Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 - "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein"
Author: Various
Language: English
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Transcriber's notes:

(1) Hieroglyphic symbols are indicated by [HRG] and ancient letters by
      [SGN].

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
      paragraphs.

(4) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

    Article EGG: "The outermost, or third, layer of this shell often
      takes the form of a glaze, as of porcelain, as for example in the
      burnished egg of the ostrich ..." 'porcelain' amended from
      'procelain'.

    Article EGLINTON, EARLS OF: "This earl's successor was his
      grandson, Archibald William, the 13th earl (1812-1861), who was
      born at Palermo on the 29th of September 1812." 'on' amended from
      'in'.

    Article EGYPT: "While the worship of the gods 55 tended more and
      more to become a monopoly of the state and the priests ..."
      'monopoly' amended from 'monoply'.

    Article EGYPT: "... the home of the dead in the heavens was a
      fertile region not very different from Egypt itself, intersected by
      canals and abounding in corn and fruit ..." 'from' amended from
      'form'.

    Article EGYPT: "The celebrated Israel stele from this temple is his
      principal inscription. The rock shrines at Silsila are of small
      importance." 'is' amended from 'in'.



          ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

  A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
           AND GENERAL INFORMATION

              ELEVENTH EDITION


             VOLUME IX, SLICE I

        Edwardes to Ehrenbreitstein



ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:


  EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN     EGER (town of Austria)
  EDWARDS, AMELIA ANN BLANDFORD      EGER (town of Hungary)
  EDWARDS, BELA BATES                EGERIA
  EDWARDS, BRYAN                     EGERTON, SIR PHILIP DE MALPAS GREY
  EDWARDS, GEORGE                    EGG, AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD
  EDWARDS, HENRY THOMAS              EGG
  EDWARDS, JONATHAN                  EGGENBERG, HANS ULRICH VON
  EDWARDS, LEWIS                     EGGER, ÉMILE
  EDWARDS, RICHARD                   EGGLESTON, EDWARD
  EDWARDS, THOMAS CHARLES            EGHAM
  EDWARDSVILLE (Illinois, U.S.A.)    EGIN
  EDWARDSVILLE (Pennsylvania, U.S.A) EGLANTINE
  EDWIN (king of Northumbria)        EGLINTON, EARLS OF
  EDWIN, JOHN                        EGMONT, EARLS OF
  EDWY                               EGMONT LAMORAL
  EECKHOUT, GERBRAND VAN DEN         EGOISM
  EEL                                EGORIEVSK
  EFFENDI                            EGREMONT, EARLS OF.
  EFFIGIES, MONUMENTAL               EGREMONT
  EGAN, PIERCE                       EGRESS
  EGBO                               EGYPT
  EGEDE, HANS                        EHRENBERG, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED
  EGER, AQIBA                        EHRENBREITSTEIN



EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN (1819-1868), English soldier-statesman in
India, was born at Frodesley in Shropshire on the 12th of November 1819.
His father was Benjamin Edwardes, rector of Frodesley, and his
grandfather Sir John Edwardes, baronet, eighth holder of a title
conferred on one of his ancestors by Charles I. in 1644. He was educated
at a private school and at King's College, London. Through the influence
of his uncle, Sir Henry Edwardes, he was nominated in 1840 to a
cadetship in the East India Company; and on his arrival in India, at the
beginning of 1841, he was posted as ensign in the 1st Bengal Fusiliers.
He remained with this regiment about five years, during which time he
mastered the lessons of his profession, obtained a good knowledge of
Hindustani, Hindi and Persian, and attracted attention by the political
and literary ability displayed in a series of letters which appeared in
the _Delhi Gazette_.

In November 1845, on the breaking out of the first Sikh War, Edwardes
was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir Hugh (afterwards Viscount) Gough, then
commander-in-chief in India. On the 18th of December he was severely
wounded at the battle of Mudki. He soon recovered, however, and fought
by the side of his chief at the decisive battle of Sobraon (February 10,
1846). He was soon afterwards appointed third assistant to the
commissioners of the trans-Sutlej territory; and in January 1847 was
named first assistant to Sir Henry Lawrence, the resident at Lahore.
Lawrence became his great exemplar and in later years he was accustomed
to attribute to the influence of this "father of his public life"
whatever of great or good he had himself achieved. He took part with
Lawrence in the suppression of a religious disturbance at Lahore in the
spring of 1846, and soon afterwards assisted him in reducing, by a rapid
movement to Jammu, the conspirator Imam-ud-din. In the following year a
more difficult task was assigned him--the conduct of an expedition to
Bannu, a district on the Waziri frontier, in which the people would not
tolerate the presence of a collector, and the revenue had consequently
fallen into arrear. By his rare tact and fertility of resource, Edwardes
succeeded in completely conquering the wild tribes of the valley without
firing a shot, a victory which he afterwards looked back upon with more
satisfaction than upon others which brought him more renown. His fiscal
arrangements were such as to obviate all difficulty of collection for
the future. In the spring of 1848, in consequence of the murder of Mr
vans Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson at Multan, by order of the diwan
Mulraj, and of the raising of the standard of revolt by the latter,
Lieutenant Edwardes was authorized to march against him. He set out
immediately with a small force, occupied Leiah on the left bank of the
Indus, was joined by Colonel van Cortlandt, and, although he could not
attack Multan, held the enemy at bay and gave a check at the critical
moment to their projects. He won a great victory over a greatly superior
Sikh force at Kinyeri (June 18), and received in acknowledgment of his
services the local rank of major. In the course of the operations which
followed near Multan, Edwardes lost his right hand by the explosion of a
pistol in his belt. On the arrival of a large force under General Whish
the siege of Multan was begun, but was suspended for several months in
consequence of the desertion of Shere Singh with his army and artillery.
Edwardes distinguished himself by the part he took in the final
operations, begun in December, which ended with the capture of the city
on the 4th of January 1849. For his services he received the thanks of
both houses of parliament, was promoted major by brevet, and created
C.B. by special statute of the order. The directors of the East India
Company conferred on him a gold medal and a good service pension of £100
per annum.

After the conclusion of peace Major Edwardes returned to England for the
benefit of his health, married during his stay there, and wrote and
published his fascinating account of the scenes in which he had been
engaged, under the title of _A Year on the Punjab Frontier in
1848-1849_. His countrymen gave him fitting welcome, and the university
of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. In 1851 he returned to
India and resumed his civil duties in the Punjab under Sir Henry
Lawrence. In November 1853 he was entrusted with the responsible post of
commissioner of the Peshawar frontier, and this he held when the Mutiny
of 1857 broke out. It was a position of enormous difficulty, and
momentous consequences were involved in the way the crisis might be met.
Edwardes rose to the height of the occasion. He saw as if by inspiration
the facts and the needs, and by the prompt measures which he adopted he
rendered a service of incalculable importance, by effecting a
reconciliation with Afghanistan, and securing the neutrality of the amir
and the frontier tribes during the war. So effective was his procedure
for the safety of the border that he was able to raise a large force in
the Punjab and send it to co-operate in the siege and capture of Delhi.
In 1859 Edwardes once more went to England, his health so greatly
impaired by the continual strain of arduous work that it was doubtful
whether he could ever return to India. During his stay he was created
K.C.B., with the rank of brevet colonel; and the degree of LL.D. was
conferred upon him by the university of Cambridge. Early in 1862 he
again sailed for India, and was appointed commissioner of Umballa and
agent for the Cis-Sutlej states. He had been offered the governorship of
the Punjab, but on the ground of failing health had declined it. In
February 1865 he was compelled to finally resign his post and return to
England. A second good service pension was at once conferred on him; in
May 1866 he was created K.C. of the Star of India; and early in 1868 was
promoted major-general in the East Indian Army. He had been for some
time engaged on a life of Sir Henry Lawrence, and high expectations were
formed of the work; but he did not live to complete it, and after his
death it was put into the hands of Mr Herman Merivale. He died in London
on the 23rd of December 1868. Great in council and great in war, he was
singularly beloved by his friends, generous and unselfish to a high
degree, and a man of deep religious convictions.

  See _Memorials of the Life and Letters of Sir Herbert Benjamin
  Edwardes_, by his wife (2 vols., London, 1886); T. R. E. Holmes, _Four
  Soldiers_ (London, 1889); J. Ruskin, _Bibl. pastorum_, iv. "A Knight's
  Faith" (1885), passages from the life of Edwardes.



EDWARDS, AMELIA ANN BLANDFORD (1831-1892), English author and
Egyptologist, the daughter of one of Wellington's officers, was born in
London on the 7th of June 1831. At a very early age she displayed
considerable literary and artistic talent. She became a contributor to
various magazines and newspapers, and besides many miscellaneous works
she wrote eight novels, the most successful of which were _Debenham's
Vow_ (1870) and _Lord Brackenbury_ (1880). In the winter of 1873-1874
she visited Egypt, and was profoundly impressed by the new openings for
archaeological research. She learnt the hieroglyphic characters, and
made a considerable collection of Egyptian antiquities. In 1877 she
published _A Thousand Miles up the Nile_, with illustrations by herself.
Convinced that only by proper scientific investigations could the
wholesale destruction of Egyptian antiquities be avoided, she devoted
herself to arousing public opinion on the subject, and ultimately, in
1882, was largely instrumental in founding the Egypt Exploration Fund,
of which she became joint honorary secretary with Reginald Stuart Poole.
For the business of this Fund she abandoned her other literary work,
writing only on Egyptology. In 1889-1890 she went on a lecturing tour in
the United States. The substance of her lectures was published in volume
form in 1891 as _Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers_. She died at
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on the 15th of April 1892, bequeathing her
valuable collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College,
London, together with a sum to found a chair of Egyptology. Miss Edwards
received, shortly before her death, a civil list pension from the
British government.



