponded to the guilds of later years.
Those who would learn a trade, whether freemen or slaves, had to serve
as apprentices a certain time and learn the work thoroughly.
Wages were always so low that they amounted to little. It has been
estimated that the average wages of a workman was about 12s., or $3.00 a
year; unskilled laborers were contented if merely supplied with food. In
the reign of Cambyses a butcher is recorded to have been paid 75 cents
for a month's work--freemen had always to compete with slave labor, and
if only the employer furnished food and clothing, he could command any
amount of labor.
Babylonia early exchanged her grain and dates for the products of other
lands. For example, teak-wood and cotton were brought from Arabia, cedar
from Lebanon, marble from the east, gold from the peninsula of Sinai.
Sometimes the raw materials were made up in Babylonia and returned to
the lands from whence they came together with grain, rugs and cloth of
wool. Because of her geographical position, Babylonia was able to
command an important commercial position, importing and exporting
constantly.
"The mass of the people in Babylonia were employed in the two pursuits
of commerce and agriculture. The commerce was both foreign and domestic.
Great numbers of the Babylonians were engaged in the manufacture of
those fabrics, particularly carpets and muslins, which Babylonia
produced not only for her own use but also for the consumption of
foreign lands. The ordinary trades and handicrafts practised in the East
no doubt flourished in the country. A brisk import and export trade was
constantly kept up, and promoted a healthful activity throughout the
entire body politic. Babylonia is called 'a land of traffic' by Ezekiel,
and Babylon 'a city of merchants.' The monuments show that from the very
earliest times the people of the low country on the borders of the
Persian Gulf were addicted to maritime pursuits and navigated the gulf
freely, if they did not even venture on the open ocean....
"The products of the various countries of Western Asia flowed into
Babylonia down the courses of the rivers. From Armenia came wine, gems,
emery, and perhaps stone; from Phoenicia, tin, copper, musical
instruments; from Media, silk, gold and ivory."[2]
THE PROFESSIONS: THE BANKER.
In ancient times, the money-lender was the banker, and lending money was
foremost in Babylonian professions. Even members of the royal families
were themselves heavy loaners and drew high rates of interest, although,
to be sure, their business transactions were carried on by agents.
The rate of interest varied greatly, being generally higher in Assyria.
In Babylonia it might be 20%, or again 16%, and was rarely as low as
10%. Cases are on record in Assyria where 25% and 33-1/3% were exacted.
As is still customary in the East, interest was computed monthly, and
unless the borrower was well known and trusted, it was paid monthly.
Security for the full amount was always required.
A great firm of Babylon held a position in that country corresponding to
that held by the Rothschilds in England, loaning to the state as well as
to private individuals. Personal deeds and documents belonging to
citizens were stored in the well-protected chambers of this firm as
they are today kept in safety boxes in bank vaults. Banking firms
continued for generations, and immense numbers of wills, deeds of sale,
business contracts, leases, tax certificates, loans and marriage
agreements accumulated within their chambers.
SCRIBES.
While each one pleaded his own case ordinarily, in the courts of
Babylonia, pleas were frequently thrown into form beforehand by a
scribe. These scribes performed duties discharged in later times by
attorneys at law, as well as those which would of necessity fall to
their share. In Babylonia they acted as librarians, authors and
publishers, multiplying copies of books and selling them. In Assyria,
where the art of reading and writing was not so generally known, they
acted as private clerks and secretaries to a wide extent.
MEDICINE.
We have noted early in our study that medicine had but a small part in
Babylonian life. Charms, magic and incantations in a large measure took
its place. However, with acquaintance with Egypt, came an impulse to
learn of a science which occupied a more important position in the
valley of the Nile. While physicians came into prominence in later
years, they were never wholly depended upon. The doctor was called to
act in unison with the magician and conjurer unless, as was often the
case, he himself united the two arts of healing. Herodotus and other
travellers have testified to cases similar to the following: "Pressing
forward and peeping over the heads of the people, we see a man stretched
upon a mattress, and apparently just about to die. A few weeping friends
kneel at his side, and we learn that he has been brought from his home,
and laid down in the public market place, in the vain hope that some one
may propose a remedy which will save his life. This custom, so strange
to us, is common in Babylon, they say. When all else has failed, when
doctors and sorcerers have done their best, the sick person is
transported to the open square, and advice is asked from the crowd which
is sure to gather.
"Today, as ever, each has a different remedy to propose, though all are
agreed as to the cause of illness. A demon possesses the man, of that
there is no question. 'Come away, little one!' cries an old woman,
drawing back her grandson. 'Go not too near, lest the evil spirit leave
the man, and seize upon thee. Often have I seen it. Bel be praised that
I have his image!' And she draws forth a little clay image of Bel, and
hangs it carefully on the neck of her grandson. 'Hast thou tried the
wool of a young sheep?' asks a woman of the sick man's wife. 'Let a
sorcerer tie seven knots in it, on seven moonlight nights. Tie the
strands around thy husband's neck, around his limbs, around his head. So
shall his soul not leave his body.'
"'Try the recipe of Asshurbanipal the Assyrian,' cries another. 'It is
well known and never fails. Six different kinds of wood, a bit of snake
skin, some wine, and a piece of ox flesh. Make a paste, and cause the
sick man to swallow it.'[3]
"A man hurries up with a handful of clay, and molds a little figure
which he displays as the image of the sick man. We cannot see the
resemblance, but the crowd presses forward and watches his motions with
eager curiosity. He calls for a cup of wine, pours part of it over the
image, and after drinking the rest, mutters an incantation. All in vain,
while he is yet speaking, the family of the sick man raises a chorus of
wails, in which the crowd joins. The man is dead; no charm can avail him
more."[4]
THE SOLDIER.
We cannot speak of the vocation of the soldier as we speak of the
regular professions of men, but any account of Assyria which failed to
give some idea of the army, the very support and strength of that great
empire, would be incomplete.
At first, as in Babylonia, the soldiers when needed were recruited from
peasants in the field. When the war was over, they would return to their
usual tasks. However, Assyria with her many conquests felt the need of
trained soldiers, proficient in military tactics. To the standing army
which grew into a strong body, warriors taken captive in other lands
were added. In course of a few generations a formidable army was thus
brought into being, and the calling of a soldier became a regular
profession. Men were required to give evidences of skill before they
could take commands of regiments and even before they could command a
company of ten. Maspero has made an extended study of military affairs
in Assyria and we can do no better than follow the results he has
reached in his investigation:
"The Assyrian army is the best organized war machine that the world has
yet seen.[5] It is superiority of weapons, not any superiority in
courage and discipline, that has secured to the Ninevite kings since
Sargon the priority over the Pharaohs of the Delta, of Thebes and Meroe.
Whilst the Egyptians, as a rule, still fight without any protection,
except the shield, the Assyrians are, so to speak, clothed in iron from
head to foot. Their heavy infantry is composed of spearmen and archers,
wearing a conical cap ornamented with two side pieces which protect the
ears, a leather shirt covered with overlapping metal scales which
protects the chest and the upper part of the arms, close fitting
breeches, and boots laced in front. The spearmen carry spears six feet
long, with an iron or bronze head, a short sword passed through their
belt, and an immense metal shield, sometimes round and convex, sometimes
rounded at the top and square at the bottom. The archers have no
shields; they replace the spear by a bow and quiver, which hang over
their back. Their light infantry also includes some spearmen, but they
wear a helmet with a curved crest, and are provided with a small round
wicker-work shield. The archers have no breastplate, and are associated
either with slingers or with soldiers armed with clubs and double-edged
axes.
"The spearmen and archers of the line are usually of Assyrian origin or
levied in the territories that have been subject to Assyria for a long
time; the other troops are often recruited amongst tributary nations,
and they wear their national costumes. They are arranged in companies,
and manoeuvre with a regularity which foreigners themselves admire....
They march with extraordinary rapidity, leaving no stragglers or lame
men behind them as they go, and their generals are not afraid to impose
fatigues upon them to which the soldiers of other lands would quickly
succumb. They either ford the rivers or swim across them upon inflated
skins. In wooded countries, each company sends forward a certain number
of pioneers, who fell the trees and clear a path.
"The cavalry are divided into two corps, the chariot soldiers and the
regular cavalry. The Assyrian war-chariot is much heavier and more
massive than the Egyptian.... Like the Egyptian chariots, the Assyrians
always charge in a regular line, and there are few troops in the world
that can resist their first shock. When a battalion of the enemy sees
them coming, rapid and light, their darts pointed, their bows strung,
they usually disband immediately after the first volley of arrows, and
run away. The line is then broken, and the chariots disperse over the
plain, crushing the fugitives beneath their wheels, and trampling them
under their horses' feet....
"Formerly the chariots were very numerous in the Assyrian armies. They
are less used at the present day, but tradition gives them the post of
honour and the king or the chief general always reserves for himself the
privilege of leading them into the fight. It is the distinguished branch
of the service, the one in which the princes and great nobles prefer to
serve, and its weight often decides the fate of the battle.
"Yet now the cavalry commences to rival it, if not in numbers, at least
in importance.... The horse was at first ridden bareback; now it is
covered with one cloth, or with a complete caparison similar to that of
the chariot horses. All the cavalry wear helmets and cuirasses like the
infantry of the line, but they have no shields; they replace the
floating petticoat by cotton drawers. One-half of them carries the sword
and lance, the other half is armed with a bow and sword.
"The lance is eight or nine feet long, the bow is shorter than the bow
used by the infantry, and the arrows are scarcely three feet long.
Formerly each mounted archer was accompanied by a servant, mounted like
himself, who led his horse during the battle so as to leave both his
hands free. The art of riding has made such progress during the last few
years that the servant has become useless, and has disappeared from the
armies. Now lancers and bowmen are all trained to guide their steed by
the pressure of the knees, and they may be seen galloping with flying
reins, shooting their arrows as they go, or else halting suddenly, they
quietly discharge the arrow, then turn and gallop off again....
"The proportion of the different services is always about the same.
There are, on an average, one hundred foot soldiers to every ten cavalry
and every single chariot; the infantry is really the queen of the
Assyrian battles."[6]
[Illustration: THRESHOLD--SLAB IN ASSHURBANIPAL'S PALACE.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sayce: Baby. and Assy., 88.
[2] Rawlinson: Babylonia.
[3] This reminds one of the snails, etc., that were crushed and brewed
in small beer for rickets in New England. See Alice Morse Earle,
"Customs and Fashions in Old New England."
[4] Arnold: Stories of Ancient Peoples, 123.
[5] The narrative is set back in the days of Assyrian Empire.
[6] Maspero: Ancient Egypt and Assyria, 320.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE MEDES.
The Medes belonged to the Indo-European branch of the Aryan race. It is
supposed that they came into Europe from the far east, and thence
migrated to Asia, some time previous to 1000 B.C. They settled a
mountainous tract to the east of Assyria, occupying a district rather
larger than Babylonia and Assyria together. Because of its rugged
mountains, narrow passes, and inclement winter weather, their country
was easily defended against invaders. In the days of Assyrian dominance,
the people of Media maintained uniform independence, notwithstanding the
fact that military kings were annexing territories far and near with
almost irresistible force. And so today, those who live in this
district, remain comparatively free from the government which seeks to
rule them.
For the history of this ancient nation we are thrown almost wholly upon
the writings of Herodotus, Xenophon and other Greek travellers, for as
yet no antiquarian has attempted to recover Median past from mounds of
buried ruins. Indeed the country has never been left desolate like
Babylonia, but its cities fell to the share of others, and later
generations, finding material for new buildings in the structures of
their predecessors, have left no mounds to allure the historian and
archæologist. Since rich finds in other lands have in recent years
thrown unexpected light upon the past, it has been surmised that beneath
the present cities, in this land of ancient Media, might be recovered
monuments of her early life. So far, however, other fields have proven
more inviting to the explorer and the excavator.
In spite of the faults of credulence and exaggeration so characteristic
of Herodotus, we must nevertheless turn to his writings and to those of
Xenophon for Median history.
We have noted that during the eighth century, Assyria made a raid into
Media. The independence of the people was not disturbed however. This
verifies the statement of Herodotus that the Medians made good soldiers,
hardy and well able to defend their land. They were trained to a life
of physical activity, inured to the hardships of a rigorous climate.
Charging on horseback at full speed, they made a formidable defense.
In their early conflicts they seem to have displayed excessive cruelty
in war, showing no mercy to helpless women or innocent children. As for
plunder, they cared little for it, and Isaiah refers to them as "the
Medes who care not for silver, and as for gold, have no delight in
it."[1]
By frequent plundering raids into their territory, the Assyrians
incurred the lasting hatred of the Medes, who, urged on by a spirit of
revenge, united in 606 B.C. under a Median prince to aid the king of
Babylonia against the Assyrian monarch. Having defeated the army, the
Medes pursued, and shut the Assyrian force within the walls of Nineveh.
Thereupon they made an assault upon the defenses of the city and carried
the day. The capital of Assyria and all the wealthy cities of the realm
were overrun, plundered and burned, while the surviving inhabitants were
so widely scattered that we hear no more about them.
Before this the Medes had cared little for luxury and ease, although
they always delighted in a certain barbaric splendor. With the vast
treasure of Nineveh their king now built a palace of extensive
proportions. Its halls and pillars were of woods, its courts wide and
the whole structure magnificent. No wood was left visible, all being
concealed by a coating of silver tiles. Herodotus wrote thus of the
palace walls:
"The walls enclose the palace, rising in circles, one within the other.
The plan of the place is that each of the walls should out-top the one
beyond it by the battlements. The nature of the ground, which is a
gentle slope, favors this arrangement in some degree, but it was mainly
effected by art. The number of the circles is seven, the royal palace
and the treasuries standing within the last. Of the outer wall, the
battlements are white; of the next, black; of the third, scarlet; of the
fourth, blue; of the fifth, orange; all these are covered with paint.
The last two have their battlements coated respectively with silver and
gold."
We may gain some idea of the wealth represented by this building when
we learn that the king of Persia carried away the greater portion of the
gold and silver decorations for his palace; Alexander the Great removed
the silver tiling from the roof, and some seventy years later another
conqueror found about $5,000,000 worth of gold and silver plating
overlooked by his predecessors. While no former palace may have exceeded
this in actual outlay of wealth, others may have been more artistic, for
the Medes reached no special architectural skill.
After the Assyrian conquest, the Median nation soon became weak and
degenerate. The people affected a life of luxury and idleness. The king
lived amidst pomp and ostentatious seclusion; his courtiers and nobles
gave themselves up to immoderate indulgences and amusements. While under
Cyaxares and his father, Media had become a power in Asia, upon the
death of this king, his son Astyages succeeded to the throne. He had
grown up during the later years of ease and had no greater ambition than
to rule the kingdom left him, no more animating impulses than to pass
his days amid the ceremony and studied formality of the Median court.
Astyages seems to have planned neither political activity nor personal
diversion. He never joined in the hunts which were popular with his
courtiers. Rather, he spent his leisure with such entertainment as his
palace afforded and for his administration, depended wholly upon the
reports of his officials. Such was Media when a Persian king, realizing
the real situation, led an army against the country. In connection with
our study of Persia we shall come again to the story of this conquest.
Polygamy was always allowed by the code of Median laws and morals, while
women seem to have been treated with a certain chivalrous attention and
deference. The civilization of the land was similar to that of Persia,
which nation, it is supposed, sprang originally from the same stock. No
greater difference existed between the two peoples than might be found
between two modern Teutonic nations.
Education and learning was not valued in either country. Boys were
taught to ride, to hunt, to shoot, and to become proficient in out of
door sports rather than the arts of reading and writing.
The religion was akin to that of Persia, and the faith of the Persians
was singularly pure. They like the Hebrews, worshipped one God. No
degrading ceremonies and teachings attached to their forms of worship,
as was the case in Egypt and Babylonia. The most ancient writings of the
Zenda-Vesta appear to embody the faith of the Medes, and these will be
considered in connection with the religion of Persia.
In conclusion, it may be said that the Medes were neither an inventive
nor an ingenious people, nor did they develop a great civilization,
culture, or literature. Indeed we are forced to the conclusion of
Rawlinson: they scarcely contributed an idea or invention to the great
store of knowledge transmitted by the past to the modern world.
[Illustration: RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Isa. 13, 17. The chapter is late, and, as Duhm says, the fact that
the redactor ascribed it to Isaiah is instructive as regards the want of
critical ability of the _diaskenasts_. Craig.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PERSIA BEFORE THE AGE OF CYRUS.
The origin and early history of both Medes and Persians were similar.
When first the Persians are mentioned in Assyrian annals, they had
migrated to the region east of Assyria, inhabiting an indefinite
district which later became part of the Median state. At this
time--about the ninth century before the Christian era--they were not
united under one king, but each clan followed the leadership of a chosen
chieftain. As a result of an Assyrian attack, more than twenty of these
chiefs brought tribute and acknowledged the supremacy of the great king.
Nothing of importance is again heard of them until shortly before the
fall of the Assyrian capital. They were then united into a kingdom,
serving one ruler, and living in what has been called "Persia Proper,"
to distinguish the original state from the wide empire which was brought
at length under Persian rule. While free to manage their internal
affairs, they paid tribute to Media, now a vigorous and aggressive
nation. It is plain then, that previous to the fall of Nineveh, the
Persian state had taken no part in Asiatic affairs, and furthermore, was
not yet free and independent. However, in less than one hundred years
her people had gained control over the entire western portion of Asia,
extending their rule from the Indus to the valley of the Nile, while
only the little Greek nation held out against them on the west.
Before entering upon a study of this rapid imperial expansion, it would
be well for us to get some general impressions of the comparatively
small territory in which the various Persian tribes became welded into a
united people, and of the conditions in the original kingdom wherein the
principles which were to temporarily dominate the ancient world were
developed.
Persia Proper consisted of an area of about 450 miles in length, and
averaging 250 miles in width. It might have been roughly bounded on the
south and west by the gulf which came to bear its name, while a desert
reached off to the east and north, save where Persian territory touched
upon the Median kingdom. A narrow strip of arid land lay between the
gulf and a mountain range, making up perhaps one eighth of the entire
area. The climate here is hot and dry, the soil marshy, producing little
growth of any sort. The district east of this range was irregularly
divided into highlands and valleys, lofty rocks and winding chasms.
Wherever water was available, vegetation was luxuriant, making the wild
scenery fantastic and attractive. Generally water was scarce, and most
of the year the land lay parched and brown.
"The region east of the range is of varied character. In places richly
fertile, picturesque, and romantic almost beyond imagination, with
lovely wooded dells, green mountain-sides, and broad plains suited for
the production of almost any crops, it has yet on the whole a
predominant character of sterility and barrenness, especially towards
its more northern and eastern portions. The supply of water is
everywhere scanty. Scarcely any of the streams are strong enough to
reach the sea. After short courses they are either absorbed by the sand
or end in small salt lakes, from which the superfluous water is
evaporated. Much of the country is absolutely without streams, and would
be uninhabitable were it not for the subterranean channels of
spring-water.
"The most remarkable feature of the country consists in the
extraordinary gorges which pierce the great mountain-chain, and render
possible the establishment of routes across that tremendous barrier.
Scarped rocks rise almost perpendicularly on either side of the mountain
streams, which descend rapidly with frequent cascades and falls. Along
the slight irregularities of these rocks the roads are carried in
zigzags, often crossing the streams from side to side by bridges of a
single arch, which are thrown over profound chasms where the waters
chafe and roar many hundred feet below. The roads have for the most part
been artificially cut in the sides of the precipices, which rise from
the streams sometimes to the height of 2,000 feet. Thus the country
towards the edge of the plateau is peculiarly safe from attack, being
defended on the north and east by vast deserts, and on the south by a
mountain barrier of unusual strength and difficulty.
"It is in these regions, which combine facility of defence with
pleasantness of climate, that the principal cities of the district have
at all times been placed."[1]
It appears that nearly one-half of the kingdom was practically unsuited
for habitation, being dry and producing little to sustain life. In these
early times only two or three cities existed, small villages making up
the remaining social centers, while peasants farmed limited portions of
the outlying country where the water supply sufficed to maintain crops.
Various fruits abounded in the mountainous regions. Peaches were native
to the soil. Grapes grew in profusion, and corn and vegetables were
plentiful. Along the coast fish might be found in large quantities and
constituted a staple article of food throughout the land. The natural
conditions were not sufficiently favorable to allow heavy yields of
grain or to make agriculture foremost among the nation's activities.
The Persians were active, vivacious people, lacking wholly the repose
and dignified calm so characteristic of the English, for example. They
concealed neither joy nor sorrow, and were immoderate in their
expressions of both.
Learning and education were given little attention. It has become a
trite and well-known saying that "Persian boys were taught to ride, to
shoot, and to speak the truth." The religion of the people placed truth
first among the virtues. Their steadfast fidelity to a promise excited
wonderment among the nations. Physical, rather than mental, development
was sought, and while in the nation's later life the people gave
themselves up to indolence, passing the hours with personal adornment
and feasting, these pastimes did not characterize their early years.
Like the Medes, Persian nobles had several wives, and polygamy was the
rule rather than the exception. Women were kept in well-nigh complete
seclusion, and no mention is made of them, nor are they seen in pictures
adorning the palaces.
The attitude assumed toward the sovereign influenced the very character
of the people. "The Persian king held the same rank and position in the
eyes of his subjects which the great monarch of Western Asia, whoever he
might be, had always occupied from time immemorial. He was the lord and
master, absolute disposer of their lives, liberties, and property; the
sole fountain of law and right, incapable himself of doing wrong,
irresponsible, irresistible--a sort of God on earth; one whose favor was
happiness, at whose frown men trembled, before whom all bowed themselves
down with the lowest and humblest obeisance.
"The feeling of the Persian towards his king is one of which moderns can
with difficulty form a conception. In Persia the monarch was so much the
State, that patriotism itself was, as it were, swallowed up in loyalty;
and an unquestioning submission, not only to the deliberate will, but to
the merest caprice of the sovereign, was, by habit and education, so
ingrained into the nature of the people that a contrary spirit scarcely
ever manifested itself. In war the safety of the sovereign was the first
thought, and the principal care of all. If the king suffered, all was
lost; if the king escaped, the greatest calamities seemed light and
could be endured with patience. The same cheerful submission
characterized times of peace. It was here that their loyalty became a
defect rather than a virtue. The voice of remonstrance, of rebuke, of
warning, was unheard at Court. Tyranny was allowed to indulge unchecked
in the wildest caprices and extravagances. The father, whose innocent
son was shot before his eyes by the king in pure wantonness, instead of
raising an indignant protest against the crime, felicitated him upon the
excellence of his archery. Thus a tone of servility was engendered
which, sapping self-respect, tended fatally to lower and corrupt the
entire character of the people."[2]
Such were the tendencies of the embryo state which under the leadership
of a great ruler was soon to burst into sudden and brilliant flower,
absorbing in a single campaign nations which had never before been
united.
CYRUS THE GREAT AND THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
In ages when monarchs were absolute in the foremost countries of the
world, the personal ability of the king was a matter of far greater
concern than we today realize. In modern times, political and social
changes have had their beginnings in the conditions and desires of the
people. In the remote years we are now studying, the people were less
considered, and their wishes seldom heard. The personal character of the
king determined the policy of the ancient state. We have already seen
how the welfare--the very fate of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria depended
upon their rulers. Even more pronounced was this in Persia, where
subjects, including nobles and princes, acted in unthinking submission
to a degree unknown in other lands.
In taking up the career of Cyrus the Great we are largely dependent upon
the writings of Herodotus and Xenophon. Of Herodotus we have learned
something, and concerning Xenophon we may note that besides being a
writer and a traveller, he was also an experienced and able general.
Herodotus lived some fifty years after the death of Cyrus, and Xenophon
was thirty years younger than Herodotus. Both Greeks wrote at length of
the great Persian King.
When Astyages ascended the throne of Media, Persia was a mere
tribute-paying kingdom, insignificant not only in political strength,
but in social life, wealth, and culture. It is supposed that Cyrus was
sent to the Median court as a hostage from a tribute land. His father
ruled in Persia, and we are told that he was greatly impressed as a boy
by the difference between the two countries. The subjects over whom his
father ruled were many of them soldiers whose days were spent with
training and physical exercise. They ate and drank moderately, and while
they lacked the culture and refinement of the northern kingdom, they
were just coming into the strength and vigour which the Medians lost
upon their conquest of Assyria and subsequent abundance of wealth.
Tradition pictures the youth clinging to the simple habits of his early
life, and caring little for the pomp and ceremony around him. He
delighted in riding and liked the hunt best of all amusements, while he
shortly became the companion of Astyages during the king's leisure
hours, bringing refreshing life and boyish candor into a degenerate
court.
Some years later Cyrus returned home and, shortly after, a faction of
the Medes who had become devoted to the Persian prince and felt
dissatisfied with the tyranny of their king, informed Cyrus that if he
would bring an army against the Medes, they would cause the Median
forces to desert to him. Another account says that Cyrus himself planned
the conquest while at the Median court, and having feasted his
attendants and led them to drink heavily, escaped to Persia, where he
soon persuaded his father to march against the Medes. In either case, it
would seem that the prince had learned the true condition of degenerated
Media, and determined to free his own land from the hated tribute
service--establishing its independence.
In the battle which was waged against the two people, Astyages was taken
captive, and when the majority of the soldiers went over to the Persian
side, the remaining soldiers fled. Cyrus allowed Astyages to retain his
own personal attendants, and permitted him to live in a style befitting
his recent position. Under guard of Persian soldiers, he was free to go
about at will.
It is probable that Cyrus had at first no greater ambition than to free
Persia from tribute imposed by Media, but the desire for conquest once
awakened never ceases while lands remain unwon. In conquering Media, all
territories of Assyria fell to Cyrus' portion. The Medes had held lands
to the river Halys on the northwest. Beyond this boundary stream the
empire of Lydia had been growing under the rule of Croesus.
Croesus has become proverbial for his wealth. As he extended the
boundaries of Lydia, he grew wealthier still, until his resources
exceeded all estimate. Having lost a favorite son, he lived in seclusion
until a sense of approaching danger roused him to defend his kingdom.
The river Halys was a narrow stream--too small by far to prove a lasting
barrier against an aggressive nation. To spare his land the ravages of
war, Croesus determined to invade the land of his rival. He thought best
to consult the oracle at Delphi before entering upon such a serious
campaign. Having sent costly presents to Delphi, Croesus inquired
whether or not it would be safe for him to proceed against Persia. The
reply was that if Croesus crossed the Halys and carried war into Persia,
a mighty kingdom would be overthrown, and that he would do well to form
an alliance with the strongest Greek state.
Regarding the answer as favorable, he sent word to Sparta that, since
he was advised by the Delphian oracle to seek the strongest Greek state
as an ally, he solicitated their assistance. These Spartans were unlike
any soldiers we have yet met; they fought for glory, not for plunder.
They were glad, of course, to be considered the strongest Grecian state,
and sent the assistance asked. With such re-enforcements, Croesus
crossed the Halys and met Cyrus who had known of the Lydian movement and
was ready for an attack. The battle was fought near Pterie; both sides
lost heavily, and Croesus thought Cyrus was too crippled to longer
advance, so he himself returned to Sardis, his capital, to make plans
for a new campaign the following year. Cyrus waited until the Lydian
troops were largely disbanded, and then suddenly appeared before Sardis.
Consternation swept over the Lydians, but they trusted to their cavalry
which was numerous and well disciplined. Cyrus had also taken the Lydian
cavalry into account, and had ordered his camels which carried the
equipment of war, to face the horse, and if possible, to put them to
flight. In the battle fought such was the result--the horses turned in
confusion upon the charge of the camels, and the Lydian army withdrew
into Sardis to undergo a siege. They expected to win in the long run,
for they had sufficient stores of all kinds, and they hoped that outside
aid would come sooner or later. Cyrus understood the danger of delay,
and determined to carry the city by assault. By scaling a nearly
perpendicular embankment, entrance to Sardis was gained, and Croesus
fell into the hands of the great Persian conqueror. He was given
considerate treatment. Few cruelties disfigure the pages of Persian
history, and never were severe punishments meted out wholesale to
captives in war. Those who betrayed confidence were harshly dealt with,
and rebels seldom escaped, but the Persians were generally fair-minded.
Cyrus was uniformly mild and generous, lacking the inordinate pride of
most Oriental monarchs, treating his subjects with kindness. Croesus
became one of his trusted companions, and accompanied him upon his later
campaigns. The story of the funeral pyre is probably an invention of the
Greeks, or, if it had any foundation whatever, it may be that Croesus
requested such an honorable end in preference to swearing allegiance to
an unknown conqueror.
When measures had been taken for the government of Lydia, attention
turned to Babylonia. There, as we have seen, the crown was worn by a
king who was more interested in the temples of the gods than in the
immediate welfare of his nation. His son Belshazzar made some defense
outside the capital, but a faction within the city, out of sympathy with
the existing government, allowed the Persians to take possession. Cyrus
now allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and there to rebuild their
temple and to make their homes in the land of their fathers. For this
reason the Hebrews had only words of praise for Cyrus. To the number of
49,697, with their property and possessions, they set upon their long
march--a peaceful band which encountered no opposition throughout its
course. The event stands unparalleled in history.
Had Cyrus lived, he would doubtless have added Egypt to his empire. This
was left for his son to accomplish. The great king fell fighting for
territories in the north.
In conclusion, it may be said that Cyrus is the first great conqueror we
have so far met who was kind and humane. His policy towards the
conquered stands out in marked relief to the butcheries and punishments
which characterized Assyria. Notwithstanding, all charges of selfish
motives which have belonged to those who have sought to become
world-conquerors, attach to Cyrus. Urged on by personal vanity and hope
of becoming supreme, he considered only the final issue and allowed his
ambition to triumph over his nobler nature. Some years later Alexander
emulated his example, and one hundred years ago Napoleon undertook the
same gigantic task--greater in his day--of building up a world-empire.
The motives prompting all three were the same, and in each case the
empires, so quickly brought into being, vanished as quickly as they
arose.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson: Persia.
[2] Rawlinson: Persia.
CHAPTER XIX.
WAR WITH GREECE.
Upon the death of Cyrus, in 529 B.C., his son Cambyses succeeded to the
throne, while a younger brother Smerdis, was left to supervise certain
provinces, according to his father's wishes. The conquest of Egypt had
been planned by Cyrus and would undoubtedly have been undertaken by him
had he lived. Cambyses at once began preparations to this end and these
occupied some considerable period.
This young prince who had just come into absolute power, apparently
inherited all his father's failings and few of his virtues. He had never
learned to control himself and that omened ill for those who became his
subjects. His jealousy, suspicion, cruelty, and arrogant pride
contrasted strikingly with the generous, kindly temperament of Cyrus.
Before setting out for Egypt, he had his brother secretly murdered. No
rumor of this crime reached his subjects, however.
Egypt at this time was not able to defend herself against an army that
had become experienced and confident under the command of Cyrus;
consequently, the country fell rapidly into the hands of the new Persian
king. Far from showing the leniency of his father toward the vanquished,
he marked his victories with needless cruelty.
The two great powers of Africa besides Egypt were the states of Ethiopia
in the south, and Carthage in the northwest. Of the former we learned
something in The Story of Egypt; of the latter we shall learn later on.
Suffice it to say here that the Carthaginians were colonists of the
Phoenicians, and, like them, were traders whose commerce penetrated to
all lands washed by the Mediterranean Sea.
When Egypt lay at his feet, Cambyses resolved to make himself supreme in
the whole continent of Africa--only the northern portion of the
continent was then known. Accordingly, he directed troops to advance
against these two powers which he thought alone worthy of his notice.
Now Carthage could only be taken by sea, and the king was limited to
Phoenician vessels, manned by Phoenician sailors. These men promptly
refused to make war on their own colony, whose interests were so closely
interwoven with those of their country. Their stand must have been
united and firm, for Cambyses found himself obliged to abandon his
project. The expedition to the south was disheartening. The Persian
soldiers were unused to the hot sands and intense sun of Nubia and great
loss and discouragement overtook the army. Those who withstood the heat
were too exhausted by the march to accomplish anything. The king
remained in Egypt. He was constantly haunted by his crime against his
brother. He realized his unpopularity with his subjects, and feared that
disaster would at any time overtake him. His fears were shortly
reflected in his soldiers, who having learned that they were no longer
led by one who could bring victory in the face of opposing obstacles,
lost heart and fought indifferently.
Herodotus wrote at length concerning the conduct of Cambyses in Egypt
and his stories were long credited. Tales were told of Cambyses'
profaning Egyptian temples, desecrating the tombs of the dead, stabbing
the apis-bull with his own sword, outraging the priests and inflicting
such injury upon the nobles as only the madness which they attribute to
him, could explain. In recent years these statements have been modified
by investigation. An Egyptologist of first rank claims that the tale
regarding the apis-bull was not well founded. Unquestionably Cambyses
was brutal in his treatment of a mild and gentle people, and he may have
easily incurred the wrath of the priesthood by his contempt for their
religion, certain features of which he regarded as mere folly. It is
also probable that his deeds have been greatly exaggerated by those who
had cause to hate him for his interference with a land to which he had
no just claim. Instead of being insane, he no doubt displayed his
ungovernable temper and in moments of rage, gave orders which he would
gladly have recalled in another mood.
