ART. V.-Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie. D'après les Dessins exécutés sur les Lieux; sous la direction de Champollionle-Jeune. Publiés sous les auspices de M. Thiers et M. Guizot. Par une Commission Speciale. Paris: Firmin Didot, frères. 1836.

THIS great work of the late Champollion's is published, as it will be seen from the title, by a special commission appointed by the French government, and under the distinguished auspices of M. Thiers, the present premier of France, and his late colleague, M. Guizot, minister of public instruction. Having given an ample account in our last number of the progress, revelations, and prospects of Egyptian antiquarian discovery, as set forth in Rossellini's work on Egypt, published under the auspices of a commission appointed by the Tuscan government, we think it is due to our readers to exhibit to them all the additional lights thrown upon the subject by the publication before us; and to enable them to form a correct notion of the present state of the inquiry.

Only two livraisons of this work have yet appeared. They consist of a selection from the numerous drawings taken by Champollion in Egypt, with some brief and meagre preliminary notices attached to each livraison, which profess to give an account of them. They are very vague, very jejune, and occasionally very inaccurate. We blame not the authors of them, for they have the good sense, always accompanied by candour and modesty, to acknowledge their inadequacy to the task of complete explanation. They state that they find no notices among the papers of the deceased explanatory of some of the inscriptions over the battle scenes; and therefore they have not attempted to explain some of those which appear in the work. Other columnar and vertical inscriptions they have taken upon themselves to leave blank. For this they are to blame, since it does not follow that, because they could not interpret them, they cannot be explained. In fact we shall take upon ourselves to interpret the inscriptions which they have given; and we shall do so with perfect conviction, and with a full sense of the responsibility of having the eyes of competent judges in this country fixed upon the interpretation. At the end of the notices accompanying the second livraison they apologise for not giving a volume of letterpress description on the ground of present deficiency of materials; but they promise explanations in the numerical order and of the same size (qy.) as the illustrations, as soon as they have sufficient materials to form a folio volume. Meanwhile they intimate that the present notices are to be considered as merely provisional. We shall endeavour to supply the hiatus thus fairly

admitted, in giving our readers a brief analytical account of the contents of the first two livraisons of this splendid national French work. In doing so we may still continue to gratify our inclination for that brevity, which in our last number we urged to be one of the most essential ingredients in popularizing the subject. With this view, we shall confine ourselves to any points of especial interest or novelty, which may occur in the successive folios of these two livraisons; and which may either impart new lights or new corroborations to the concentrated summary of the whole state of the inquiry which we gave in our last number.

The first two plates consist of copies of inscribed steles at Ouadi Halfa, Mashakit, and Djebel Addel. The only important point established by the last is the title of the Pharoah Horus, whose name is given by Manetho and the four collateral chronologies which corroborate his evidence; who is the son and successor of the great Memnon, and whose oval or titular shield stands the 14th in the middle series of the Stone of Abydos. The steles at Ouadi Halfa and Mashakit are curious and indeed important in one especial particular. On six of the Phonetic ovals, which are crenated, and which, instead of cartouches, the usual name, Champollion on this occasion designates as boucliers (shields), appear the names of some of the heads of the various countries conquered by Sesostris. We shall indicate them in succession, inasmuch as they singularly confirm the suggestions we offered in our last number; distinguishing, at the same time, the separate Phonetic powers of the symbols employed.

The first contains the generic name of the Scheti (spelt Sh-ed-te); the second, the generic name of the Sons of Mosech or the Muscovites, spelt precisely as in Hebrew (M-s-e-k); thirdly, the people of Aracan, spelt very nearly as that name is sounded, (as for example, Ar-rk-k-a-n); fourthly, the people of Casan (spelt C-a-s-n); the fifth, is probably Susa, but the middle vowel u is obliterated, and it stands at present S- -se. For the purpose of convenience, we shall take the liberty of skipping from the commencement of the first livraison to the end of the second; the rest of the illustrations being taken up with one entire subject, to which we shall then be free to devote all our remaining attention in this short paper. The 29th and concluding plate of the second livraison is occupied with copies of inscribed steles at Ibrim in Nubia. They are not very important. They are in honour of Mora-Thothmos (the eleventh shield of the middle series of the Stone of Abydos), son of the famous Moris, grandfather of Memnon, and father of the Pharoah who, from all collateral evidence, appears to have been cotemporary with Moses, and who pursued the Israelites to the Red Sea. That Pharoah, his

son, and another of the princes of the blood, distinguished by his usual insignia, are represented as offering him homage. The inscription which accompanies the ceremony is, "To the good deity Thothmos, lord of the ends of the earth," (the exact terms employed by Homer, i. e. peirata gaies.)