EDWARDS, BELA BATES (1802-1852), American man of letters, was born at
Southampton, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July 1802. He graduated at
Amherst College in 1824, was a tutor there in 1827-1828, graduated at
Andover Theological Seminary in 1830, and was licensed to preach. From
1828 to 1833 he was assistant secretary of the American Education
Society (organized in Boston in 1815 to assist students for the
ministry), and from 1828 to 1842 was editor of the society's organ,
which after 1831 was called the _American Quarterly Register_. He also
founded (in 1833) and edited the _American Quarterly Observer_; in
1836-1841 edited the _Biblical Repository_ (after 1837 called the
_American Biblical Repository_) with which the _Observer_ was merged in
1835; and was editor-in-chief of the _Bibliotheca Sacra_ from 1844 to
1851. In 1837 he became professor of Hebrew at Andover, and from 1848
until his death was associate professor of sacred literature there. He
died at Athens, Georgia, on the 20th of April 1852. Among his numerous
publications were _A Missionary Gazetteer_ (1832), _A Biography of Self
Taught Men_ (1832), a once widely known _Eclectic Reader_ (1835), a
translation, with Samuel Harvey Taylor (1807-1871), of Kuhner's
_Schulgrammatik der Griechischen Sprache_ and _Classical Studies_
(1844), essays in ancient literature and art written in collaboration
with Barnas Sears and C. C. Felton.

  Edwards' _Addresses and Sermons_, with a memoir by Rev. Edwards A.
  Park, were published in two volumes at Boston in 1853.



EDWARDS, BRYAN (1743-1800), English politician and historian, was born
at Westbury, Wiltshire, on the 21st of May 1743. His father died in
1756, when his maintenance and education were undertaken by his maternal
uncle, Zachary Bayly, a wealthy merchant of Jamaica. About 1759 Bryan
went to Jamaica, and joined his uncle, who engaged a private tutor to
complete his education, and when Bayly died his nephew inherited his
wealth, succeeding also in 1773 to the estate of another Jamaica
resident named Hume. Edwards soon became a leading member of the
colonial assembly of Jamaica, but in a few years he returned to England,
and in 1782 failed to secure a seat in parliament as member for
Chichester. He was again in Jamaica from 1787 to 1792, when he settled
in England as a West India merchant, making in 1795 another futile
attempt to enter parliament, on this occasion as the representative of
Southampton. In 1796, however, he became member of parliament for
Grampound, retaining his seat until his death at Southampton on the 15th
or 16th of July 1800. In general Edwards was a supporter of the slave
trade, and was described by William Wilberforce as a powerful opponent.
By his wife, Martha, daughter of Thomas Phipps of Westbury, he left an
only son, Hume.

In 1784 Edwards wrote _Thoughts on the late Proceedings of Government
respecting the Trade of the West India Islands with the United States of
America_, in which he attacked the restrictions placed by the government
upon trade with the United States. In 1793 he published in two volumes
his great work, _History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies
in the West Indies_, and in 1797 published his _Historical Survey of the
French Colony in the Island of St Domingo_. In 1801 a new edition of
both these works with certain additions was published in three volumes
under the title of _History of the British Colonies in the West Indies_.
This has been translated into German and parts of it into French and
Spanish, and a fifth edition was issued in 1819. When Mungo Park
returned in 1796 from his celebrated journey in Africa, Edwards, who was
secretary of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior
Parts of Africa, drew up from Park's narrative an account of his
travels, which was published by the association in their _Proceedings_,
and when Park wrote an account of his journeys he availed himself of
Edwards' assistance. Edwards also wrote some poems and some other works
relating to the history of the West Indies.

  He left a short sketch of his life which was prefixed to the edition
  of the _History of the West Indies_, published in 1801.



EDWARDS, GEORGE (1693-1773), English naturalist, was born at Stratford,
Essex, on the 3rd of April 1693. In his early years he travelled
extensively over Europe, studying natural history, and gained some
reputation for his coloured drawings of animals, especially birds. In
1733, on the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane, he was appointed
librarian to the Royal College of Physicians in London. In 1743 he
published the first volume of his _History of Birds_, the fourth volume
of which appeared in 1751, and three supplementary volumes, under the
title _Gleanings of Natural History_, were issued in 1758, 1760 and
1764. The two works contain engravings and descriptions of more than 600
subjects in natural history not before described or delineated. He
likewise added a general index in French and English, which was
afterwards supplied with Linnaean names by Linnaeus himself, with whom
he frequently corresponded. About 1764 he retired to Plaistow, Essex,
where he died on the 23rd of July 1773. He also wrote _Essays of Natural
History_ (1770) and _Elements of Fossilogy_ (1776).



EDWARDS, HENRY THOMAS (1837-1884), Welsh divine, was born on the 6th of
September 1837 at Llan ym Mawddwy, Merioneth, where his father was
vicar. He was educated at Westminster and at Jesus College, Oxford
(B.A., 1860), and after teaching for two years at Llandovery went to
Llangollen as his father's curate. He became vicar of Aberdare in 1866
and of Carnarvon in 1869. Here he began his lifelong controversy with
Nonconformity, especially as represented by the Rev. Evan Jones
(Calvinistic Methodist) and Rev. E. Herber Evans (Congregationalist). In
1870 he fought in vain for the principle of all-round denominationalism
in the national education system, and in the same year addressed a
famous letter to Mr Gladstone on "The Church of the Cymry," pointing out
that the success of Nonconformity in Wales was largely due to "the
withering effect of an alien episcopate." One immediate result of this
was the appointment of the Welshman Joshua Hughes (1807-1889) to the
vacant see of St Asaph. Edwards became dean of Bangor in 1876 and at
once set about restoring the cathedral, and he promoted a clerical
education society for supplying the diocese with educated Welsh-speaking
clergy. He was a popular preacher and an earnest patriot; his chief
defect was a lack of appreciation of the theological attainments of
Nonconformity, and a Welsh commentary on St Matthew, which he had worked
at for many years and published in two volumes in 1882, was severely
handled by a Bangor Calvinistic Methodist minister. Edwards suffered
from overwork and insomnia and a Mediterranean cruise in 1883 failed to
restore his health; and he died by his own hand on the 24th of May 1884
at Ruabon.

  See V. Morgan, _Welsh Religious Leaders in the Victorian Era_.



EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1703-1758), American theologian and philosopher, was
born on the 5th of October 1703 at East (now South) Windsor,
Connecticut. His earliest known ancestor was Richard Edwards, Welsh by
birth, a London clergyman in Elizabeth's reign. His father Timothy
Edwards (1669-1758), son of a prosperous merchant of Hartford, had
graduated at Harvard, was minister at East Windsor, and eked out his
salary by tutoring boys for college. His mother, a daughter of the Rev.
Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Mass., seems to have been a woman of
unusual mental gifts and independence of character. Jonathan, the only
son, was the fifth of eleven children. The boy was trained for college
by his father and by his elder sisters, who all received an excellent
education. When ten years old he wrote a semi-humorous tract on the
immateriality of the soul; he was interested in natural history, and at
the age of twelve wrote a remarkable essay on the habits of the "flying
spider." He entered Yale College in 1716, and in the following year
became acquainted with Locke's _Essay_, which influenced him profoundly.
During his college course he kept note books labelled "The Mind,"
"Natural Science" (containing a discussion of the atomic theory, &c.),
"The Scriptures" and "Miscellanies," had a grand plan for a work on
natural and mental philosophy, and drew up for himself rules for its
composition. Even before his graduation in September 1720 as
valedictorian and head of his class, he seems to have had a well
formulated philosophy. The two years after his graduation he spent in
New Haven studying theology. In 1722-1723 he was for eight months stated
supply of a small Presbyterian church in New York city, which invited
him to remain, but he declined the call, spent two months in study at
home, and then in 1724-1726 was one of the two tutors at Yale, earning
for himself the name of a "pillar tutor" by his steadfast loyalty to the
college and its orthodox teaching at the time when Yale's rector
(Cutler) and one of her tutors had gone over to the Episcopal Church.

The years 1720 to 1726 are partially recorded in his diary and in the
resolutions for his own conduct which he drew up at this time. He had
long been an eager seeker after salvation and was not fully satisfied as
to his own "conversion" until an experience in his last year in college,
when he lost his feeling that the election of some to salvation and of
others to eternal damnation was "a horrible doctrine," and reckoned it
"exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet." He now took a great and new
joy in the beauties of nature, and delighted in the allegorical
interpretation of the Song of Solomon. Balancing these mystic joys is
the stern tone of his Resolutions, in which he is almost ascetic in his
eagerness to live earnestly and soberly, to waste no time, to maintain
the strictest temperance in eating and drinking. On the 15th of February
1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his
grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting
pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year
he married Sarah Pierrepont, then aged seventeen, daughter of James
Pierrepont (1659-1714), a founder of Yale, and through her mother
great-granddaughter of Thomas Hooker. Of her piety and almost nun-like
love of God and belief in His personal love for her, Edwards had known
when she was only thirteen, and had written of it with spiritual
enthusiasm; she was of a bright and cheerful disposition, a practical
housekeeper, a model wife and the mother of his twelve children. Solomon
Stoddard died on the 11th of February 1729, leaving to his grandson the
difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and
wealthiest congregations in the colony, and one proud of its morality,
its culture and its reputation.