While Cambyses loitered in Egypt, a report spread through the empire
that Smerdis had been crowned, and that Cambyses need no longer be
regarded as king. One of the Magians, a priesthood of Persia which
represented a more material form of worship than the teachings of
Zoroaster allowed, had attempted to usurp the throne in Cambyses'
absence. The real king, feeling depressed with his partial victory,
doubting the fidelity of his army, confessed the murder of his brother
to his ministers. Having thus disclosed the presumption of the
pretender, Cambyses committed suicide.
Darius, a prince of the house of Cyrus, was chosen to succeed. This was
a choice likely to prove acceptable to the people, for he was the only
legitimate heir to the throne. Herodotus explained with all gravity that
the counsellors of state, of whose number Darius was one, agreed to
determine the succession after this fashion: they would each go on
horseback at sunrise to the city gate, and he whose horse neighed first
should be proclaimed king!
THE MAGIAN WAS KILLED.
When the people finally learned the truth and realized how great a
deception had been practised, they turned against his priesthood and
instigated a general massacre. The worship they had established was cast
aside and the purer faith of ancient Persia was restored. The pretender
had compelled the Jews to cease labor on the new temple they were
building in Jerusalem. Darius gave them permission to continue. So
similar were the religions of the Hebrews and Persians, that there could
be no friction between the two nations on that ground in an age when
nearly all religions were polytheistic.
Darius was long occupied with internal disturbances. Revolts were put
down with severity. When the government of the empire was firmly
established, it was superior to any before known in Asia. The whole
empire was divided into satrapies, or provinces--each under a resident
governor; these governors made frequent reports to the capital and the
opportunity for revolts was slight.
Internal concerns thus settled, Darius turned to conquest. He conducted
a campaign in the east, pushing Persia's possessions to the banks of the
Indus.
It was natural that the king should have cast longing eyes westward,
toward the beautiful isles and states of Greece. Long before the age of
Cyrus, Greek colonists had settled in Asia Minor. They had fallen to the
share of Persia when Lydia was conquered, and Darius had organized their
local government so completely that the freedom-loving Greeks were
oppressed by it and in 500 B.C. revolted. These Greek cities appealed to
Athens for aid in their struggle for liberty. A few soldiers were sent,
and with such aid they displaced the Persian government and destroyed
Sardis. Darius sent an army to put down the revolt, and the city which
had led the struggle was destroyed. The king of Persia now determined to
punish Athens for having given help to the revolting Greek cities of
Asia Minor. Accordingly, he fitted out an expedition to conquer Greece.
The naval forces were wrecked in a storm and the land forces were routed
by hostile tribes en route. A second expedition was prepared, more
numerous and better equipped than the first. Before dispatching it,
however, Darius sent heralds to the various Greek states to inquire if
they would submit peacefully. They replied with great scorn. In 490 B.C.
the Persian king sent 300,000 soldiers to conquer Greece. The battle of
Marathon was fought, and owing to the skill of Miltiades, the Greeks
won. Four years later Darius died and Xerxes ruled in his stead. To him
was left the duty of wiping out the inglorious defeat of the Persian
arms. Not until 480 B.C. were the armies ready for what was expected to
be a great conquest.
It has been said that never in the history of the world has such a
motley array of soldiers been gathered together under one commander. All
nations subservient to Persia were represented, and while Herodotus may
have overstated their number, we may accept his statement that it was
the largest force ever thus far marshalled together. At the defense of
Thermopylæ the Persians learned the character of their opponents. A
little band of three hundred Spartans under command of Leonidas held the
entire Persian army at bay in a narrow pass for two days. When the army
spread out over the land, the Greeks realized their inability to cope
with it and decided to hazard all on a naval engagement. The famous
battle of Salamis followed, in which 1,000 men-of-war belonging to the
Persians were destroyed or put to flight by 300 Greek vessels. Xerxes
watched the fight from a throne hastily constructed for him on the
shore. When at night his naval forces withdrew to Asia, he could
scarcely credit the outcome. Byron has immortalized the occasion in a
stanza:
"A king sate on the rocky brow
Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
And men in nations--all were his!
He counted them at break of day--
And when the sun set where were they?"
Leaving a strong land force to conquer the Greeks the next year, Xerxes
returned to Persia. By the following spring the Greeks had gathered
their forces, and inspired by their glorious victory at Salamis, they
defeated the Persian army in the battle of Platæa. Thereupon the Greek
cities in Asia Minor asserted their freedom, and Greek independence
shone forth triumphantly before the world.
"But this glorious struggle and triumph of the few lifted to superhuman
heroism by an ennobling moral principle, as against the merely brutal
force of numbers, does not properly belong any more to the history of
the East, nor to that of remote antiquity; it is the dawn of a new star
in the West, and of times which, from their spirit, actors, and
achievements, may almost be called modern. At the bottom of the new
departure lies the difference between the ideals--the conceptions of
beauty and dignity of the political and social life--set up by the
Oriental and Western man: 'A good master!' is the prayer and ideal of
the Asiatic. 'No master! Liberty at any price, as the highest good in
itself!' is that of the Greek. And the Greek wins the day, for his own
time, and for his own race, and for future times and races to come."[1]
The following period, embracing nearly 150 years, was a time of decay
and degeneracy. With Xerxes began the corruption of the Persian
court--the licentiousness, assassinations, murders, and accompanying
crimes which soon undermined the entire social order. Conditions were
such that rulers were no longer strong, vigorous men, full of life and
ambition--save indeed those usurpers who occasionally appropriated the
reins of government. The days of Persian greatness were over, and under
guidance of one or another of the princes, the state plunged on to
ruin. In 336 B.C., Alexander, the young king of Macedonia, embarked upon
his world conquests, and the Persian Empire merged into the Empire of
Greece.
[Illustration: THE PERSIAN KING (WITH ATTENDANTS).]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Ragozin: Persia.
CHAPTER XX.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS AMONG THE PERSIANS.
There were wide differences between the civilization of the Persians and
of the dwellers in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys. The Persian despised
trade. His religion taught him to speak the truth, and he regarded
commercial dealings as incompatible with this requirement. No shops made
the principal streets in his country the scenes of hot disputes
concerning prices and wares. The few shops which existed at all were
tucked into obscure places on unfrequented by-ways. It naturally
followed that there was an absence of those industrial centers which in
Babylonia produced rare stuffs, delicate fabrics and ornaments. Swarms
of slaves provided whatever was required by the wealthy, and it was the
Persian's boast that his sword brought him the luxury of the world in
tribute.
It has been estimated that the total population of Persia did not exceed
2,000,000. A small proportion of these were peasants who tilled the
arable soil. Agriculture was held honorable and was encouraged by the
national religion. The great majority of men were soldiers.
Since the soldier's life was thought to be worthy of a Persian, we may
do well to consider whatever features characterized the service in this
empire. Probably because of the mountainous country in which they dwelt,
chariots were never popular with these people. Ordinarily they were
impractical, being suited to plains and accessible places. Nevertheless
a few were used and these were furnished with scythes attached to the
axle. Chariots formed the front line of defense. Behind them the foot
soldiers were arranged in squares, with cavalry on the wings. One
commander--the king, if he were present,--gave commands to all from his
position in the center. This was an evident fault, for, were he killed
or in any way disabled, the entire army sometimes took fright and fled.
When the charge was made, the chariots dashed ahead, hewing right and
left. They seldom failed to break the solid line drawn up before them,
whereupon the infantry and horse followed, taking advantage of the
confusion thus wrought. If the regular line of Persian soldiery was
broken or in any way disturbed, since they had no reinforcements in a
second division, the battle was almost always lost. To prevent such an
occurrence was their aim. It has been said that the Orientals of this
time could not be trusted to fight unless they were well supported at
the rear--hence the custom of forming one deep line. The native Persians
were brave soldiers, but their ranks were generally composed largely of
subjects levied throughout the empire. Scantily clothed Nubians fought
with clubs and stones in the same army with well-equipped natives. Drawn
up by nation, in native custom, it is not surprising that they presented
a sight marvellous indeed to the foreigner.
The contrast between Greek and Persian military tactics was marked. The
Greeks trusted to their solid, heavily-armed phalanx; the Persians tried
to equip themselves as lightly as possible, and trusted to their agility
and swiftness of motion. Their leniency toward captives has been
mentioned before. They found no delight in mere slaughter.
Literature and learning had little part in the life of the average
citizen. The boy was left with his mother until five years of age. Then
his education began. He rose before dawn and was trained in running,
throwing stones, and shooting with an arrow. At seven he was taught to
ride, and in Persia this implied much. He must be able to spring on a
horse running at full speed, to shoot accurately when under rapid
motion. In course of a few years' practice it was not strange that a
Persian was never so at ease as on his horse. Furthermore, he was
compelled to endure severe hardships--sleeping under the open sky,
eating only one meal in two days, making long marches, and swimming
streams burdened with his weapons. At fifteen years of age he was
considered a man and was enlisted in the army, where he ordinarily
served until fifty.
During the period of the Persian empire, a numerous body of officials
made up the king's retinue. Besides the farmers, soldiers and officials,
there were many slaves, who completed the social body. They performed
all kinds of labor, built the palaces and made fine roads throughout the
realm.
The Persian court has probably never been excelled in ceremony and pomp.
Ceremony surrounded the monarch during hours of retirement and seclusion
as well as when before the public eye.
"The officers in most close attendance on the monarch's person were, in
war, his charioteer, his stool-bearer, his bow-bearer, and his
quiver-bearer; in peace, his parasol-bearer, and his fan-bearer, who was
also privileged to carry what has been termed the 'royal-handkerchief.'
Among the officers of the Court, less closely attached to the person of
the monarch than these, may be mentioned the steward of the household;
the groom or master of the horse; the keeper of the women's department,
the king's 'eyes' and 'ears'--persons whose business it was to keep him
informed on all matters of importance; his scribes, who wrote his
letters, his messengers who went his errands, his ushers, his tasters,
who tried the various dishes set before him lest they should be
poisoned; his cup-bearers, who handed him wine and tasted of it; his
chamberlains who assisted him to bed; and his musicians, who amused him
with song and harp. Besides these, the Court comprised various classes
of guards, doorkeepers, huntsmen, grooms, cooks, and other domestic
servants in abundance, together with a vast multitude of visitors,
guests, princes, captives of rank, foreign refugees, ambassadors, and
travellers. We are assured that the king fed daily within the precincts
of his palace as many as 15,000 persons, and that the cost of each day's
food was 400 talents. A thousand beasts were slaughtered for each
repast, besides abundance of feathered game and poultry.... On all
occasions the guests, if they liked, carried away any portion of the
food set before them, conveying it to their homes where it served to
support their families."[1]
Prescribed etiquette governed everyone, from the king to his meanest
subject. The august king must dine alone, or at best have with him the
queen and her son. He could be approached only with certain ceremony.
Ceremony and form were by no means confined to royalty and the court.
Men of different rank met each other with established form and
salutation; certain tasks could be performed only by persons who could
perform no other tasks. This led to a large body of idlers around the
court, ready to take part in any intrigue or conspiracy. They gathered
around the homes of the wealthy as well as the palace of the
king--water-bearers, adorners, awakers, and each rigidly confined
himself to his single duty.
[Illustration: DAMASCUS SWORD-MAKER.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.]
In early times the Persians indulged in a single meal each day. The
custom continued later, but now the feast began with the morning and
ceased only with night. The amount of wine a man could drink became his
boast. In place of the regular habits, frugal fare and constant exercise
of early times, were substituted the prolonged feast, all kinds of
indulgencies, and idleness.
The royal harem provided apartments for the king's several wives in
early years. Towards the close of the empire, provision had to be made
for some three hundred and sixty--if we may trust one writer. The
jealousies, differences and intrigues which arose from this quarter can
scarcely be imagined. Each wished her son to be given preference, and
this ambition, together with the restlessness accompanying enforced
seclusion, stimulated crime and fostered conspiracies. The favorite of
the king might toy with the lives of his subjects--even with the lives
of those dear to him, at will. No subject in the land had reason to
think his life secure--least of all, he who was today powerful.
For diversions--other than Court intrigues--the king turned to the hunt.
Dice throwing was the national game, and the carving of wood was a
frequent pastime. Since little was known of books, men were forced to
find some means of passing hours unoccupied with national affairs or
private concerns.
Dress had been simple in early years. As time went on, it became more
complex; even matters of cosmetics and perfumes were later deemed of
weighty importance.
There is more to attract us in the Persian state during years of its
earlier simplicity, while yet the soldier found his deepest satisfaction
in military skill, bodily exercise and great endurance, than in the
period of imperial greatness, when the court of Persia exceeded in
splendor anything since known.
THE RELIGION OF PERSIA.
Some time between 1000-650 B.C., it is supposed there lived a religious
reformer by the name of Zarathushtra, or Zoroaster. Both his birth-place
and birth-date are alike unknown, but it is supposed that he lived in
Bactria, a country which reached indefinitely along the Caspian Sea.
Little has come down to us concerning the great teacher himself. He
early felt called to his religious mission. Retiring from the world,
tradition says he lived for some years upon a remote mountain, and here
a divine vision came to him. He communed with Ormuzd, the spirit of
Good, and knew that his work was to reclaim man, who in blindness had
wandered away from truth and light, and to bring him into new
relationship with the divine spirit which was ever ready to win mankind
to himself.
At the age of thirty, Zoroaster was prepared to preach the new law. For
ten years he wandered about, but found few to listen to him. His family
and friends were gradually won to the faith he taught, and returning to
the Caspian Sea region, he found more willing hearers.
The conceptions from which he had evolved his faith were already
accepted to some extent by those among whom he came. He taught that
there were two spirits--Ormuzd or Good, embodying all truth, life,
beauty, order, light; and Ahriman, or Evil, including all darkness,
death, falsity and disorder. Life was a struggle between these two
contending forces. "He laid before his people their own thoughts in all
the pure transparency of crystal waters cleared from muddiness and
unwholesome admixtures in the filter of his own transcendent and
searching mind. He guided their groping hands, and made them grasp the
truth for which they were blindly reaching. Such is the mission of every
true prophet. Had the people not been ripe for his teaching, he could
not have secured a hearing, or made himself understood; the people, on
the other hand, could never have worked out unaided the ideal to which
they were vaguely and only half-consciously drawn. They listened and
understood, and were won, because, to use the expression of a great
writer, they had in themselves the seed of the thoughts which the
prophet expounded to them."[2]
Seven times divine beings brought messages to Zoroaster. "They inculcate
the doctrine of purity of body as well as of soul; they enjoin the care
of useful animals, especially the cow and the dog; they emphasize the
necessity of keeping the earth, the fire and the water undefiled; and
from several of their ordinances we can see that Zoroaster was a civil
reformer as well as a spiritual guide. Foremost among the commandments
is the abhorrence of falsehood, the universal obligation to speak the
truth. This is one of the most fundamental of the ethical tenets which
form the basis of the entire ancient Persian religious system."[3]
The writings which contained the teachings of Zoroaster are commonly
known as the Zenda-Vesta. The name is misleading however, and should
read Avesta-u-Zend, which translated means: "Law and Commentary." Among
students the compilation is generally called the Avesta. Even a casual
reading of the Old Testament reveals the fact that the various books
composing it were written by different writers, writing under radically
different circumstances, and at widely distant periods. The same is true
of the Avesta. One of its books was probably written either by Zoroaster
himself or under his supervision. This is the Gathas, or book of songs,
and is the most ancient portion of the entire collection. Sermons,
prayers, and sayings are therein contained, some of which possess poetic
beauty and rare purity. Other books were added from time to time, until
the Avesta is said to have been made up of twenty-one books, and to have
covered 1,200 cowhides.
When Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 332 B.C., elated by his
victory, and having drunk heavily of wine, he allowed his soldiers to
burn the capital, and with it perished much of greatest value. Most of
the Persian literature was then destroyed, together with the noblest
specimens of Persian architecture and decoration. While cities were few,
it seems remarkable that the only copies of the Avesta were burned. For
several centuries following, the teachings of this sacred book lived
only in the memories of priests. Finally in 325 A.D., a council was
called to take measures to have these ancient doctrines committed to
writing. Naturally the result was fragmentary and incomplete. Only
those portions of the original text which had been in daily use proved
to be well remembered. These were mainly prayers and invocations. The
priests in all probability, seized the opportunity to insert whatever
forms of worship and modified beliefs they desired to emphasize. Their
final effort, while far from satisfactory, embraces all which now
remains of the religion of Zoroaster and his followers.
In 636 A.D. the Mohammedan Arabs made a religious crusade and undertook
to blot out the old Persian religion. Most of the descendants of the
early nation yielded to the fire and sword. A small portion of them took
refuge in India, where they were allowed to worship as they chose. Only
with them was the Avesta preserved. These Parsis have been called "the
ruins of a people, as their sacred books are the ruins of a religion."
Of them Justi writes: "There is no religious body in the world whose
practice is so completely in harmony with their moral code."
The collection of Zend Fragments, commonly known as the Zend-Avesta,
falls into two parts: The Avesta, properly so-called, which contains
(1) compilations of religious laws and mythical tales; (2) collections
of litanies for the sacrifice; (3) litanies and hymns written in a
language older than the rest of the Avesta. Secondly, these writings
contain the Small Avesta, made up of short prayers, recited by all the
faithful. It was fitting that these collections of fragments be
preserved, so far as possible, in their original dialect, but since
these were no longer intelligible even to the educated, the Zend, or
explanation--commentary--was attached in the prevailing tongue.
Otherwise the greater portion of the work could not have been
understood. Some of the creation stories were not included in the
Avesta, but were gathered together with other myths in the Bundehesh.
All worshippers are classified by the Avesta as followers of
Ormuzd--Good,--or Ahriman--Evil. One could either stand for good or
against it. "Now shall I proclaim unto you, O ye all that here approach
me, what the wise should lay to their hearts; the songs of praise and
the sacrificial rites which pious men pay the Lord, and the sacred
truths and ordinances, that what was secret until now may appear in the
light 'Hear with your ears that which is best, and test it with a clear
understanding, before each man decides for himself between the two
teachings.'
"The two Spirits, the Twins, skilfully created, in the beginning, Good
and Evil, in thought, in speech, in deed. And, between these two, the
wise have made the right choice; not so the senseless. If, O men, you
lay to your hearts these ordinances which Ormuzd instituted, and the
good and evil, and the long torments which await the followers of
falsehood, and the bliss that must come to the holders of the true
faith, it will go well with you."
Followers of Zoroaster abhorred idolatry. No image of their God
corrupted their conceptions. In early times they built no temples,
having only altars whereupon sacrifices were made. Darius often mentions
Ahuramazda (Hormuzd) in his inscriptions as the highest god of the
Persians, and it is highly probable that Cyrus was also a worshipper, a
fact which made him sympathetic toward the religion of the Jews and
accounts for his willingness that they rebuild a temple in Jerusalem for
the worship of Yahweh.
In later years, forms and symbols crept into the service, for abstract
teachings did not hold the masses of the people. Fire was conceived to
be a symbol of the God of Light, and even today there seems to be a
certain charm in the conception that "a pure and undefiled flame is
certainly the most sublime natural representation of Him who is in
Himself Eternal Light." There must have been a sublimity in the sight of
the pure flames, rising to heaven from the mountain-tops, while prayers
and hymns of praise were poured out to the one great Spirit, by whatever
name known.
As days of degeneracy overtook Persia, the religion was affected by the
general lassitude and decay. A modernized form of the early faith is
found today among some 100,000 worshippers in Arabia and India.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson: Persia.
[2] Ragozin: Media and Persia.
[3] Jackson: Persia, the Land and Its History.
A HYMN.
"We worship Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd), the pure, the master of purity.
"We praise all good thoughts, all good words, all good deeds which
are or shall be; and we likewise keep clean, and pure all that is
good.
"O Ormuzd, thou true, happy being! We strive to think, to speak, and
to do only such actions as may be best fitted to promote the two
lives (the life of the body and of the soul).
"We beseech the spirit of earth for the sake of these our best works
to grant us beautiful and fertile fields, to the believer as well as
to the unbeliever, to him who has riches as well as to him who has
no possessions."
FROM THE AVESTA. PART I.
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the first
place where the Earth feels most happy?"
Ahura Mazda, the Good Principle, answered: "It is the place whereon
one of the faithful steps forward, O Zoroaster, with the holy wood
in his hand,[1] the baresma in his hand,[2] the holy meat in his
hand,[3] the holy mortar in his hand,[4] fulfilling the law with
love, and beseeching aloud Mithra.[5]"
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the second
place where the Earth feels most happy?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the place whereon one of the faithful
erects a house with a priest therein, with cattle, with a wife, with
children, and good herds within; and wherein afterwards the cattle
go on thriving, holiness is thriving, fodder is thriving, the dog is
thriving, the wife is thriving, the child is thriving, the fire is
thriving, and every blessing of life is thriving."
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the third
place where the Earth feels most happy?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the place where one of the faithful
cultivates most corn, grass and fruit, O Zoroaster! where he waters
ground that is too dry, and dries ground that is too wet."
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the fourth
place where the Earth feels most happy?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the place where there is most increase
of flocks and herds."
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the first
place where the Earth feels sorest grief?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the neck of Arezura,[6] whereon the
hosts of fiends rush forth to the burrow of the Drug.[7]"
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the second
place where the Earth feels sorest grief?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the place where most corpses of dogs
and of men lie buried."
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the fifth
place where the Earth feels sorest grief?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is the place whereon the wife and children
of the faithful, O Zoroaster, are driven along the way of captivity,
the dry, the dusty way, and lift up a voice of wailing."
"O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Who is the first that
rejoices the Earth with greatest joy?"
Ahura Mazda answered: "It is he who digs out of it most corpses of
dogs and men."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Food for the altar fire.
[2] Sacred twigs held by the priest while reciting prayers.
[3] Meat for sacrifice.
[4] Used for crushing the Haoma, an intoxicating plant, whose juice is
used by the faithful.
[5] God of good fields and pastures.
[6] Mount at the gate of hell whence demons rush forth.
[7] Hell.
ANCIENT HYMN FROM THE AVESTA.
"I am the Keeper; I am the Creator and the Maintainer; I am the
Discerner; I am the most beneficent Spirit.
My name is the bestower of health; my name is the best bestower of
health.
My name is the Holy; my name is the most Holy.
My name is the Glorious; my name is the most Glorious.
My name is the far-seeing; my name is the Farthest-seeing.
My name is Holiness; my name is the Great one; my name is the good
Sovereign; my name is the best of Sovereigns.
My name is the Wise One; my name is the Wisest of the Wise; my name
is He who does good for a long time.
These are my names.
And he who in this material world, O Zoroaster! shall recite and
pronounce these names of mine either by day or by night;
He who shall pronounce them when he rises up or when he lays him
down; when he lays him down or when he rises up; when he binds on
the sacred girdle, or when he unbinds the sacred girdle; when he
goes out of his dwelling-place, or when he goes out of his town, or
when he goes out of his country and comes into another country;
_That_ man, neither in that day nor in that night shall be wounded
by the weapons of the foe...; not the knife, not the cross-bow, not
the arrow, not the sword, not the club, not the sling-stone shall
reach him and wound him.
But these names shall come in to keep him from behind and to keep
him in front ... from the evil ones, bent on mischief, and from that
fiend which is all death--Angra Mainyu.
It will be as if there were a thousand men watching over one man."
--_Trans. Zend-Avesta: Sacred Books of the East.
Max Muller, ed. V._ 4, 23, 31.
[Illustration: PART OF ARCHER'S FRIEZE IN AN ANCIENT PERSIAN PALACE.]
CHAPTER XXI.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA AND PERSIA TO MODERN CIVILIZATION.
It is often difficult to correctly estimate the power exerted by a
statesman upon his country. The movements he has espoused, the reforms
he may have championed, the institutions he helped to call into being,
all stand as monuments to his memory. But the subtle effects of his
influence, his personality and character upon his own generation and
others still to come, are seldom understood or adequately judged. In the
case of a nation the task becomes still more complicated, and we cannot
today know how many of our ideas, inventions, and attainments have been
shaped by nations whose light went out long centuries ago. Nevertheless,
our inability to estimate these various inheritances aright need not
deter us from an attempt to classify such bequeathments as are
universally acknowledged, and we may be sure that the present world owes
much to the earliest nations of Western Asia. Their contributions,
however, have not come down to us directly, but have been passed along,
like legends, from one people to another, until their present form
scarcely suggests their origins.
Let us consider first our indebtedness to Babylonia. In recent years
discoveries in the Euphrates valley and the mastery of the cuneiform
style of writing have given us masses of material wherefrom to
reconstruct the past. Not only has light thus been thrown upon the early
history of Babylonia and Assyria, but aid has been rendered biblical
study. The tribal life of the Hebrews, and the civilization of other
contemporary peoples has been better understood because of these
revelations. However, acquisitions of the last century have had no part
in molding modern civilization, and we pass on to matters of earlier
significance.
No people could have worked as diligently in the field of science as the
Babylonians did and failed to leave important results of their
investigations. "In _Geometry_ the Chaldeans made about the same
progress as the Egyptians; in _Arithmetic_ more. Their notation
combined the decimal and duodecimal systems. Sixty was a favorite unit,
used as the hundred is by us. Scientific _Medicine_ was hindered by the
belief in charms and amulets; and even _Astronomy_ was studied chiefly
as a means of fortune-telling by the stars,--so that in Europe through
the Middle Ages an astrologer was known as a Chaldean. However, the
level plains and clear skies, as in Egypt, invited to an early study of
the constellations, and some important progress was made. As we get from
the Egyptians our year and months, so from the Chaldeans we get the
week, with its 'day of rest for the heart,' as they called the seventh
day, and the division of day and night into twelve hours each, with the
subdivisions into minutes. They also invented the water clock and the
sundial. They foretold eclipses, made star maps, and marked out on the
heavens the apparent yearly path of the sun. The zodiacal 'signs' of our
almanacs commemorate these early astronomers. Every great city had its
lofty observatory and its royal astronomer; and in Babylon, in 331 B.C.,
Alexander the Great found a continuous series of observations running
back nineteen hundred and three years.
"To a degree peculiar among the ancients, the men of the Euphrates made
practical use of their science. They understood the lever and pulley,
and used the arch in vaulted drains and aqueducts. They invented the
potter's wheel, and an excellent system of weights and measures. Their
treatises on agriculture passed on their knowledge in that subject to
the later Greeks and Arabs. They had surpassing skill in cutting gems,
and in enameling and inlaying; and their looms produced the finest of
muslins and of fleecy woolens, to which the dyer gave the most brilliant
colors. In many such industries little advance has been made since, so
far as results are concerned."[1]
Certain unfortunate bequests were left by them. Babylonian belief in
demons was handed down through the Hebrews, and in the Middle Ages took
the form of the devil, with horns and a cloven foot. Their faith in
magic and incantations also descended to Mediæval times, and as
scientific interest superseded religious fervor, inspired men to search
for the "philosopher's stone."
The intensely practical turn of mind in Mesopotamia revealed itself in
the literature, which was bare of imagery. Material beauty--artistic
carpets, tapestries, and rugs, was developed, but for beauty of
conceptions, we must turn to the Greeks.
What did the war-loving, blood-thirsting Assyrians leave for future
ages? At first the question seems not to be easily answered. One calls
to mind their ravaging raids and unparalleled carnage, and remembering
that their palaces and stores of inscribed tablets were recovered only
within the last fifty years, their contributions are not so apparent.
Yet, having studied the government enforced by Darius upon his empire,
we are compelled to admit that he but improved upon the system evolved
by the Assyrian kings, unknown before their time in Asia. Again, the
very conquests themselves were helpful, in spite of their cruelty, for
they brought the best civilization of their day to half-barbarous tribes
who otherwise might have passed century after century before reaching
the degree of progress so rudely thrust upon them. These conquests
opened up routes of commerce, and trade has always exceeded all other
factors as a civilizing force.
To science the Assyrians appear to have made no contributions whatever.
Coming to ancient Persia, we find a wholly different culture. The people
of this country lacked the practical turn of mind so characteristic of
the Babylonian, and his mercenary point of view was quite unknown to
them. Persian literature, while scanty, embodied poetical conceptions,
and several of the ancient poems possess much art. "The Persians had
fancy and imagination, a relish for poetry and art, and they were not
without a certain power of political combination. Yet we cannot justly
ascribe to them any high degree of intellectual excellence. If the great
work of Firdausi represents to us, as it probably does, the true spirit
of their ancient poetry, their efforts were but of moderate merit. A
tone of exaggeration, an imagination exuberant and unrestrained, a
preference for glitter over solid excellence, a love of far-fetched
conceits, characterize the Shahnameh; and, though we may ascribe
something of this to the individuality of the poet, still the conviction
presses upon us that there was a childish and grotesque character in
the mass of old Persian poetry, which marked it as the creation of
moderate rather than of high intellectual power, and prevents us from
regarding it with the respect with which we view the labors of the
Greeks and Romans, or again, of the Hebrews, in this department. A want
of seriousness, a want of reality, and, again, a want of depth,
characterize the poetry of Iran, whose bards do not touch the chords
which rouse what is noblest and highest in our nature. They give us
sparkle, prettiness, quaint and ingenious fancies, grotesque marvels, an
inflated kind of human heroism; but they have none of the higher
excellences of the poetic art, none of the divine fire which renders the
true poet, and the true prophet, one."[2]
The Persian religion was both noble and sublime, and its teaching
concerning the two opposing forces of good and evil, affected the
philosophy of the Greeks, and indirectly, the thought of the later
Christian world.
By carrying the plan of Assyrian conquest further, the Persians opened
districts remote from social centers and helped the course of
civilization. Their systematic government improved upon the one
developed by Assyria in this particular: each governor was made supreme
in his province under Assyrian administration, none other being
accountable to the king for conditions in his territory. An opportunity
thus offered for the governor to seize any favorable moment to shake off
allegiance to the state and attempt to establish his own supremacy.
Darius, on the other hand, posted troops in each satrapy, and both the
commander of these troops and the governor were required to submit
reports, and to act jointly in certain matters. In this way, one served
as a check upon the other.
Fine roads were built to allow rapid communication between the capital
and distant provinces; these naturally facilitated commerce, and made
travel safe--as one has graphically expressed it, "helped set the world
a-mixing."
A new day was dawning for humanity, and an age coming when one might
look back to the infancy of the world, likening its progress to that of
a man who has gained some perceptions, some ideas and experiences in
childhood days which unconsciously but surely, influence his later life,
illuminated by wider experiences and deeper truths.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] West: Ancient History.
[2] Rawlinson: Persia.
THE BOOK-STAMP OF SARDANAPALUS.
Assurbanipal, or, as the Greeks called him, Sardanapalus, is supposed to
have stored in his palace at Nineveh not less than 30,000 tablets. Upon
every work in his library his ownership was stamped as follows:
THE PALACE OF ASSURBANIPAL, KING OF REGIONS, KING OF MULTITUDES,
KING OF ASSYRIA, TO WHOM THE GOD NEBO AND THE GODDESS TASMETI HAVE
GRANTED ATTENTIVE EARS AND OPEN EYES TO DISCOVER THE WRITINGS OF
THE SCRIBES OF MY KINGDOM, WHOM THE KINGS MY PREDECESSORS HAVE
EMPLOYED. IN MY RESPECT FOR NEBO, THE GOD OF INTELLIGENCE, I HAVE
COLLECTED THESE TABLETS; I HAVE HAD THEM COPIED; I HAVE MARKED THEM
WITH MY NAME; AND I HAVE DEPOSITED THEM IN MY PALACE.
THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE.
This account was first translated by George Smith from the eleventh of a
series of tablets describing the adventures of the mythical hero,
Izdubar (or Gilgamish), supposed to be the same as Nimrod. The whole
series of tablets relates his early life and exploits in hunting, his
friendship with the faun Iabani, his victory over the tyrant Humbaba,
the love of the Goddess Ishtar, his illness, the death of Iabani, his
wanderings to find his ancestor, Hasisadra (or Pir-napishtim), who for
his piety had been translated to the fellowship of the gods. This
ancestor relates to Gilgamish the story of a great flood resembling in
general outline the narrative in Genesis, but stamped with the impress
of the Chaldean religion. Shamas was the Sun-god.
The early literature of many nations contains stories of a universal
flood, from which a favored family or individual alone escapes. None is
more striking than the one deciphered from the clay tablets of Chaldea,
or more nearly parallel to that of the Hebrew Scriptures.
TABLET XI. OF THE GILGAMISH EPIC.
The following translation is from Professor Craig:
THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE DELUGE.
Pir-napishtim saith to him, even to Gilgamish;
I will relate to thee, Gilgamish, a secret story,
And the decision of the gods I will tell thee.