As we have observéd, the rest of the illustrations in the two livraisons are taken up with one subject. That subject is Ipsambul; and they comprise details of the two structures erected by Sesostris at that place, the Speos of Athor, the goddess Venus, and the Speos, or Sesostreum, cut out of the solid rock, and apparently consecrated to the combined purposes of temple, palace, and tomb. In the temple or Speos of Athor, there is nothing which calls for prolonged commentary. The founder's favourite wife, whom Champollion calls Nofre-ari, is represented throughout as the presiding divinity of the temple of Venus;-in one case apotheosized and worshipped by Sesostris in the character of Athor; in the other associated with him in the presumptuous claim of divinity, he being enthroned by her side in the character of Ammon. We may here remark, that we object entirely to the name of Nofre-ari, as assigned to the second wife of Sesostris by Champollion. In giving her that name, he violates his own definition of the Phonetic language; employing one of the symbols syllabically and leaving out others. For instance, he omits the M of the vulture (maut), with which the name commences, and which he interprets Maut ou another occasion, viz. in the instance of the mother of Memnon, and he gives to the guitar, which, according to his theory, ought only to represent an N, the full syllabic or heraldic expression of Nofre, which is the Egyptian name for that instrument. Again, he takes the signs for ari which follows, but he leaves out the Phonetic signs of the word Mne at the end. Upon his own system, we shall reverse his interpretation. We should leave out the guitar, as a mere symbol of a good divinity, and giving to the whole of the rest of the characters Champollion's Phonetic powers, we should read the name Mariamue, a well known Jewish and possibly an Egyptian We shall not, however, waste our time in cavilling about this name, but for the present invest the lady with the very uneuphonious appellation which Champollion has given to her. The name of the wife of Sesostris, Butaniathe, we do not object to. Both queens are exhibited in coloured costume, in plate 3 of the second livraison. There is one large half-length portrait of Nofreari; a second of full length; and a third, a full-length of Butaniathe. But all three have been given before by Rossellini, and merely confirm his accuracy. We return to the Speos of Athor, merely to observe, in quitting this part of the subject, that Sesostris, desig

name.

nated by his never-varied Phonetic and titular symbols, and which appear in the proper order of succession first on the third series of shields on the Stone of Abydos, is on two occasions represented before his accession to the throne; the title of "Benevo lent God" being substituted for "King by the will of the people," or "of a willing people." It appears that he was married for several years before his accession; since he is followed, on one occasion, while offering incense to Horus, by a young female child, who in the inscription is called his daughter, and named Amentheme. On one occasion Nofre-ari is called "Queen and royal wife of Ammon;" which would lead one to infer that she had been one of the Palladi, the royal order of nuns, to which many of the princesses during their nonage belonged, and who were consecrated by a temporary vow of virginity to Ammon. Part of a dilapidated statue of Athor appears on the extreme wall of the sacellum of the temple. The figure has a cow's head surmounted by a lotus; and the name Athor,-which signifies House or Womb of the Sun, the Egyptian Messiah, or Bethshemish,* threatened by the prophet "with having a fire lighted in it, which should destroy its images," is clearly visible above the head of the broken and decayed statue. Marks of fire are met with throughout the interior. The antithesis implied by the pro