In 1731 Edwards preached at Boston the "Public Lecture" afterwards
published under the title _God Glorified in Man's Dependence_. This was
his first public attack on Arminianism. The leading thought was God's
absolute sovereignty in the work of redemption: that while it behoved
God to create man holy, it was of His "good pleasure" and "mere and
arbitrary grace" that any man was now made holy, and that God might deny
this grace without any disparagement to any of His perfections. In 1733
a revival of religion began in Northampton, and reached such intensity
in the winter of 1734 and the following spring as to threaten the
business of the town. In six months nearly three hundred were admitted
to the church. The revival gave Edwards an opportunity of studying the
process of conversion in all its phases and varieties, and he recorded
his observations with psychological minuteness and discrimination in _A
Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of
Many Hundred Souls in Northampton_ (1737). A year later he published
_Discourses on Various Important Subjects_, the five sermons which had
proved most effective in the revival, and of these none, he tells us,
was so immediately effective as that on the _Justice of God in the
Damnation of Sinners_, from the text, "That every mouth may be stopped."
Another sermon, published in 1734, on the _Reality of Spiritual Light_
set forth what he regarded as the inner, moving principle of the
revival, the doctrine of a "special" grace in the immediate and
supernatural divine illumination of the soul. In the spring of 1735 the
movement began to subside and a reaction set in. But the relapse was
brief, and the Northampton revival, which had spread through the
Connecticut valley and whose fame had reached England and Scotland, was
followed in 1739-1740 by the Great Awakening, distinctively under the
leadership of Edwards. The movement met with no sympathy from the
orthodox leaders of the church. In 1741 Edwards published in its defence
_The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God_, dealing
particularly with the phenomena most criticized, the swoonings, outcries
and convulsions. These "bodily effects," he insisted, were not
"distinguishing marks" of the work of the Spirit of God; but so bitter
was the feeling against the revival in the more strictly Puritan
churches that in 1742 he was forced to write a second apology, _Thoughts
on the Revival in New England_, his main argument being the great moral
improvement of the country. In the same pamphlet he defends an appeal to
the emotions, and advocates preaching terror when necessary, even to
children, who in God's sight "are young vipers ... if not Christ's." He
considers "bodily effects" incidentals to the real work of God, but his
own mystic devotion and the experiences of his wife during the Awakening
(which he gives in detail) make him think that the divine visitation
usually overpowers the body, a view in support of which he quotes
Scripture. In reply to Edwards, Charles Chauncy anonymously wrote _The
Late Religious Commotions in New England Considered_ (1743), urging
conduct as the sole test of conversion; and the general convention of
Congregational ministers in the Province of Massachusetts Bay protested
"against disorders in practice which have of late obtained in various
parts of the land." In spite of Edwards's able pamphlet, the impression
had become widespread that "bodily effects" were recognized by the
promoters of the Great Awakening as the true tests of conversion. To
offset this feeling Edwards[1] preached at Northampton during the years
1742 and 1743 a series of sermons published under the title of
_Religious Affections_ (1746), a restatement in a more philosophical and
general tone of his ideas as to "distinguishing marks." In 1747 he
joined the movement started in Scotland called the "concert in prayer,"
and in the same year published _An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit
Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for
the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on
Earth_. In 1749 he published a memoir of David Brainerd; the latter had
lived in his family for several months, had been constantly attended by
Edwards's daughter Jerusha, to whom he had been engaged to be married,
and had died at Northampton on the 7th of October 1747; and he had been
a case in point for the theories of conversion held by Edwards, who had
made elaborate notes of Brainerd's conversations and confessions.

In 1748 there had come a crisis in his relations with his congregation.
The Half-Way Covenant adopted by the synods of 1657 and 1662 had made
baptism alone the condition to the civil privileges of church
membership, but not of participation in the sacrament of the Supper.
Edwards's grandfather and predecessor, Solomon Stoddard, had been even
more liberal, holding that the Supper was a converting ordinance and
that baptism was a sufficient title to all the privileges of the church.
As early as 1744 Edwards, in his sermons on the Religious Affections,
had plainly intimated his dislike of this practice. In the same year he
had published in a church meeting the names of certain young people,
members of the church, who were suspected of reading improper books,[2]
and also the names of those who were to be called as witnesses in the
case. But witnesses and accused were not distinguished on this list, and
the congregation was in an uproar. A great many, fearing a scandal, now
opposed an investigation which all had previously favoured. Edwards's
preaching became unpopular; for four years no candidate presented
himself for admission to the church; and when one did in 1748, and was
met with Edwards's formal but mild and gentle tests, as expressed in the
_Distinguishing Marks_ and later in _Qualifications for Full Communion_
(1749) the candidate refused to submit to them; the church backed him
and the break was complete. Even permission to discuss his views in the
pulpit was refused him. The ecclesiastical council voted by 10 to 9 that
the pastoral relation be dissolved. The church by a vote of more than
200 to 23 ratified the action of the council, and finally a town meeting
voted that Edwards should not be allowed to occupy the Northampton
pulpit, though he did this on occasion as late as May 1755. He evinced
no rancour or spite; his "Farewell Sermon" was dignified and temperate;
nor is it to be ascribed to chagrin that in a letter to Scotland after
his dismissal he expresses his preference for Presbyterian to
Congregational church government. His position at the time was not
unpopular throughout New England, and it is needless to say that his
doctrine that the Lord's Supper is not a cause of regeneration and that
communicants should be professing Christians has since (very largely
through the efforts of his pupil Joseph Bellamy) become a standard of
New England Congregationalism.

Edwards with his large family was now thrown upon the world, but offers
of aid quickly came to him. A parish in Scotland could have been
procured, and he was called to a Virginia church. He declined both, to
become in 1750 pastor of the church in Stockbridge and a missionary to
the Housatonic Indians. To the Indians he preached through an
interpreter, and their interests he boldly and successfully defended by
attacking the whites who were using their official position among them
to increase their private fortunes. In Stockbridge he wrote the _Humble
Relation_, also called _Reply to Williams_ (1752), which was an answer
to Solomon Williams (1700-1776), a relative and a bitter opponent of
Edwards as to the qualifications for full communion; and he there
composed the treatises on which his reputation as a philosophical
theologian chiefly rests, the essay on _Original Sin_, the _Dissertation
concerning the Nature of True Virtue_, the _Dissertation concerning the
End for which God created the World_, and the great work on the Will,
written in four months and a half, and published in 1754 under the
title, _An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that
Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency_.

In 1757, on the death of President Burr, who five years before had
married Edwards's daughter Esther, he reluctantly accepted the
presidency of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University),
where he was installed on the 16th of February 1758. Almost immediately
afterwards he was inoculated for smallpox, which was raging in Princeton
and vicinity, and, always feeble, he died of the inoculation on the 28th
of March 1758. He was buried in the old cemetery at Princeton. He was
slender and fully six feet tall, and with his oval, gentle, almost
feminine face looked the scholar and the mystic.

  _The Edwardean System._--It is difficult to separate Edwards's
  philosophy from his theology, except as the former is contained in the
  early notes on the Mind, where he says that matter exists only in
  idea; that space is God; that minds only are real; that in
  metaphysical strictness there is no being but God; that entity is the
  greatest and only good; and that God as infinite entity, wherein the
  agreement of being with being is absolute, is the supreme excellency,
  the supreme good. It seems certain that these conclusions were
  independent of Berkeley and Malebranche, and were not drawn from
  Arthur Collier's _Clavis universalis_ (1713), with which they have
  much in common, but were suggested, in part at least, by Locke's
  doctrine of ideas, Newton's theory of colours, and Cudworth's
  Platonism, with all of which Edwards was early familiar. But they were
  never developed systematically, and the conception of the material
  universe here contended for does not again explicitly reappear in any
  of his writings. The fundamental metaphysical postulate that being and
  God are ultimately identical remained, however, the philosophical
  basis of all his thinking, and reverence for this being as the supreme
  good remained the fundamental disposition of his mind. That he did not
  interpret this idea in a Spinozistic sense was due to his more
  spiritual conception of "being" and to the reaction on his philosophy
  of his theology. The theological interest, indeed, came in the end to
  predominate, and philosophy to appear as an instrument for the defence
  of Calvinism. Perhaps the best criticism of Edwards's philosophy as a
  whole is that, instead of being elaborated on purely rational
  principles, it is mixed up with a system of theological conceptions
  with which it is never thoroughly combined, and that it is exposed to
  all the disturbing effects of theological controversy. Moreover, of
  one of his most central convictions, that of the sovereignty of God in
  election, he confesses that he could give no account.

  Edwards's reputation as a thinker is chiefly associated with his
  treatise on the Will, which is still sometimes called "the one large
  contribution that America has made to the deeper philosophic thought
  of the world." The aim of this treatise was to refute the doctrine of
  free-will, since he considered it the logical, as distinguished from
  the sentimental, ground of most of the Arminian objections to
  Calvinism. He defines the will as that by which the "mind chooses
  anything." To act voluntarily, he says, is to act electively. So far
  he and his opponents are agreed. But choice, he holds, is not
  arbitrary; it is determined in every case by "that motive which as it
  stands in the view of the mind is the strongest," and that motive is
  strongest which presents in the immediate object of volition the
  "greatest apparent good," that is, the greatest degree of
  agreeableness or pleasure. What this is in a given case depends on a
  multitude of circumstances, external and internal, all contributing to
  form the "cause" of which the voluntary act and its consequences are
  the "effect." Edwards contends that the connexion between cause and
  effect here is as "sure and perfect" as in the realm of physical
  nature and constitutes a "moral necessity." He reduces the opposite
  doctrine to three assumptions, all of which he shows to be untenable:
  (1) "a self-determining power in the will"; (2) "indifference,... that
  the mind previous to the act of volition (is) in equilibrio"; (3)
  "contingence ... as opposed to ... any fixed and certain connexion (of
  the volition) with some previous ground or reason for its existence."
  Although he denies liberty to the will in this sense--indeed, strictly
  speaking, neither liberty nor necessity, he says, is properly applied
  to the will, "for the will itself is not an agent that has a will"--he
  nevertheless insists that the subject willing is a free moral agent,
  and argues that without the determinate connexion between volition
  and motive which he asserts and the libertarians deny, moral agency
  would be impossible. Liberty, he holds, is simply freedom from
  constraint, "the power ... that any one has to do as he pleases." This
  power man possesses. And that the right or wrong of choice depends not
  on the cause of choice but on its nature, he illustrates by the
  example of Christ, whose acts were necessarily holy, yet truly
  virtuous, praiseworthy and rewardable. Even God Himself, Edwards here
  maintains, has no other liberty than this, to carry out without
  constraint His will, wisdom and inclination.