The city Shurippak, which thou knowest,
Is situated on the shore of the Euphrates.
This city was old when the gods within it
Were moved to produce a flood, even the great gods.
They were Anu, their father,
The warrior Bel, their counsellor,
Their throne-bearer, Ninib,
Their leader, Ennugi,
Ninigiazag (the god Ea) had spoken with them
And their decree he repeated to the reed-house (saying):
"Reed-house! reed-house! house-wall! house-wall![1]
Reed-house, hear! and house-wall, consider!
O man of Shurippak, son of Ubar-Tutu!
Construct a house, build a ship,
Abandon possessions, seek life,
Property despise, and life save,
Put seed of life of every kind into the ship.
The ship which thou shalt build, even thou,
Let be measured her dimensions:
Let her breadth and length be equal,
Upon the ocean launch her."
I understood, and said to Ea, my lord:
"Behold, my lord, what thou hast commanded
I hold in reverence, I shall do.
(But what) shall I answer the city, the people, and the elders?"
Ea opened his mouth and speaketh,
Saith unto his servant, unto me:
"O man! Thus shalt thou say unto them:
Bel has rejected me and cursed me.
I shall dwell no more in your city,
And upon Bel's ground I shall not set my face.
But to the ocean shall I descend; with Ea, my lord, I shall dwell.
Upon you he shall cause to pour out abundance,
Game of birds and game of fishes,
(Animals of all kinds); field-fruits in plenty,
When in the evening the ruler of the darkness (?)
Shall cause to rain upon you a heavy rain."
As soon as dawn began to appear,
(Five or six lines wanting)
The weak (?) . . . . . . . . . . .
The strong brought to (the building-place) what was necessary.
On the fifth day I laid down her form.
_Ina Kar-Hi-Sa_ one hundred and twenty cubits high were her walls,
One hundred and twenty cubits likewise was the extent of her roof.
Its outer frame I constructed, enclosed it.[2]
I . . . . . . her six times.
I divided . . . . . seven times.
Its interior I divided nine times.
Water plugs I beat into it on its inside.
I provided a rudder (?) and what was needed I added.
Six _sars_ of bitumen I spread on the outside (?).
Three _sars_ of pitch (I spread) on the inside.
Three _sars_ of basket-bearers brought oil.
I left one _sar_ of oil which the offering consumed,
Two _sars_ of oil the shipman stowed away.
For the people I slaughtered oxen,
I killed . . . . . every day.
New w(ine, sesame) wine, oil and wine,
Like the waters of the river (I gave the people to drink)
And (held) a religious feast like unto the New-Year's Feast.
I opened (?) . . . of anointing oil, my hand applied (it).
(In the month) of Shamash, the great god, the ship was completed.
Because . . . . . were difficult
(Untranslatable) they brought above and below.
. . . . . . two-thirds of it.
All that I had I put on board of it.
All that I had of silver I put on board of it.
All that I had of gold I put on board of it.
All that I had of seed of life of every kind I put on board of it.
I caused to go up into the ship all my family and relatives.
Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, all the craftsmen, I caused
to go up.
A definite time the god Shamash had appointed:
The ruler of the darkness (?) at even-tide shall cause to rain a heavy
rain,
Enter thou (then) within the ship and close thy door."
That appointed time came.
The ruler of the darkness (?) at eventide rained a heavy rain.
The appearance of that day I (fore)saw.
To behold the day I had fear.
I entered into the ship and closed my door.
For the control of the ship to Puzur-Bel
The great-house I gave over together with its store.
With the first appearing of dawn
There rises from the foundation of the heavens a black cloud,
Ramman within it thunders.
Nebo and Marduk march in front;
Over mountain and plain march the throne-bearers.
The _tar-kul-li_ the great Dibbarra tore away.
Ninib advances, ruin he pours out.
The Anunnaki bear aloft torches,
With their brightness they set the land aflame.
The dread of Ramman reaches to heaven.
Everything bright he turneth to darkness.
. . . the land like . . . he covered (?)
One day the hurricane (raged),
Violently it blew, the waters (covered?) the mountains.
Like the (onslaught of) battle over mankind (they) came.
Brother sees not (his) brother.
Men are not discerned in heaven (_i. e._, by the gods).
The gods were terrified by the flood, and
Withdrew and ascended to the heaven of Anu.
The gods dog-like cower, crouch on the wall (of heaven).
Ishtar screams like a woman in travail.
She cries aloud the lady of the gods, the sweet-voiced:
"Verily the former race is turned to clay.
Just as I in the assembly of the gods proclaimed evil,
As I proclaimed in the assembly of the gods evil
For the destruction of my people war I foretold,
So, verily, will I bring forth my people
Tho' like the fry of fishes they fill the sea."
The gods, the highest of the Anunnaki weep with her.
The gods are downcast, sit, and weep,
Covered were their lips ...
Six days and nights
The wind prevailed, flood and storm overwhelmed the land.
When the seventh day came the storm abated, the flood was overcome,
Which had battled like a warring host;
The sea calmed, the hurricane ceased, the flood was restrained,
I beheld the sea, uttering a lamentation,
Seeing that all mankind was turned to clay.
When the light had fully dawned I prayed.
I opened an airhole and light fell upon my cheeks.
I bowed myself, I sat down, I wept.
Over my cheeks ran my tears.
I looked upon the far-spread waters of the sea.
After twelve double-hours a peak arose,
Towards the mountain of Nitsir the ship took its course.
The mountain of Nitsir held the ship and let it not rise.
One day, a second day, the mountain of Nitsir, _ditto_
A third day, a fourth day the " " " "
A fifth day, a sixth day " " " " "
When the seventh day arrived
I brought forth a _dove_ and let it go.
The dove went forth, flew to and fro, but
A resting-place there was not, so it returned.
Then I brought forth a _swallow_ and let it go,
The swallow went forth, flew to and fro, but
A resting-place there was not so it returned.
(Then) I brought forth a _raven_ and let it go.
The raven went forth, the disappearance of the waters he saw,
He eats, caws, flies to and fro, and returns not.
(Then) I brought forth to the four winds, I offered a sacrifice.
I made an incense-offering on the top-most peak of the mountain.
Seven and seven _adagur_-vessels I placed.
Into them I cast reeds, cedar-wood, and
The gods inhaled the good odour.
The gods like flies swarmed about the offerer.
As soon as the mistress of the gods arrived
She lifted up the great jewels (?) that the god Anu had devised and
made for her (and said)
"These gods, by my _lapis lazuli_ necklace I shall not forget.
These days, verily I shall reflect upon and never forget.
The gods, let them go to the incense-offering.
(But) let not Bel go to the incense-offering,
Seeing that he did not reflect but caused the flood.
And my people he counted for destruction.
As soon as Bel arrived
He saw the ship and Bel was sore angry,
He waxed wroth against the gods, the Igigi.
"Some soul has escaped" (he said),
"Let no man survive the destruction."
Ninib openeth his mouth and speaketh,
He speaks to the warrior Bel:
"Who but Ea doeth (this) thing?
But Ea is wise in every undertaking."
Ea openeth his mouth and speaketh,
Saith to the warrior Bel:
"Thou sage of the gods, warrior!
Verily, verily, thou didst not reflect, and didst make a flood:
Upon the sinner lay his sins,
Upon the impious his impiety.[3]
Spare, let him not be cut off, have mercy, let him (not be utterly
destroyed).
Instead of bringing on a flood,
Let the lion come and reduce mankind.
Instead of bringing on a flood,
Let the hyaena come and reduce mankind.
Instead of bringing on a flood,
Let famine be sent and the land (reduced).
Instead of bringing on a flood,
Let the Pest-god come and destroy the land.
As for me, I have not revealed the secret of the gods.
I caused Atrahasis to see a vision and thus he learned the secret of
the gods."
Thereupon his counsel was taken
And Bel ascended within the ship. Seized me by the hands and brought
me up (to a point still higher).
He brought up and made to bow beside me my wife,
Turned us face to face, stood between us and blessed us:
"In former times Pir-napishtim was human
But henceforth Pir-napishtim and his wife shall be like us gods
And Pir-napishtim shall dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers."
Then they took me and afar off at the mouth of the rivers they caused
me to dwell.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The house for its inhabitants. Compare Isaiah 1, 2: Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth.
[2] The meaning here and in the next four lines is not clear.
[3] This is evidence that the deluge, as in the Old Testament, was a
punishment for sin, which some writers (not Assyriologists) have denied
in the interest of an outgrown view of the Bible.
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO HADES.
Ishtar was the Babylonian Venus or goddess of love. The story of her
descent to Hades and return to the world of the living is found on a
tablet now in the British Museum, and is perhaps the most poetical
legend of the recovered Assyrian literature. It has been suggested
that the story is the text of a religious drama, resembling the
miracle-plays of mediaeval Europe. The legend shows no reason for
Ishtar's desire to enter Hades, but it is easy to suppose that she
went thither to rescue some beloved person. This supplies a connection
with the familiar story of Venus and Adonis (or Tammuz), which the
Greek writers declare to be of Syrian origin. The drama, if such it
were, was probably part of the annual celebration of the return of
Spring. Ninkigal, the Queen of Hades, corresponds to the Greek
Persephone, and Latin Proserpina, the wife of Pluto. In like manner,
Ea, the king of the gods, corresponds to Zeus or Jupiter, and the
divine messenger to Hermes or Mercury.
A BABYLONIAN EPIC--ISHTAR'S DESCENT TO HADES.
(Translation by Professor Craig.)
On the land without regress, the land (that thou knowest),
Ishtar, Sin's daughter, did fix her attention,
The daughter of Sin did fix her attention,
On the dwelling of darkness, the abode of Irkalla,
On the dwelling whose inhabitant comes no more out,
On the road whose advancing knows no returning,
On the house whose inhabitants removed from the light,
Where they're nourished with dust and clay is their food,
Where they see not the light, but in darkness are dwelling,
And are clad like the birds with a covering of wings;
On door and on bars lies the dust thickly gathered.
Arrived at the door of the land without regress,
To the porter in keeping, this order she giveth:
Thou watcher of waters, throw open thy portal!
Throw open thy portal, within will I enter!
If the door be not opened that I may pass through it,
The door will I shatter, its bolt break in pieces,
Its sills will I burst, its doors tear asunder,
The dead will I raise up, devourers and living,
Even more than the living the dead will I raise up.
The porter then opened his mouth and made answer,
To the great goddess Ishtar, made answer the porter:
"Withhold! O my lady, do not break it away,
I go to Allatu, thy name to announce."
The porter announced to the queen, to Allatu:
"Thy sister, Ishtar, is come over these waters
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."
When Allatu these tidings received (from the porter),
Like a tamarisk cut she (bowed herself down) (?).
Like a reed that is broken she (bent to the ground) (?).
"What bringeth her heart to me, pray? What trouble?
With this one forsooth (shall I share my dwelling?)
As food eat the clay and as wine drink the water,
Weep over men who their wives have abandoned,
O'er maidens who mourn the embrace of their lovers,
Weep o'er the infants destroyed e'er their day?
Go! porter, throw open thy door--open to her!
And treat her according to olden-time law."
The porter departed, threw open his door;
"O enter, my lady, a welcome in Hades!
Palace of the land, that knows no returning,
O let it rejoice in thy presence."
The first door he caused her to enter, and halting,
Removed the great crown from her head.
"Why tak'st thou the great crown from my head, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The next door he caused her to enter, and halting,
The rings were removed from her ears.
"Why tak'st thou the rings from my ears, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The third door he caused her to enter, and halting,
The necklace removed from her neck.
"Why tak'st thou from my neck the necklace, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The fourth door he caused her to enter, and halting,
Her jewels removed from her breast.
"Why tak'st thou from my breast the jewels, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The fifth door he caused her to enter, and halting,
The bearing-stone girdle he took off from her waist.
"Why tak'st thou from my waist my gemmed-girdle, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The sixth door he caused her to enter, and halting,
Took the rings from her hands and her feet.
"Why from hands and from feet take the rings, pray, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
The seventh door he caused her to enter, and halting,
From her body her cincture removed.
"Why take from my body my cincture, O porter?"
"O enter, my lady, 'tis the law of Allatu."
To the land without regress when Ishtar descended,
Allatu beheld her and raged in her presence;
Imprudently, boldly, did Ishtar attack her.
Then opened Allatu her mouth and commanded,
To Namtar, her servant, the order was given:
"Go Namtar, confine her....
With disease of the eye, and the hip, and the foot,
With disease of the heart, and the scalp, go smite Ishtar,
Afflict her whole person!"
After Ishtar, the goddess, had (been thus afflicted) (?)
The bull no more covered the cow, nor ass gendered;
No more in the street lay the man with the maiden;
The man went asleep in his place,
In her place slept the maiden.
The god's-servant, Pap-su-kal, face down and sad-visaged,
Was clothed in the garb of deep mourning.
Shamash went, sorely wept before Sin, his father,
His tears ran down before the king, Ea,
Saying: "Ishtar's gone down to the land, and returns not.
Since Ishtar's descent to the land without regress
The bull no more covers the cow, nor ass genders;
No more in the street lies the man with the maiden.
The man falls asleep in his place,
In her place sleeps the maiden."
Then Ea created a male in his wisdom,
The god's-servant, Uddushu-namir, created.
"Go! Uddushu-namir, to land without regress,
Seven doors of the land without regress be opened!
Allatu behold thee, rejoice in thy presence!
Her heart when at ease, and her spirit when joyful;
In name of the great gods do thou adjure her:
'Thy head raise, to Hal-skin direct thy attention,
O lady, I pray thee, Halziqu-skin give me;
I desire to drink of the waters within it.'"
This hearing, Allatu her sides smote, her nails bit.
"Of me thou hast asked an impossible favor.
Hence! Uddushu-namir, with curse will I curse thee;
Thy food it shall be the foul mud of the city,
From drains of the city shalt thou drink the water,
The shade of the wall shall be thy dwelling,
Thy place of abiding a stone-block shall build it.
Confinement, privation, thy strength let them shatter."
Allatu then opened her mouth and commanded,
To Namtar, her servant, the order was given:
"Go! Namtar, beat on the palace eternal!
Go! rap on the stone slabs, those made out of _pa_-stone.
Go! lead forth the spirits, on golden thrones set them,
With water-of-life sprinkle Ishtar, the goddess,
Lead her forth from my presence."
Then went Namtar, beat on the palace eternal,
And shook the stone slabs those made out of _pa_-stone;
He led forth the spirits, on golden thrones set them,
With water-of-life sprinkled Ishtar the goddess.
Led her forth from her presence.
Through first door he led her, gave to her her cincture.
Through second door he led her, her rings he gave to her.
Through third door he led her, gave back her gemmed-girdle.
Through fourth door he led her, gave back her breast-jewels.
Through fifth door he led her, gave to her her necklace.
Through sixth door he led her, gave to her her ear-rings.
Through seventh door he led her, the great crown gave to her.
Here ends the descent of Ishtar. The priest continues:
"If free she'll not free her, return with her to her
And for Tammuz, her bridegroom in years that were youthful,
Pour water e'en purest, with sweet balm (anoint him)
And clothe him with garments, a flute (give unto him),
Companions of Ishtar, let them wail with loud (wailing),
The goddess, Belili, her treasure completed,
High heaped are the eye-stones, her knees now supporteth,
Her brother's complaint she then understanding,
The great goddess Belili her treasures outpouring,
She fills with the eye-stones the floor round about her (saying)
'My only one, brother mine, do me no evil.'
When Tammuz with flute of fine lapiz discourseth,
Then play with him joyfully flute of fine beryl,
And play with him joyfully men mourners and women,
The dead may arise the sweet incense inhaling."
NOTE.--See Jastoon, "Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," page 563 ff.,
for a full discussion of this epic.
[Illustration]
GYGES AND ASSURBANIPAL.
Gyges, king of Lydia, reigned B.C. 716-678. The Greek historian
Herodotus has given an interesting account of him, but still more
interesting is the following extract showing how he was regarded by
the great king of Assyria, Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus).
Gyges was the king of Lydia, a country beyond the seas, a distant land,
of which the kings, my fathers, had never even heard the name. Assur, my
divine generator, revealed my name to him in a dream, saying:
"Assurbanipal, the king of Assyria; place thyself at his feet, and thou
shalt conquer thy enemies in his name." The same day that he dreamed
this dream, Gyges sent horsemen to salute me, and related to me the
dream which he had had, by the mouth of his messengers. When the latter
reached the frontiers of my empire and encountered the people of my
empire, they said to him, "Who then art thou, stranger, whose land has
never yet been visited by one of our couriers?"
They sent him to Nineveh, the seat of my royalty, and brought him before
me. The languages of the East and of the West, which Assur had given
into my hand, none of those who spoke them could understand his
language, and none of those who surrounded me had ever heard speech like
unto it. In the space of my empire at last I found one who understood
it, and he told me the dream. The same day that he placed himself at the
feet of me, the king Assurbanipal, he defeated the Cimmerians, who
oppressed the people of his land, who had not feared the kings, my
fathers, and had not placed themselves at my feet. By the grace of
Assur and Ishtar, the gods my masters, they took amidst the chiefs of
the Cimmerians, whom he had defeated, two chiefs whom he chained heavily
with manacles and fetters of iron, and he sent them to me with a rich
present.
Nevertheless the horsemen that he at first sent regularly to pay homage
to me, he soon ceased to send. He would not obey the commands of Assur,
my divine generator, but foolishly trusted in his own strength, and in
the wishes of his heart. He sent his troops to the assistance of
Psammetichus, king of Egypt, who had contemptuously thrown off my yoke.
I heard this, and prayed to Assur and Ishtar: "May his body be thrown
down before his enemies, and may his bones be dispersed." The
Cimmerians, whom he had crushed in my name, reappeared and subjugated
his whole land, and his son succeeded him upon the throne. The
punishment which the gods, who are my strength, had drawn upon his
father at my request, he told me by his messengers, and he placed
himself at my feet, saying: "Thou art a king acknowledged by the gods.
Thou cursedst my father, and misfortune fell upon him. Send me thy
blessing, for I am thy servant, who fears thee, and will wear thy yoke."
[Illustration]
PURITY.
"Purity is the best of all things; purity is the fairest of all things,
even as thou hast said, O righteous Zarathustra." With these words the
holy Ahura-Mazda rejoiced the holy Zarathustra: "Purity is for man, next
to life, the greatest good; that purity which is procured by the law of
Mazda to him who cleanses his own self with good thoughts, words and
deeds."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! This law, this
fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra, by what greatness, goodness, and
fairness is it great, good, and fair above all other utterances?
Ahura-Mazda answered: "As much above all other floods as is the sea, so
much above all other utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is
this law, this fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra. As much as a great
stream flows swifter than a slender rivulet, so much above all other
utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is this law, this
fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra. As high as the great cypress tree
stands above the small plants it overshadows, so high above all other
utterances in greatness, goodness, and fairness is this law, this
fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra. As high as heaven is above the
earth that it compasses around, so high above all other utterances is
this law, this fiend-destroying law of Zarathustra.
"Therefore when the high priest has been applied to by a penitent, when
any of the Magi has been applied to, whether for draona-service[A] that
has been undertaken or that has not been undertaken, the priest has
power to remit one-third of the penalty he had to pay: if he has
committed any other evil deed, it is remitted by his repentance; if he
has committed no other evil deed, he is absolved by his repentance
forever and ever."
[A] A service in honor of spirits or deceased persons in which
small cakes (_draona_) are blessed in their name and eaten
by those present.
ZOROASTER'S PRAYER.
This Gatha or hymn is supposed to be a prayer prescribed by
Zoroaster for the teachers of his religion. The first verse is the
prelude always used before reciting or chanting any of the Gathas in
the Parsi religious service.
A strengthening blessing is the thought, a blessing is the word, a
blessing is the deed of the righteous Zarathustra. May the Bountiful
Immortals accept and help on the chants. Homage to you, O sacred Gathas!
With venerating desire for this gift of gracious help, O Mazda, and
stretching forth my hands to Thee I pray for the first blessing of Thy
bountiful Spirit; that is, I beseech of Thee that my actions toward all
may be performed in Righteousness; and with this I implore from Thee the
understanding of Thy Good Spirit, in order that I may propitiate the
Soul of the Kine.
And therefore, O Great Creator, the Living Lord! inspired by Thy Good
Spirit, I approach You, and beseech of Thee to grant me as a bountiful
gift for both the worlds, that of the body and that of mind, those
attainments which are to be derived from the Divine Righteousness, and
by means of which those who receive it may enter into beatitude and
glory!
O thou Divine Righteousness, and thou Good Spirit of Deity! I will
worship you, and Ahura Mazda the first, for all of whom the pious ready
mind within us is causing the imperishable Kingdom to advance. And while
I thus utter my supplications to You, come Ye to my calls to help!
Yea, I will approach You with my supplications, I who am delivering up
my mind and soul to that heavenly Mount whither all the redeemed at last
must pass, knowing full well the holy characteristics and rewards of the
actions prescribed by Ahura Mazda. And so long as I am able and may have
the power, so long will I teach Your people concerning these holy deeds
to be done by them with faith toward God, and in the desire for the
coming of the Divine Righteousness within their souls.
And, thou Righteousness! when shall I see thee, knowing the Good Mind of
God, and above all the Obedience of our lives which constitutes the way
to the most beneficent Ahura Mazda? Asking this, I thus beseech thee,
for with this holy word of supplication we best keep off with tongue the
flesh-devouring fiends, the very sign and power of all spiritual
foulness!
* * * * *
THE HEBREWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.
CHAPTER I.
SYRIA.
Syria is the northern extremity of the Arabian peninsula. The word
_Syria_ is a shortened form of _Assyria_, and was given by the Greeks,
at first to the whole Assyrian empire, and later restricted to the strip
of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates valley. Today
the name is applied to the region east of Palestine, reaching to the
Taurus mountains on the north and on the south and west bounded by
deserts.
Its very location determined that this should never become the home of a
united, homogeneous people. It has always been a highway connecting Asia
and Africa and trade routes have extended through it since the earliest
recorded ages. Egyptian armies pressing into Asia in an early day
traversed its midst and so did those of somewhat later times pushing
westward from Mesopotamia, bound upon foreign conquest.
"Syria lies between two continents--Asia and Africa; between two
primeval homes of men--the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile;
between two great centers of empire--Western Asia and Egypt; between all
these, representing the Eastern and ancient world, and the
Mediterranean, which is the gateway to the Western and modern world.
Syria has been likened to a bridge between Asia and Africa--a bridge
with the desert on one side and the sea upon the other; and, in truth,
all the great invasions of Syria, with two exceptions, have been
delivered across her northern and southern ends.... Syria is not only
the bridge between Asia and Africa: she is the refuge of the drifting
populations of Arabia. She has not only been the highroad of
civilizations and the battle-field of empires, but the pasture and the
school of innumerable little tribes. She has been not merely an open
channel of war and commerce for nearly the whole world, but the
vantage-ground and opportunity of the world's highest religions. In this
strange mingling of bridge and harbour, of highroad and field, of
battle-ground and sanctuary, of seclusion and opportunity--rendered
possible through the striking division of her surface into mountain and
plain--lies all the secret of Syria's history, under the religion which
has lifted her fame to glory."[1]
The country falls naturally into many small districts in which petty
states have arisen but which never developed into strong kingdoms. These
have left but scanty remains of their civilizations.
We know nothing of Syria prior to 3500 B.C. There are evidences that
this region, like Chaldea, was occupied first by a primitive people,
probably belonging to the Turanian race. When a great Semitic outpouring
from Arabia caused the ancient Chaldean nation to be engulfed by a
vigorous people, Syria as well suffered an invasion.
During years of Babylonian dominance, Syria fell to the share of
Babylonian kings. "The land of the setting sun," as they called it, was
named with their possessions.
When Thutmose III. led his armies into Asia to avenge the insult done
Egyptian honor when the Hyksos kings ruled the valley of the Nile, he
established a certain supremacy over Syria which lasted for perhaps two
centuries. He established several royal cities, or "halting places"--so
called because his majesty tarried in them and directed the construction
of fortifications. Tribute was exacted and was paid with some regularity
until the time of Amenhotep IV. He was too occupied with religious
reformation and the exaltation of the Solar Disk faith to give attention
to his foreign possessions. The Tell-el-Amarna letters in many instances
portray the condition of Syria when Egypt's name was no longer a
protection and incoming tribes were plundering right and left.[2]
The spirit of unrest was again abroad among the nations and the Hittites
now invaded Western Asia. Who they were and from whence they came has
never been satisfactorily settled. Certain it is they were not Semitic.
They belonged to the great white race, but their history is still to be
written. Part of the natives sided with them; part remained loyal to
Egypt, and the rest attempted to establish their own independence.
Commerce was interrupted, caravans were plundered, and civil strife was
general throughout the land. In a brief time the Hittites made
themselves supreme in Syria, which became known as the Land of the
Hittites.
About 1200 B.C. a fresh invasion brought several new tribes, among
others, the Philistines. They again were probably not Semitics but of
the Aryan race. The Hittite nation was now broken up into several small
states, none of which became as powerful as the original nation. With
the weakening of Hittite strength, opportunity arose for petty states to
develop. The great powers left the country in peace for three or four
hundred years, and Syrian states prospered and grew strong.
The era of the Judges in Israel fell into this period, and between the
Hebrews and certain Syrian tribes there was intermittent war.
With the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I. Assyria launched forth on her
career of conquest. In a westward march made by this conqueror, northern
Syria yielded to Assyrian arms and offered tribute. Damascus alone was
left undisturbed, for opposition was sure to be strong on the part of
this ancient city. With some intervening years during which tribute
could not be collected and when allegiance to Nineveh was denied,
Assyrian influence dominated Syria, and frequently vigorous rule was
enforced. When Assyria fell, the New Babylonian empire kept guard over
the west. With the end of Babylonian rule, and the ascendency of Persia,
Semitic dominance came to an end. Under Persia, and later under Greece,
new states came into existence and Aryan rule began.
In the ages with which we are at present concerned, however, Syria
remained to the portion of Semitic tribes. We have found Arabia the
original home of this race. Providing at best but a scanty living for
her children, when tribes multiplied rapidly Arabia seems to have cast
out a portion of her inhabitants to make room for the rest.
Chaldea--later Babylonia--was peopled by such an outpouring, while at
the same time tribes spread into Syria and settled spots which promised
adequate food and pasturage. Later comers were compelled to journey past
these occupied lands and seek lands farther west, or to overcome the
natives and supplant them. Some one has aptly said that different tribes
fitted themselves into the "shelves and corners of Syria," and that is
just what they did. It would have been as impossible for Syria, with its
irregular surfaces, to have produced one united nation as for Greece or
Switzerland to have contained a people whose national concerns
outweighed their local interests. Highland and lowland, plateau and
plain, mountain range and valley--these at length were occupied by
little clans or more numerous tribes, while the more exposed regions
were open to the nomads who came like birds for a season, or tarried a
few brief years and penetrated farther west, or who perhaps merely
loitered on their way to Egypt--the land of water and abundant grain.
"Syria is the northern and most fertile end of the great Semitic
home--the peninsula of Arabia. But the Semitic home is distinguished by
its central position in geography--between Asia and Africa, and between
the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, which is Europe; and the _role_
in history of the Semitic race has been also intermediary. The Semitics
have been the great middlemen of the world. Not second-rate in war, they
have risen to the first rank in commerce and religion. They have been
the carriers between East and West, they have stood between the great
ancient civilizations and those which go to make up the modern world;
while by a higher gift, for which their conditions neither in place nor
in time fully account, they have been mediary between God and man, and
proved the religious teachers of the world, through whom have come its
three highest faiths, its only universal religions. Syria's history is
her share in this great function of intermedium, which has endured from
the earliest times to the present day."[3]
"The head of Syria is Damascus," wrote Isaiah two thousand years ago. So
it has since continued to be, with short periods of change. The
venerable city, made possible and beautiful by the waters of the Abana,
has survived many sacks and slaughters. It is sometimes called the
oldest city in the world, meaning of course, the one of greatest age
yet standing. Still it has few relics of antiquity. Old material has
constantly been utilized in the construction of new buildings and
monuments. Its position has often been commented upon. "It is an
astonishing site for what is said to be the oldest, and is certainly the
most enduring, city of the world. For it is utterly incapable of
defence; it is remote from the sea and the great natural lines of
commerce. From the coast of Syria it is double barred by those ranges of
snow-capped mountains whose populations enjoy more tempting prospects to
the north and west. But look east and you understand Damascus.
"You would as soon think of questioning the site of New York or of San
Francisco. Damascus is a great harbour of refuge upon the earliest sea
man ever learned to navigate. It is because there is nothing but desert
beyond, or immediately behind this site; because this river, the Abana,
instead of wasting her waters on a slight extension of the fringe of
fertile Syria, saves them in her narrow gorge till she can fling them
well out upon the desert, and there, instead of slowly expending them on
the doubtful possibilities of a province, lavishes all her life at once
in the creation of a single great city, and straightway dies in face of
the desert--it is because of all this that Damascus, so remote and so
defenceless, has endured throughout human history, and must endure.
Nineveh, Babylon and Memphis easily conquered her--she probably preceded
them, and she has outlived them. She has been twice supplanted--by
Antioch, and she has seen Antioch decay, by Baghdad, and Baghdad is
forgotten. She has been many times sacked, and twice at least the
effective classes of her population have been swept into captivity, but
this has not broken the chain of her history. She was once capital of
the world from the Atlantic to the Bay of Bengal, but the vast empire
went from her and the city continued to flourish as before. Standing on
the utmost edge of fertility, on the shore of the much-voyaged desert,
Damascus is indispensable alike to civilization and to the nomads.
Moreover, she is the city of the Mediterranean world which lies nearest
to the far East, and Islam has made her the western port of Mecca."[4]
Having traversed the desert wastes, the city of Damascus lies invitingly
before the wearied traveller. There is an old tradition that Mohammet
once approached the town and viewed it from neighboring hills. Before
him lay its grateful shade and restful streets, its tide of busy life,
its wealth, its diversions--behind him lay the monotonous sea of sand,
its parching heat and treeless plains. The great religious teacher was
apparently afraid to trust himself to the enticing influences of the
city. He turned away, saying: "Man can enter Paradise but once; if I
pass into Damascus I shall be excluded from the other Paradise reserved
for the faithful."
Our word _damask_ stands today in memory of the age when damask or
Damascus silk, embroidered in richest colors, with threads of silver and
gold, stood forth unmatched by fabrics of other lands. Today the word is
ordinarily applied to round linen thread, woven in fruit, flower, or
conventional designs, as was the silk originally.
The swords of Damascus also gained world-renown. They were so thin that
they could be tied into knots without injuring them in the least, and so
strong that they would cut through iron or wood without being marred. A
certain watery steel, more true and resistable than ordinary, made the
"trusty sword of Damascus" popular in many lands.
It lies beyond our province to trace the comings and goings of tribes
within the land of Syria. At best Syrian history is fragmentary and is
suited for the student of the Semitic race rather than the general
reader. We shall happen upon facts connected with it as we study the
history of the Hebrews, and the empire age of the Mesopotamian states.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] George Adam Smith: Historical Geog. of the Holy Land, 6.
[2] Tell-el-Amarna Letters described in The Story of Babylonia and
Assyria.
[3] Smith: Hist. Geog. of Holy Land, 5.
[4] Smith: Hist. Geog. of Holy Land, 642.
CHAPTER II.
THE LAND OF PHOENICIA.
Geographically, Phoenicia was a small state. It lay between a spur of
the Taurus mountains--Mt. Casius--on the north and Carmel on the south;
washed by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, it was protected by a lofty
mountain range on the east. These natural boundaries were important,
since they shut in the land and sheltered it in a great measure from
invasions and plundering raids.
About 200 miles in length, Phoenicia ranged from one to thirty-five
miles in width. A narrow sandy coast-belt skirted the western side and
was covered with date-palms, which gave the region its name. Greek
sailors, coasting along the eastern shore of the sea, saw the luxuriant
palms from afar, and called the whole eastern coast Phoenike--Land of
Palms. Later, learning more particularly of the various nations which
dwelt therein, they restricted the name to the country we are now
studying.
East of the palm belt extend the fertile plains of Phoenicia. Here
grew gardens, orchards and fields of grain, which made the district a
veritable paradise. "'The cultivated tract presents for the most part an
unbroken mass of corn, out of which rise here and there slight eminences
in the midst of gardens and orchards--the sites of cities.' The gardens
are gay with scarlet blossoms of the pomegranate, the orchards famous
for the enormous oranges which diversify the green foliage of their
shady groves."[1] Here was grown the food supply which supported the
whole population of the country, generally speaking, while on the low
hills which bounded the plain on the east, the vine, olive and mulberry
were cultivated. At last, the high mountains arose, bare in spots and
elsewhere covered with forest trees--oaks, chestnuts and the mighty
cedars.