The passage is, "He shall break the images of Bethshemish, and burn with fire the houses of the Egyptian gods," Jeremiah, c. 43, ver. 13. The word Athor means the same as Bethshemish, both, Phonetically and symbolically, implying the House of Orus or the Sun. Her symbol is a house with a hawk within it. She is the Virgo or Virgin of the Egyptian zodiac, mysteriously holding her son Orus, the false Messiah of Egypt, on her knees. We need not wonder therefore, at the denunciation of the prophets against Egypt, nor at the peculiar character of the denunciation. We need not go to the Prometheus of Eschylus, or the Pollio of Virgil, to show that all the Pagan na tions, receiving their rites from Egypt, had a traditional expectation of a conquering Messiah. But the peculiar characteristic of Egyptian arrogance was, that the Pharoahs successively claimed to themselves divine honours, as the expected Epiphany or Incarnation. Thus, one of the Pharoahs is represented in the prophecies as saying, "I am a God, and sit on the throne of God, in the midst of the seas." Again, "The river is mine and I made it." The whole early line of the Pharoahs arrogated to themselves this blasphemous designation. Sesostris especially did so, offering and causing divine honours to be paid to himself in the character of the Son of Ammon, and obviously undertaking his ambitious design of universal empire in the character of son and vicegerent of Ammon, in order to make himself the earthly god of the whole world's idolatry. The chief purport of the prophetic denunciations is to condemn this arrogant assumption, and to reclaim from the false church in Egypt, on behalf of the true church in Judæa, the virgin daughter of Judah, the right of giving birth to the true Messiah. It is a curious circumstance that, as through the whole of the Jewish symbols there are evidences to be found of marked distinction from the Egyptian in the midst of obvious conformity, so it will ap pear that, through the whole of the prophets' denunciations against Egypt, there runs a marked line of connected purpose. The worshipped symbols of the gods are generally embodied in these denunciations, while the threat, expressed in a symbolic manner, appears to aim at contrasting the humiliating confusion threatened to Egypt with the presumptuous confidence reposed by Egypt in the gods and monarchs of its idol worship. For instance, in the preceding verse of the chapter above referred to, a VOL. XVII. NO. XXXIII.

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phecy between the real fire threatened and the profane fire lighted up within this temple by the orgies of Venus, and the presumptuous deifications of mortal beauties which cover its walls, is obvious and striking. The eighth and ninth folios of the first livraison represent the front elevation of the great Speos of Ipsambul, which indeed depicts and records the Titanian ambition of its great founder.

Four of the Caryatides which support the architrave are enormous colossal statues of Sesostris himself; two, of his favourite wife, in the character of Venus or Athor. At the foot of each of his statues stand two of the princes, his sons; and at the foot of each of her's two of the princesses, her daughters. But the latter do not rise above half the height of the leg of the six colossi which compose the magnificent and unique portico of this astonishing Troglodyte palace. On the left side of the portal, Sesostris is sculptured in the act of slaying a vanquished negro, who wears large gold ear-rings. On the right side, he is represented in final conflict with the same chief of the nation of the Robouri, whose duel with him is depicted at Louqsor. The 10th plate exhibits the same profile of Sesostris as had been previously given by Rossellini, and some of his accoutrements and ornaments, none of which call for notice, unless we may except the oval clasp of his sword-belt, which contains the symbols of his name. The 15th plate is coloured, and represents him in his chariot, in all the magnificent panoply of an Egyptian monarch and conqueror. The car, instead of being of bronze, as usual, is on this occasion chiefly composed of gold. His steel casque is embossed with gold. His bow, formed generally of two pieces of elastic steel, united by a central band, is of gold, or of steel enamelled with gold; and his whole person is covered with a prosecond shepherd desolation is denounced. "He (Cyrus) shall array himself with the land of Egypt as the shepherd putteth on his garment."

Again in Isaiah, xix. 1, all the symbolic threats are opposed to the symbolic confidences of Egypt: "A cloud to the sun, a fire to the heart." And it is most curious that a burning heart was in fact a symbol of Egypt. a cloud, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt Behold, the Lord rideth upon shall melt in the midst of it." All the verses of the same chapter, from three to twelve, are most curious in their references to Egypt. The allusion to the fishers, spreading their nets on the waters in the midst of the reeds of papyrus, will immediately bring back to the recollection of our readers the striking graphic illustrations of fishermen, with their peculiar Egyptian net and their ambuscade among the reeds of papyrus, which Rossellini supplies; and to which we have referred in our review of his ingenious work. One corroborative passage from Ezekiel respecting Egypt may be added to the foregoing: "I will cut off the multitude from No," viz. from populous Thebes, that multitude in which she boasted-the pleista domois of Homer. And again, "Noph," i. e. Memphis, "shall have distresses daily;"-not, so the contrast implies, her fictitions wailings for the dead. "At Tehaphnehes, the day (i. e. the orb of day) shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt." The allusion to the yoke of Apis, in the last instance, is evident. Ezekiel, xxx. 14, 15, 16, 18.