  There is no necessary connexion between Edwards's doctrine of the
  motivation of choice and the system of Calvinism with which it is
  congruent. Similar doctrines have more frequently perhaps been
  associated with theological scepticism. But for him the alternative
  was between Calvinism and Arminianism, simply because of the
  historical situation, and in the refutation of Arminianism on the
  assumptions common to both sides of the controversy, he must be
  considered completely successful. As a general argument his account of
  the determination of the will is defective, notably in his abstract
  conception of the will and in his inadequate, but suggestive,
  treatment of causation, in regard to which he anticipates in important
  respects the doctrine of Hume. Instead of making the motive to choice
  a factor within the concrete process of volition, he regards it as a
  cause antecedent to the exercise of a special mental faculty. Yet his
  conception of this faculty as functioning only in and through motive
  and character, inclination and desire, certainly carries us a long way
  beyond the abstraction in which his opponents stuck, that of a bare
  faculty without any assignable content. Modern psychology has
  strengthened the contention for a fixed connexion between motive and
  act by reference to subconscious and unconscious processes of which
  Edwards, who thought that nothing could affect the mind which was
  unperceived, little dreamed; at the same time, at least in some of its
  developments, especially in its freer use of genetic and organic
  conceptions, it has rendered much in the older forms of statement
  obsolete, and has given a new meaning to the idea of
  self-determination, which, as applied to an abstract power, Edwards
  rightly rejected as absurd.

  Edwards's controversy with the Arminians was continued in the essay on
  _Original Sin_, which was in the press at the time of his death. He
  here breaks with Augustine and the Westminster Confession by arguing,
  consistently with his theory of the Will, that Adam had no more
  freedom of will than we have, but had a special endowment, a
  supernatural gift of grace, which by rebellion against God was lost,
  and that this gift was withdrawn from his descendants, not because of
  any fictitious imputation of guilt, but because of their real
  participation in his guilt by actual identity with him in his
  transgression.

  The _Dissertation on the Nature of True Virtue_, posthumously
  published, is justly regarded as one of the most original works on
  ethics of the 18th century, and is the more remarkable as reproducing,
  with no essential modification, ideas on the subject written in the
  author's youth in the notes on the Mind. Virtue is conceived as the
  beauty of moral qualities. Now beauty, in Edwards's view, always
  consists in a harmonious relation in the elements involved, an
  agreement of being with being. He conceives, therefore, of virtue, or
  moral beauty, as consisting in the cordial agreement or consent to
  intelligent being. He defines it as benevolence (good-will), or rather
  as a disposition to benevolence, towards being in general. This
  disposition, he argues, has no regard primarily to beauty in the
  object, nor is it primarily based on gratitude. Its first object is
  being, "simply considered," and it is accordingly proportioned, other
  things being equal, to the object's "degree of existence." He admits,
  however, benevolent being as a second object, on the ground that such
  an object, having a like virtuous propensity, "is, as it were,
  enlarged, extends to, and in some sort comprehends being in general."
  In brief, since God is the "being of beings" and comprehends, in the
  fullest extent, benevolent consent to being in general, true virtue
  consists essentially in a supreme love to God. Thus the principle of
  virtue--Edwards has nothing to say of "morality"--is identical with
  the principle of religion. From this standpoint Edwards combats every
  lower view. He will not admit that there is any evidence of true
  virtue in the approbation of virtue and hatred of vice, in the
  workings of conscience or in the exercises of the natural affections;
  he thinks that these may all spring from self-love and the association
  of ideas, from "instinct" or from a "moral sense of a secondary kind"
  entirely different from "a sense or relish of the essential beauty of
  true virtue." Nor does he recognize the possibility of a natural
  development of true virtue out of the sentiments directed on the
  "private systems"; on the contrary, he sets the love of particular
  being, when not subordinated to being in general, in opposition to the
  latter and as equivalent to treating it with the greatest contempt.
  All that he allows is that the perception of natural beauty may, by
  its resemblance to the primary spiritual beauty, quicken the
  disposition to divine love in those who are already under the
  influence of a truly virtuous temper.

  Closely connected with the essay on Virtue is the boldly speculative
  _Dissertation on the End for which God Created the World_. As,
  according to the doctrine of virtue, God's virtue consists primarily
  in love to Himself, so His final end in creation is conceived to be,
  not as the Arminians held, the happiness of His creatures, but His
  own glory. Edwards supposes in the nature of God an original
  disposition to an "emanation" of His being, and it is the excellency
  of this divine being, particularly in the elect, which is, in his
  view, the final cause and motive of the world.

  Edwards makes no attempt to reconcile the pantheistic element in his
  philosophy with the individuality implied in moral government. He
  seems to waver between the opinion that finite individuals have no
  independent being and the opinion that they have it in an
  infinitesimal degree; and the conception of "degrees of existence" in
  the essay on Virtue is not developed to elucidate the point. His
  theological conception of God, at any rate, was not abstractly
  pantheistic, in spite of the abstractness of his language about
  "being," but frankly theistic and trinitarian. He held the doctrine of
  the trinitarian distinctions indeed to be a necessity of reason. His
  _Essay on the Trinity_, first printed in 1903, was long supposed to
  have been withheld from publication because of its containing Arian or
  Sabellian tendencies. It contains in fact nothing more questionable
  than an attempted deduction of the orthodox Nicene doctrine,
  unpalatable, however, to Edwards's immediate disciples, who were too
  little speculative to appreciate his statement of the subordination of
  the "persons" in the divine "oeconomy," and who openly derided the
  doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son as "eternal nonsense";
  and this perhaps was the original reason why the essay was not
  published.

  Though so typically a scholar and abstract thinker on the one hand and
  on the other a mystic, Edwards is best known to the present generation
  as a preacher of hell fire. The particular reason for this seems to
  lie in a single sermon preached at Enfield, Connecticut, in July 1741
  from the text, "Their foot shall slide in due time," and commonly
  known from its title, _Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_. The
  occasion of this sermon is usually overlooked. It was preached to a
  congregation who were careless and loose in their lives at a time when
  "the neighbouring towns were in great distress for their souls." A
  contemporary account of it says that in spite of Edwards's academic
  style of preaching, the assembly was "deeply impressed and bowed down,
  with an awful conviction of their sin and danger. There was such a
  breathing of distress and weeping, that the preacher was obliged to
  speak to the people and desire silence, that he might be heard."
  Edwards preached other sermons of this type, but this one was the most
  extreme. The style of the imprecatory sermon, however, was no more
  peculiar to him than to his period. He was not a great preacher in the
  ordinary meaning of the word. His gestures were scanty, his voice was
  not powerful, but he was desperately in earnest, and he held his
  audience whether his sermon contained a picturesque and detailed
  description of the torments of the damned, or, as was often the case,
  spoke of the love and peace of God in the heart of man. He was an
  earnest, devout Christian, and a man of blameless life. His insight
  into the spiritual life was profound. Certainly the most able
  metaphysician and the most influential religious thinker of America,
  he must rank in theology, dialectics, mysticism and philosophy with
  Calvin and Fénelon, Augustine and Aquinas, Spinoza and Novalis; with
  Berkeley and Hume as the great English philosophers of the 18th
  century; and with Hamilton and Franklin as the three American thinkers
  of the same century of more than provincial importance.

  Edwards's main aim had been to revivify Calvinism, modifying it for
  the needs of the time, and to promote a warm and vital Christian
  piety. The tendency of his successors was--to state the matter
  roughly--to take some one of his theories and develop it to an
  extreme. Of his immediate followers Joseph Bellamy is distinctly
  Edwardean in the keen logic and in the spirit of his _True Religion
  Delineated_, but he breaks with his master in his theory of general
  (not limited) atonement. Samuel Hopkins laid even greater stress than
  Edwards on the theorem that virtue consists in disinterested
  benevolence; but he went counter to Edwards in holding that
  unconditional resignation to God's decrees, or more concretely,
  willingness to be damned for the glory of God, was the test of true
  regeneration; for Edwards, though often quoted as holding this
  doctrine, protested against it in the strongest terms. Hopkins,
  moreover, denied Edwards's identity theory of original sin, saying
  that our sin was a result of Adam's and not identical with it; and he
  went much further than Edwards in his objection to "means of grace,"
  claiming that the unregenerate were more and more guilty for continual
  rejection of the gospel if they were outwardly righteous and availed
  themselves of the means of grace. Stephen West (1735-1819), too,
  out-Edwardsed Edwards in his defence of the treatise on the _Freedom
  of the Will_, and John Smalley (1734-1820) developed the idea of a
  natural (not moral) inability on the part of man to obey God. Emmons,
  like Hopkins, considered both sin and holiness "exercises" of the
  will. Timothy Dwight (1752-1847) urged the use of the means of grace,
  thought Hopkins and Emmons pantheistic, and boldly disagreed with
  their theory of "exercises," reckoning virtue and sin as the result of
  moral choice or disposition, a position that was also upheld by Asa
  Burton (1752-1836), who thought that on regeneration the disposition
  of man got a new relish or "taste."