Several streams, mountain-born, rushed down steep sides, furnished
moisture and added fertility to the plains, then found their way to the
sea. Chief of these in early times, as today, was the Litany. This river
rises 10,000 feet above the sea, and "forces its way through Lebanon by
a deep and narrow gorge, in which it frets and chafes many hundred feet
below the eye of the spectator, descending precipitously, and at last
debouching upon the plain by a ravine, about five miles northeast of
Tyre. It has been compared to a 'monster serpent chained in the yawning
gulf, where she writhes and struggles evermore to escape from her dark
and narrow prison, but always in vain, save only near the sea-shore,
where her windings reach a close.'"[2]
Irregularities of the coast supplied harbors which would be quite
inadequate for modern ships, but sufficed for the vessels of antiquity.
Fringes of islets, near the shore, made refuge for sailors in time of
storm in an age when no boats drew deep water, and when even the largest
might be drawn up on the beach if necessary.
The climate of Phoenicia varied according to the locality. That of the
plain was mild and pleasant, while snow lay most of the year upon the
mountain peaks rising easterly. The scenery of the narrow strip changes
constantly as one journeys east or west. Islands of the Mediterranean
invited the sailor to venture far out from his native shore, and at an
early period the sea was dotted over by the merchant-ships of the
Phoenicians. East, north and south high mountains offer a varied
aspect to the traveller. The Lebanon range has always been notably
beautiful. "The elevation rises gradually as we proceed north-ward,
until the range culminates in the peaks above the cedars, which are
estimated to attain a height of from nine thousand to ten thousand
feet.... Garden cultivation carpets the base of the mountain; above this
is, for the most part, a broad fringe of olive groves; higher up, the
hill sides are carefully terraced, not an inch of ground being wasted;
and among sharp cliffs and pointed rocks of a grey-white hue are strips
of cornfields, long rows of dwarf mulberries, figs, apricots, apples,
walnuts, and other fruit trees. Gorges, ravines, charming glens, deep
valleys, diversify the mountain sides; here and there are tremendous
chasms, with precipices that go sheer down for a thousand feet; tiny
rivulets bound and leap from rock to rock and from terrace to terrace,
forming chains of cascades, refreshing and fertilizing all around. In
the deep gorges flow copious streams, shaded by overhanging woods of
pines or cedars; and towards the summit are in several places
magnificent cedar groves, remnants of the primeval forest which once
clothed the greater part of the mountain. Above all towers the bare
limestone of the dorsal ridge, always white enough to justify the name
Lebanon (White Mountain), and for eight months of the year clothed with
a mantle of snow."[3]
Semitic tribes, journeying out of Arabia at a remote period, crossed
into Chaldea, and after a sojourn which cannot now be estimated, worked
their way westward to the region just described. In all probability
Turanians held the territory. With these they intermingled and
inter-married, while kinsmen coming later from the old Arabian home,
kept the stock nearly pure Semitic.
One of the oldest settlements was made at Sidon, the name of the town
commemorating the earliest occupation of its people. _Sidon_ signifies
_fishery_, and it is supposed that the first comers were fishermen. In
later years when Sidon was the wealthiest city in Western Asia, and when
her proud merchantmen had left nets to the portion of the humblest born,
the early name stood in memory of primitive days.
Sidon was built on the shore, while her natural harbor consisted of a
little circlet of islands which afforded shelter for sailing crafts. An
excellent harbor was constructed with this breakwater, but it is
significant to note that Sidon's strongholds were on the shore.
Some of her inhabitants at length departed from the mother-city and
settled at Tyre, near the southern part of the Phoenician coast. The
word _Tyre_ means _rock_, and while settlements were made on the shore
as well, the famous city of antiquity was built on an island, half a
mile from the mainland. This island was about two and one-half miles in
width and was completely surrounded by a wall, one hundred feet high.
With water around her and mighty walls as well, Tyre was wellnigh
impregnable in times of siege.
The little town of Dora grew up where shell-fish abounded. These were
valued for a secretion they yielded which was made up into a dye of
royal purple, world-renowned in ancient times. Gebal became famous for
its shipyards. Tripolis gained celebrity as head of a league of cities
made up of Tyre, Aradus and Tripolis.
The Phoenicians left no history of their country. No other ancient
people came in contact with so many nations and none had more material
at hand from which to formulate a record of their time, but they were a
nation of traders and appear to have been quite lacking in literature of
their own and in chroniclers of any sort. Not only is there utter dearth
of writings, but ruins and remains of Phoenician civilization are
comparatively few. The Phoenicians built well, but their structures
were either torn down by ruthless conquerors, or, like those of
Carthage, became quarries for other nations. We are consequently forced
to reconstruct their history from other sources--from writings of men of
other lands, often hostile to them and so prejudiced in their point of
view. The characteristic life of the Phoenicians led into the busy
marts of men--not to the library or cloister, and a study of their
history involves a study of the commerce of their time.
It is doubtful whether the future can produce material for any complete
history of Phoenicia. We know practically nothing of the prehistoric
period in the country, and when reports of the nation begin, the people
had already reached a high proficiency on the sea and possessed wealthy
cities. The commercial spirit, so strong in the Semitic race seems to
have reached its extreme expression in the people of this little state.
If they possessed any aptitude for pursuits other than trading, we know
little of them. In the periods known to us there was no national life
nor government. Each city developed independently and appears to have
had only commercial ambitions.
The natural contour of the land allowed the people to build up a mighty
system of trade which penetrated into every country known to antiquity,
while their sea-ports remained long protected from aggressive rulers of
Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Phoenician cities were mentioned as early as 1475 B.C., when
Thutmose III. made his strength felt in Western Asia. They united with
the Hittite nation against him, but were defeated and made gifts of
submission.
Sidon was the older city, and tradition has it that about 1200 B.C. the
Philistines--earlier inhabitants of the country--fought a battle with
Sidon and defeated her, whereupon some of her citizens escaped and
founded Tyre. Quite as probable is a more recent supposition that Sidon,
wealthy and given over to ease and pleasure, gradually weakened, while
the younger and more vigorous town of Tyre became the leader.
Hiram seems to have been the most renowned king of Tyre. He enlarged the
island upon which the city stood. Filling in the lagoon between two
islands, he joined them together, forming thus one large island. Being a
prolific builder, he erected huge structures of stone, which together
with wood, made up the building material of Phoenicia.
For some time previous to his reign, Judah had been growing in strength.
She had held out against the Philistines, and was being welded into a
well organized state. Hiram considered it good policy to seek the
friendship of Judah's king, and he and King David remained good friends.
This same friendship was offered to Solomon when he succeeded his father
as ruler of the Hebrews, and aid was given the Hebrews in the
construction of their temple, Phoenician timber and skilled workmen
being supplied. An account of the matter has come to us from the
Hebrews: "And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon; for
he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father:
for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram saying:
'Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the
name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every
side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the
Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither
adversary nor evil occurrent. And behold, I purpose to build an house
unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David, my
father, saying: 'Thy son whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he
shall build an house unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they
hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy
servants; and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to
all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us
any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.'
"And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he
rejoiced greatly, and said: 'Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath
given unto David a wise son over this great people.' And Hiram sent to
Solomon, saying: 'I have considered the things which thou sentest to me
for; and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and
concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon
unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place
that thou shalt appoint me, and I will cause them to be discharged
there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire,
in giving food for my household.'
"So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his
desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for
food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave
Solomon to Hiram year by year.... And there was peace between Hiram and
Solomon; and they two made a league together.... And the king commanded
and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay
the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders
did hew them, and the stonequarriers: so they prepared timber and stones
to build the house."[4]
The temple stood at last a memorial to the skillful workmanship of
Phoenicia as well as a tribute of honor to Jehovah, God of Israel.
After the death of Hiram, during whose reign the country had prospered,
the government soon passed from his family. A class of wealthy merchants
had arisen in Tyre and they demanded official positions for themselves.
The king they crowned became king of Sidon as well. Before 1000 B.C.
exiles from Tyre, driven out for political reasons, founded Carthage,
best known of all Phoenicia's colonies.
As early as 880 B.C. danger threatened Phoenicia from Assyria.
Protected by the efficient barrier of a mountain range, the commercial
ports had been free to develop their trade without serious interruption.
They immediately offered to pay tribute rather than fight, and Assyrian
tablets recount products sent by them.
By 727 B.C. the yoke of Assyria had become oppressive and Tyre revolted.
A siege of five years followed and was at length raised with no result,
for Tyre could not be cut off from the sea. About 680 B.C. Baal was
crowned king of Tyre with the consent of the Assyrian ruler.
Nevertheless, he shortly announced his independence and became a sturdy
opponent of Assyrian aggression. In 668 B.C. Asshurbanipal led an army
against the sea-coast cities, especially against the most powerful,
Tyre.
"Against Baal, King of Tyre, dwelling in the midst of the sea, I went,
because my royal will he disregarded, and did not harken unto the words
of my mouth. Towers round about him I raised, and over his people I
strengthened the watch. On land and sea his forts I took; his going out
I stopped. Brackish water and sea water their mouths drank to preserve
their lives. With a strong blockade, which removed not, I besieged them;
their spirits I humbled and caused to melt away; to my yoke I made them
submissive." When Assyria was threatened by Median power, the cities on
the coast again shook themselves free from the hated tribute and at this
juncture Tyre rose to her greatest influence. About 600 B.C. Egypt tried
to bring Western Asia under her dominance and under her direction
Phoenician sailors circumnavigated Africa.
Nebuchadnezzar determined to end rebellions in the west for all time and
to bring the coast under Babylonian rule. Tyre held out against him and
a siege of thirteen years ensued. The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel foretold
the result:
"Behold I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come
up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall
destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape
her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock....
"Behold I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a king
of kings, from the north with horses, and with chariots and with
horsemen, and companies, and much people. He shall slay with the sword
thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and
cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he
shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall
break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their
dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the
horsemen, and of the wheels and of the chariots, when he shall enter
into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With
the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall
slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to
the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey
of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy
pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy
dust in the midst of the water.
"And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy
harps shall be no more heard. And I will make thee like the top of a
rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon."[5]
These prophecies were fulfilled, and having rallied again, and once more
sent forth their merchant vessels, these cities fell shortly to the
share of Persia. Cambyses depended wholly upon their navy, so that when
Phoenician sailors refused to sweep down upon Carthage, he was obliged
to abandon his idea of subduing that colony.[6]
In 362 B.C. Sidon revolted against Persian oppression. When at last the
fall of their city was at hand, 40,000 Sidonians shut themselves in
their houses and set fire to them rather than become spoils for the
conqueror.
Some years later, when the young Macedonia conqueror, Alexander the
Great, reached this district in course of his brief conquest, the
Phoenician cities, wearied of Persian taxes, hailed his coming with
joy. One after another, the towns sent presents until it was left for
Tyre alone to do homage to the young monarch. Her citizens sent an
embassy to meet him with a crown of gold and announced their willingness
to do his bidding. Alexander replied that he was pleased by their action
and would visit their city to offer sacrifices in their temple--for the
Greeks identified the god of the Phoenicians with their Hercules. The
reply being made known in the city, the people feared that some hidden
purpose prompted the Greek to seek their island home, and they sent to
him again saying that they would pay whatever tribute he exacted, but
that they did not wish the Greek army to march through their streets.
This angered Alexander and he announced that if the gates of Tyre did
not open to him, he would open them by force. Tyre had withstood many a
siege and she did not hesitate to take a firm stand. Carthaginians who
chanced to be within her walls advised that help would be forthcoming
were it needed, and it was supposed furthermore, that Persia would never
see her empire turned over to the Greeks without a struggle. Above all,
Tyre had faith in the strength of her walls and in her fleet.
Sieges in the past had often failed because Tyre could not be approached
by battering rams and engines of war. As has already been said, the
island upon which the city stood lay one-half mile from the shore. Her
harbors were the best on the Phoenician coast. One lay on the north
side and was called the Sidonian harbor because it looked towards Sidon;
the other was on the south side, and was called the Egyptian harbor
since it faced the land of the pyramids. Stone piers ran out some
considerable distance in the sea and made safe refuge for vessels in
stormy weather. Rough winds might have made entrance to the port
impossible had the harbor extended on one side only, hence the two
harbors were early constructed and were connected by a canal, extending
through the city, making it thus possible for a ship to enter by one
harbor and clear port from the other.
Now Alexander conceived the bold design of building a broad bridge or
mole from the continent to the island, that he might bring his war
engines up to the city walls. Forthwith, operations were started on the
shore, in shallow water. Two rows of piles were driven 200 feet from
each other and the intervening distance was filled in with earth and
stone. When the mole reached out where the force of the current was
felt, however, the earthwork was carried away as rapidly as it was
built. Moreover, the Tyrians grasped his plan and harried the laborers
continually. They brought their boats near enough to attack them and
compel them to abandon their undertaking. The Greeks met this obstacle
by preparing a curtain of hides to cover the workmen, and raised two
lofty wooden towers wherein soldiers were stationed to charge upon ships
interfering with the work. The citizens of Tyre thereupon equipped one
of their largest transports as a fire-ship, and filling it with all
sorts of combustible material, sent it floating against the Greek
towers, a mass of fire. This was effectual, and Alexander returned from
a temporary absence to find the work of weeks obliterated. This general
never allowed confronting obstacles to baffle him, and under his
personal supervision the labor began anew. The struggle had come to mean
more than the subjection of an independent city--it signified Greek
capacity and ingenuity against Asiatic opposition on the very threshold
of a coveted continent.
Earth, trees and stones were hurled rapidly into the sea, but Tyrian
divers with grappling hooks dragged out whole trees and brush,
destroying the solidity of the mass. Then Alexander realized that he
could accomplish nothing without a navy. Without aid of a fleet he might
be detained indefinitely with one obstinate city. He immediately levied
vessels and crews from those towns which had already surrendered to him.
As fate would have it, the Persian fleet came voluntarily into his hands
and shortly 224 vessels were ready to move against Tyre. Under their
protection the construction of the mole went on rapidly. Tyre soon
understood that her only hope lay in chancing a sea battle. The number
of ships against her was overwhelming, and after a gallant start, she
was defeated.
"The last chance was over--the last effort had failed--but the Tyrians
would not give in any the more. They still met every attack upon the
walls with a determined resistance, and with a fertility of resource
that was admirable. To deaden the blows of the battering-ram, and the
force of the stones hurled from the catapults, leather bags filled with
sea-weed were let down from the walls at the point assailed. Wheels set
in rapid motion intercepted the darts and javelins thrown into the town,
turning them aside, or blunting, or sometimes breaking them. When the
towers erected upon the mole were brought close up to the defences, and
an attempt was made to throw bridges from them to the battlements, and
thus to pass soldiers into the city, the Tyrians flung grappling-hooks
among the soldiers on the bridges, which caught in the bodies of some,
mangling them terribly, dragging their shields from others, and hauled
some bodily into the air, dashing them against the wall or upon the
ground. Masses of red-hot metal were prepared and hurled against the
towers and against the scaling parties. Sand was heated to a glow and
showered upon all who approached the foot of the walls: it penetrated
through the joints of the armour, and caused such intolerable pain, that
the coats of mail were torn off and flung aside, whereupon the sufferers
were soon put _hors de combat_ by lance thrusts and missiles. The
battering-rams were attacked by engines constructed for the purpose,
which brought sharp scythes, attached to long poles, into contact with
the ropes and thongs used in working them, and cut them through.
Further, wherever the wall showed signs of giving way, the defenders
began to construct an inner wall, to take the place of the outer one,
when it should be demolished."[7]
When the walls at length gave way and soldiers made an entrance into the
town, they had to fight a battle in every house and win their ground in
street and building, foot by foot. Ten thousand were massacred and
thirty thousand women and children were sold into slavery. The city was
left in 332 B.C. in a half-ruined condition with few inhabitants. In a
few years Tyre rose again but the days of her greatness were gone.
We have seen that during the first part of her history Phoenicia was
left practically alone and during the later portion suffered repeated
attacks. How can we account for the frequent despoiling of her proud
cities during her later years? Owing to their position and consequent
trade, the Phoenician cities became wealthy rapidly. They naturally
attracted the notice of kings who were trying to carry on extensive
projects at home. Those who conquered them, or who sought to do so,
coveted their riches for the adornment of their own capitals or for some
personal enterprise at home. So advantageous was the situation of these
cities that, left crippled and in ruins by the enemy, or under less
severe circumstances, forced to pay a heavy tribute, losses were quickly
made good, and the stricken towns would soon again be amassing wealth.
Having control of the greater portion of the commerce of their day, they
were able to exchange commodities of slight value with nations who
possessed gold or other precious wares and knew nothing of their value,
save that they were thereby enabled to procure articles they desired.
"Gold for brass, the worth of a hundred oxen for the value of nine,"--it
was this opportunity, recognized and seized upon, which made it possible
for this little strip of land to become the store-house of riches
coveted by nations on all sides.
Concerning the political history of Phoenicia we know little, as has
already been said. When her wealthy cities were attacked by foreigners,
these strangers have sometimes told the story from their own point of
view, but so far as government in times of peace, local administration
and kindred matters, material has not survived to allow its course of
progress to be reconstructed.
[Illustration: GROWTH OF THE ALPHABET.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 3.
[2] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 11.
[3] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 17.
[4] I Kings, 5, 1-18.
[5] Ezekiel 26, 3-14.
[6] See The Story of the Persians.
[7] Rawlinson; Phoenicia, 231.
CHAPTER III.
PHOENICIAN COLONIES AND COMMERCE.
It is natural to consider Phoenicia's colonies in connection with her
commerce, for while many nations have colonized regions remote for the
purpose of extending their territory or perpetuating a faith, her
outposts were opened solely for the benefit of trade. Phoenicia's
colonies may be said to have been the outgrowth of her mercantile
concerns, although in some instances, dissatisfaction with political
conditions in the home city proved an additional incentive.
Probably the first foreign settlement was made in Egypt. Desiring to
control routes of trade in the valley of the Nile, Tyrians obtained
permission to settle in Memphis. This settlement could hardly be called
a colony in the ordinary sense of the word, for the home city exercised
no political control over those of its subjects dwelling in Egypt--nor
did it seek to do so. Phoenicia excelled in trade--not government.
With this station at Memphis, Tyre was able to obtain not only products
of the valley but those also which were brought into Egypt from the
south. Ivory, ebony, skins, ostrich feathers, grain, pottery,
glass--these and other commodities here available were shipped away for
consumption in Italy, Greece and Asia Minor. The Egyptians, so resentful
of foreigners ordinarily, appear to have found the Phoenicians
unobjectionable and of actual service to them. The little colony was
allowed to maintain its own customs, and it is supposed that a temple
sacred to Astoreth was erected here as early as 1250 B.C.
The islands west of Tyre were early peopled by Phoenicians, or, at
least, contained Phoenician settlements. Timber suitable for
ship-building was obtained in Cilicia, copper and precious stones in
Cyprus, pine lumber and figs in Rhodes.
Utica, on the Gulf of Tunis, was an early colony on the African side of
the Mediterranean. Coasting alone this shore, the sea-farers came to
Spain, where they established important trading points. They penetrated
as far west as the Cornwall mines, which supplied an inexhaustible
amount of tin. The islands off the Cornish coast they called the
"Cassiterides" or Tin Islands.
"Phoenician colonization--or colonization from Phoenicia Proper--was
in all probability limited within the extremes of the Dardanelles to the
north, Memphis to the south, and Gadeira and the Cassiterides to the
west. It was less widely diffused than the Greek, and less generally
spread over the coasts accessible to it. With a few exceptions, the
colonies fall into three groups--first, those of the Eastern
Mediterranean and Aegean, beginning with Cyprus and terminating with
Cythera; secondly those of the Central Mediterranean, in North Africa,
Sicily, and the adjacent islands; and thirdly, those of the Western
Mediterranean, chiefly on the south coast of Spain, with perhaps a few
on the opposite (African) shore. The other settlements, commonly called
Phoenician on the eastern coast of Spain, in the Balearic Islands, in
Corsica and Elba; and again those on the Western Africa coast, between
the Straits of Gibraltar and the Cape de Verde, were Punic or
Carthaginian, rather than Phoenician."[1]
Finally something must be said of Carthage, for while her palmy days as
well as her decline, were closely related to Roman history, her
beginnings were inseparable with the mother-country.
The word Carthage signifies _New City_, and the settlement was so named
in all probability to distinguish it from Utica, founded 300 years
before. 850 B.C. has been considered the latest possible date for the
founding of the town, while many hold that it was settled as early as
1000 B.C. It matters little which is accepted, since the place was
neither strong nor influential for many years after either date. Its
citizens came originally from Tyre. The "New City" was built on what is
now the Bay of Tunis, a little to the north-west of the present town of
Tunis. Nothing, practically, is known of its early history. Kings ruled
at first, but were later abolished. Polybius, a Greek historian, stated
that he had seen a treaty made between Rome and Carthage as early as 509
B.C., by which the Carthaginians bound themselves not to injure any
Latin city while the Romans were pledged not to interfere with
Carthaginian markets in the western Mediterranean. Because of its
fortunate position the city became very prosperous. The Greeks tried to
divert some of its trade into their own channels, and later, Rome was
its hated rival and continued to struggle with the city until she
effected its downfall.
"From the time when the first adventurers from the Syrian coast entered
the sheltered inlets of the African shore--a remote period, even before
Saul was made king of Israel and while Priam sat on the throne of
Troy--down to the seventh century of the Christian era, when the Arabs
passed over it like a whirlwind, this land has been the battlefield
where destinies of nations have been sealed, and where heroes and
warriors have sought their last resting place. The myths that surround
its earliest development and shed a halo of romance over the career of
its primitive races are somewhat obscured by the sterner facts of later
times--by wars innumerable, wars of invasion and local disturbances,
succeeded by a long period of piracy and power insured, and finally by
neglect, abandonment, and decay. The legend of Dido still hangs over
Carthage hill. The spirit of Hannibal haunts the fateful Zanca, and the
banks of the Midjerda hold in everlasting memory the story of Regulus
and his affrighted array. The air is full of myths and old-world stories
which faithfully represent the traditions of the country in its varying
fortunes; and slight as may be their connection with events in
prehistoric times, yet they serve as foundations for a historic
superstructure of never-failing interest. The earliest records are
fragmentary, but we learn that the library of the Carthaginians, written
in Phoenician characters, was presented by the Romans, after the fall
of Carthage, to one of the kings of Numidia; and that Sallust, as
pro-consul of that province in the time of Julius Cæsar, borrowed
largely from it while writing his history of the Jugarthine war....
There is little doubt, however, that most of the earliest records passed
to Alexandria, which became the rival of Athens as a seat of learning.
With the burning of its library by the fanatical Arabs in the seventh
century many a link between the old world and the new was severed, and
reliable information concerning the laws and traditions, and the manners
and customs of a people, who were the fathers of navigation and the
founders of commerce, was swept away."[2]
[Illustration: THE RIVER JORDAN.]
Phoenician commerce was facilitated by the establishment of many
out-posts, and while none other reached such size and importance as
Carthage, several controlled routes which were almost as valuable. No
modern account of that vast commerce approaches the one written long ago
by the prophet Ezekiel, when Tyre was, or had just been, at the zenith
of her power.
"O thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant of
the people unto many isles, O Tyre, thou hast said: 'I am of perfect
beauty.'
"Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected
thy beauty. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir:
they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks
of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have
made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim. Fine
linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth
to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which
covered thee.
"The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O
Tyre, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
"The ancients of Gabal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy
calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to
occupy thy merchandise. They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in
thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in thee;
they set forth thy comeliness....
"Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of all kinds of riches; with
silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
"Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the
persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. They of the house of
Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. The men
of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine
hand: they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony. Syria
was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making:
they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work,
and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
"Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in
thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making,
for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs; bright iron,
cassia, and calamus, were in thy market. Dedan was thy merchant in
precious cloths for chariots. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they
occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy
merchants. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah ... occupied in thy fairs
with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
"Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and
Chilmad, were thy merchants. These were thy merchants in all sorts of
things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich
apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The
ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast made
very glorious in the midst of the seas....
"When thy wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many people;
thou didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of thy
riches and of thy merchandise."[3]
The produce of the ancient world passed through routes controlled by
Phoenicia, and she acted as middleman in its distribution. Commerce
was of two kinds, overland, and by sea. Traffic by water greatly
exceeded that by land, yet both were necessary and were mutually
dependent upon one another.
The products of interior Asia were brought, then as now, by caravans.
Even today it is possible to see trains of caravans similar to those in
the service of ancient Tyre, laden with costly wares, crossing the
desert. Not only were spices and wares of Western Asia taken to
Phoenician sea-ports for distribution, but Mesopotamia was supplied
with articles from Europe and Africa by the same overland travel.
"Imagine the arrival of a Tyrian caravan at Babylon. The travellers have
been on the march for three or four months.... They have arrived weary,
dusty, travel-stained. Their tents are pitched outside the town, not far
from the banks of the river, or of a water-course derived from it,
under the pleasant shadow of a grove of palms, near the northern gate
of the great city. The tall necks of their camels are seen from a
distance by the keen-eyed watchers of the gate-towers, and reported by
them to the civic authorities, whence the secret soon oozes out and
creates a bustle in the town. All are anxious to obtain some object of
their desire from the long expected traders; but especially anxious are
the great storekeepers and shopkeepers, who look to the occasion for the
replenishing of their stock-in-trade for the next six months, or, it may
be, even for the next year. But the weary travellers must have a night's
rest ere they can be ready to open their market, must unload their
camels and their mules, dispose their bales of goods as seems most
convenient, and prepare themselves for the fatigues of commercial
dealing by a light supper and a sound sleep ensuing thereupon. How glad
are the camels to have the loads removed from their galled backs, to
repose their weary limbs upon the green grass of the yellow sand, and to
lay their tired necks along the ground! Not a moan is heard, scarcely a
grunt, unless it be one of satisfaction. The mules, and the camels, and
the horses of the wealthier sort, enjoy themselves equally. We hear the
tinkling of their bells, as they shake themselves, freed from all their
trappings but the head stall. Some are picketed about where the turf is
richest, others contentedly munch the barley that has been placed before
them in portable mangers, to reward them for the toils that they have
gone through. Many prefer sleeping to eating, and, leaving their food
untouched, stretch themselves upon the sward. Night falls--the stars
come out--the traders sleep in their tents, with a stone or a bale of
goods for their pillow--a profound hush sinks upon the camp, except for
the occasional squeal of a skittish pair of mules, which have exchanged
bites under cover of the darkness.
"The camp, however, wakes up with the first gleam of dawn in the eastern
sky. Each man busily sets about his proper work. Mules and horses are
groomed and are arranged in rows, with their mangers in front, and their
pack-saddles and trappings near at hand. Bales of goods are opened, and
a display made of a portion of their contents. Meantime, the town gates
have been unclosed, and in holiday apparel a gay crowd streams forth
from them. Foremost come the loafers, hoping to make an honest penny by
'lending a hand,' or to make a dishonest one by filching some unguarded
article. Then follow the ordinary customers and the petty traders whose
arrangements have not been made beforehand. The last to appear are the
agents of the great merchants, whose correspondents at Tyre have made
them consignments of goods and sent the goods by the caravan to their
destination; these clamor for invoices and bills of lading. But the
noisiest and most pressing are the petty traders and the mere chance
customers, who have a special need to supply, or covet a good bargain.
With them what a chaffering there is! What a screaming and apparent
quarrelling! One buyer wants a purple robe for half its value, another a
Damascene blade for next to nothing, a third, a Greek statuette for half
a shekel of silver. The seller asks at least four times the sum that he
intends to take; the buyer exclaims, swears perhaps by the beard of his
grandfather that he will not give a farthing more than he has offered;
then relents, and doubtless doubles his bid; the seller comes down a
little, but they are still 'miles apart,' so to speak; it takes an hour
of talking, swearing, screaming, raving, before the _juste milieu_ is
hit off, an agreement come to, and buyer and seller alike made happy by
a conviction on the part of each that he has over-reached the other."[4]
The companion picture to the caravan would be the merchant vessel on the
seas, together with the eager anticipation that attended its arrival in
port. The earliest portrayal of Phoenician boats show them to have
been provided with oars and sails. From small crafts, partially cabined,
built of unseasoned timber and poorly caulked, were gradually evolved
the stately biremes, perfect in construction and equipment. The
testimony of an eye-witness is vastly preferable to descriptions of
moderns, however scholarly. The following description of Xenophon, a
Greek general who often saw Phoenician vessels, contains valuable
information regarding the degree of skill reached by these sea-farers in
the equipment of their ships:
"I think that the best and most perfect arrangement of things which I
ever saw was when I went to look at the great Phoenician sailing
vessel: for I saw the largest amount of naval tackling separately
disposed in the smallest stowage possible. For a ship, as you well know,
is brought to anchor, and again got under way, by a vast number of
wooden implements, and of ropes, and sails the sea by means of a
quantity of rigging, and is armed with a number of contrivances against
hostile vessels, and carries about with it a large supply of weapons for
the crew, and, besides, has all the utensils that a man keeps in his
dwelling-house, for each of the messes. In addition, it is loaded with a
quantity of merchandise, which the owner carries with him for his own
profit. Now all the things which I have mentioned lay in a space not
much bigger than a room that would conveniently hold ten beds. And I
remarked that they severally lay in such a way that they did not
obstruct one another, and did not require any one to look for them, and
yet they were neither placed at random, nor entangled one with another,
so as to consume time when they were suddenly wanted for use. Also I
found the captain's assistant, who is called the 'look-out-man,' so well
acquainted with the position of all the articles, and with the number of
them, that even when at a distance he would tell where everything lay,
and how many there were of each sort. Moreover, I saw this man, in his
leisure moments, examining and testing everything that a vessel needs
when at sea; so, as I was surprised, I asked him what he was about,
whereupon he replied, 'Stranger, I am looking to see, in case anything
should happen, how everything is arranged in the ship, and whether
anything is wanting or is inconveniently situated; for when a storm
arises at sea, it is not possible either to look for what is wanting, or
to put to rights what is arranged awkwardly.'"[5]
One mast and one sail seem to have been commonly used. The biremes and
triremes were so-called because of their two or three banks of oars. The
oarsmen sat in the hold, their oars passing through the vessel's side.
Phoenician traffic was always most extensive by sea. Products of
Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Carthage, Spain, Britain, besides those of
countless islands, were transported constantly by water.
THE APPROACH OF A CARAVAN.
"When spring-time flushes the desert grass,
Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass.
Lean are the camels, but fat the frails,
Light are the purses but heavy the bales,
As the snow-bound trade of the North comes down
To the market-square of Peshawur town.
In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill,
A kafila camped at the foot of the hill.
Then blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose,
And tent-peg answered to hammer-nose.
And the picketed ponies shag and wild,
Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;
And the bubbling camels beside the load
Sprawled for a furlong adown the road;
And Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale,
Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale;
And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;
And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Junrood;
And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk
A savour of camels and carpets and musk,
A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke,
To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke."
--_Kipling: Ballad of the King's Jest._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 71.
[2] Graham: Roman Africa, preface.
[3] Ezekiel, 27.
[4] Rawlinson: Phoenicia, 157, ff.
[5] Xenophon: Aeconom., VIII., 11
CHAPTER IV.
OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRIES.
Of first concern among the industries of Phoenicia were her maritime
activities. While many Phoenician voyages led from island to island,
and from one port to another almost in sight, nevertheless the sailors
frequently made trips that necessitated their steering away from the
shore, and venturing out into the open sea. They probably made charts of
the sea and acquired some elementary knowledge of nautical affairs.
Their greatest undertaking was the circumnavigation of Africa. This was
attempted when Neccho was pharaoh of Egypt and held Western Asia in
temporary tribute. Hoping to find a water communication between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean, he engaged Phoenician seamen to sail around
Africa. Three years were consumed in the journey, since they had to land
each year and grow food sufficient for the continuance of their voyage.
When they returned, through the Straits of Gibraltar, they reported that
the sun had been upon their right hand throughout the trip, which,
Herodotus said: "others may perhaps believe, though I certainly do not."
Little attention was given the matter until scholars began to
investigate the possibility of the earth's rotundity, whereupon the
information so long cast aside was once more noted.
For the most part it is probably true that the art of navigation was but
crudely developed, compared with the progress reached later by the
Greeks. Yet the Greeks themselves were indebted to some extent to the
earliest seamen of unquestioned courage and venturesome spirit.
Of most vital importance were Phoenicia's activities in commerce and
trade, to quite a degree dependent upon her control of the sea.
"Gather now an idea of Phoenicia in the days of her greatest power.
Station yourself upon the rocky island of Tyre, and turn your eyes
toward the west. Were your vision powerful enough, you might see the
towers of Phoenician settlements dotting the Grecian seas and lining
the coast of Africa. Meeting for a moment at the Strait of Gibraltar,
again the two lines would diverge to the north and to the south,
encompassing the known seas. Turn now to the east, and you behold the
caravans extending in long dark lines to the north and to the south. At
the extremities of the Lebanon mountains, crossing the ridge, the lines
divide and subdivide, like streams toward their sources, until they
penetrate and permeate the jungles of India and the valleys of the
Himalayas. Such was Phoenicia in her palmy days, garnering and
distributing the produce and riches of the world."[1]
Farming was also important. Products raised within Phoenicia were used
chiefly for home consumption. Orchards, gardens, and grain-fields
yielded abundant returns and provided the food supply of the population,
save for fish, and such articles of luxury as were demanded by the
citizens of the wealthy ports. The country was too small and its arable
acreage too limited to admit of extensive agricultural pursuits.
While the manufactories of the country were less important, they had an
important place. Phoenicia was widely famed for the production of four
distinct articles, in the making of which her people excelled. First of
these was a purple dye. Other nations attempted to provide the same
commodity but never equalled the perfection of the Tyrian dye. Large
quantities of shell-fish yielding the precious fluid from which it was
made, were found off the Tyrian coast. They were of two species. A
little _sac_ containing a creamy secretion was opened in one, and the
fluid carefully extracted. The other was ground up, shell and all. Both
were necessary to produce the beautiful tints peculiar to Phoenician
cloths.
Their special processes of dyeing, exposing the materials to the
different degrees of light while drying, as well as the chemical
employed to make the colors fast, were secrets well guarded, so that no
imitation could deceive when compared to the splendid purples of Tyre.
Since dress fabrics and material for covering furniture were most
desired in rich and costly hues, raw wool was extensively imported and
woven to meet the ever increasing demand. Dress stuffs from Phoenicia
were prized as booty or as tribute by the several countries which at
different periods exacted homage from Tyre and Sidon.
Sidon was famous for her glassware. Pliny the Elder, a Roman who wrote
on History and Science during the first century of the Christian era,
gave the tradition current in his day concerning the so-called
"discovery of glass."
"It is said that some Phoenician merchants, having landed on the
shores of the river Belus, were preparing their meal, and not finding
suitable stones for raising their saucepans, they used lumps of natrum
contained in their cargo for the purpose. When the natrum was exposed to
the action of the fire, it melted into the sand lying on the banks of
the river, and they saw transparent streams of some unknown liquid
trickling over the ground; this was the origin of glass." At least the
tale is reasonable, and might have been the experience of people at
different times. At all events, the art becoming known to the
Phoenicians, they attained notable skill in imitating precious stones
in colored glass. It was their experience that trinkets, such as beads,
were in great favor among half-civilized tribes with whom they traded,
and the satisfaction was mutual when a few strings of glass beads had
been exchanged for skins, ivory and even gold. It is now believed that
some of the rare glass-ware, treasured as Grecian in museums today, was
really produced in Sidon.
Articles fashioned of gold, silver and other metals were especially
attractive. Such bits of jewelry as have been discovered--necklaces,
bracelets, and rings, give evidence of a high degree of workmanship.
Bowls, goblets, and dishes were elaborately wrought from metals, and
while the decorative designs upon them were often borrowed from the
Greeks or the Egyptians, the original was frequently improved upon. The
following lines from the Iliad show how bits of Phoenician work were
treasured among the Hellenes:
"And then the son of Peleus placed in sight
Prizes of swiftness,--a wrought silver cup
That held six measures, and in beauty far
Excelled all others known; the cunning hands
Of the Sidonian artisans have given
Its graceful shape, and over the dark sea
Men of Phoenicia brought it, with their wares,
To the Greek harbors; Achilles now
Brought it before the assembly as a prize,
For which, in honor of the friend he loved,
The swiftest runners of the host should strive."
Hebrew chroniclers have described the decoration of Solomon's
temple--all wrought by Phoenician skill:
"And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's
son, ... and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was
filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in
brass. And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.
"For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece: and a
line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. And he made two
capitals of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars: the
height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other
capital was five cubits. And nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain
work, for the capitals which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for
one capital and seven for the other capital. And he made the pillars,
and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the capitals
that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other
capital. And the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars were of
lily work in the porch, four cubits.... And he set up the pillars in the
porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar and called the name
thereof Jachin: and he sat up the left pillar and called the name
thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the
work of the pillars finished.
"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other: it was
round all about, and its height was five cubits: and a line of thirty
cubits did compass it round about. And under the brim of it round about
there were knobs compassing it.... It stood upon twelve oxen, three
looking toward the north, and three looking toward west, and three
looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea
was set above them, and all their hinder parts were inward. And it was
an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of
a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.... So
Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made King Solomon for
the house of the Lord."[2]
The Phoenicians never developed an imposing architecture. Timber was
abundant on the mountain slopes, and was the principal building
material. The great lack of architectural ruins in the country today may
be largely accounted for by its perishability. Stone was also available,
and appears to have been used chiefly for foundations, which were laid
deep and skillfully constructed. City walls were built of stone, and a
few remnants of these may yet be found. Gigantic stones of prodigious
size were piled one upon another and often held in place by their own
tremendous weight. In places where the solid blocks were joined
together, they were united so evenly that the blade of a knife may not
now be placed in the seam.
Tyre and Sidon were both beautiful cities, as abundant evidence goes to
testify. Carthage with her great structures of stone, became a quarry
for Italy, but the Phoenicians were imitators and never developed a
distinctive style of building.
Their sculpture survives only in tombs. A few of these have been
recovered. Some of the figures adorning the interiors of tombs are said
to possess richness and beauty. Their artists made use of huge blocks,
and for this reason their carving was in low relief, or gave such
appearance. The Greeks, on the other hand, found gigantic blocks
unwieldy, and took smaller stones for their embellishment. Consequently
the grace and delicacy of Greek sculpture was not reached in
Phoenicia.
"It seems strange that these Canaanites or Phoenicians, the scorn of
Israel, and the people against whom Joshua bent all his powers, should
have enjoyed such an uncheckered career, making themselves sole
navigators of every sea, and finally founding a city which stood
unrivalled for more than 700 years. Through their hands ... passed
grain, ivory, and skins from Libya; slaves from the Soudan, purple and
cedar from Tyre, frankincense from Arabia, copper from Cyprus, iron from
Elba, tin from Cornwall, wine from Greece, silver from Spain, and gold
and precious stones from Malabar. As a nation of traders and navigators
they established themselves on the coast, and wherever they settled,
depots and factories of various kinds were erected. We do not find them
in the interior of a country. Neither do we hear of alliances with the
people with whom they came in contact, nor of their impressing barbarian
tribes with any notions of the advantages of civilization. In the field
of intellectual acquirements the Carthaginian, as the descendant of the
Phoenician, has no place, and his skill in the gentler arts of life
has no recognition. We find no native architecture, nor do we hear of
any industrial art worth recording. Carthage, it is true, became the
metropolis of their widespread kingdom, and one of the wealthiest cities
of the world.... Temples and stately edifices adorned its streets, and
the remains of great constructional works still attest the solid
grandeur of the city. But the architecture was the work of Greek, not of
Punic, artists; and the few sculptures of note, which may be assigned to
a period anterior to the last Punic war, have nothing in common with the
rude carvings which bear the impress of Carthaginian origin. On the
other hand the art of navigation, the science of agriculture, the
principles of trading, and a system of water supply combined with the
construction of gigantic cisterns, which may still be seen at Carthage,
and in the outskirts of many towns in North Africa, became Rome's
heritage from Phoenicia."[3]
LITERATURE AND LEARNING.
Among the bequests of Phoenicia to mankind, first will always stand
the giving of an alphabet to the world. It is true that other nations
possessed a written language, but their symbols were generally so
complicated and so numerous that they could hardly have become of
general service. It was earlier assumed that the Phoenicians invented
the alphabet which they spread among the nations around them, but now it
is believed that they simply shortened and simplified symbols already in
existence. Their alphabet was widely adopted, to be sure, not because it
was most convenient, but because it was the only one known to many
nations, who never came in direct contact with dwellers on the Nile or
Mesopotamians.
In Phoenicia's palmy days literature and learning were neglected--at
least so far as can now be ascertained. It is not unlikely that scholars
lived sometimes in the larger cities, and schools were probably
maintained to some extent, but at all events, no remains of a
Phoenician literature has come down to us, and it has been commonly
surmised that no extensive literature ever existed. The nation was bent
upon its commercial life, and only such knowledge as would be essential
to traders was regarded as necessary. In later times, in the last
century before Christ and in the first century of the new era, literary
activity was more marked. We are told that there was a school of
philosophy at Sidon, and the city became a literary center, but this had
little to do with the period of Phoenician ascendency which
practically ended with Greek dominance.
RELIGION.
Somewhat more is known of the religion of Phoenicia, but here again we
are not able to trace its development in any complete sense, and most
that has been recorded concerning it was written by foreigners whose
attitude was uniformly hostile.
It is now supposed by some scholars that the Phoenician religion was
at first monotheistic, and that later the worship of many gods was
common. The third stage in its progress would be the greater portion of
the period known to us, when the gods of other peoples were allowed, by
the side of those native to the country. In Carthaginian tombs images of
Egyptian deities have been found side by side with those of ancient Tyre
and Sidon. In the beginning, the Phoenician worship was probably one
manifestation of the Sun-worship, common to Semitic peoples. The
religion of any people is a matter of growth, invariably undergoing
change, until it finally resembles but slightly what it was in the
beginning. Thus the faith of Phoenicia underwent many changes during
her 1500 years. It is agreed that the Phoenicians worshipped curiously
shaped stones at an early period, believing that deities had their abode
within them; plants also were importuned, to appease the spirit that
dwelt within them and cause each to yield food. Finally the heavenly
bodies became objects of worship, the sun being considered most
important. There must always be something appealing in the adoration
felt by primitive minds toward the sun. Most ancient people worshipped
it in one form or another, and the planet was surrounded by unfathomable
mystery in the infancy of the world.
Baal was god of the sun, Astoreth, goddess of the moon. Baal symbolized
the life-giving power of the sun as well as its destructive forces.
Maleck or Molock was the god of fire. He was a god of cruelty and
thirsted for blood. It was to satisfy some of his supposed cravings that
the human sacrifices took place. The first-born child, pure maidens,
favorite sons, were fed to the flames to appease his wrath. These
sacrifices seem strange to us today, and nations of antiquity, immuned
to cruelty and bloodshed, turned from these Phoenician customs in
horror.
An annual spring festival of great antiquity was celebrated. Probably in
early times it lacked the feature of the human sacrifice which made it
most objectionable later. Great forest trees were brought into the
temple court and planted. From their branches were suspended animals,
birds and all else intended for the sacrifice. After the images of the
gods were marched around these trees, all was set on fire and consumed
in a mighty conflagration. To make the celebration more impressive,
human sacrifices were added, especially before some great undertaking,
or upon the occasion of some national calamity.
Astoreth was the great virgin goddess. In the beginning she was
worshipped with simple rites.
"Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called
Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs."
In course of time the character of the goddess changed, and she was
worshipped by most licentious practices.
In addition to their own gods, the Phoenicians readily incorporated
into their pantheon deities of those tribes and nations with whom they
opened trade. Some years after Phoenicia ceased to be a power, a
Carthaginian general made a treaty with the Emperor of Greece. The two
are reported to have sworn by numerous deities that they would preserve
it. "They swore by Zeus, Hera, and Apollo, by the tutelary deities of
the Carthaginians, by Hercules, by the moon, and the earth, by rivers,
meadows, and waters, by the gods of the allied armies, and the sun, by
all the gods who ruled over Carthage, by all the gods who ruled over
Macedon and the rest of Greece, and by all the gods of those who were
present to ratify the treaty."
At first the Phoenicians worshipped in the open air, with merely an
altar of stone. Later they built elaborate and costly temples, but they
still celebrated certain ceremonies out of doors, in groves or under the
shade of trees.
The religion of the Phoenicians was most innocent and attractive in
its earliest stages. As it developed, with its numerous priesthood
performing their bloody rites, and its necessary sacrifices, teaching
cruelty and blunting the sensibilities of its adherents, it became very
repulsive. Far from inculcating noble ideals, it made a virtue of
renouncing dear ones to agony and death; and a people who from infancy
grew accustomed to such scenes and such conceptions could never develop
finest qualities of character. Wherever Phoenician vessels landed with
their wares, there Phoenician gods and practices went also. The good
done in spreading the habits of civilization to regions remote was
mitigated by the harm done in spreading this abhorrent faith.
Several Greek myths tell of maidens being sacrificed to some monster,
such, for example, as Theseus and The Minotaur. These are believed to
have had their origin in rumors of Phoenician sacrifices. The stories
reached the shores of Greece in various forms and with the aid of Greek
imaginations were woven into the tales as we know them.
[Illustration: SHELLS OF THE SEA SNAIL FROM WHICH THE PURPLE DYE WAS
MADE.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Boughton: History of Ancient Peoples.
[2] I. Kings. 7.
[3] Graham: Roman Africa, 1, 2.
CHAPTER V.
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE.
It is essential that the student of Hebrew history understand the
topography of Palestine, wherein the nation developed. Names of rivers,
mountains, cities, in this historic land grow familiar from frequent
repetition in the Bible, but where each was located, and what was its
position relative to other oft-mentioned spots, are queries left
unsettled by the average reader. Still more necessary is a general idea
of the country as a whole, because the very formation of the land
determined in a large measure the destiny of those who dwelt within it.
Palestine is bounded on the north by the base of the Lebanons, on the
east by the Arabian desert, on the south by the Wilderness of Judah--an
extension of this desert--, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea
below Mount Carmel, while north of this mighty mountain the
Phoenicians held the coast, although the Hebrews occupied the province
of Galilee, east of the Phoenician shore.
This celebrated land is scarcely more than 150 miles in length, and
approximates 100 miles in breadth, yet every known variety of climate
may be found within its confines. From regions lying 1300 feet below
sea-level, with heat of the tropics, mountains rise to 9000 feet above
the sea, with Alpine snows and cold.
Palestine, like Greece or Switzerland, falls naturally into many small
divisions, each shut off in a measure from the rest. This explains how
it was possible for the Hebrews to occupy a considerable portion of the
land while the Canaanites, earlier inhabitants of the country, remained
undisturbed in other localities. It also explains the fact that for many
years some of the Hebrews dwelt in tents and clung to their nomadic
customs while no great distance away others of their kinsmen cultivated
the vine and tilled the soil.
While the shore of the Mediterranean was broken by several harbors along
the Phoenician coast, south of Mount Carmel the shore reaches in a
nearly straight line to Egypt. No havens invite ships to safety; no
islands dot the rocky shore. To the Hebrew the sea was a frontier rather
than a means for outside communication. So inhospitable was this coast
that invasions of Palestine were made by land rather than sea. A rocky
line of cliffs varying from thirty to one hundred feet makes landing
impossible save at two or three artificially constructed modern ports.
Six distinct land features are to be found in Palestine and deeply
affected the people who dwelt there in antiquity. First of these is the
Coast Plain, varying in width from two hundred yards to thirty miles.
The northern portion of it was known as the Plain of Sharon; the
southern portion, as the Plain of Philistia. The word _Sharon_ signifies
"forest," and in an early day a dense wood of oaks covered the region
and gave it this name. Only in the north has the forest been perpetuated
to our day. The plain was formerly, and is still, productive. It
contains gardens, orchards, and grain fields. Lacking the inspiring
beauty of the high tablelands, it possesses a quiet charm of its own.
Farther south, the Plain of Philistia stretches off in the direction of
Egypt.
This Coast Plain, falling for the most part into these two smaller
plains, has been a continuation of the great highway between Egypt and
Syria, and a famous war-path. For Egypt particularly, it was a simple
matter to dispatch troops along the shore, to strike terror to less
inaccessible inland districts. Today it lies in peaceful cultivation or
in woodlands of low undergrowth.
"The whole Maritime Plain possesses a quiet but rich beauty. If the
contours are gentle the colors are strong and varied. Along almost the
whole seaboard runs a strip of links and downs, sometimes of pure
drifting sand, sometimes of grass and sand together. Outside this border
of broken gold there is the blue sea, with its fringe of foam. Landward
the soil is a chocolate brown, with breaks and gullies, now bare to
their dirty white shingle and stagnant puddles, and now full of rich
green reeds and rushes that tell of ample water beneath. Over corn and
moorland a million flowers are scattered--poppies, pimpernels, anemones,
the convolvulus and the mallow, the narcissus and blue iris--_roses of
Sharon and lilies of the valley_. Lizards haunt all the sunny banks.
The shimmering air is filled with bees and butterflies, and with the
twittering of small birds, hushed now and then as the shadow of a great
hawk blots the haze. The soft night is sprinkled thick with glittering
fireflies."[1]
Passing the sea and the Coast Plain, the Central Range rises high and
extends throughout the entire length of Palestine, with some variations.
In this great tableland lay the famous kingdom of the Hebrews--Judaea
and Samaria. Judaea lay farther to the south and was separated from the
Coast Plain by the Shephelah--a series of low foot-hills. The Hebrews
built their western cities on these low hills rather than along the
shore. In fact the frequent attacks of the Philistines left the Coast
Plain only now and then in the hands of the Hebrews.
The word _Shephelah_ has been thought to signify _lowlands_, and may
have been applied in contrast to the highlands farther east. Ranging
from five to fifteen miles in width, this elevated strip was the scene
of constant warfare between the Hebrews and Philistines. Numerous
valleys led across it, Ajalon being perhaps most famous.
"The prevailing scenery of the region is of short, steep hillsides and
narrow glens, with a very few great trees, and thickly covered by
brushwood and oak-scrub--crags and scalps of limestone breaking through,
and a rough grey torrent-bed at the bottom of each glen.... Caves, of
course, abound--near the villages, gaping black dens for men and cattle,
but up the unfrequented glens they are hidden by hanging bush, behind
which you disturb only the wild pigeon. Bees murmur everywhere, larks
are singing; and although in the maze of hills you may wander for hours
without meeting a man, or seeing a house, you are seldom out of sound of
the human voice, shepherds and ploughmen calling to their cattle and to
each other across the glens. Higher up you rise to moorlands, with rich
grass if there is a spring, but otherwise, heath, thorns, and rough
herbs that scent the wind. Bees abound here, too, and dragon-flies,
kites and crows; sometimes an eagle floats over the cliffs of Judaea.
The sun beats strong, but you see and feel the sea; the high mountains
are behind, at night they breathe upon these ridges gentle breezes, and
the dews are very heavy.
"Altogether it is a rough, happy land, with its glens and moors, its
mingled brushwood and barley-fields; frequently under cultivation, but
for the most part broken and thirsty, with few wells and many hiding
places; just the home for strong border-men, like Samson, and just the
theatre for that guerilla warfare, varied occasionally by pitched
battles, which Israel and Philistia, the Maccabees and the Syrians,
waged with each other."[2]
At last the foot-hills merge into lofty mountains and series of
plateaus, or table-lands, surrounded by high peaks, appear. Here was
Judaea, the true home of the Hebrews. Farther north, and rising directly
from the Coast Plain, without the intervening foot-hills, was Samaria.
The physical outlines of this long, narrow range determined in advance
that it would not permanently be politically united.
Judaea was quite secure in her mountain heights. On the east her
mountains descend abruptly to the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea; on the
south lies the desert; on the east the low foot-hills, and on the north
the table-land ends in ten miles of wild, waste land. "A desolate,
fatiguing extent of rocky platforms and ridges, or moorland strewn with
boulders, and fields of shallow soil thickly mixed with stone, they are
a true border--more fit for the building of barriers than for the
cultivation of food."
Some parts of this stony plateau were fit for cultivation, but for the
most part, Judaea was a pastoral land--a country of shepherds and
herdsmen. Flocks of sheep fed on the moorlands in ancient times, as they
do today. Water has always been scanty and is preserved in wells and
cisterns for the cattle during months of drouth.
Samaria possesses softer outlines and is a land beautified by nature. As
Judaea was isolated and secure in her natural boundaries, so was Samaria
open to approach. The "openness" of the land is constantly dwelt upon by
those who picture its location. It was difficult to resist invasion and
Samaria was attacked much more often than her sister to the south.
Samaria was a fruitful land, yielding to cultivation; she lay open to
influences on every hand, and was the first to receive fresh impulses
and ideas. "Today, amid the peaceful beauty of the scene--the secluded
vale covered with corn fields, through which the winding streams flash
and glisten into the hazy distance, and the gentle hill rises without a
scarp to the olives waving on its summit--it is possible to appreciate
Isaiah's name for Samaria, _the crown of pride of Ephraim, the flower of
his glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley_."[3]
East of both countries and the Central Range which contained them, flows
the Jordan. Geological ages ago it is supposed that a great sea occupied
the valley of the Jordan and the regions on either side. Beneath its
deep waters, layers of limestone accumulated. In course of time, mighty
convulsions within the earth hurled these layers of rock in twain and
threw them up on both sides, until the present mountain ranges were
formed. At the same time a series of rocks were cast up diagonally
across this region to the south, thus enclosing a portion of the salt
waters within the basin so formed. Ages of rain and of glaciers followed
and when these abated, the new surface was left to develop its system of
drainage. The situation at present is almost identical with that in
early Bible times. In the northern part of Palestine, at the base of the
Lebanons, a series of streams, mountain-born, take a southernly
direction and empty into a marshy pool known as Lake Huleh; from the
southern part of this lake the river Jordan flows on to the Lake of
Galilee, whence the stream once again issues forth, this time down a
steep incline, giving it rapid impetus of motion, from whence comes its
name: Jordan--the _Down-comer_. At last its valley widens and by several
estuaries the river finally empties into the Dead Sea.
The beauty attending many rivers of the earth is lacking in the Jordan.
Cutting down its channels in a rift left already deep by eruption, this
valley lies deep below the sea-level and is exceedingly hot. Malaria
lurks in the jungles that border the river-sides, and at no time has the
region been thickly populated. The river is not suited to irrigation,
but certain portions of the valley are watered by its tributaries
sufficiently to make gardens possible.
The Dead Sea occupies the lowest portion of the valley. Soundings have
shown it to be very deep. Not only are its waters heavily charged with
salt, but other chemicals make yet more uninhabitable its basin. No fish
or other form of life lives in its waters, which possess remarkable
clearness and are intensely blue. Having no outlets save evaporation,
and lying where heat is great, the sea is like a mighty caldron, above
which a column of steam rises constantly. 6,000,000 tons of water are
estimated to rise from it daily in the form of vapor.
From its very nature, the Jordan was not a river to which a nation might
become devoted--as, for example, the Egyptians were to their Nile.
Nevertheless, no other stream has become so embodied into literature, or
so endeared to a great religious world. The Hebrews regarded the Jordan
as a boundary--a frontier. Significant is the fact that when it is
mentioned in the Bible it is generally accompanied by some word meaning
_over_ or _across_. _Over_ Jordan, _beyond_ the stream which because of
its fever-breeding, lion-populated jungles and its strange sea,
signified death, destruction, calamity, rather than life. _Beyond_ the
Jordan, then, lay the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.
East of the Jordan valley, the Eastern Range rises similarly to the
Central Range on the west side. The plateaus of Moab and Gilead seem
higher than the others, for whereas the Central Range rises gradually
from a series of foothills to its exalted height, the Eastern Range
rises abruptly from the extremely low river-valley.
The Eastern Range is blessed with a temperate climate. Heat is always
moderated by breezes which bring health and prosperity with them. The
soil is fertile, sufficiently watered and very productive. It is a
region where agriculture and grazing are followed, and natural
conditions are favorable to both occupations. In spite of these
advantages, the region lies exposed to the south and east. Desert tribes
make life and fortune uncertain for the inhabitants. Even today, when
conditions have been somewhat improved, those who grow crops in this
region must pay tribute to wandering tribes who demand it, or lose their
all. How much more precarious must life have been in those days when
even among the most enlightened nations the hand of the plunderer was
scarcely restrained at all. The Hebrew tribes which settled this plateau
were in the beginning as strong as those that located farther east, but
they could not maintain their individuality against the conditions that
beset them. Sooner or later, they drifted with the restless hordes and
lost their identity.
One more natural division remains to be considered--the Plain of
Esdraelon. Triangular in shape, one point lies north of Mt. Carmel,
while the two long lines extend south-easterly, and meet the third near
the river Jordan. It was this famous plain that gave access to the
Central Range from the west--from the Coast Plain, approach to Samaria
was not difficult by this means.
The region is rather made up of a series of plains, broken by scattered
mountains, yet permitting free passage from the sea to the river Jordan.
An ancient route lay along this way. It has been called the key to
Palestine, and over it came the enemies of Israel. Especially
interesting is the following description, with the added explanation of
a bit of ancient Hebrew poetry characterizing the region:
"As you stand upon that last headland of Gilboa, 200 feet above the
plain, ... the great triangle is spread before you. Along the north of
it the steep brown wall of the Galilean hills, about 1000 feet high,
runs almost due west, till it breaks out and down to the feet of Carmel,
in the forest slopes just high enough to hide the Plain of Acre and sea.
But over and past these slopes Carmel's steady ridge, deepening in blue
the while, carries the eye out to its dark promontory above the
Mediterranean. From this end of Carmel the lower Samarian hills, green
with bush and dotted by white villages, run southeast to the main
Samarian range, and on their edge, due south, seven miles across the
bay, Jenin stands out with its minarets and palms.... But the rest of
the plain is before you--a great expanse of loam, red and black, which
in a more peaceful land would be one sea of waving wheat with island
villages; but here is what its modern name implies, a free, wild
prairie, upon which but one or two hamlets have ventured forth from the
cover of the hills and a timid and tardy cultivation is only now seeking
to overtake the waste of coarse grass and the thistly herbs that camels
love. There is no water visible. The Kishon itself flows in a muddy
trench, unseen five yards away. But here and there a clump of trees
shows where a deep well is worked to keep a little orchard green through
summer.... The roads have no limit to their breadth, but sprawl, as if
at most seasons one caravan could not follow for mud on the path of
another. But these details sink in a great sense of space, and of a
level made almost absolute by the rise of hills on every side of it. It
is a vast inland basin, and from it there breaks just at your feet,
between Jezreel and Shunem, the valley Jordanwards,--breaks as visibly
as river from lake, with a slope and almost the look of a current upon
it.... From Jezreel you can appreciate everything in the literature and
in the history of Esdraelon.
"To begin with, you can enjoy that happiest sketch of a landscape and
its history that was ever drawn in half a dozen lines, _Issachar_--to
which the most of Esdraelon fell--
"Issachar is a large-limbed ass,
Stretching himself between the sheepfolds:
For he saw a resting-place that it was good,
And the land that it was pleasant."
"Such exactly is Esdraelon--a land relaxed and sprawling up among the
hills to north, south and east, as you will see a loosened ass roll and
stretch his limbs any day in the sunshine of a Syrian village yard. To
the highlander looking down upon it, Esdraelon is room to stretch in and
lie happy. Yet the figure of the ass goes further--the room must be paid
for--
'So he bowed his shoulder to bear
And became a servant under task-work.'
"The inheritors of this plain never enjoyed the highland independent of
Manasseh or Naphtali. Open to east and west, Esdraelon was at distant
intervals the war-path or battle-field of great empires.... Even when
there has been no invasion to fear, Esdraelon has still suffered: when
she has not been the camp of the foreigner she has served as the estate
of her neighbors."[4]
CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIVITY OF PALESTINE.
As we might expect in a land possessing such a varied topography, nearly
every known climate is represented in Palestine. Along the seashore the
salt breezes of ocean blow; the climate of the Coast Plain is mild and
pleasant, and favorable to the growth of gardens and orchards; within
the Central Range itself several varieties of climate prevail, and in
the low valley of the Jordan and in the region of the Dead Sea, the heat
of the tropics obtains. The plateaus of the Eastern Range are visited by
health-giving breezes, which moderate the atmosphere. Farther east and
south extends the desert, with its parched sands and sultry air, yet in
the very sight of these desert wastes rise snowy mountain peaks.
"There are palms in Jericho and pine forests in Lebanon. In the Ghor, in
summer, you are under a temperature of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit,
and yet you see glistening the snow-fields of Hermon. All the
intermediate steps between these extremes the eye can see at one sweep
from Carmel--the sands and palms of the coast; the wheat-fields of
Esdraelon, the oaks and sycamores of Galilee; the pines, the peaks, the
snows of Anti-Lebanon. How closely these differences lie to each other!
Take a section of the country across Judaea. With its palms and shadoofs
the Philistine Plain might be a part of the Egyptian Delta; but on the
hills of the Shephelah which overlook it, you are in the scenery of
Southern Europe; the Judaean moors which overlook them are like the
barer uplands of Central Germany; the shepherds wear sheep-skin cloaks
and live under stone roofs--sometimes the snow lies deep; a few miles
farther east and you are down on the desert among the Bedouin, with
their tents of hair and their cotton clothing; a few miles farther
still, and you drop to torrid heat in the Jordan Valley; a few miles
beyond that and you rise to the plateau of the Belka, where the Arabs
say 'the cold is always at home.' Yet from Philistia to the Belka is
scarcely seventy miles."[5]
The year is divided into a wet and a dry season. The rains begin the
last of October and are over by the last of March. These are called the
"early" rains in the Old Testament. Showers which fall in the late
spring are called the "latter" rains. From May until October the summer
is dry. The vegetation is sustained in many places by the heavy dews.
Water is not abundant and the rain-water which falls during the winter
months is stored in wells and cisterns for use in the dry months.
Flowers of many varieties are found through the land and range from
those common to tropical and desert lands to those native to high
altitudes. As in Egypt the fertile land borders upon the shifting desert
sands, so in Palestine the strong contrasts between the productive and
waste lands is the more marked because of their proximity.
Palestine is not a land of heavy forests. To be sure, ages upon ages of
habitation have divested many slopes of native timber, but evidences go
to show that at no time since records began has the country been heavily
forested. Today the woodlands are frequently mere undergrowth. Orchards
are plentiful. The olive is most widely cultivated; apricots, figs,
oranges, almond and walnut trees are grown, and the vine is grown
extensively. Grain fields wave on the plains, in the valleys and
lowlands, wheat, barley and millet being most abundant. Vegetables of
many varieties are commonly raised. Beans, tomatoes, onions and melons
are produced in large quantities. Grass is grown only on small areas,
pasturage being for the most part found on the public land. During the
summer months pasturage exists only near the large fountains or the
carefully built cisterns. These are jealously guarded by their owners.
In earlier times and now, to some extent, wells and pools are provided
to preserve water falling during the winter, and these are for the use
of all who come to them with their flocks and herds.
We find no such condition here as in Egypt, where crops grow abundantly
if the seeds be but once dropped into the ground. On the contrary, while
grains, fruits and garden produce are generally grown, care and constant
industry are required to bring forth good yields. Certain portions of
the country are adapted to the art of husbandry, while others have
always been better suited to cattle and sheep raising. So much of the
tablelands is rocky and stony and unsuited for cultivation that no
arable spots are allowed to go untended.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 149.
[2] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 208.
[3] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 349.
[4] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 381.
[5] George Adam Smith: Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 56.
CHAPTER VI.
EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS UPON THE HEBREWS.
Certain natural effects of the physical conditions upon the people in
Palestine have been apparent as we traced the general land formation. It
is evident that in an age when easy communication was essential to
union, there could be no political unity among a people dwelling in a
country so divided by mountains, plains, and valleys. Again, we would
expect tribes settling the plateaus of the Central Range to develop
differently from those peopling the fertile plain of Sharon. Indeed,
within this range itself we have found that the inhabitants of austere
Judaea led a life unlike that of more accessible Samaria. Other effects
of natural conditions upon the Hebrews are evident, as we shall see.
The very climate of Palestine seems to have had its influence in molding
the religious thought of Israel. "The climate of Palestine is regular
enough to provoke men to methodical labour for its fruits, but the
regularity is often interrupted. The early rains or the latter rains
fail, drought comes occasionally for two years in succession, and that
means famine and pestilence. There are too, the visitations of the
locust, which are said to be bad every fifth or sixth year, and there
are earthquakes, also periodical in Syria. Thus a purely mechanical
conception of nature as something certain and inevitable, whose
processes are more or less under man's control, is impossible; and the
imagination is roused to feel the presence of a will behind nature, in
face of whose interruptions of the fruitfulness or stability of the land
man is absolutely helpless. To such a climate, then, is partly due
Israel's doctrine of Providence."[1] In Deuteronomy the contrast between
Egypt, the land just left, and Palestine, to which Israel was then
passing, is drawn, and the price of prosperity definitely given.
"But the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land
of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and
wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land, whither
ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water
of the rain of heaven. A land which Jehovah thy God careth for: the eyes
of Jehovah thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year
even unto the end of the year.
"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall harken diligently unto my
commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God, and
to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will
give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the
latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and
thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou
mayst eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not
deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and
_then_ Jehovah's wrath be kindled against you and he shut up the heaven,
that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off
the good land which Jehovah giveth you."[2]
The productivity of the soil had two important results in the
development of the Hebrews. The first affected the very nature of their
being, for it changed them from desert nomads into herders and small
farmers. In place of the tent, they adopted the house, the _fixed_
habitation. Instead of wandering from pasture to pasture with their
cattle and families, as they had done for generation upon generation
before their sojourn in Egypt, they cultivated the land and found it
overflowing with "milk and honey." In the Song of Moses this great
transformation is pictured with vividness and beauty:
"Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of generation on generation.