  JONATHAN EDWARDS[3] the younger (1745-1801), second son of the
  philosopher, born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 26th of May
  1745, also takes an important place among his followers. He lived in
  Stockbridge in 1751-1755 and spoke the language of the Housatonic
  Indians with ease, for six months studied among the Oneidas, graduated
  at Princeton in 1765, studied theology at Bethlehem, Connecticut,
  under Joseph Bellamy, was licensed to preach in 1766, was a tutor at
  Princeton in 1766-1769, and was pastor of the White Haven Church, New
  Haven, Connecticut, in 1769-1795, being then dismissed for the nominal
  reason that the church could not support him, but actually because of
  his opposition to the Half-Way Covenant as well as to slavery and the
  slave trade. He preached at Colebrook, Connecticut, in 1796-1799 and
  then became president of Union College, Schenectady, New York, where
  he died on the 1st of August 1801. His studies of the Indian dialects
  were scholarly and valuable. He edited his father's incomplete
  _History of the Work of Redemption_, wrote in answer to Stephen West,
  _A Dissertation Concerning Liberty and Necessity_ (1797), which
  defended his father's work on the Will by a rather strained
  interpretation, and in answer to Chauncy on universal salvation
  formulated what is known as the "Edwardean," New England or
  Governmental theory of the atonement in _The Necessity of the
  Atonement and its Consistency with Free Grace in Forgiveness_ (1785).
  His collected works were edited by his grandson Tryon Edwards in two
  volumes, with memoir (Andover, 1842). His place in the Edwardean
  theology is principally due to his defence against the Universalists
  of his father's doctrine of the atonement, namely, that Christ's
  death, being the equivalent of the eternal punishment of sinners,
  upheld the authority of the divine law, but did not pay any debt, and
  made the pardon of all men a possibility with God, but not a
  necessity.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--There have been various editions of Edwards's works.
  His pupil, Samuel Hopkins, in 1765 published two volumes from
  manuscript containing eighteen sermons and a memoir; the younger
  Jonathan Edwards with Dr Erskine published an edition in 4 volumes
  (1744 sqq.), and Samuel Austin in 1808 edited an edition in 8 volumes.
  In 1829 Sereno E. Dwight, a great-grandson of Edwards, published the
  _Life and Works_ in 10 volumes, the first volume containing the
  memoir, which is still the most complete and was the standard until
  the publication (Boston, 1889) of _Jonathan Edwards_, by A. V. G.
  Allen, who attempts to "distinguish what he (Edwards) meant to affirm
  from what he actually teaches." In 1865 the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart
  edited from original manuscripts _Selections from the Unpublished
  Writings of Jonathan Edwards of America_ (Edinburgh, 1865, printed for
  private circulation). This was the only part of a complete edition
  planned by Grosart that ever appeared. It contained the important
  Treatise on Grace, Annotations on the Bible, Directions for Judging of
  Persons' Experiences, and Sermons, the last for the most part merely
  in outline. E. C. Smyth published from a copy _Observations Concerning
  the Scripture Oeconomy of the Trinity and Covenant of Redemption_ (New
  York, 1880), a careful edition from the manuscript of the essay on the
  Flying Spider (in the _Andover Review_, January 1890) and "Some Early
  Writings of Jonathan Edwards," with specimens from the manuscripts (in
  _Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society_, October, 1895). In
  1900 on the death of Prof. Edwards A. Park, the entire collection of
  Edwards's manuscripts loaned to him by Tryon Edwards was transferred
  to Yale University. Professor Park, like Mr Grosart before him, had
  been unable to accomplish the great task of editing this mass of
  manuscript. "A Study of the Manuscripts of Jonathan Edwards" was
  published by F. B. Dexter in the _Proceedings of the Massachusetts
  Historical Society_, series 2, vol. xv. (Boston, 1902), and in the
  same volume of the _Proceedings_ appeared "A Study of the Shorthand
  Writings of Jonathan Edwards," by W. P. Upham. The long sought for
  essay on the Trinity was edited (New York, 1903) with valuable
  introduction and appendices by G. P. Fisher under the title, _An
  Unpublished Essay of Edwards's on the Trinity_. The only other edition
  of Edwards (in whole or in part) of any importance is _Selected
  Sermons of Jonathan Edwards_ (New York, 1904), edited by H. N.
  Gardiner, with brief biographical sketch and annotations on seven
  sermons, one of which had not previously been published.

  For estimates of Edwards consult: _The Volume of the Edwards Family
  Meeting at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, September 6-7, A.D. 1870_
  (Boston, 1871); _Jonathan Edwards, a Retrospect, Being the Addresses
  Delivered in Connecticut with the Unveiling of a Memorial in the
  First Church of Christ in Northampton, Massachusetts, on the One
  Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of his Dismissal from the Pastorate
  of that Church_, edited by H. N. Gardiner (Boston, 1901); _Exercises
  Commemorating the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Jonathan
  Edwards, held at Andover Theological Seminary, October 4-5, 1903_
  (Andover, 1904); and among the addresses delivered at Stockbridge in
  October 1903, John De Witt, "Jonathan Edwards: A Study," in the
  _Princeton Theological Review_ (January, 1904). Also H. C. King,
  "Edwards as Philosopher and Theologian," in _Hartford Theological
  Seminary Record_, vol. xiv. (1903), pp. 23-57; H. N. Gardiner, "The
  Early Idealism of Jonathan Edwards," in the _Philosophical Review_,
  vol. ix. (1900), pp. 573-596; E. C. Smyth, _American Journal of
  Theology_, vol. i. (1897), pp. 960-964; Samuel P. Hayes, "An
  Historical Study of the Edwardean Revivals," in _American Journal of
  Psychology_, vol. xiii. (1902), pp. 550 ff.; J. H. MacCracken,
  "Philosophical Idealism of Edwards" in _Philosophical Review_, vol.
  xi. (1902), pp. 26-42, suggesting that Edwards did not know Berkeley,
  but Collier, and the same author's _Jonathan Edwards' Idealismus_
  (Halle, 1899); F. J. E. Woodbridge, "Jonathan Edwards," in
  _Philosophical Review_, vol. xiii. (1904), pp. 393-408; W. H. Squires,
  _Jonathan Edwards und seine Willenslehre_ (Leipzig, 1901); Samuel
  Simpson, "Jonathan Edwards, A Historical Review," in _Hartford
  Seminary Record_, vol. xiv. (1903), pp. 3-22; and _The Edwardean, a
  Quarterly Devoted to the History of Thought in America_ (Clinton, New
  York, 1903-1904), edited by W. H. Squires, of which only four parts
  appeared, all devoted to Edwards and all written by Squires.
       (H. N. G.; R. WE.)


FOOTNOTES:

  [1] Edwards recognized the abuse of impulses and impressions, opposed
    itinerant and lay preachers, and defended a well-ordered and
    well-educated clergy.

  [2] These were probably not fiction like _Pamela_, as Sir Leslie
    Stephen suggested, for Edwards listed several of Richardson's novels
    for his own reading, and considered _Sir Charles Grandison_ a very
    moral and excellent work.

  [3] Besides the younger Jonathan many of Edwards's descendants were
    great, brilliant or versatile men. Among them were: his son
    Pierrepont (1750-1826), a brilliant but erratic member of the
    Connecticut bar, tolerant in religious matters and bitterly hated by
    stern Calvinists, a man whose personal morality resembled greatly
    that of Aaron Burr; his grandsons, William Edwards (1770-1851), an
    inventor of important leather rolling machinery; Aaron Burr the son
    of Esther Edwards; Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), son of Mary Edwards,
    and his brother Theodore Dwight, a Federalist politician, a member,
    the secretary and the historian of the Hartford Convention; his
    great-grandsons, Tryon Edwards (1809-1894) and Sereno Edwards Dwight,
    theologian, educationalist and author; and his great-great-grandsons,
    Theodore William Dwight, the jurist, and Timothy Dwight, second of
    that name to be president of Yale.



EDWARDS, LEWIS (1809-1887), Welsh Nonconformist divine, was born in the
parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, on the 27th of October 1809.
He was educated at Aberystwyth and at Llangeitho, and then himself kept
school in both these places. He had already begun to preach for the
Calvinistic Methodists when, in December 1830, he went to London to take
advantage of the newly-opened university. In 1832 he settled as minister
at Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, and the following year went to
Edinburgh, where a special resolution of the senate allowed him to
graduate at the end of his third session. He was now better able to
further his plans for providing a trained ministry for his church.
Previously, the success of the Methodist preachers had been due mainly
to their natural gifts. Edwards made his home at Bala, and there, in
1837, with David Charles, his brother-in-law, he opened a school, which
ultimately became the denominational college for north Wales. He died on
the 19th of July 1887.

Edwards may fairly be called one of the makers of modern Wales. Through
his hands there passed generation after generation of preachers, who
carried his influence to every corner of the principality. By fostering
competitive meetings and by his writings, especially in _Y Traethodydd_
("The Essayist"), a quarterly magazine which he founded in 1845 and
edited for ten years, he did much to inform and educate his countrymen
on literary and theological subjects. A new college was built at Bala in
1867, for which he raised £10,000. His chief publication was a
noteworthy book on _The Doctrine of the Atonement_, cast in the form of
a dialogue between master and pupil; the treatment is forensic, and
emphasis is laid on merit. It was due to him that the North and South
Wales Calvinistic Methodist Associations united to form an annual
General Assembly; he was its moderator in 1866 and again in 1876. He was
successful in bringing the various churches of the Presbyterian order
into closer touch with each other, and unwearying in his efforts to
promote education for his countrymen.

  See _Bywyd a Llythyrau y Parch_, (i.e. Life and Letters of the Rev.)
  _Lewis Edwards, D.D._, by his son T. C. Edwards.