Ask thy father and he will show thee,
Thine elders and they will tell thee.
When the highest gave nations their heritage,
When he sundered the children of men.
He set the border of the tribes,
By the number of the children of Israel.
For the portion of Jehovah is his people,
Jacob the measure of his heritage.
He found him in a land of the desert,
In a waste, in a howling wilderness.
He encompassed him, He distinguished him,
He watched him as the apple of His eye.
As an eagle stirreth his nest,
Fluttereth over his young,
Spreadeth abroad his wings, taketh them,
Beareth them up on his pinions,
Jehovah alone led him
And no strange god was with him.
He made him to ride on the Land's high places,
And to eat of the growth of the field.
He gave him to suck honey from the cliff,
And oil from the flinty rock.
Cream of kine and milk of sheep,
With lambs' fat and rams'
Breed of Bashan and he-goats,
With fat of the kidneys of wheat;
And the blood of the grape thou drankest in foam!"
While settlement in Palestine produced an advancement in civilization,
it brought at the same time a lower plane of religious life and thought.
With sudden plenty and no longer enforced abstinence of the desert, came
a certain confusion and riot. The desert tends to inspire monotheistic
ideas and conceptions; lands of varied aspect, such as Greece or
Palestine, inspire polytheistic conceptions--divided power rather than
unity.
"The creed of the desert nomad is simple and austere--for nature about
him is monotonous, silent, and illiberal. But Syria is a land of lavish
gifts and oracles--where woods are full of mysterious speech, and rivers
burst suddenly from the ground, where the freedom of nature excites, and
seems to sanction, the passions of the human body, where food is rich,
and men drink wine. The spirit and the senses are equally taken by
surprise. _No one can tell how many voices a tree has who has not come
up to it from the silence of the great desert...._
"But with the awe comes the sense of indulgence, and the starved
instincts of the body break riotously forth.... All this is said to
have happened to Israel from almost their first encampment in Canaan."
"They moved him to jealousy with strange gods,
With abominations provoked him to anger.
They sacrificed to monsters undivine,
Gods they had known not,
New things, lately come in,
Their fathers never had them in awe."
One more effect of physical conditions may be noted here, leaving the
rest to appear in connection with Israel's story--namely, the effect of
the picturesqueness of the land upon these former desert nomads. For one
who has made himself familiar with the beautiful places of earth,
Palestine has its charm, but to people journeying thither from the
wastes of desert, the land possesses matchless beauty. Before calling
attention to the reflection of scenery to be found in ancient Hebrew
writings, let us read the description of certain aspects of the country,
as given by one who knows every foot of the land and has watched it in
and out of season.
"There is the coast-line from the headland of Carmel--northwards the
Gulf of Haifa, with its yellow sands and palms, ... southwards Sharon
with her scattered forest, her coast of sand and grass: westwards the
green sea and the wonderful shadows of the clouds upon it--grey when you
look at them with your face to the sun, but, with the sun behind you,
purple, and more like Homer's 'wine-colored' water than anything I have
seen on the Mediterranean. There is the _excellency of Carmel_ itself:
wheat-fields climbing from Esdraelon to the first bare rocks, then thick
bush and scrub, young ilex, wild olives and pines, with undergrowth of
large purple thistles, mallows with blossoms like pelargoniums, stocks
of hollyhocks, golden broom, honeysuckle, and convolvulus--then, between
the shoulders of the mountain, olive-groves, their dull green mass
banked by the lighter forest trees, and on the flanks the broad lawns,
where in the shadow of great oaks you look far out to sea. There is the
Lake of Galilee as you see it from Gadara, with the hills of Naphtali
above it, and Hermon filling all the north. There, is the prospective
of the Jordan Valley as you look up from over Jericho, between the bare
ranges of Gilead and Ephraim, with the winding ribbon of the river's
jungle, and the top of Hermon like a white cloud in the infinite
distance. There is the forest of Gilead, where you ride, two thousand
feet high, under the boughs of great trees creaking and rustling in the
wind, with all Western Palestine before you. There is the moonlight view
out of the bush on the northern flank of Tabor, the leap of the sun over
the edge of Bashan, summer morning in the Shephelah, and sunset over the
Mediterranean, when you see it from the gateway of the ruins on Samaria
down the glistening Vale of Barley. Even in the barest provinces you get
many a little picture that lives with you for life--a chocolate-coloured
bank with red poppies against the green of the prickly pear hedge above
it, and a yellow lizard darting across; a river-bed of pink oleanders
flush with the plain; a gorge in Judaea, where you look up between
limestone walls picked out with tufts of grass and black-and-tan goats
cropping at them, the deep blue sky over all, and, on the edge of the
only shadow, a well, a trough, and a solitary herdsman.
"And then there are those prospects in which no other country can match
Palestine, for no other has a valley like the Ghor, or a desert like
that which falls from Judaea to the Dead Sea. There is the view from the
Mount of Olives, down twenty miles of desert hill-tops to the deep blue
waters, with the wall of Moab glowing on the further side like burnished
copper, and staining the blue sea red with its light. There is the view
of the Dead Sea through the hazy afternoon, when across the yellow
foreground of Jeshimon the white Lisan rises like a pack of Greenland
ice from the blue waters, and beyond it the Moab range, misty, silent
and weird. There are the precipices of Masada and Engedi sheer from the
salt coast. And, above all, there is the view from Engedi under the full
moon, when the sea is bridged with gold, and the eastern mountains are
black with a border of opal."[3]
The literature of no other people has more vividly reflected a landscape
than has that of the ancient Hebrews. Without some understanding of
Palestine, one would fail to appreciate much that is beautiful in Hebrew
poetry. While we shall touch upon this again in the consideration of
Hebrew literature, some examples will sufficiently illustrate this
point. Take, for example, a portion of the Hundred and Fourth Psalm:
He sendeth forth springs into the valleys;
They run among the mountains:
They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild asses quench their thirst.
By them the fowl of the heaven have their habitation,
They sing around the branches.
He watereth the mountains from his chambers:
The earth is satisfied with the fruits of thy work.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,
And herb for the service of man:
That he may bring forth food out of the earth,
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
And oil to make his face to shine,
And bread that strengtheneth man's heart.
The trees of Jehovah are satisfied;
The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
Where the birds make their nests:
As for the stork, the fir trees are her house;
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
The rocks are a refuge for the conies.
O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works!
In wisdom hast thou made them all:
The earth is full of thy riches.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
Wherein are things creeping innumerable,
Both small and great beasts.
There go the ships;
There is leviathan, whom thou hast formed to take his pastime therein.
These wait all upon thee,
That thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
This poem reflects general characteristics of the land. The next is a
pastoral poem which could have been written only in Judaea. Its figures
are pastoral throughout, and lack of acquaintance with the land wherein
it was produced often causes one to miss the successive pictures it
portrays. Reference is made to the Twenty-third Psalm, wherein the
comparison of the shepherd with his sheep is maintained.
"The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want."
Only a good faithful shepherd could lead his sheep in Judaea so that at
no time would they want for care or food.
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:"
Pasturage was often scanty, and to lie always in _green_ pastures was
the greatest boon that could befall the sheep.
"He leadeth me beside the still waters."
Not lakes, but cisterns or pools, constructed to hold the rains of
winter for use in the dry months of summer. Unless these were carefully
sought out in each new pasture, the sheep would suffer from thirst.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For thou art with me:
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
When one pasture was exhausted, it was necessary to journey to another.
Danger lurked on every side. Did the sheep wander away, they were sure
to be attacked by fierce animals, or stolen by other herders. The
shepherd led the way amid all dangers, and his rod and staff gave
assurance to the sheep some distance from him.
"Thou preparest a table before me
In the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over."
The figure is not changed here, as some have supposed, and a banquet
introduced. Quite on the contrary. In that land grew many poisonous
herbs, likely to be unnoticed by the sheep. The shepherd watched to see
that his flock found food free from these enemies. Then at last, when
the night fell, and the flock was gathered into the fold, the shepherd
stood by the door with a cup of oil in his hand ready to pour on the
heads of weary, exhausted lambs, thus to refresh and revive them. Only a
little could be spared for each one. To have a cup filled to overflowing
was a wonderful blessing. So is the figure carried on to the end of the
beautiful song, and only goodness and mercy could possibly attend one so
protected.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Smith: Historical Geography of Holy Land, 73.
[2] Deuteronomy 11, 10.
[3] Smith: Historical Geography, 94.
CHAPTER VII.
SOURCES OF HEBREW HISTORY.
We may divide the sources of early Hebrew history into (1) Hebrew
sources, and (2) sources supplied by contemporaneous nations and by
archæology. The Hebrew sources are principally three: the historical
books of the Old Testament, the Talmud, the writings of Josephus. The
sources derived elsewhere are records and inscriptions throwing light
upon the events of this ancient nation as chronicled by the Egyptians,
Babylonians, and Assyrians, and statements of Greek travellers and
writers bearing upon their later development. Moreover, in late years
the spade of the excavator has unearthed ruins and remains which have
added materially to previous knowledge of the subject and have
established beyond any doubt facts previously unsettled.
Before taking up a discussion of the historical books of the Old
Testament--the first of the Hebrew sources,--it is necessary that we
consider the compilation of the Bible, and understand how the many books
which compose it were made up, and gathered into the one volume with
which we are now familiar.
Only in late years have people generally been ready to approach the
study of the Bible in the spirit of modern investigation long applied to
other fields of learning. While the reasons for this reluctance may not
be at once apparent, they are not difficult to discover.
During the Middle Ages religious teaching was guarded and kept alive by
monks in the monasteries of Europe. Only with them was learning of any
sort fostered and saved from extinction during the period known as the
Dark Ages. The books which these monks studied, and the records and
productions they committed to paper or parchment, were invariably
written in Latin--a tongue unknown to the people at large. Since the
Bible existed only in Latin, Hebrew or Greek, it was a sealed book to
the masses, who knew it only through brief portions read and explained
to them by the priests.
After a time, translations were made, first of portions only, then the
entire work was rendered in modern languages. Still it was not
considered fitting to allow its contents to be generally known. Copies
were chained to pulpits in the cathedrals and were opened by the priest
alone. Those who might have been able to procure the costly copies were
not permitted to do so. In the story of England we shall find that only
a few centuries ago, to possess a Bible and read it aloud in the family
was made an offense and was punishable if discovered. Thus a mystery
attached to the Scriptures, instilled into the masses by those who
guarded the ancient volume. The awe and reverence so aroused, clung to
the Bible generations after its contents had become familiar to the
Christian world. One scholar calls the Bible "literature smothered in
reverence."
Again, no other event can be cited throughout history which has had so
great an effect upon the world as had the ministry of Christ, recorded
at length in the New Testament. The doctrines he taught have been held
sacred by his followers in all subsequent ages.
The prophetic literature of the Old Testament had foretold the coming of
some one who should restore Israel, and the ancient Hebrew nation looked
with expectancy to the birth of one who should raise their kingdom to
the rank of powerful nations of the earth. By some, Christ was
identified with the one whose coming the prophets had proclaimed, and
thus a continuity was found throughout the Bible--from the epic of
creation in the beginning, to the birth and teaching of Christ, and the
added records of his apostles. For many years the entire work was spoken
of as the "Word of God," and equal reverence given the sixty-four books
which compose it. A verse would be quoted from one chapter with no
regard to its context quite as freely as from another. Sentences would
be extracted from primitive Hebrew law and put side by side with
portions of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, or Paul's letters to mission
churches. Finally scholars began to exclaim against such crude and
literal interpretation of the Scriptures. "Here," they exclaimed, "is a
book embodying legends current among a Semitic people twenty-five
hundred years before the birth of Christ; there are prayers and hymns
of praise composed at varying periods and finally brought together into
one collection; and once again, here is a series of letters written by
early preachers of the gospel to their outlying churches, and you are
culling a stanza here, a verse there, and a sentence in a third place,
as though they were of equal value and had been written under similar
circumstances!" Far from welcoming new light upon the subject of deep
importance, a cry of indignation arose, from the clergy as well as
laymen. It was argued that a scientific study of the Bible would be sure
to detract from the force and influence of its teachings, and was in
itself irreverent. But the spark of Promethean fire was not destined to
go out--the spirit of investigation was abroad. The more scholars
searched and studied, the more they were persuaded that a scientific
exposition of the Bible would enhance rather than lessen its value. They
saw that changing ideas in the book itself existed and had been passed
over by those who did not understand them and who thought it their duty
to blindly accept what they did not comprehend; while a broader
conception was destined to lead to the establishment of profound
religious truths, far more satisfying than the earlier blind belief.
At last the facts these scholars derived, the methods they applied, the
conclusions they reached, largely overcame prejudices of long standing,
and it may safely be said that today only those people oppose a
scientific study of the Bible who are themselves unfamiliar with
scientific study in other fields of knowledge.
With this explanation, the results of careful investigation of the Old
Testament will henceforth be cited and used freely with no further
comment, since by such study alone can we come into a true understanding
of a wonderful literature and a remarkable people.
The word _Bible_ means _books_, or a _library_. A considerable portion
of Hebrew literature has herein been preserved to us. Originally these
productions were written in the ancient Hebrew tongue, and had no
connection with one another save that they treated of the same people at
different stages of their development, and further, treated in some
form--most of them, at least--of their faith. When these writings were
first collected and bound together, more books were included than at
present. Since then the collection has been edited and re-edited.
Compilers have introduced notes in the text and assigned authorship of
certain writings to those who were themselves mere compilers. Later
still, it became customary to write books in verses; into this form the
contents of the Scriptures were thrown. Instead of a narrative being
given at length it was divided into verses, as in our Bibles at present
used. Instead of a poem being reproduced in its original form, or a
drama being divided by the speeches of its participants, both were cast
into verses and numbered. Thus prose and poetry came to have the same
appearance.
"More than fifty books, the production of a large number of different
authors representing periods of time extending over many centuries, are
all comprehended between the covers of a single volume. There is no
greater monument of the power of printing to diffuse thought than this
fact, that the whole classic literature of one of the world's greatest
peoples can be carried about in the hand or pocket.
"But there is another side to the matter. A high price has been paid for
this feat of manufacturing a portable literature: no less a price than
the effacement from the books of the Bible of their whole literary
structure. Where the literature is dramatic there are no names of
speakers nor divisions of speeches; there are no titles to essays or
poems, nor anything to mark where one poem or discourse ends and another
begins. It is as if the whole were printed 'solid,' like a newspaper
without newspaper headings. The most familiar English literature treated
in this fashion would lose a great part of its literary interest; the
writings of the Hebrews suffer still more through our unfamiliarity with
many of the literary forms in which they were cast. Even this statement
does not fully represent the injury done to this literature of the Bible
by the traditional shape in which it is presented to us. Between the
Biblical writers and our own times have intervened ages in which all
interest in literary beauty was lost, and philosophic activity took the
form of protracted discussions of brief sayings or 'texts.' Accordingly
this solidified matter of Hebrew literature has been divided up into
single sentences or 'verses,' numbered mechanically one, two, three,
etc., and thus the original literary form has been further obscured. It
is not surprising that to most readers the Bible has become, not a
literature, but simply a store-house of pious 'texts.'"[1]
We call certain books of the Old Testament _historical_, but this does
not mean, in this case, that they were written with the sole object of
chronicling the events of Hebrew progress. They were at the same time
books of devotion, showing God's dealing with them, His chosen people.
Before the ninth or eighth century B.C., records of Israel's past
existed only in snatches of song and in traditions handed down by word
of mouth from one generation to another. The Song of Deborah, preserved
in the Book of Judges, belongs to a remote period; the legends of
creation, common to the Semitic race, as related in Genesis were current
from time immemorial. In the eighth century before Christ an effort was
made in the "Schools of the Prophets" to compile the history of Israel,
but the leading motive was rather to illustrate God's favor to them in
the past by citing instances familiar to them all, and to prove that
divine protection had been withdrawn from them when they had gone
astray--as exemplified in their past, rather than to leave for future
ages records of their heroic deeds and victories and civil
administration. The result was that the historical writings prepared
were based on ancient traditions, to be sure, but reflected the
religious beliefs and the normal ideas of the age in which they were
produced.
The historical books include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Joshua, Judges, I. and II. Samuel, I. and II. Kings, Chronicles, Ezra,
and Nehemiah. Other books, such as Isaiah, for example, include
historical matter.
"The first portion of the history, the biblical _Genesis_, gives us what
that word implies--the Gradual Formation of the Chosen Nation. The next
section on the Exodus (the biblical _Exodus_, _Leviticus_, _Numbers_),
the Emigration of the Chosen People to the Land of Promise; with
migration goes the gradual evolution into an organized nation, and the
massing at this point of legal documents makes the Constitutional
History of Israel. Under the name of The Judges (the biblical _Joshua_,
_Judges_, part of _Samuel_) we next distinguish the Grand Transition: a
people starting with theocracy, the government of an invisible God,
comes to accept the rule of visible kings copied from nations around.
But precisely at the time these kings begin there is established a
regular order of 'prophets,' or interpreters for God, representing the
old idea of theocracy: the fourth period of the history may be named as
The Kings and The Prophets, a regular Government of Kings tempered by an
Opposition of Prophets. Then comes the Exile: the witnessing of Israel
for Jehovah has to be carried on in the land of strangers. There return
from exile, not the whole people, but only those who are devoted to the
service of God; not the Hebrew Nation, but the Jewish Church: and the
final section is thus the Ecclesiastical History of _The Chronicles_.
The spirit of the history is throughout made emphatic by story, or at
times by fable or song. But in addition to the formal historic books we
have to note two others:
"_Deuteronomy_ gives us the Orations and Songs of Moses, emphasizing the
crisis of the leader's Farewell to Israel. And in Isaiah we find a
certain dramatic work, which, in connection with the deliverance from
exile, reads a meaning into events such as strikes a unity through the
whole career of the chosen people: it is an Epilogue to the History of
Israel."
The _Talmud_ has been mentioned as a second source of Hebrew history.
The word itself means literally "learning," or "teaching." It is the
name given a collection of Hebrew writings which were written primarily
to explain and exemplify Jewish law. Two Talmuds were prepared, one in
Babylon--known as the Babylonian Talmud, or the Talmud of the Eastern
land; the other written in Jerusalem, known as the Talmud of the Western
land. They were kept in the temples and added to and continued by rabbis
through the first five centuries after the Christian era. The interest
in them for the historian today centers around the traditions and
legends introduced, these having been current among the Hebrews
generations earlier. The Talmud is rich in folklore, and so possesses
relative value from a historical standpoint.
Third among Hebrew sources we have noted the Writings of Josephus.
Josephus was a Jewish priest who lived in the first century after
Christ. Not only was he himself a priest but for twenty-four generations
before him his forefathers had presided in the temple. During his life,
Palestine was held by the Romans, and he wrote the "Antiquities of the
Jews," and a history of the Jewish War, to acquaint the people of his
day with the story of his people. He claims to have found his material
in the sacred books of the temple and frequently explains at length
events merely mentioned in the Old Testament. His writings have been
valued both in early and recent times.
Among the sources elsewhere obtained, the records of contemporaneous
nations are of first importance. The oppression of the Israelites under
the Egyptian pharaoh, for example, is believed to find confirmation in
scenes and inscriptions recently discovered in the valley of the Nile.
In our study of Assyrian conquest, we have noted tribute lists and
memorials celebrating victories over the Hebrew kingdoms, recovered
among other ruins in Mesopotamia. The king of Babylonia finally left
Jerusalem, the beautiful city of Palestine, demolished and well nigh
abandoned. Thousands of her noblest citizens were taken captives to
Babylon. This incident was naturally chronicled in Babylonian annals.
Similar instances might be cited, but these serve to show ways in which
material for Hebrew history may be gleaned from the records of nations
that flourished by her side.
Lastly we may note the results of archaeological research as supplying
material for the reconstruction of Israel's past. In 1883 M. Naville
opened a mound wherein was discovered a portion of what is supposed to
have been Pithom--one of the two "store-cities," built by the Children
of Israel while in bondage. The bricks still remaining verified the
story as it has come down to us from the Hebrews themselves, in the Book
of Exodus. The lower rows of bricks were mixed with straw; those laid in
later were kneaded with stubble, and those last placed were formed
simply of sun-dried mud.
Explorations have been carried on recently in Jerusalem and elsewhere in
Palestine, and some important discoveries have already been made.
[Illustration: HARBOR OF JAPPA]
In spite of these various means, we have scanty material at best for the
reconstruction of Hebrew history. The Hebrews were unhistorical and did
not appreciate, nor apparently care to preserve, their secular history.
Records of priceless value were allowed to perish and we have today
only extracts from them, or some simple phrase concerning them. It
was the portion of Israel to tell the world of her religion and to leave
to others the extolling of earthly successes and failures. The comments
of alien nations are unsatisfactory, for their attitude was generally
hostile, or at least, unsympathetic. Nevertheless, while questions
remain unanswered and certain points disputed by authorities, we are
able to follow with some degree of certainty the formation of the Hebrew
nation and its political development.
[Illustration: HIGH PRIEST.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Biblical Masterpieces, Moulton, Intro.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HEBREWS PRIOR TO THEIR OCCUPATION OF CANAAN.
Regarding the earliest period of Israel's existence there has been wide
difference of opinion. Until recently there have been many who have
accepted literally the early books of the Old Testament, composed
hundreds of years after the events recorded took place, and the product
of several writers, all of whom were filled with a desire to show the
favor of God exemplified in every detail of Hebrew progress. If one
takes the position that the history of the Hebrews is different from
that of every other people in the world's history, if it be held that
their development cannot be traced as the unfolding of all other peoples
has been traced, then there is nothing more to be said--one can merely
chronicle the wonders and marvel. If, on the other hand, one accepts the
absolutely established historical fact that these people began as other
nations began, in a very crude and primitive state, and came slowly into
enlightenment as did nations contemporaneous with them, then the
progress of the early Hebrews can be similarly followed. The conclusions
which seem to be best substantiated are the ones we shall consider,
noting at the same time that among authorities and scholars many
differences of opinion still exist.
It is generally conceded that about 1500 B.C. a company of Semitics,
originally inhabiting Arabia, but for some years settlers in
Mesopotamia, set out from the Euphrates valley--probably from Ur--and
journeyed westward. The name Abraham is the one tradition gives as the
leader of this company, which after the fashion of nomads, sought new
pastures in districts less crowded than those of Chaldea. Among those
who attached themselves to this migration appear to have been the
ancestors of the tribes later known as the Moabites, Ammonites and
Edomites. By slow stages this band of emigrants passed into Syria and
reached at length the country we know as Palestine. At that time it was
known as Canaan, and was the home of Semitics more or less closely
related to the people we know as Phoenicians. The Canaanites and
Phoenicians are often identified. As a matter of fact, the Canaanites
were Phoenicians who occupied the country districts and, save for a
common heritage, had little in common with those merchantmen who filled
the great sea-ports of Phoenicia.
The Moabites and Ammonites immediately settled the most fertile places
in the plateaus of the Eastern Range, and continued the sheep-raising
and cattle grazing to which they had long been accustomed. The Edomites
also found homes for themselves. The few followers of Abraham appear to
have continued their life as tent-dwellers in the southern part of
Canaan. In course of time, they were re-enforced by a second company
from Mesopotamia,--a tribe bearing the name of Jacob. The word Jacob
means re-enforcement, and he is represented in the Old Testament as the
father of twelve children, later spoken of as the twelve tribes of
Israel. It was quite customary for Hebrew writers of a late period to
treat the names of tribes as individuals, and to attribute to the
individuals thus created characteristics peculiar to the patriarchal, or
heroic age. "However plastic and distinct the individualities of Ishmael
and Edom, Israel and Joseph may seem to us, they are all only
personifications and representations of the races of tribes whose names
they bear.... When Jacob and Laban together set up a boundary-stone upon
Mount Gilead and make a solemn and sworn covenant that neither of them
henceforth will pass this boundary with evil intent, it is perfectly
plain that this is not a private agreement between father-in-law and
son-in-law, but a legal regulation of tribal boundary rights between
Israel and Aram."[1]
Leadership of the whole band of Israelites was desired by the tribe of
Joseph, which, failing to secure it, departed from the rest and
journeyed to Egypt. Here, after some time, the other tribes gathered and
settled a fertile district northeast of the Delta, and known by the name
of Goshen.
When these Israelites first came into Egypt, a great Semitic upheaval
had taken place in the ancient world, and there seem to be reasons for
thinking that the welcome given them was due to the fact that a Semitic
pharaoh ruled in Egypt. In any event, they lived peaceably for two or
three generations--how much longer we do not know--when the aspect of
matters changed. The native rulers were restored and because Egypt was
having difficulty with tribes in Western Asia, foreigners within her
immediate borders were looked upon with suspicion. A large number of
laborers were needed to carry on gigantic building projects, and the
Israelites were suddenly impressed as public slaves, and set to work
under armed guards.
It was against all nature that desert nomads, accustomed to the freedom
of the wide world, would long endure this servitude. The instincts of
their ancestors would live on for many generations, although temporarily
overpowered. After being ground down by the heel of the oppressor for a
considerable number of years, they were at length incited by Moses to
depart for the land still known to them by stories handed down from
father to son--the land of Canaan.
Moses, by birth a Hebrew, had been educated in the family of an
Egyptian, but became an outlaw upon killing an Egyptian while defending
one of his own kinsmen. Escaping to the land of the Midianites, he had
drunk in the air of freedom and the instincts of his forefathers were
stimulated into activity. He took on the religion of the Midianites and
accepted Jahweh as his God. He grieved over the condition to which his
people had fallen, and brooding over it, experienced a divine commission
to restore them to freedom. Rallying them in the name of Jahweh, he led
them out of the land of bondage. According to the Hebrew account, Egypt
was at that particular time stricken by plagues, and the people,
naturally superstitious, attributed their afflictions to the foreigners
within their land. So incensed against them did they become that the
ruler, in a moment of weakness, consented to their exodus. No sooner had
they departed, however, than he bethought him of the laborers he had
lost, and dispatched the flower of his cavalry to compel their return.
A wind, blowing fiercely, made a fording of the Sea possible for the
Israelites, but the cavalry, sent in pursuit, was engulfed and lost.
This incident was seized upon as a mark of divine favor by these
disheartened people, who saw direct intervention of Jahweh in their
behalf. Thus the power of a supreme God was impressed upon their minds
as long years of religious instruction could never have impressed it.
For forty years the Children of Israel wandered in the desert, loitering
here and there, finding their way between hostile tribes. During these
years the figure of Moses stands forth with unfailing strength and
courage. The people he had led thither were mere children, rendered
dependent and unsteadfast by their long period of servitude. When
difficulties beset them, they did not hesitate to turn upon their
deliverer and reproach him, and to wish often to return to the land they
had recently left, where food was always forthcoming, even though at the
expense of liberty and self-respect. But Moses, with staunch heart and
great patience, slowly organized them into a religious body, finding
unity for them in the one God, Jahweh. Meanwhile a new generation was
growing up among them; sons and daughters who were born in the air of
freedom, assimilated new ideas more readily, were more steadfast in
their purpose, and grew into greater self-reliance than their fathers
knew. With this new spirit manifest, we see the possibilities of a
dawning nation, and a more promising future.
Not long before the exodus, incoming Philistines pressed the Canaanites
farther east, and they in turn displaced the Moabites and Ammonites from
their fertile homes in the Eastern Range. These Semitics remembered
their old allies, now in the desert, and besought them for aid. The
Israelites helped them defeat the Canaanites and then appropriated the
fertile places for themselves. Soon, however, increasing numbers made it
necessary to seek wider room, and the tribe of Judah crossed the Jordan
and settled the tableland which afterwards bore its name. This
settlement was not made without great effort, for the earlier
inhabitants held tenaciously to the land. The tribes of Simeon and Levi
tried to do likewise, but their treachery made them victims to the
revenge of the Canaanites. The Levites disappeared as a tribe, but were
perpetuated as a priestly order. The Simeonites became absorbed with the
tribe of Judah. Reuben and Gad remained east of the Jordan, and the
remaining tribes united under Joshua and made an attack upon the central
part of Canaan. Jericho fell into their hands, also Ai and Bethel. When
these most exposed places fell to their portion, the inhabitants of
Gibeon, a Canaanite stronghold, grew alarmed for their own safety and
craftily sought a treaty with the invaders. This becoming known among
the league of Canaanite cities, banded together to drive out the
Israelites, the members of the league were so incensed that they marched
against the walls of Gibeon for thus deserting their common cause. The
citizens of Gibeon appealed to the Hebrews for aid, and according to
their treaty, Joshua led his army out to meet the forces of the
besiegers.
The Hebrews were accustomed to hand-to-hand conflicts, and to the
heights; the Canaanites fought wherever possible with chariots, and
naturally preferred the plains. At first it seemed as though the
advantage belonged to the Canaanites, for they carried the battle into
the plain, and had strong cities behind them. Nevertheless, a sudden
rain made the earth so soft that their chariots availed them little, and
when the rain changed to hail, their ranks were thrown into confusion.
The book of Jashar, an ancient Hebrew work, has not been preserved but
was apparently made up of old ballads and war songs. A fragment repeated
in the book of Joshua recounts that Joshua, the famous Hebrew warrior,
commanded the sun and moon to stand still until the battle ended. Some
infer that he wished daylight to remain until the battle could be fought
out; others hold that he wanted the darkness of the storm to continue,
to further discomfit the Canaanites.
"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;
And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed,
Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies."[2]
Victory belonged to the Israelites, and the seven tribes took possession
of trans-Jordan regions.
"But this does not mean that Israel was in full possession of the land:
by far the best and most fertile portions of it, and especially the
majority of the cities, whose strong fortifications made them
impregnable to the primitive military skill of the Israelites, remained
in possession of the Canaanites; it was chiefly the woody mountain
chains of northern and middle Palestine that had come into the power of
Israel, and the Canaanites had partly to be subdued by force and partly
to be peacefully absorbed--a long and difficult task."[3]
"Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto the Lord:
"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And he is become my salvation:
This is my God, and I will praise him;
My father's God, and I will exalt him.
(1) _Sung by Men._
"The Lord is a man of war:
The Lord is his name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea:
And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.
The deeps cover them:
They went down into the depths like a stone.
_Sung by Women._
"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
(2) _Men._
"Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power,
Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy.
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest
Them that rise up against thee:
Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble
And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up,
The floods stood upright as an heap;
The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil:
My lust shall be satisfied upon them;
I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them
Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them:
They sank as lead in the mighty waters.
_Women._
"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
(3) _Men._
"Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the Gods?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Thou stretchest out thy right hand,
The earth swallowed them.
Thou in thy mercy hast led the people which thou hast redeemed:
Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation.
The peoples have heard, they tremble:
Till thy people pass over, O Lord,
Till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine
inheritance,
The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign forever and ever.
_Women._
"Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."
--_Modern Reader's Bible._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] History of the People of Israel; Cornill, 30.
[2] Joshua, 10, 12.
[3] History of People of Israel, 47.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ERA OF THE JUDGES.
As we have seen, Joshua's victory left the conquest of Canaan but begun.
It so happened that the great powers were too absorbed with their own
affairs to expand by conquest, so the earlier inhabitants of Palestine
and the Hebrews were left to fight out their difficulties as best they
might. For some generations after the entrance of the Israelites into
Canaan, confusion and disorder ruled. The invaders would win the heights
in a given region, while around them in the plains and valleys,
flourished hostile clans, often harassing and threatening their
settlements. Years of peace would settle over the land, and the two
peoples--Israelites and Canaanites--would intermarry, when again the old
hatred would break out anew.
The period following the death of Joshua has been called the "Era of the
Judges." The simple statement of the ancient Hebrew chronicler makes
clear the situation: "And there was no king in Israel; each man did that
which was right in his own eyes." Our knowledge of this age is derived
chiefly from the Book of Judges, which contains some of the earliest
records of the Israelites. However, the material herein contained has
not come down to us first hand. A prophet of later times selected such
material as suited his purpose from records which were accessible to
him. The writer or writers of the Book of Judges desired to inculcate
religious truths--not to recount historical events. Such pictures of the
life during those years which followed Hebrew occupation of Canaan as
seemed best were fitted into phrases like these: "And the people of
Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jahweh, and Jahweh
delivered them into the hands of their enemies." "The people of Israel
cried unto Jahweh and He raised up to them a deliverer, and the land had
rest." It seems to have been fortunately the case that the older
material was incorporated into the phrases with little change, and from
it one is able to get a very fair idea of the stage of progress to
which the Hebrews had then arrived.