EDWARDS, RICHARD (c. 1523-1566), English musician and playwright, was
born in Somersetshire, became a scholar of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, in 1540, and took his M.A. degree in 1547. He was appointed in
1561 a gentleman of the chapel royal and master of the children, and
entered Lincoln's Inn in 1564, where at Christmas in that year he
produced a play which was acted by his choir boys. On the 3rd of
September 1566 his play, _Palamon and Arcite_, was performed before
Queen Elizabeth in the Hall of Christ Church, Oxford. Another play,
_Damon and Pithias_, tragic in subject but with scenes of vulgar farce,
entered at Stationers' Hall in 1567-8, appeared in 1571 and was
reprinted in 1582; it may be found in Dodsley's _Old Plays_, vol. i.,
and _Ancient British Drama_, vol. i. It is written in rhymed lines of
rude construction, varying in length and neglecting the _caesura_. A
number of the author's shorter pieces are preserved in the _Paradise of
Dainty Devices_, first published in 1575, and reprinted in the _British
Bibliographer_, vol. iii.; the best known are the lines on May, the
_Amantium Irae_, and the _Commendation of Music_, which has the honour
of furnishing a stanza to _Romeo and Juliet_. The _Historie of Damocles
and Dionise_ is assigned to him in the 1578 edition of the _Paradise_.
Sir John Hawkins credited him with the part song "In going to my lonely
bed"; the words are certainly his, and probably the music. In his own
day Edwards was highly esteemed. The fine poem, "The Soul's Knell," is
supposed to have been written by him when dying.

  See _Grove's Dict. of Music_ (new edition); the _Shakespeare Soc.
  Papers_, vol. ii. art. vi.; Ward, _English Dram. Literature_, vol. i.



EDWARDS, THOMAS CHARLES (1837-1900), Welsh Nonconformist divine and
educationist, was born at Bala, Merioneth, on the 22nd of September
1837, the son of Lewis Edwards (q.v.). His resolve to become a minister
was deepened by the revival of 1858-1859. After taking his degrees at
London (B.A. 1861, M.A. 1862), he matriculated at St Alban Hall, Oxford,
in October 1862, the university having just been opened to dissenters.
He obtained a scholarship at Lincoln College in 1864, and took a first
class in the school of Literae Humaniores in 1866. He was especially
influenced by Mark Pattison and Jowett, who counselled him to be true to
the church of his father, in which he had already been ordained. Early
in 1867 he became minister at Windsor Street, Liverpool, but left it to
become first principal of the University College of Wales at
Aberystwyth, which had been established through the efforts of Sir Hugh
Owen and other enthusiasts. The college was opened with a staff of three
professors and twenty-five students in October 1872, and for some years
its career was chequered enough. Edwards, however, proved a skilful
pilot, and his hold on the affection of the Welsh people enabled him to
raise the college to a high level of efficiency. When it was destroyed
by fire in 1885 he collected £25,000 to rebuild it; the remainder of the
necessary £40,000 being given by the government (£10,000) and by the
people of Aberystwyth (£5000). In 1891 he gave up what had been the main
work of his life to accept an undertaking that was even nearer his
heart, the principalship of the theological college at Bala. A stroke of
paralysis in 1894 fatally weakened him, but he continued at work till
his death on the 22nd of March 1900. The Calvinistic Methodist Church of
Wales bestowed on him every honour in their possession, and he received
the degree of D.D. from the universities of Edinburgh (1887) and Wales
(1898). His chief works were a _Commentary on 1 Corinthians_ (1885), the
_Epistle to the Hebrews_ ("Expositor's Bible" series, 1888), and _The
God-Man_ ("Davies Lecture," 1895).



EDWARDSVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Madison county, Illinois,
U.S.A., in the south-western part of the state, on Cahokia Creek, about
18 m. N.E. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 3561; (1900) 4157 (573
foreign-born); (1910) 5014. Edwardsville is served by the Toledo, St
Louis & Western, the Wabash, the Litchfield & Madison, and the Illinois
Terminal railways, and is connected with St Louis by three electric
lines. It has a Carnegie library. The city's principal manufactures are
carriages, ploughs, brick, machinery, sanitary ware and plumber's goods.
Bituminous coal is extensively mined in the vicinity. Adjoining
Edwardsville is the co-operative village Leclaire (unincorporated), with
the factory of the N.O. Nelson Manufacturing Co., makers of plumber's
supplies, brass goods, sanitary fixtures, &c.; the village was founded
in 1890 by Nelson O. Nelson (b. 1844), and nearly all of the residents
are employed by the company of which he is the head; they share to a
certain extent in its profits, and are encouraged to own their own
homes. The company supports a school, Leclaire Academy, and has built a
club-house, bowling alleys, tennis-courts, base-ball grounds, &c. The
first settlement on the site of Edwardsville was made in 1812, and in
1815 the town was laid out and named in honour of Ninian Edwards
(1775-1833), the governor of the Illinois Territory (1809-1818), and
later United States senator (1818-1824) and governor of the state of
Illinois (1826-1830). Edwardsville was incorporated in 1819 and received
its present charter in 1872.



EDWARDSVILLE, a borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the
north branch of the Susquehanna river, adjoining Kingston and close to
the north-western limits of Wilkes-Barre (on the opposite side of the
river), in the north-eastern part of the state; the official name of the
post office is Edwardsdale. Pop. (1890), 3284; (1900), 5165, of whom
2645 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 8407. It is served by the
electric line of the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Co. Coal
mining and brewing are the chief industries. Edwardsville was
incorporated in 1884.



EDWIN, AEDUINI or EDWINE (585-633), king of Northumbria, was the son of
Ella of Deira. On the seizure of Deira by Æthelfrith of Bernicia
(probably 605), Edwin was expelled and is said to have taken refuge with
Cadfan, king of Gwynedd. After the battle of Chester, in which
Æthelfrith defeated the Welsh, Edwin fled to Roedwald, the powerful
king of East Anglia, who after some wavering espoused his cause and
defeated and slew Æthelfrith at the river Idle in 617. Edwin thereupon
succeeded to the Northumbrian throne, driving out the sons of
Æthelfrith. There is little evidence of external activity on the part of
Edwin before 625. It is probable that the conquest of the Celtic kingdom
of Elmet, a district in the neighbourhood of the modern Leeds, ruled
over by a king named Cerdic (Ceredig) is to be referred to this period,
and this may have led to the later quarrel with Cadwallon, king of
Gwynedd. Edwin seems also to have annexed Lindsey to his kingdom by 625.
In this year he entered upon negotiations with Eadbald of Kent for a
marriage with his sister Æthelberg. It was made a condition that
Christianity should be tolerated in Northumbria, and accordingly
Paulinus was consecrated bishop by Justus in 625, and was sent to
Northumbria with Æthelberg. According to Bede, Edwin was favourably
disposed towards Christianity owing to a vision he had seen at the court
of Roedwald, and in 626 he allowed Eanfled, his daughter by Æthelberg,
to be baptized. On the day of the birth of his daughter, the king's life
had been attempted by Eomer, an emissary of Cwichelm, king of Wessex.
Preserved by the devotion of his thegn Lilla, Edwin vowed to become a
Christian if victorious over his treacherous enemy. He was successful in
the ensuing campaign, and abstained from the worship of the gods of his
race. A letter of Pope Boniface helped to decide him, and after
consulting his friends and counsellors, of whom the priest Coifi
afterwards took a prominent part in destroying the temple at Goodmanham,
he was baptized with his people and nobles at York, at Easter 627. In
this town he granted Paulinus a see, built a wooden church and began one
of stone. Besides York, Yeavering and Maelmin in Bernicia, and Catterick
in Deira, were the chief scenes of the work of Paulinus. It was the
influence of Edwin which led to the conversion of Eorpwald of East
Anglia. Bede notices the peaceful state of Britain at this time, and
relates that Edwin was preceded on his progresses by a kind of standard
like that borne before the Roman emperors. In 633 Cadwallon of North
Wales and Penda of Mercia rose against Edwin and slew him at Hatfield
near Doncaster. His kinsman Osric succeeded in Deira, and Eanfrith the
son of Æthelfrith in Bernicia. Bede tells us that Edwin had subdued the
islands of Anglesey and Man, and the _Annales Cambriae_ record that he
besieged Cadwallon (perhaps in 632) in the island of Glannauc (Puffin
Island). He was definitely recognized as overlord by all the other
Anglo-Saxon kings of his day except Eadbald of Kent.

  See Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ (ed. Plummer, Oxford, 1896), ii. 5, 9, 11, 12,
  13, 15, 16, 18, 20; Nennius (ed. San Marte, 1844), § 63; _Vita S.
  Oswaldi_, ix. Simeon of Durham (ed. Arnold, London, 1882-1885, vol. i.
  R.S.).     (F. G. M. B.)



EDWIN, JOHN (1749-1790), English actor, was born in London on the 10th
of August 1749, the son of a watchmaker. As a youth, he appeared in the
provinces, in minor parts; and at Bath in 1768 he formed a connexion
with a Mrs Walmsley, a milliner, who bore him a son, but whom he
afterwards deserted. His first London appearance was at the Haymarket in
1776 as Flaw in Samuel Foote's _The Cozeners_, but when George Colman
took over the theatre he was given better parts and became its leading
actor. In 1779 he was at Covent Garden, and played there or at the
Haymarket until his death on the 31st of October 1790. Ascribed to him
are _The Last Legacy of John Edwin_, 1780; _Edwin's Jests_ and _Edwin's
Pills to Purge Melancholy_.