Thirteen _Judges_ are mentioned in the Old Testament, and there were
surely many more whose names were not recorded. In times of emergency,
danger, attack or oppression, a clan, or several clans, one tribe or
possibly two or three tribes, would voluntarily unite under some chosen
chieftain, whose duties and powers were indefinite. If he were able to
deliver them in their distress, they acknowledged him as their leader so
long as he lived. When a similar occasion arose, it was met in a similar
way. Since differences between clans, disputes between individuals, and
various questions were referred to this chief for settlement, later
writers named these men from this duty of referees, _Judges_. Their
earliest title of "deliverer" was more expressive. The story of the
several recorded judges may be read in the biblical book bearing that
name. We shall consider the work of three--not necessarily the most
important in Israel's history.
Matters had become most threatening in Canaan. The Canaanites had united
for a final reduction of Israel and were led by Sisera. This chief was
victorious and seemed about to overcome the Hebrew tribes. The very
existence of Israel was in gravest danger. The highways were unsafe, for
these were held by the Canaanites who were preparing for a final stand.
At this juncture Deborah, an inspired prophetess, called upon Barak, a
chieftain of the north, to deliver the people. Intermarriage between the
Israelites and Canaanites had become so common that it was useless to
attempt to rally the early tribes--early distinctions were no longer
closely drawn. So Deborah called on all who worshipped Jahweh to rally
in His cause. The old enthusiasm was rekindled, and the Canaanites
suffered a great defeat. Their king Sisera escaped and took refuge in
the tent of a peasant woman. Trusting to her hospitality, he partook of
refreshment she offered him. Asking simply for water, she gave him milk.
When he fell asleep for a brief rest, she drove a tent-pin through his
head, thus killing him. It has been fully observed that "only in an age
of tents could such a deed have been thus extolled." The Canaanites
never recovered the loss of that day's defeat, and their strength was
permanently broken. The Song of Deborah, recorded in the Book of
Judges, is one of the earliest writings in the Old Testament. It has
recently been thrown again into its original verse form, and rings clear
of an early age, echoing the spirit of a crude but vigorous race.
DEBORAH'S SONG.
_Men._ For that the leaders took the lead in Israel--
_Women._ For that the people offered themselves willingly--
_All._ Bless ye the Lord!
PRELUDE.
_Men._ Hear, O ye kings--
_Women._ Give ear, O ye princes--
_Men._ I, even I, will sing unto the Lord--
_Women._ I will sing praises to the Lord, the God of Israel.
_All._ Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir,
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped,
Yea, the clouds dropped water.
The mountain flowed down at the presence of the Lord.
Even yon Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.
I. THE DESOLATION.
_Men._ In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael,
The highways were unoccupied,
And the travellers walked through byways;
The rulers ceased in Israel,
They ceased--
_Women._ Until that I, Deborah, arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
_Men._ My heart is toward the governors of Israel--
_Women._ Ye that offered yourselves willingly among the people--
_All._ Bless ye the Lord!
_Men._ Tell of it, ye that ride on white asses,
Ye that sit on rich carpets,
And ye that walk by the way:--
_Women._ Far from the noise of archers,
In the places of drawing water:--
_All._ There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord,
Even the righteous acts of his rule in Israel.
II. THE MUSTER.
_All._ The people of the Lord went down to the gates--
_Men._ Awake, awake, Deborah,
Awake, awake, utter a song:--
_Women._ Arise, Barak,
And lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoan.
_All._ Then came down a remnant of the nobles,
The people of the Lord came down for me against the Mighty.
_Women._ Out of Ephraim came down they whose root is in Amalek--
_Men._ After thee, Benjamin, among thy peoples--
_Women._ Out of Machir came down the governors--
_Men._ And out of Zubulum they that handle the marshal's staff--
_Women._ And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah--
_Men._ So was Issachar, so was Barak:
_All._ Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet.
_Men._ By the water courses of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
_Women._ Why satest thou among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
_Men._ At the watercourses of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart!
_Women._ Gilead abode beyond Jordan--
_Men._ And Dan, why did he remain in ships?
_Women._ Ashur sat still at the haven of the sea,
And abode by his creeks.
_Men._ Zubulum was a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death,
And Naphtali upon the high places of the field.
III. THE BATTLE AND THE ROUT.
_Men._ The kings came and fought;
Then fought the kings of Canaan,
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:--
They took no gain of money.
_Women._ They fought from heaven,
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river Kishon swept them away,--
That ancient river, the river Kishon!
_Men._ O my soul, march on with strength!
Then did the horsehoofs stamp
By reason of the prancings,
The prancings of their strong ones.
_Women._ Curse ye, Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof;
Because they came not to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty!
IV. THE RETRIBUTION.
_Men._ Blessed above women shall Jael be the wife of Heber the
Kenite,
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent!
He asked water, and she gave him milk;
She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
She put her hand to the nail,
And her right hand to the workman's hammer;
And with the hammer she smote Sisera.
She smote through his head,
Yea, she pierced and struck through his temples.
At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay:
At her feet he bowed, he fell:
When he bowed, there he fell down dead!
_Women._ Through the window she looked forth, and cried,
The mother of Sisera, through the lattice,
"Why is his chariot so long coming?
Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?"
Her wise ladies answered her,
Yea, she returned answer to herself,
"Have they not found,
Have they not divided the spoils?
A damsel, two damsels to every man;
To Sisera a spoil of divers colors,
A spoil of divers colors of embroidery,
Of divers colors of embroidery on both sides, on the necks
of the spoil!"
_All._ So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord:
But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth
forth in his might!
Having overcome the Canaanites, the Israelites were not destined to long
enjoy peace. Their own kinsmen, the Ammonites and Moabites looked with
envy upon their good fortune in winning such desirable land and tried
now to rob them of it. Notwithstanding the fact that the Israelites,
Moabites and Ammonites had all a common ancestry, they were never on
that account restrained from plundering one another's territories.
Forced to take a definite stand against them, the Hebrews cast about for
a leader. Jephthah was named. He was an outlaw, a bold border man, who
belonged to the Hebrew race, and his bravery was unquestioned. When
besought, he agreed to drive out the Ammonites on one condition only:
that he be acknowledged chieftain after the battle. This being conceded,
he led the Hebrew forces. It was in keeping with his rough, reckless
nature that he should vow to sacrifice the first living thing he met
upon his return were he victorious. The Ammonites were defeated and to
Jephthah's utter consternation, his daughter, his only child, rushed
forth to meet him. We are told that his vow was kept, and thus we know
that human sacrifices were sometimes offered to Jahweh.
During the era of the Judges, the Philistines on the southwest began to
expand, upon land already settled by the Israelites. They overran the
Plain of Sharon, and the Hebrews who had peopled the plain were driven
into the hills. This crisis brought forth Samson, one of the chiefs who
essayed to stay the power of these new enemies. He was a simple child of
nature--a giant in strength, a weakling in steadfast purpose. He lacked
the capacity to plan a campaign and execute it. The stories of his
prodigious power, his feats pf physical endurance, are too well known to
require repetition. They were lauded by his admirers and delighted in
by the Israelites when directed against their enemies, but his blows
were invariably given to avenge personal wrongs, and he left his people
no farther on their way against the Philistines than he found them.
The great difficulty during this period was that there was no tendency
to hold long together. "Israel had within itself the worst of enemies
and a germ of destruction. This was the proud sense of independence and
the strongly-developed family feeling of the nomad, which did not
immediately vanish from the national character with the surrender of the
nomadic fashion of life. After the united effort under Joshua had but
barely laid the foundation, the people again broke up into tribes and
clans, which now aimlessly sought new places of settlement, each on its
own account and unmindful of its neighbors."[1]
This tendency to fall apart was the most dangerous sign of Israel's
progress, and we shall see how it lasted through her history.
Nevertheless, for the time being the lesson was learned that only by
uniting against the enemy could victory be won. The era of the Judges so
far impressed this truth upon the minds of the Hebrews that we note the
beginnings of Hebrew unity.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hist. of People of Israel, 47.
CHAPTER X.
THE MORALITY OF THE HEBREWS PRIOR TO THE KINGDOM.
It is a mistake to suppose that the lofty conceptions of Israel's later
seers and prophets were manifest among the people from the earliest
times. Quite the reverse was true. Like all primitive people, the
Hebrews passed through the usual stages of development, religiously and
morally. Sufficient evidence goes to show that they worshipped many gods
in the beginning, as did other Semitics. Joshua once reminded them of
their earlier faith:
"Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served
other gods."[1]
"In many respects doubtless their religion was closely akin to that of
neighboring Semitic people. They had their sacred pillars, trees, and
other emblems of the divine power and presence; they carried with them
_teraphim_, which were apparently images venerated as household gods. In
many of their beliefs and practices they did not rise above the general
level of their age."[2]
During their long sojourn in Egypt, as might have been expected, they
grew to worship Egyptian gods. "Cast ye away every man the abominations
of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt."[3]
The explanation which has seemed to make clear the unique development of
the Hebrew above other Semitics, is this one--only recently offered. It
is well-known that the Israelites were originally henotheists--that is,
they believed in many gods--believed that many divinities were powerful,
but they gave allegiance to one, the god of their tribe. This god
belonged to their tribe, and shared its successes and failures. Now when
Moses accepted Jahweh, God of the Midianites, he persuaded the
Israelites to forsake the gods they were worshipping and give their
homage to Jahweh. At the foot of Sinai he caused them to make a
covenant with Jahweh: the God was to give them protection, and they were
to worship him alone. Because he was an adopted God and not a member of
their tribe, he was bound to protect them only when they served him
faithfully. The adopted God could cast off his adopted people if they
failed to fulfill their part of the contract. The Hebrews always said
that they were a peculiar people. They repeatedly referred to the fact
that God could cast them off if they were unloyal to him. Such a thing
is unknown among other nations. No other God could cast off his people;
he was one of them. This explains also why the Hebrews were always so
ready to abandon their God and take on the gods of their neighbors.
"In any case it is clear that Jahweh was not originally the god of
Israel, but only became such in consequence of the work of Moses and of
the events of the exodus....
"Israel's relation to Jahweh was unique.... He was not an ancestral god
who stood in a natural and necessary relation to his people, like the
gods of other Semitic tribes; but he was the god of Sinai and of Midian,
who had come into connection with Israel only through his own free,
moral choice. Israel belonged to him, not by birth, but by election. Its
existence and its continuance were dependent upon his sovereign good
pleasure, and he might cast it off as easily as he had adopted it. Under
these circumstances he had the right to make conditions upon which his
favour should depend such as other gods could not make. This fact does
not explain the ethical character of the Mosaic religion; it explains
only why an ethical religion was promulgated at this particular
time."[4]
It is the custom of all primitive people to ascribe their early laws and
government to divine origin. This rule is seldom varied, and was adhered
to by the ancient Hebrews. Instead of conceiving the God-Spirit as
having endowed Moses with true insight, wise judgments, and high ideals,
the Israelites believed that their Covenant had been dictated, word by
word, by Jahweh, while it was further claimed that tablets with words
inscribed upon them were given Moses by God himself. As a matter of
fact, the earliest decalogue differed widely from the one best known.
The commandments first given the people after they were led forth from
Egypt were probably the ones recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of
Exodus, and were something like these:
1. Thou shalt worship no other god.
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. The feast of unleaven bread shalt thou keep.
4. Every firstling is mine.
5. Thou shalt keep the feast of the weeks.
6. Thou shalt keep the feast of the ingathering at the end of
the year.
7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
8. The fat of my feast shall not be left over until the morning.
9. Thou shalt bring the best of the first fruits of thy land to
the house of Jehovah thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Because Moses was known to the Israelites as a law-giver, laws passed
long after his death were attributed to him, quite as laws which came
into being years after the death of Hammurabit in Babylon were probably
attributed to this great national law-giver.
A company of slaves, escaping from servitude after serving for two or
three generations, and having possessed but a crude civilization
previous to that experience, would require only the simplest laws, and
any one reading the various rules and regulations attributed to this
period will easily see how crude was the stage of development which made
such instruction necessary. As time went on, and the people advanced and
became more enlightened, new laws were possible. These continued to be
known as the "Laws of Moses," as laws in all early countries have been
attributed to some renowned personage, to give them added force.
In these early periods which we have been studying, the religion of the
Hebrews possessed many features in common with those of surrounding
nations. We read that the "Children of Israel walked through the fire,"
which means that they sacrificed their first-born in flames as offerings
to their God. Jahweh was believed to be a jealous God, vindictive,
demanding cruel treatment of captives, and fierce and relentless in
battle. A man cannot get a higher ideal of God than that of a perfect
human being, and this was an age when all ideas and ideals were crude.
When the Hebrews settled Canaan, they learned much from the earlier
inhabitants of the land. Becoming farmers, they quite naturally fell
into the way of worshipping the god of harvests, and other agricultural
deities of the Canaanites. The "high places" are repeatedly spoken of,
these being places where other gods were worshipped. When roused by
danger, they renewed their covenant with Jahweh and returned to more
careful performance of their part of the early agreement.
The system of polygamy was well established. Several of the patriarchs
took two or more wives. If a man died childless, it was not only
customary but a duty that the next in line should marry the widow and
raise up seed to his memory. This is expressly shown by the story of
Ruth, most attractive in its early simplicity. We learn more of the
every day life of the Israelites in the period following Hebrew
occupancy of Canaan from this little idyl than from any other source, or
from all other sources combined.
So far as germs of government and judicial administration of the people
thus far discernible are concerned, they had seemingly not progressed
farther than the instruction of Moses led them. The years spent in the
wilderness after the exodus were very essential to the future welfare of
the Hebrew nation. Their government--to whatever extent they possessed
one--was closely allied to their religion. There were many experiences
met with in these forty years which seemed to prove Jahweh's care and
protection over them, and Moses was regarded as his representative on
earth, who received his instructions from Jahweh and delivered them to
his people.
"His words were Jehovah's message to them. As he led them in their
wilderness wandering, they felt themselves under the direct guidance of
their God; he attended to the simple ritual of the desert sanctuary at
Kadesh; to him, as the representative of Jehovah, were referred the more
difficult cases of dispute which arose; his decisions had all the weight
of Jehovah's authority. _In this way he laid down by practical
illustration the principles of that civil and religious law which bears
his name._ As these cases multiplied, he was led to constitute a rude
patriarchal tribunal composed of the elders of the tribes. In this
simple organization is found the germ of the Hebrew judicial and
executive system.
"Thus Moses was the man who under divine direction 'hewed Israel from
the rock.' Subsequent prophets and circumstances chiselled the rough
boulder into symmetrical form, but the glory of the creative act is
rightly attributed to the first great Hebrew prophet. As a leader, he
not only created a nation, but guided them through infinite vicissitudes
to a land where they might have a settled abode and develop into a
stable power; in so doing, he left upon his race the imprint of his own
personality. As a judge, he set in motion forces which ultimately led to
the incorporation of the principles of right in objective laws. As a
priest, he first gave form to the worship of Jehovah. As a prophet, _he
gathered together all that was best in the faith of his age and race_,
and, fusing them, gave to his people a living religion."[5]
Before the time of the monarchy, their darkest years were those wherein
the Israelites departed from this Mosaic teaching; their best periods,
those in which they assimilated it and attempted to carry it out. To
whatever extent they developed strength and stability for their future
nation before the birth of their kingdom, such strength came as a result
of the Mosaic religious and moral teaching.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Joshua, 24, 2.
[2] Short Hist. of the Hebrews: Ottley, 26.
[3] Ezekiel, 20, 7.
[4] Early Hist. of Syria and Palestine: Paton, 139, 141.
[5] Hist. of the Hebrew People: Kent Vol. I 44.
CHAPTER XI.
CAUSES LEADING TO THE KINGDOM.
1250 B.C. has been taken as an approximate date for the exodus of the
Israelites from Egypt, some placing the event still earlier. After the
wandering in the desert, considerable time was spent winning Canaan from
its earlier possessors before any settlement was possible. The twelfth
century and first part of the eleventh before Christ were years of
re-adjustment, the Israelites losing the habits of desert nomads and
becoming tillers of the soil.
In rocky districts they still raised sheep and cattle but acquired fixed
homes. Warfare had been constant, but in later years had been carried on
wholly by individual tribes, there being no concerted action. The
tendency to divide and seek each its own peculiar interests had been
apparent from the first, and the beginning of the eleventh century B.C.
found the tribes prostrated as a result. The Canaanites no longer
threatened them but the Philistines constantly grew bolder. When they
pressed into the plain of Jezreel, the Israelites were forced to fight
them, but lacking an able leader and sufficient numbers, they lost the
day. Surviving instincts of earlier superstitious practices led them to
bring the ark containing their covenant with Jehovah from its sanctuary
at Shiloh, thinking this might aid them in a second struggle. "Let us
fetch the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of Shiloh unto us, that it
may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies." But
instead of leading to victory, 30,000 Israelites fell upon the battle
field and the sacred ark itself fell into the hands of the Philistines.
"The Philistines burned and destroyed the temple at Shiloh, carried the
captured sacred ark to the temple of their chief god, Dagon, and
subjected the land, even to the Jordan; the people were disarmed and
held in check by Philistine prefects and strongholds. And from all
evidence this Philistine domination must have lasted a considerable
time. Israel seemed paralyzed and submitted, though with gnashing of
teeth."[1]
When Israel lay stricken and at the mercy of her enemies on the west,
the Ammonites thought the time favorable to lead a new attack for the
purpose of recovering their earlier territories on the east. The town of
Jabesh was first afflicted, and when its inhabitants offered to
surrender, feeling helpless to overpower their ancient foes, the king of
the Ammonites insolently replied that he would cause the right eye of
each citizen of the town to be cast out, as a reproach to Israel. In the
quaint expression of Josephus: "The king of the Ammonites sent
ambassadors to them, commanding them either to deliver themselves up, on
condition to have their right eyes plucked out, or to undergo a siege,
and have their cities overthrown. He gave them their choice, whether
they would cut off a small number of their body, or universally perish."
Implored to grant them a few days respite, the king of the Ammonites
scornfully conceded it, sure of his ultimate triumph.
In Ephraim dwelt a seer, Samuel by name. He was a godly man, having rare
purity of character and intense religious fervor. Dedicated when a child
to the service of Jehovah, the course of his life had led him to catch
the spirit of the great founder of the Hebrew nation and beyond him, to
gain a broader conception of the great God-Spirit. He understood why his
people were a prey to every neighbor, and knew better than most how much
a firm leadership was needed by them. With eyes that saw far into the
future, Samuel realized that the crying need was unity and concerted
action. Now in these ancient days, unity meant kingship. Under strong
kings, contemporary nations flourished, and a king was apparently
necessary in Canaan.
Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, seeking his father's asses, approached
the seer, whose prophetic powers were well known in his vicinity. The
youth thought simply to invoke his aid in his private interests, but
Samuel recognized in the broad-shouldered, well-proportioned Benjaminite
one who might come to the rescue of stricken Israel. With prophetic
vision, Samuel foretold coming events and anointed Saul as one chosen of
Jehovah to rule the nation of His special care. Since he was not called
immediately to action, Saul returned to his father's house, where he
went about his ordinary duties. But the words of the seer had sunk deep
into his heart. Indications of Israel's stricken condition were not
wanting on every hand, and Saul brooded over her helplessness and his
call to save his people. At length, when the citizens from mourning
Jabesh visited his vicinity, vainly trying to rouse their kinsmen to
action, Saul saw that his opportunity had come. Sympathy had been
everywhere expressed by the Israelites, but they had suffered too many
recent defeats to feel confidence in their ability to win.
Saul hastily cut up a yoke of oxen, and sending these bloody tokens to
the various tribes, he notified them that such treatment would be meted
out to their flocks and herds unless they came to the relief of the
trans-Jordan cities. Recognizing a leader at last, men quickly gathered.
The desert tribe was surprised, defeated and pursued into its desert
strongholds. Thereupon Saul was popularly proclaimed king, as it was now
believed that he alone could save the Hebrews from the Philistines, who
were heavily oppressing them.
A king is ordinarily one who rules a kingdom, but in the case of Saul, a
kingdom had first to be won. His encounters with the Philistines were
successful, but his reign proved to be a continual campaign against
them. Gradually Saul became estranged from Samuel, who represented the
best element in Israel. Priests of a later period assigned the
difference between them as having arisen over Saul's leniency toward his
captives, but it is believed that instead it came naturally between two
men whose ideals were wide apart. Saul was incapable of taking an
exalted view of his people's mission, as did his priest and prophet.
Beset on all sides by the enemy, estranged from Samuel and in general
from the priesthood, Saul became moody and subject to fits of
melancholia. To dispel these, David, son of Jesse, was brought from his
father's flocks on the mountainside, to gladden the king's idle hours.
David was accomplished upon the harp, and his music had power to quiet
the restless king, who heaped favors and honors upon him--after the
nature of his impulsive disposition. As armour-bearer to the king, David
had frequent opportunities to distinguish himself, while he and the
king's son Jonathan became fast friends. However, as David grew in favor
with the people, Saul became intensely jealous of him. Where the
kingship was but an experiment, popularity was important to a ruler. In
his disordered brain, Saul conceived that a plot was being laid by his
son and David, and as a result, David was obliged to flee for his life.
He raised his standard as an outlaw chief, and all the dissatisfied
element of the land flocked to his side. Yet even here David favored the
people of Israel whenever he could; for protection he went into the
service of the Philistine king of Gath, but we are told that when he was
supposed to be fighting against the Hebrews, he was in reality fighting
off their desert enemies.
The division within the ranks of Israel once more gave opportunity to
the watchful Philistines. They made ready for a final assault, and the
moody and disheartened Saul prepared to fight them back. He was no
longer able to rouse his kinsmen as at first. Many were discontented
with his rule, and many favored David. Before the battle, Saul, grown
more superstitious with the pressure of circumstance, visited the witch
of Endor to learn by her art the issue of the battle. Never does the
king, tall in stature and once confident, but now broken in spirit,
appear more tragic. When she predicted defeat--and small art was needed
to foretell such an apparent outcome--Saul felt that all was lost. One
feels as when the voice of Cæsar spake unto Brutus in the great play:
"Thou shalt see me at Philippi"--the battle is lost before it is begun.
When all was lost, Saul gave his sword to his armour-bearer to stab him
lest he fall into the hands of the enemy. When he lacked courage, he
plunged it into his own breast. Both he and his noble son Jonathan went
down on that fateful field, and so ended the first reign in Israel.
David is believed to have composed his beautiful elegy "How are the
Mighty Fallen" upon this occasion.
DAVID'S LAMENT.
Thy glory, O Israel,
Is slain upon thy high places!
How are the mighty--
Fallen!
Tell it not in Gath,
Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon;
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you,
Neither fields of offerings:
For the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,
The shield of Saul, as of one not anointed with oil.
From the blood of the slain,
From the fat of the mighty,
The bow of Jonathan turned not back,
And the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives,
And in their death they were not divided;
They were swifter than eagles,
They were stronger than lions.
Ye daughters of Israel,
Weep over Saul,
Who clothed you in scarlet,
Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
How are the mighty--
Fallen in the midst of the battle!
O Jonathan,
Slain upon thy high places.
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:
Thy love to me was wonderful,
Passing the love of women.
How are the mighty--
Fallen!
And the weapons of war--
Perished!
--_Modern Reader's Bible._
In the Old Testament itself are two contradictory estimates of the
character of Saul. One was written by those who favored and cared for
him; the other, by the faction which favored David. Later compilers have
thrown the two together, and the result is that we must once more
disentangle the two narratives and then judge between them. The
following characterizations of him differ considerably, and yet have
certain ideas in common:
"Saul is one of the most tragic figures in history. A great and nobly
endowed nature, heroic and chivalrous, inspired with fiery zeal, he
finally accomplished nothing.... He lacked appreciation of the true
character of Israel; in this regard tradition has given a wholly correct
picture of him. He was exclusively a soldier, and was in a fair way to
exchange Israel into a secular military state and thus divert it from
its religious function in universal history. Saul may claim our deepest
compassion and our heartiest sympathy, but the fall of his power was a
blessing for Israel."[2]
The second criticism upon the fallen king seems more fair and
sympathetic:
"Saul was a simple-minded, impulsive, courageous warrior; he was a loyal
patriot who loved his people and was ready to give his life for them;
his physical pre-eminence, combined with energy and enthusiasm, fitted
him to lead a sudden attack and to awaken loyal support, while his
intrepid courage kindled the same in others. But Saul was a son of that
rude age whose roots were found in the period of the Judges. In a sense
he was a child grown big. The position which he occupied demanded
executive ability, tact, the power of organization, and, above all,
patience and persistency. In these maturer qualities he was deficient;
they are rarely the possession of fiery, impetuous natures. In addition,
Saul was unable to understand and appreciate the higher religious
experiences and ideals which were already becoming the possession of
the more enlightened souls of seers like Samuel. As is frequently true
with such a nature, Saul was superstitious. Circumstances tended to
develop the darker rather than the brighter side of his character. The
constant trials and cares of the court and battle-field daunted his
enthusiasm, and induced those attacks of melancholia which obscured the
nobler Saul and led him to commit acts which constantly increased the
density of the clouds that gathered about his latter days.
"When he fell at Gilboa, and the Philistines again became masters of
northern and central Canaan, Saul's work seemed to be completely undone;
_but its foundations were laid too deeply to be undermined by political
changes_. Saul found the Hebrews ground down under Philistine dominance,
broken in spirit, undisciplined, and little more than cowards. He united
and aroused them to strike for independence. By his successes he
inspired in them confidence and courage. In the severe training-school
of Philistine warfare, he developed out of the cowards who had fled
before the Philistine army to hide themselves in caves and cisterns, the
hardy, brave warriors with whom David made his conquests. Above all, he
taught the Hebrews by practical illustration, more clearly than ever
before, that by union and union alone they could be free, and enjoy
peace and prosperity. As is often the case, _the pioneer perished amidst
seeming failure before he saw the ripe fruits of his labors; but his
work was absolutely necessary_. David reaped the fruits of Saul's
sowing, but the harvest would never have been so glorious without the
pioneer's toils."[3]
REIGN OF DAVID.
Saul is supposed to have ruled not longer than eight or ten years. His
youngest son, Eshbaal, was recognized as his natural successor. Abner,
Saul's commander-in-chief, gave Eshbaal the support of whatever army
survived, and he was established on the east side of the Jordan, while
all the territory west of the river receded to the Philistines.
David realized that he was in no position to assume control of the
Hebrews at this juncture, for he had but a few hundred followers and he
was sure to be welcomed by all the tribes only when his services were
required for the common safety. Judah was deeply attached to him at this
time, and he allowed himself to be made king of the tribe of Judah, and
established himself at Hebron.
As soon as Eshbaal felt sufficiently secure on the east of Jordan Abner
was sent to overcome David and his followers, who had thus failed to
recognize the kingship of Eshbaal. They suffered defeat and had to
retreat across the river. The times were troublous and before eight
years had passed, both Eshbaal and Abner were murdered. This left the
way open for David, to whom the subjects of Eshbaal sent homage.
The Philistines had considered the little kingdom of Saul's son unworthy
of attention, but a kingdom on the west side of the river might prove a
menace to their power, so they hastened to attack the newly crowned
king. David marched against them and broke forever their strength. They
retired into their earlier possessions and harassed Israel no more.
One by one the old enemies of the Hebrews had to be reckoned with. The
Moabites attacked the territory of David and were overcome and made
vassals. On the north the Ammonites made a raid and were so completely
defeated that we hear of them no more. On the south the Edomites made
war, and their lands also became a Hebrew province. In all these wars,
David was the defender of his people--never the aggressor, yet he left
each tribe with no further desire to make war upon Israel.
David was a statesman, and he saw at once that as king of the Hebrews,
he must no longer remain isolated with his native tribe, in the vicinity
to him most familiar. He saw that the site of Jerusalem was capable of
excellent defense, and this he made his capital.
"Jerusalem is situated pretty near the central part of the entire
country, and belonging to none of the tribes it stood on neutral ground
above them and their rivalries. When it is called the City of David this
is no mere phrase, for Jerusalem is altogether the creation of David;
and when we consider what Jerusalem was to the people of Israel, and
through the people of Israel to all mankind, we shall recognize in the
foundation of this City of David an event of world-wide importance."
Israel had reached the highest pinnacle of its political power. David's
kingdom was the most powerful one between the valley of the Euphrates
and the Nile. While disturbances extended throughout the reign until
within the last ten of David's forty years, yet the nation was saved
from impending danger and was placed on a sure basis. Now it was that
David allowed his personal desires to lead him into difficulties which
followed him many years and which darkened the reign which had promised
so much. An infatuation for Bath-sheba, wife of one of his officers,
took possession of him, and caused him to make way with her husband who
stood in his way. Like other Semitic and Oriental nations, the Hebrews
were accustomed to take more than one wife, but the religion of Jehovah
had been from the beginning a moral religion, and the more earnest among
Israel's people could but be shocked by this action on the part of the
king. Much has been made of David's remorse, but it was not so great but
that he allowed the unscrupulous woman who had aided him in his
wrongdoing to exercise a strong influence over him throughout his life.
His sons seemed to feel no restraint upon them and added crimes to their
house. Absalom, David's favorite son, took advantage of his father's
loss of popularity to raise a revolt against him. This was easily put
down, but the death of Absalom quite unnerved the king. Bath-sheba
rested not until she had settled the succession upon her son, Solomon.
Shortly after this decision was made known, David died, having reigned
forty years. In realizing what all these years meant for Israel, we can
never lose sight of the pioneer work of Saul which alone made possible
the more brilliant one of his successor.
"It is not possible to overestimate what David did for Israel: Israel as
a people, as a representative of political life, as a concrete quantity
in the development of universal history, as a nation in the fullest
sense of the word, is exclusively his work. With this he completed what
Moses had begun in quiet and inconspicuous labors on Sinai and at
Kadesh. And all of this David created as it were out of nothing, under
the most difficult conditions conceivable, with no other means than his
own all-inspiring and all-compelling personality....
"David created Israel and at the same time raised it to its highest
eminence; what Israel was under and through David it never again became.
And so we can easily understand how the eyes of Israel rested in
grateful reverence upon this figure, and how a second David became the
dream of Israel's future.
"True, the picture of David does not lack the traits of human frailty,
which Israelitish tradition, with a truly admirable sincerity has
neither suppressed nor palliated; but the charm which this personality
exercised over all contemporaries without exception has not yet faded
for us of later day; whoever devoted himself without prejudice to the
contemplation of David's history and character cannot fail to like him.
A saint and psalm-singer, as later tradition has represented him, he
certainly was not; but we find in him, a truly noble human figure, which,
in spite of all, preserved the tenderest and most fragrant bloom of its
nature, perfect directness and simplicity; nowhere any posing, nothing
theatrical, such as is always found in sham greatness; he always acts
out what he is, but his unspoiled nature, noble at heart, generally
comes very near to the right and good. At the same time the whole
personality is touched with a breath of genuine piety and childlike
trust in God, so that we can wholly comprehend how he appears to
tradition as the ideal ruler, the king after God's own heart.
"This king, who did more for the worldly greatness and earthly power of
Israel than any one else, was a genuine Israelite in that he appreciated
also Israel's religious destiny: he was no soldier-king, no conqueror
and warrior of common stamp, no ruler like any one of a hundred others,
but he is the truest incorporation of the unique character of Israel, a
unique personality in the history of the world, and we understand how he
could become the impersonation of an idea--how the highest and holiest
that Israel hoped for and longed for appears at the Son of David."[4]
We are shocked as we read of David's cruelty to captives, but in his
ferocious treatment he was but following an instinct common to the
Semitic race. It is to be remembered that he was but a brief time
removed from the era of the Judges, when even Samuel, the far-seeing
seer, and God-fearing man, hacked an enemy to pieces before the altar of
Jehovah, to the supposed gratification of his God. David's faults were
common to his age, and they were not looked upon by his contemporaries
as we look upon them today, but his virtues and redeeming
characteristics raised him far above the majority of Israel's people,
and his reign was harked back to as most worthy in Hebrew annals.
SOLOMON.
Solomon was the son of David's fourth wife--Bathsheba. Selfish, devoid
of principle and fond of intrigue, she influenced David to recognize her
son as his successor, setting aside the right of an older son. It is not
unlikely that David believed Solomon the more capable of serving Israel.
Solomon had inherited his mother's selfishness and love of display. He
soon caused the death of his brother, in order to make his crown secure.
Having neither aptitude nor ability for war, fortifications took the
place of active armies. The vassal-kingdoms which David had won were
soon lost. Forts were erected at important border places, and the city
of Jerusalem was strongly fortified.
Oriental display and absolutism were emulated by the young king. He
desired to set his kingdom on a footing with other kingdoms of his time,
and, ignoring the early aims and mission of the Israelites, he made
everything else subordinate to the exaltation of the court and king.
Commercial alliances were made with neighboring peoples; wives were
taken from many states--petty and great. Most flattering was thought to
be the marriage alliance between the Hebrew king and a daughter of the
pharaoh of Egypt, and elaborate apartments were provided her. In early
times a king added materially to his property and prestige by making
numerous alliances of this sort. David had deemed it best to do so and
Solomon followed the principle on a much wider scale.