His son, JOHN EDWIN (1768-1805), made a first appearance on the stage at
the Haymarket as Hengo in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Bonduca_ in 1778, and
from that time acted frequently with his father, and managed the private
theatricals organized by his intimate friend Lord Barrymore at Wargrave,
Berks. In 1791 he married Elizabeth Rebecca Richards, an actress already
well known in juvenile parts, and played at the Haymarket and elsewhere
thereafter with her. He died in Dublin on the 22nd of February 1805. His
widow joined the Drury Lane company (then playing, on account of the
fire of 1809, at the Lyceum), and took all the leading characters in the
comedies of the day. She died on the 3rd of August 1854.



EDWY (EADWIG), "THE FAIR" (c. 940-959), king of the English, was the
eldest son of King Edmund and Ælfgifu, and succeeded his uncle Eadred in
955, when he was little more than fifteen years old. He was crowned at
Kingston by Archbishop Odo, and his troubles began at the coronation
feast. He had retired to enjoy the company of the ladies Æthelgifu
(perhaps his foster-mother) and her daughter Ælfgifu, whom the king
intended to marry. The nobles resented the king's withdrawal, and he was
induced by Dunstan and Cynesige, bishop of Lichfield, to return to the
feast. Edwy naturally resented this interference, and in 957 Dunstan was
driven into exile. By the year 956 Ælfgifu had become the king's wife,
but in 958 Archbishop Odo of Canterbury secured their separation on the
ground of their being too closely akin. Edwy, to judge from the
disproportionately large numbers of charters issued during his reign,
seems to have been weakly lavish in the granting of privileges, and soon
the chief men of Mercia and Northumbria were disgusted by his partiality
for Wessex. The result was that in the year 957 his brother, the
Ætheling Edgar, was chosen as king by the Mercians and Northumbrians. It
is probable that no actual conflict took place, and in 959, on Edwy's
death, Edgar acceded peaceably to the combined kingdoms of Wessex,
Mercia and Northumbria.

  AUTHORITIES.--_Saxon Chronicle_ (ed. Earle and Plummer, Oxford), _sub
  ann._; _Memorials of St Dunstan_ (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series); William
  of Malmesbury, _Gesta regum_ (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series); Birch,
  _Cartularium Saxonicum_, vol. ii. Nos. 932-1046; Florence of
  Worcester.



EECKHOUT, GERBRAND VAN DEN (1621-1674), Dutch painter, born at Amsterdam
on the 19th of August 1621, entered early into the studio of Rembrandt.
Though a companion pupil to F. Bol and Govaert Flinck, he was inferior
to both in skill and in the extent of his practice; yet at an early
period he assumed Rembrandt's manner with such success that his pictures
were confounded with those of his master; and, even in modern days, the
"Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus," in the Berlin museum, and the
"Presentation in the Temple," in the Dresden gallery, have been held to
represent worthily the style of Rembrandt. As evidence of the fidelity
of Eeckhout's imitation we may cite his "Presentation in the Temple," at
Berlin, which is executed after Rembrandt's print of 1630, and his
"Tobit with the Angel," at Brunswick, which is composed on the same
background as Rembrandt's "Philosopher in Thought." Eeckhout not merely
copies the subjects; he also takes the shapes, the figures, the Jewish
dress and the pictorial effects of his master. It is difficult to form
an exact judgment of Eeckhout's qualities at the outset of his career.
His earliest pieces are probably those in which he more faithfully
reproduced Rembrandt's peculiarities. Exclusively his is a tinge of
green in shadows marring the harmony of the work, a certain gaudiness of
jarring tints, uniform surface and a touch more quick than subtle.
Besides the pictures already mentioned we should class amongst early
productions on this account the "Woman taken in Adultery," at Amsterdam;
"Anna presenting her Son to the High Priest," in the Louvre; the
"Epiphany," at Turin; and the "Circumcision," at Cassel. Eeckhout
matriculated early in the Gild of Amsterdam. A likeness of a lady at a
dressing-table with a string of beads, at Vienna, bears the date of
1643, and proves that the master at this time possessed more imitative
skill than genuine mastery over nature. As he grew older he succeeded
best in portraits, a very fair example of which is that of the historian
Dappers (1669), in the Städel collection. Eeckhout occasionally varied
his style so as to recall in later years the "small masters" of the
Dutch school. Waagen justly draws attention to his following of Terburg
in "Gambling Soldiers," at Stafford House, and a "Soldiers'
Merrymaking," in the collection of the marquess of Bute. A "Sportsman
with Hounds," probably executed in 1670, now in the Vander Hoo gallery,
and a "Group of Children with Goats" (1671), in the Hermitage, hardly
exhibit a trace of the artist's first education. Amongst the best of
Eeckhout's works "Christ in the Temple" (1662), at Munich, and the
"Haman and Mordecai" of 1665, at Luton House, occupy a good place.
Eeckhout died at Amsterdam on the 22nd of October 1674.



EEL. The common freshwater eel (Lat. _anguilla_; O. Eng. _oel_) belongs
to a group of soft-rayed fishes distinguished by the presence of an
opening to the air-bladder and the absence of the pelvic fins. With its
nearest relatives it forms the family _Muraenidae_, all of which are of
elongated cylindrical form. The peculiarities of the eel are the
rudimentary scales buried in the skin, the well-developed pectoral fins,
the rounded tail fin continuous with the dorsal and ventral fins. Only
one other species of the family occurs in British waters, namely, the
conger, which is usually much larger and lives in the sea. In the conger
the eyes are larger than in the eel, and the upper jaw overlaps the
lower, whereas in the eel the lower jaw projects beyond the upper. Both
species are voracious and predatory, and feed on almost any animal food
they can obtain, living or dead. The conger is especially fond of squid
or other Cephalopods, while the eel greedily devours carrion. The common
eel occurs in all the rivers and fresh waters of Europe, except those
draining towards the Arctic Ocean, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. It
also occurs on the Atlantic side of North America. The conger has a
wider range, extending from the western and southern shores of Britain
and Ireland to the East Indian Archipelago and Japan. It is common in
the Mediterranean.

The ovaries of the eel resemble somewhat those of the salmon in
structure, not forming closed sacs, as in the majority of Teleostei, but
consisting of laminae exposed to the body cavity. The laminae in which
the eggs are produced are very numerous, and are attached transversely
by their inner edges to a membranous band running nearly the whole
length of the body-cavity. The majority of the eels captured for market
are females with the ovaries in an immature condition. The male eel was
first discovered in 1873 by Syrski at Trieste, the testis being
described by him as a lobed elongated organ, in the same relative
position as the ovary in the female, surrounded by a smooth surface
without laminae. He did not find ripe spermatozoa. He discovered the
male by examining small specimens, all the larger being female. L.
Jacoby, a later observer, found no males exceeding 19 in. in length,
while the female may reach a length of 39 in. or more. Dr C. G. J.
Petersen, in a paper published in 1896, states that in Denmark two kinds
of eels are distinguished by the fishermen, namely, yellow eels and
silver eels. The silver eels are further distinguished by the shape of
the snout and the size of the eyes. The snout in front of the eyes is
not flat, as in the yellow eels, but high and compressed, and therefore
appears more pointed, while the eyes are much larger and directed
outwards. In both kinds there are males and females, but Petersen shows
that the yellow eels change into silver eels when they migrate to the
sea. The sexual organs in the silver eels are more developed than in the
yellow eels, and the former have almost or entirely ceased to take food.
The male silver eels are from 11½ to 19 in. in length, the females from
16½ to about 39 in. It is evident, therefore, that if eels only spawn
once, they do not all reach the same size when they become sexually
mature. The male conger was first described in 1879 by Hermes, who
obtained a ripe specimen in the Berlin Aquarium. This specimen was not
quite 2½ ft. in length, and of the numerous males which have been
identified at the Plymouth Laboratory, none exceeded this length. The
large numbers of conger above this size caught for the market are all
immature females. Female conger of 5 or 6 ft. in length and weighing
from 30 to 50 lb. are common enough, and occasionally they exceed these
limits. The largest recorded was 8 ft. 3 in. long, and weighed 128 lb.

There is every reason to believe that eels and conger spawn but once in
their lives, and die soon after they have discharged their generative
products. When kept in aquaria, both male and female conger are vigorous
and voracious. The males sooner or later cease to feed, and attain to
the sexually mature condition, emitting ripe milt when handled and
gently squeezed. They live in this condition five or six months, taking
no food and showing gradual wasting and disease of the bodily organs.
The eyes and skin become ulcerated, the sight is entirely lost, and the
bones become soft through loss of lime. The females also after a time
cease to feed, and live in a fasting condition for five or six months,
during which time the ovaries develop and reach great size and weight,
while the bones become soft and the teeth disappear. The female,
however, always dies in confinement before the ova are perfectly ripe
and before they are liberated from the ovarian tissue. The absence of
some necessary condition, perhaps merely of the pressure which exists at
the bottom of the sea, evidently prevents the complete development of
the ovary. The invariable death of the fish in the same almost ripe
condition leads to the conclusion that under normal conditions the fish
dies after the mature ova have been discharged. G. B. Grassi states that
he obtained ripe male eels, and ripe specimens of _Muraena_, another
genus of the family, in the whirlpools of the Strait of Messina. A ripe
female _Muraena_ has also been described at Zanzibar. Gravid female
eels, i.e. specimens with ovaries greatly enlarged, have been
occasionally obtained in fresh water, but there is no doubt that,
normally, sexual maturity is attained only in the sea.

Until recent years nothing was known from direct observation concerning
the reproduction of the common eel or any species of the family. It was
a well-known fact that large eels migrated towards the sea in autumn,
and that in the spring small transparent eels of 2 in. in length and
upwards were common on the shore under stones, and ascended rivers and
streams in vast swarms. It was reasonable, therefore, to infer that the
mature eels spawned in the sea, and that there the young were developed.