Naturally ample funds were now required to meet the expenses of the
court, and various means were provided to secure the necessary income.
The whole kingdom was divided into twelve districts and each was
required to defray the court's expenses for one month. Moreover,
commercial enterprises were entered upon; toll was collected from the
overland trade, and the king himself dealt heavily in horses, which he
imported from Egypt and sold to the neighboring peoples at a good
profit. Suddenly the little nation of Israelites, so long isolated and
remote from the influences of wealth, was thrown open to outside contact
on every hand.
"Hitherto struggles within and hostility without had rendered the Hebrew
peasants almost impervious to foreign influences; now, all at once, the
bars were thrown down, and these came rushing in like a tidal wave. The
horse took the place of the ass; metal weapons and tools supplanted the
rude ones of flint and wood; walled cities arose on the sites of the
primitive towns with their mud and stone hovels; the rude barracks of
David grew into a palace; the simple gathering of followers about Saul,
as he sat under his tamarisk-tree in Ramah, developed into a great
Oriental court; luxuries undreamed of before came to be regarded as
necessities; foreign spices, apes, peacocks, ivory, precious stones and
woods aroused the curiosity and delighted the senses of the inhabitants
of the gay capital."[5]
Nations entering into commercial relations with Solomon expected as a
matter of course that their gods would be welcomed in the land of the
Hebrews. Many of the commercial treaties were cemented by marriage
alliances, and the princesses who came into the king's harem brought
their own forms of worship with them. Places of worship had to be
provided for them, and the idolatry of later years may be traced back in
a large measure to the laxity of this period.
The adornment of Jerusalem demanded much of the king's attention. In
place of the simple quarters which had sufficed for David, a noble
palace arose. Apartments for the queens were needed. It has recently
been insisted that instead of the three hundred and sixty wives credited
to Solomon, he had but seventy, but a few more or less seem of little
moment. The harem rivaled that of Persia, and the cost of maintaining so
elaborate a court was out of all proportion to the resources of the
kingdom. The people were taxed to the utmost. The Canaanites, who had
long been permitted to live in peace by the side of the Hebrews, were
now reduced to slavery and put at forced labor, quite as the Hebrews had
been in Egypt.
[Illustration: ROSES OF SHARON. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood,
N. Y.]
Notwithstanding, many ties bound the people to their king. They took
great pride in the splendor of their capital, and especially were
they gratified by the erection of the temple in Jerusalem. Hither David
had brought the ark of the covenant, which had been recovered from the
Philistines, and here with due ceremony the center of the kingdom had
already been made the religious center as well. It seems probable that
to Solomon the temple was but a necessary adjunct to his court
buildings. Among most ancient peoples temples were erected in connection
with the king's palace. It gave added dignity and inspired wonder. To
the masses it probably meant much more. Certainly it grew later to be
the center for their religious enthusiasm and spirit.
Nor was Solomon's popularity based alone upon his achievements. He had a
way of awakening personal popularity. He attained a wide reputation for
his so-called "wisdom." As we follow his reckless policy of plunging his
country on to ruin, this far-famed wisdom is not at once apparent. It
consisted in subtlety, quick wit, ready answers and apt sayings, so much
in favor among all oriental peoples. His wisdom is well exemplified by
the stories told of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to his court, and
her tests as to the truth of his famed gift. It is probable that this
Arabian queen came to negotiate commercial advantages-for her subjects,
but we are told only the ostensible reason for her coming: to test the
wisdom of Solomon, whose fame had reached her kingdom. The dusky queen
of renowned beauty brought costly presents to the Hebrew king, and
received high honor and attention at his court. Stories have survived of
questions put to his majesty by this queen. Two bouquets were held out
before him, apparently alike, yet one was just gathered from his garden,
and the other had been fashioned by the maidens of the queen. The simple
tale is told in a little poem entitled "King Solomon and the Bees," and
we leave the verses to complete it.
KING SOLOMON AND THE BEES.
A TALE OF THE TALMUD.
When Solomon was reigning in his glory,
Unto his throne the Queen of Sheba came,
(So in the Talmud you may read the story)
Drawn by the magic of the monarch's fame,
To see the splendors of his court, and bring
Some fitting tribute to the mighty king.
Nor this alone; much had her Highness heard
What flowers of learning graced the royal speech;
What gems of wisdom dropped with every word;
What wholesome lessons he was wont to teach
In pleasing proverbs, and she wished, in sooth,
To know if Rumor spoke the simple truth.
Besides, the queen had heard (which piqued her most)
How through the deepest riddles he could spy;
How all the curious arts that women boast
Were quite transparent to his piercing eye;
And so the queen had come--a royal guest--
To put the sage's cunning to the test.
And straight she held before the monarch's view,
In either hand, a radiant wreath of flowers;
The one, bedecked with every charming hue,
Was newly culled from Nature's choicest bowers;
The other, no less fair in every part,
Was the rare product of divinest art.
"Which is the true, and which the false?" she said.
Great Solomon was silent. All-amazed,
Each wondering courtier shook his puzzled head,
While at the garlands long the monarch gazed,
As one who sees a miracle, and fain,
For very rapture, ne'er would speak again.
"Which is the true?" once more the woman asked,
Pleased at the fond amazement of the king,
"So wise a head should not be hardly tasked,
Most learned liege, with such a trivial thing!"
But still the sage was silent; it was plain
A deepening doubt perplexed the royal brain.
While thus he pondered, presently he sees,
Hard by the casement,--so the story goes,--
A little band of busy, bustling bees,
Hunting for honey in a withered rose.
The monarch smiled, and raised his royal head;
"Open the window!"--that was all he said.
The window opened, at the king's command;
Within the room the eager insects flew,
And sought the flowers in Sheba's dexter hand!
And so the king and all the courtiers knew
_That_ wreath was Nature's; and the baffled queen
Returned to tell the wonders she had seen.
My story teaches (every tale should bear
A fitting moral) that the wise may find
In trifles light as atoms in the air,
Some useful lesson to enrich the mind,
Some truth designed to profit or to please,--
As Israel's king learned wisdom from the bees!
--_Saxe._
Six little boys and six little girls, all dressed alike, with cropped
heads, were led into the king's presence, and he was asked to tell which
were girls and which boys. "Bring in basins of water," he commanded,
"and bid them wash their hands." Now in that land the girls wore short
sleeves and the boys long ones. Unthinking, the girls washed their arms
as well, but the boys washed their hands alone. So were the spectators
silently told which were which.
Such ingenious answers as these established for Solomon his reputation
for wisdom, and many of the wise sayings imputed to him are known now to
have been the sayings of others.
Before the king's death, murmurings were not uncommon because of the
oppressive administration, and the high-minded of the religious body
looked with grave misgivings upon the influx of foreign gods. Even to
them the whole danger was not apparent. That was left for a period more
remote to understand.
When Solomon died, his son came forward as his successor. The usual
custom among Semitics was for the crown to descend to the eldest son,
but the kingship was a new institution in Israel and the people had held
to the right of electing their king. They now gathered around Rehoboam,
clamoring for promises. They recalled that his father had taxed them
heavily and asked that he deal with them more leniently. Instead of
answering such reasonable demands at once, the king told them he would
make reply three days later. Meanwhile he counselled with his
ministers--how should he meet the popular demand. The older men
immediately pointed out the safer policy, but the younger ones held that
he should resent the liberty the people had taken in making any demands
whatever, and should assure them that his demands would be even greater
than those of his father. Their folly prevailed. When the people heard
his reply, they were momentarily grieved. Then all the tribes save
two--Judah and Benjamin--withdrew and vowed they would no longer support
the house of David. Solomon's son received the support of two tribes,
and his kingdom was henceforth known by the name of Judaea, while the
northern kingdom was called by the name of Israel.
Having seen the dangers assailing the united kingdom, we realize at once
the recklessness of the policy that divided it and set two kingdoms with
lessened strength to hold their own among their neighbors.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hist. of the People of Israel: Cornill, 75.
[2] Hist. of the People of Israel: Cornill, 83.
[3] Hist. of the Hebrew People: Kent, Vol. I, 180.
[4] Cornill: Hist. of People of Israel, 83.
[5] Kent: Hist. of Hebrew People, 180.
CHAPTER XII.
AFTER THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM.
While the arrogance of Rehoboam and the extravagances of Solomon were
the direct causes of the disunion, yet other agencies had long been at
work to bring it about. In the first place, natural land features
divided the ridge on the west side of the Jordan into two distinct
parts. Any permanent union was not probable. Again, the northern tribes
inhabited the more prosperous district. Their resources were greater;
and with the jealousies that always manifested themselves among the
tribes, it was hardly to have been expected that they would indefinitely
consent to be ruled by Judean kings. Moreover, during the reign of
Solomon, Judah had been exempt from taxation. Into a Judean city had
poured the wealth of the kingdom, while the hand of oppression, so heavy
elsewhere, was unfelt alone in this province. Indignation had apparently
reached a high pitch before Solomon's death, yet spokesmen for the
northern tribes met with the new king and made a simple and reasonable
demand for reduced taxes in turn for allegiance. A statesman might have
held the kingdom intact, yet it is scarcely probable that union would
have indefinitely endured. The royal messenger sent to reconcile the
northern tribes after their withdrawal was so speedily stoned to death
that the king fled for safety to Jerusalem. Jeroboam, an experienced
general, was elected king of Israel--the northern kingdom, and
hostilities between the two kingdoms were inevitable.
Judah was somewhat protected--on the north by the new-formed state, on
the east by the river and Dead Sea, on the south by the desert. On the
other hand, Israel, with her traversable plains, lay open to approach
from every side, and she it was who had to bear the brunt of outside
attack for the next two centuries.
A comparison of the two states at the outset shows Israel to have been
first in natural resources, size and population; to have been second in
unity and centralized government. Judah, with her limited area, scarcity
of water, absence of fertile soil and scanty population, had marked
advantage in her unity and hereditary kingship. There were ten tribes to
be pacified in the north--only two in the south. In Israel the
jealousies were so strong that it was the work of a moment for an
influential prince to assassinate the reigning king and usurp the crown.
Judah was crippled shortly after the division by an invasion of Egyptian
forces. They penetrated into Israel as well, but treasure was greatest
in Jerusalem. Three hundred golden shields, made by Solomon for his
guards, were taken, together with the rich decoration of the temple.
Rehoboam soon after had the ornaments of gold replaced by others of
bronze, so the splendor of the temple was not greatly changed.
For some time hostilities continued between the Hebrew kingdoms. Then
danger from Syria, a rising state with Damascus at its head, made an
alliance desirable to both kings.
After the disunion, Jeroboam felt that it would be manifestly unsafe to
allow the people of Israel to go to Jerusalem to celebrate their
national festivals, lest they might be led to return to Judah's king.
Consequently he established two sanctuaries, one at Bethel and one at
Dan, instructing people to worship at the one nearest them. He caused a
golden bull to be placed before the altar of each, thus violating the
commandment forbidding graven images. Perhaps in so doing the king was
merely symbolizing the strength of Jehovah. At an earlier period this
would have been less objectionable, but the people had grown somewhat
accustomed to worship without symbols, and this was plainly a
retrogression. The imageless worship of Jehovah was one of its
distinctive features, lifting it above that of surrounding peoples.
While prophets of a later day denounced the act of Jeroboam, the priests
of his own day were too near the change to discern its grave dangers.
The kingdoms which centered at Damascus began to reach out for
territory, and harassed Israel until the imperial growth of Assyria
caused the withdrawal of Syrian troops to protect their own land. Left
alone, the northern kingdom developed her own resources and attained a
prosperity rivaling the time of Solomon. Meanwhile, Judah had been
sheltered from outside wars and less affected by religious orders.
The period intervening between the fall of Damascus and the wars of
Tiglath-Pileser III. has been aptly called "Israel's Indian Summer." The
outlying territories of David came once more under Hebrew rule, divided
between the kingdoms of the north and south. Commerce, long abandoned,
sprang up and rivaled its tide in Solomon's reign. Unfortunately, the
social life of the people lacked its earlier simplicity, and there were
tendencies within the kingdom itself which pointed to the disintegration
of the state as surely as did the forces that were soon to approach its
walled cities.
First, recent wars had fallen most heavily upon the middle class. Small
farmers, returning from campaigns of defense of Hebrew borders, found
their estates run down, sometimes dismantled. Having no means of
building them up again, they frequently sank into the peasantry. In
periods of reaction, when property and commercial activity returned, it
was the wealthy who were benefited, while the poor became poorer yet. In
this way the middle class had practically disappeared. Such a loss would
be serious enough to a state, but this was by no means all. The
simplicity of living which had characterized the early years of the
Hebrew nation had given way to extravagance and reckless waste on the
part of the rich, throwing into powerful contrast the condition of the
poor. The humbler classes were oppressed--not by foreign foes, but by
the wealthy of their own state, and abandonment of any sympathy between
social classes was one of the most alarming tendencies.
The religious life of the country was at a low ebb. By the masses
Jehovah was still regarded as God of the Hebrews--a tribal God, quite as
Baal was god of the Phoenicians, or Asshur of the Assyrians. It was
taught by the priests that Jehovah would cause the Hebrews to win
against their enemies, since only by their triumphs was he honored. He
was worshipped much as were the gods of other nations. Licentious
customs borrowed from neighboring peoples, profaned the very temples,
and undermined earlier religious simplicity.
It was such a state of affairs that called forth the utterances of Amos
and Hosea, from whose addresses we learn of social conditions in their
day. In some hearts the religious mission of the Hebrews still remained
the most sacred of all trusts. When evils of their age threatened to
engulf them, certain clear-sighted ones were moved to rouse the
people--to bring home to them the consequences sure to overtake their
kingdom unless these glaring wrongs were corrected.
Such a spirit was Amos, a simple, clear-minded shepherd, dwelling on the
borderland between Israel and Judah, and closely observant of affairs in
both states. Inspired to voice his protest against the corruption of his
people, he left his flocks and journeyed to Bethel, the religious center
of Israel. Reaching the temple on a feast day, he was confronted by
riotous music and unseemly merriment, desecrating the temple itself. It
was then he created a sensation by his passionate address, fragments of
which are preserved to us in the biblical book which bears his name.
Instead of offending at once by quick reproof, and thus losing a chance
to be heard, he began by predicting misfortunes certain to overtake
neighboring peoples because of their misdoings. In this way he won the
attention and approval of an audience who liked to be told that they
were the Chosen People, and Jehovah was with them, and that--apparently
no matter what they did--he would not permit them to fail. Then Amos
launched into the iniquity of Israel, and prophesied disasters sure to
befall her. He uttered a new truth when he said that since the Hebrews
had received special blessings from Jehovah, even more strictly would
they be held to account for their shortcomings; that as their light had
been greater than that bestowed upon their neighbors, so would the
requirements be greater for them than for others.
"Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O
house of Israel.
"The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise up; she is
forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. For thus saith
the Lord God: The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an
hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the
house of Israel.
"For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and ye
shall live; but seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal; for Gilgal shall
surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
"Seek the Lord and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the
house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it. Ye who
turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow
of death into morning and maketh the day dark with night; that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the
earth: The Lord is his name....
"Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from
him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall
not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not
drink wine of them.
"For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins; they
afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the
gate from their right....
"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountains of
Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of
Israel came!
"Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to
come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon
their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of
the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent
to themselves instruments of music like David; that drink wine in bowls,
and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved
for the affliction of Joseph.
"Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and
the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed."--_Amos
5 and 6._
Not long after, Hosea came forward with the startling and altogether
unpleasant message that Jehovah was not the God of the Hebrews alone,
but of the whole world. That he was a God of righteousness, and rewarded
it wherever found, and punished evil doing, regardless of the doer. He
touched a new chord when he taught that God was love, full of compassion
and plenteous in mercy. Heretofore _law_ had been the pivot around which
religion centered, and the ritual was observed and the sacrifice
provided. These attended to, Jehovah was supposed to be appeased. Hosea
taught that the sacrifice of burnt offerings availed nothing--that the
sacrifice demanded was "an humble and a contrite heart."
A new era was dawning for the Hebrew faith, and truth-divining men
grasped at fundamental principles, applicable alike to the whole world.
It is not surprising that long years elapsed before such broad
conceptions sank deep into the hearts of the Hebrew race. One of their
kingdoms was scattered to the winds before these were comprehended,
save, indeed, by a few, far-sighted minds; the other kingdom passed
through the humiliation of captivity and exile and through these
vicissitudes learned the truths from actual experience.
"Hear ye this, O priests; and harken, ye house of Israel; and give ear,
O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a
snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor....
"The pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel
and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.
They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord
but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. They
have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten
strange children: now shall a mouth devour them with their portions....
"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto
thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it
goeth away....
"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more
than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant:
there have they dealt treacherously against me....
"Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue
him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and
I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols,
that they may be cut off. For they have sown the wind, and they shall
reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so
be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up....
"They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it;
but the Lord accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity and
visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. For Israel hath forgotten
his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced
cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the
palaces thereof....
"Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the
fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of
thy mighty men....
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of
Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto
Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to
go, taking them by the arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I
drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as
they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them....
"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity."--_Hosea, 5-14 chapters._
END OF ISRAEL.
About 745 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III. began his westward conquest,
incorporating great areas into his already spacious empire. Heavy
tribute was exacted from provinces so annexed. The amount required of
the northern kingdom--now known by the name of its new capital,
Samaria--was so great that the state soon drooped under the load. Egypt,
desiring also a foothold in western Asia, employed agents to stir the
conquered countries against Assyria, promising aid in case they would
revolt, but meaning only to appropriate territory for the Nile kingdom
should confusion make it possible.
Because the tribute was grievous in Samaria, the party opposed to paying
it desired an alliance with Egypt. Statesmen saw that such a movement
was ill-timed, but their voices were drowned in the multitude. In 735
B.C. a coalition was formed by the sea-coast states against Assyria, and
the revolting states refused the yearly tribute. Before the allies could
rally, Tiglath-Pileser III. reached the west by forced marches, and
defeated each state separately. Much land was laid waste, captives were
taken, and Hosea, deemed loyal to the Assyrian government, was made king
of Samaria. For ten years the annual levy was paid, but upon the death
of the great Assyrian conqueror, Hosea yielded to the popular clamor
for a revolt. He himself was soon taken prisoner, but Samaria prepared
for a siege. It lasted nearly three years, during which time intense
suffering afflicted the city. At last the capital fell to Sargon, who
destroyed it, taking 27,290 of its noblest citizens captives, deporting
them to distant points. An Assyrian governor was placed over the
desolate land and Israel ceased to exist longer as a state.
The Hebrew chronicler tells us that those taken into captivity took on
the religions of the people among whom they settled. Generally speaking
this was no doubt true. On the other hand, traditions have come down
from other sources concerning families who continued to worship Jehovah
as before. However, after a few generations, their descendants no doubt
drifted away from the faith of the Hebrews.
Thus ends the story of the ten tribes who broke away from the kingdom of
Solomon's son and organized their own northern kingdom. While enduring
prophecies and messages have been contributed by members of these
tribes, their kingdom presented no such example as did the smaller state
of Judah during the closing years of her national life. More accessible
to outside influences, more ready to compromise, Israel's early
religious fervor gradually abated. Some explanation for her inglorious
end is to be found in the physical geography of her country.
Before the fall of Samaria, Judah enjoyed years of material prosperity,
with varying fortune. Shortly before the siege of the northern capital,
Ahaz, a mere boy, succeeded to the Judah throne. Inexperienced in the
affairs of state, he was nevertheless reluctant to heed the counsels of
older advisers. Assyria was threatening like a huge monster on the
eastern horizon and the only possible way to check her approach lay in
organizing a strong coalition of the sea-coast states. Syria, instead of
taking the initiative, joined with Israel for the purpose of invading
Judea, and dividing the spoils between them. This fatal mistake led
ultimately to the destruction of both aggressive countries. King Ahaz of
Judaea, against the wise and urgent advice of Isaiah, offered allegiance
to the Assyrian emperor in turn for protection against his neighbors,
selling his countrymen into tribute slavery and despoiling the temple
of its treasure for gifts of submission. Thus it happened that while
Damascus and Samaria fell before the armies of Assyria, Jerusalem was
not approached, nor Judaea invaded, although her king became a vassal of
Tiglath-Pileser III.
Under such trying conditions as these Isaiah came into national view and
evinced qualities which have given him rank with the great statesmen of
the world. Denouncing social wrongs, he was soon drawn into the affairs
of the state. Taking no part in the politics of his day, he stood
steadfastly for fidelity to the ideals of his race and faith. He
appreciated the position that his country ought to occupy, knowing well
that as a political power she could not hope to cope with even the
secondary nations around her. Only by holding herself aloof from
material considerations, and clinging tenaciously to the religious
principles earlier evolved, could she come safely through the critical
times encompassing her. Isaiah taught that it was for Judah to purge her
worship of idolatrous practices which had drifted into it and to go
forward with unfaltering faith in the ultimate dominance of right over
wrong, justice over injustice. However he spoke to deaf ears, for the
ideals for which he stood, the moderate measures for which he pleaded,
were unpopular with the people at this time.
For some years Judaea paid her tribute, thankful to be left undisturbed.
Gradually a party sprang up which opposed the tribute payment, and
during the reign of Hezekiah its adherents became numerous enough to
control the policy of their nation. Babylonia was secretly planning a
revolt which she desired to make general; accordingly ambassadors were
dispatched to the court of Hezekiah--ostensibly to congratulate him on
his recent recovery, but really to win him to this revolt, and to
estimate the resources of his kingdom. About 702 B.C. all was ripe for
the planned revolt, and Assyrian officials were refused the tribute.
Sargon was dead and it was not expected that his son would prove so
successful a warrior as he had been. But no sooner had news of the
revolt reached Sennacherib than he pushed west, and reached the coast
before the allies were prepared. Meeting them separately, they quickly
melted away before his disciplined troops. Cities of Phoenicia and the
Philistines surrendered, and armies spread into the valleys of Judaea,
surrounding Jerusalem itself. Hezekiah was terrified into offering heavy
tribute, stripping the temple of its remaining ornaments to provide the
sum exacted by the emperor as the price of peace. Cities around about
were being laid waste and their inhabitants carried into captivity.
In spite of the booty sent him, Sennacherib felt that his victory over
Jerusalem was incomplete, and turning to meet an Egyptian relief force
approaching Judaea from the south, Sennacherib sent word to Hezekiah
that, unless the city gates swung open to him on his return, he would
storm its walls.
It had been a grievous matter to provide the treasure already required
by the Assyrian, and consternation filled Jerusalem, where little hope
of holding out against the veteran troops could longer be entertained.
With characteristic calm, Isaiah declared that deliverance for Zion
would be forth-coming, and he took occasion to bring home to the people
their deep corruption and idolatrous wanderings, while safety for them
lay in devotion to Jehovah. For once the terrified Hebrews were ready to
harken to any counsel that carried with it a promise of hope.
The fate of Sennacherib's army is well known: how encamped in a
fever-breeding swamp, it was stricken in a night. The few who escaped
the plague, set out at once on a homeward march, and Jerusalem was left
unmolested. As was their custom, the Hebrews attributed their escape to
direct intervention of Jehovah in their behalf. The beautiful poem of
Byron touching the incident, expresses well their convictions:
DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sun-set was seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strewn.
For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved--and forever grew still.
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock beating surf.
And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
--_Byron._
Hezekiah was so affected by his marvellous deliverance, that he listened
to the voice of Isaiah throughout the remainder of his days, and
instigated both social and religious reforms. These were so radical that
ere long a reaction set in. All religious practices were again tolerated
and Isaiah and his followers were forbidden to preach to the people.
This forced the prophet to give permanency to his messages by writing
them down for future generations. It was now that the book of
Deuteronomy was produced, known later as the Book of Law. Many of the
rules therein laid down had cause for being in the conditions of the
times. For example, every locality had possessed its own peculiar form
of sacrifice and its own priesthood. To insure regularity of worship it
was now provided that religious festivals should be solemnized only at
the temple of Jerusalem, which city should be the religious center of
the land. When in the time of Josiah another period of religious reform
set in, this Book of Law, or Deuteronomy, was discovered in the temple
where it had lain unnoticed. This gave occasion for a complete
overturning of social and religious customs. As in previous periods of
prosperity, the Hebrews had sunk into reckless extravagances and
hopeless poverty; into idolatrous worship and gross immorality. The
reforms instituted by Josiah were designed to recall the masses to paths
outlined for them by their greatest teachers and prophets.
"The full significance of this sweeping innovation can be appreciated
only by a comparison with the practices which it supplanted. Hitherto
sacrifices appear to have been offered anywhere and by any one; in fact,
every animal slain was regarded as shared with the deity. At every town
there was a _high place_ to which the people went, not only on feast
days, but whenever they wished, through the priest, to have a disputed
case settled, or to ascertain the divine will respecting their private
matter. Religion entered into all their life. The enactments of
Deuteronomy swept away the high places, placed a ban upon private
sacrifice, and restricted all offerings to the Temple. A sharp
distinction was thereby drawn between the laity and the priests, between
secular and holy things. Religion henceforth became something formal,
above and apart, rather than in all which concerned the nation or
individual. Conventionality took the place of the old freedom and
joyousness which had so often degenerated into laxness. The end desired
by the reformers was attained. The narrowing of religion saved it from
the shallowness of heathenism. The Jehovah who was worshipped in the
Temple with jealously guarded forms was not in danger of being degraded
to a level with the surrounding deities. That which henceforth
constituted the Jewish church was divorced from the state, and so
survived the downfall of the nation. Unfortunately the narrowing process
did not cease after the crisis was past, so that its later effects were
deplorable; but, measured in the light of existing circumstances, the
reformation of Josiah marks the beginning of that movement which
ultimately resulted in the complete elimination of the practical
heathenism which had long threatened the extinction of the pure worship
of Jehovah."[1]
After the fall of Nineveh, Egyptian forces attempted to cross Palestine
on their way to the east. Their progress was forbidden by the Judean
king. In the battle which ensued Josiah was slain. This has been called
the "most tragic event in Hebrew history." In the crude judgment of his
day, the masses regarded his death as punishment for the destruction of
the high places throughout the land. These were re-established, and for
the moment it seemed that all the results of the late reformation were
swept away.
Egypt held Judah in tribute for three or four years. Then Babylonia
defeated the Egyptian army and appropriated its conquests for the new
Chaldean empire.
About 597 B.C., tribute having been refused Nebuchadnezzar, he marched
against Jerusalem and took the flower of her people into captivity.
Those who were left foolishly planned a second revolt. Jeremiah filled
the place once occupied by Isaiah, and he denounced the folly of the
popular party with great force, vividly picturing the ruin a revolt
would cause. His very life was in danger because of the boldness of his
counsel, and at times he was held prisoner. Shortly again the armies of
Babylonia stood before the walls of Jerusalem. The great king remembered
the history of centuries wherein the resources of Assyria and Babylonia
had been squandered in holding the western states. He resolved to settle
the matter for all time, and the city of Jerusalem was utterly laid
waste, while its inhabitants were for the most part deported to
Babylonia. Jeremiah was left free to go wherever he chose, and he
remained with the poor peasants who were left to till the soil. Shortly
after the stricken band migrated to Egypt where they soon lost their
identity.
After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the perpetuation of the Hebrew
faith was left solely to those thousands of captives who had been sent
to Babylon. Of all who had peopled the fair land of Israel and the hills
of Judah, they alone remained to hold fast the inheritances of their
fathers and to preserve the ancient faith. During the seventy years of
their captivity it was the remembrance of their once proud nation and
beloved Jerusalem, together with the hope of again returning to its
hills, that sustained those stricken hearts and gave them courage.
Living as much as possible to themselves, they held to their peculiar
customs and in some ways were not materially changed by the enforced
exile. However their religious conceptions underwent a marked change,
and the experiences of the exile itself brought them finally into a
fuller realization of the faith they had long followed blindly.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Hist. of the Hebrew People: Vol. II, 180.
* * * * *
DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN PART I.
DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS.
This road leading from Cairo to the Pyramids is often spoken of as the
"high road." Were it not built up in this way, communication would be
cut off during the period of the inundation.
Camels, "ships of the desert," are commonly used in Egypt. Arabs
populate the land and are clamorous in their demands for coins from
travelers.
GREAT PYRAMID, SPHINX AND TEMPLE OF ARMACHIS.
The great Pyramids had stood approximately 800 years when Abraham first
came into the Delta; they had existed approximately 1500 years when
Moses led the Israelites out of the land of bondage. The largest of the
three is indeed stupendous, its base covering thirteen acres. In the
foreground of the picture is seen the ruins of the Temple of Armachis.
Like the Pyramids, the Sphinx has stood wrapped in mysterious silence
these thousand years. The form of the Sphinx was very common in ancient
Egypt, it being a symbolic representation of the king. The body of the
lion symbolized his strength, or power; the human face was a portrait of
the monarch. Shifting sands have accumulated to the breast of the
body--said to be 140 feet long. Of the huge proportions one may judge
from the fact that should a man stand upon the ear of the Sphinx his
hand could not reach the top of the head. A little chapel of
comparatively recent date has been placed between the paws of the lion.
TOURISTS SCALING THE GREAT PYRAMID.
The Great Pyramid was originally covered with blocks of the hardest
granite. This casing was removed by the Mohammedans for use in building
the mosque of Cairo. Thus removed, the blocks of building stone of which
the huge pile is for the most part composed, were left exposed. Laid
down in the form of steps, tourists today are able to climb to the very
top. To be sure, some of these steps are shoulder high, but with much
pulling by guides in front and some pushing from those behind, one may
ascend in about half an hour. The splendid view over the valley and
neighboring desert amply repay one for the discomforts of the climb.
DROMOS (COLUMNS) AND SECOND PYLON (GATEWAY) TEMPLE OF KARNAK.
The great temple of Karnak was begun by Seti I., and was enlarged by
many succeeding Pharaohs. An avenue of rams led to the gateway, which
was the last portion to be completed. Crossing a court, one came at
length to the temple itself.
The figures and letters carved on the stone may be plainly seen in this
picture.
BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF PHILAE AND THE NILE.
This templed island of Philae, known sometimes as "the pearl of Egypt,"
lies uppermost of a group of islands forming the first cataract. Isis
was the local deity and to her a temple was built in remote times.
Recently a great dam has been constructed near Philae to insure a larger
supply of water for the valley. It has been estimated that $13,000,000
will accrue to Egypt annually by this means, but the island of Philae,
with its beautiful temple, is thereby doomed. Indignant protests have
been made from lovers of the beautiful in many lands, but the English
government has shown itself more determined to insure the prompt payment
of interest upon its bonds than to preserve monuments of antiquity.
HAREM WINDOW AND COURT.
As is well known, in all Mohammedan countries, women pass their lives in
closest seclusion. Their quarters are provided in the upper story of the
house, the windows being small indeed. Seldom going out, living their
years in idleness, it is small wonder that these unfortunate creatures
often resort to intrigues to absorb their interest.
WINGED LION.
These symbolic animals in stone were stationed at the portals of the
royal palace and sometimes guarded the palaces of the wealthy in
Assyria. The lion's body symbolized strength, the wings of the eagle,
swiftness; the human head, human intelligence. It was believed that evil
spirits would pause before such emblems of majesty, nor dare to enter.
MUSICIANS AND ATTENDANTS IN THE GARDEN OF ASSHURBANIPAL.
After the war was over, the king, satiated with booty and slaughter,
sought the quieter pleasures of the banquet. This was frequently served
in the royal garden, while musicians dispensed sweet strains of music.
To make more animated the joyous occasion, the head of the defeated king
or general was sometimes suspended from a nearby tree, so that the
Assyrian ruler might exult over his own triumph as he drank his wine.
DAMASCUS SWORD-MAKER.
The swords of Damascus have always been famous. The ancient sword-makers
understood a secret process of tempering steel which rendered it very
pliable and at the same time imparted to it astonishing strength.
THE RIVER JORDAN.
The word _Jordan_ means "the down-comer," and truly a river which drops
3,000 feet in a course of 150 miles is indeed a "descender." In the
spring the stream is brown and muddy, heavily charged as it is with
debris from the mountains. Ships never journey far up or down the river.
Below the level of the sea, the climate is hot and sultry and the region
full of malaria.
HARBOR OF JAPPA.
Jappa is the old Joppa of Bible times. It is almost the only approach to
a seaport that Palestine can claim, yet even here large boats must
remain out in deep waters, and travelers for the Holy Land who enter in
this way must climb down the side of the steamer and be rowed to shore
in small boats. The sea is usually very rough at this point, adding to
the general discomfort of the situation for travelers.
ROSES OF SHARON.
Palestine is beautiful with flowers in the spring. Narcissus, the "roses
of Sharon," and Iris, "the lilies of the valley," grow in profusion over
the foothills.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The World's Progress, Vol. I (of X) - With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, - Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American - Literature" ***
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