[Illustration: Leptocephali. (By permission of J. & A. Churchill.)]

A group of peculiar small fishes were, however, known which were called
Leptocephali, from the small proportional size of the head. The first of
these described was captured in 1763 near Holyhead, and became the type
of _L. Morrisii_, other specimens of which have been taken either near
the shore or at the surface of the sea. Other forms placed in the same
genus had been taken by surface fishing in the Mediterranean and in
tropical ocean currents. The chief peculiarities of Leptocephali, in
addition to the smallness of the head, are their ribbon-like shape and
their glassy transparency during life. The body is flattened from side
to side, and broad from the dorsal to the ventral edge. Like the eels,
they are destitute of pelvic fins and no generative organs have been
observed in them (see fig.).

In 1864 the American naturalist, T. N. Gill, published the conclusion
that _L. Morrisii_ was the young or larva of the conger, and
Leptocephali generally the young stages of species of _Muraenidae_. In
1886 this conclusion was confirmed from direct observation by Yves
Delage, who kept alive in a tank at Roscoff a specimen of _L. Morrisii_,
and saw it gradually transformed into a young conger. From 1887 to 1892
Professor Grassi and Dr Calandruccio carried on careful and successful
researches into the development of the Leptocephali at Catania, in
Sicily. The specimens were captured in considerable numbers in the
harbour, and the transformation of _L. Morrisii_ into young conger, and
of various other forms of Leptocephalus into other genera of
_Muraenidae_, such as _Muraena_, _Congromuraena_ and _Ophichthys_, was
observed. In 1894 the same authors published the announcement that
another species of Leptocephalus, namely, _L. brevirostris_, was the
larva of the common eel. This larval form was captured in numbers with
other Leptocephali in the strong currents of the Strait of Messina. In
the metamorphosis of all Leptocephali a great reduction in size occurs.
The _L. brevirostris_ reaches a length of 8 cm., or a little more than
2½ in., while the perfectly-formed young eel is 2 in. long or a little
more.

The Italian naturalists have also satisfied themselves that certain
pelagic fish eggs originally described by Raffaele at Naples are the
eggs of _Muraenidae_, and that among them are the eggs of _Conger_ and
_Anguilla_. They believe that these eggs, although free in the water,
remain usually near the bottom at great depths, and that fertilization
takes place under similar conditions. No fish eggs of the kind to which
reference is here made have yet been obtained on the British coasts,
although conger and eels are so abundant there. Raffaele described and
figured the larva newly hatched from one of the eggs under
consideration, and it is evident that this larva is the earliest stage
of a Leptocephalus.

Although young eels, some of them more or less flat and transparent, are
common enough on the coasts of Great Britain and north-western Europe in
spring, neither eggs nor specimens of _Leptocephalus brevirostris_ have
yet been taken in the North Sea, English Channel or other shallow waters
in the neighbourhood of the British Islands, or in the Baltic. Marked
eels have been proved to migrate from the inmost part of the Baltic to
the Kattegat. Recently, however, search has been made for the larvae in
the more distant and deeper portions of the Atlantic Ocean. In May 1904
a true larval specimen was taken at the surface south-west of the Faeroe
Islands, and another was taken 40 m. north by west of Achill Head,
Ireland. In 1905 numbers were taken in deep water in the Atlantic. The
evidence at present available indicates that the spawning of mature eels
takes place beyond the 100 fathom line, and that the young eels which
reach the coast are already a year old. As eels, both young and old, are
able to live for a long time out of water and have the habit of
travelling at night over land in wet grass and in damp weather, there is
no difficulty in explaining their presence in wells, ponds or other
isolated bodies of fresh water at any distance from the sea.

  See "The Eel Question," _Report U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for
  1879_ (Washington, 1882); J. T. Cunningham, "Reproduction and
  Development of the Conger," _Journ. Mar. Biol. Assn._ vol. ii.; C. G.
  J. Petersen, _Report Dan. Biol. Station_, v. (1894); G. B. Grassi,
  _Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci._ vol. xxxix. (1897).     (J. T. C.)



EFFENDI (a Turkish word, corrupted from the Gr. [Greek: authentês], a
lord or master), a title of respect, equivalent to the English "sir," in
the Turkish empire and some other eastern countries. It follows the
personal name, when that is used, and is generally given to members of
the learned professions, and to government officials who have no higher
rank, such as Bey, Pasha, &c. It may also indicate a definite office, as
_Hakim effendi_, chief physician to the sultan. The possessive form
_effendim_ (my master) is used by servants and in formal intercourse.



EFFIGIES, MONUMENTAL. An "effigy" (Lat. _effigies_, from _effingere_, to
fashion) is, in general, a material image or likeness of a person; and
the practice of hanging or burning people "in effigy," i.e. their
semblance only, preserves the more general sense of the word. Such
representations may be portraits, caricatures or models. But, apart from
general usages of the term (see e.g. Wax Figures), it is more
particularly applied in the history of art to a particular class of
sculptured figures, in the flat or the round, associated with Christian
sepulchral monuments, dating from the 12th century. The earliest of
these attempts at commemorative portraiture were executed in low relief
upon coffin-lids of stone or purbeck marble, some portions of the
designs for the most part being executed by means of incised lines, cut
upon the raised figure. Gradually, with the increased size and the
greater architectural dignity of monumental structures, effigies
attained to a high rank as works of art, so that before the close of the
13th century very noble examples of figures of this order are found to
have been executed in full relief; and, about the same period, similar
figures also began to be engraved, either upon monumental slabs of stone
or marble, or upon plates of metal, which were affixed to the surfaces
of slabs that were laid in the pavements of churches.

Engraved plates of this class, known as "Brasses" (see BRASSES,
MONUMENTAL), continued in favour until the era of the Reformation, and
in recent times their use has been revived. It seems probable that the
introduction and the prevalence of flat engraved memorials, in place of
commemorative effigies in relief, was due, in the first instance, to the
inconvenience resulting from increasing numbers of raised stones on the
pavement of churches; while the comparatively small cost of engraved
plates, their high artistic capabilities, and their durability, combined
to secure for them the popularity they unquestionably enjoyed. If
considerably less numerous than contemporary incised slabs and engraved
brasses, effigies sculptured in relief--with some exceptions in full
relief--continued for centuries to constitute the most important
features in many medieval monuments. In the 13th century, their origin
being apparently derived from the endeavour to combine a monumental
effigy with a monumental cross upon the same sepulchral stone (whether
in sculpture or by incised lines), parts only of the human figure
sometimes were represented, such as the head or bust, and occasionally
also the feet; in some of the early examples of this curious class the
cross symbol was not introduced, and after awhile half-length figures
became common.

Except in very rare instances, that most important element, genuine
face-portraiture, is not to be looked for, in even the finest sculptured
effigies, earlier than about the middle of the 15th century. In works of
the highest order of art, indeed, the memorials of personages of the
most exalted rank, effigies from an early period in their existence may
be considered occasionally to have been portraits properly so called;
and yet even in such works as these an approximately correct general
resemblance but too frequently appears to have been all that was
contemplated or desired. At the same time, in the earliest monumental
effigies we possess contemporary examples of vestments, costume,[1]
armour, weapons, royal and knightly insignia, and other personal
appointments and accessories, in all of which accurate fidelity has been
certainly observed with scrupulous care and minute exactness. Thus,
since the monumental effigies of England are second to none in artistic
merit, while they have been preserved in far greater numbers, and
generally in better condition than those in other countries, they
represent in unbroken continuity an unrivalled series of original
personal representations of successive generations, very many of them
being, in the most significant acceptation of that term, veritable
contemporaneous portraits.

Once esteemed to be simply objects of antiquarian curiosity, and either
altogether disregarded or too often subjected to injurious indignity,
the monumental effigies in England long awaited the formation of a just
estimate of their true character and their consequent worth in their
capacity as authorities for face-portraiture. In the original contract
for the construction of the monument at Warwick to Richard Beauchamp,
the fifth earl, who died in 1439, it is provided that an effigy of the
deceased noble should be executed in bronze gilt, with all possible
care, by the most skilful and experienced artists of the time; and the
details of the armour and the ornaments of the figure are specified with
minute precision. It is remarkable, however, that the effigy itself is
described only in the general and indefinite terms--"an image of a man
armed." There is no provision that the effigy should be "an image" of
the earl; and much less is anything said as to its being such a
"counterfeit presentment" of the features and person of the living man,
as the contemporaries of Shakespeare had learned to expect in what they
would accept as true portraiture. The effigy, almost as perfect as when
it left the sculptor's hands, still bears witness, as well to the
conscientious care with which the conditions of the contract were
fulfilled, as to the eminent ability of the artists employed. So
complete is the representation of the armour, that this effigy might be
considered actually to have been equipped in the earl's own favourite
suit of the finest Milan steel. The cast of the figure also was
evidently studied from what the earl had been when in life, and the
countenance is sufficiently marked and endowed with the unmistakable
attributes of personal character. Possibly such a resemblance may have
been the highest aim in the image-making of the period, somewhat before
the middle of the 15th century. Three-quarters of a century later, a
decided step towards fidelity in true portraiture is shown to have been
taken, when, in his will (1510 A.D.), Henry VII. spoke of the effigies
of himself and of his late queen, Elizabeth of York, to be executed for
their monument, as "an image of our figure and another of hers." The
existing effigies in the Beauchamp chapel and in Henry VII.'s chapel,
with the passages just quoted from the contract made by the executors of
the Lancastrian earl, strikingly illustrate the gradual development of
the idea of true personal portraiture in monumental effigies, during the
course of the 15th and at the commencement of the 16th century in
England.

Study of the royal effigies still preserved must commence in Worcester
Cathedral with that of King John. This earliest example of a series of
effigies of which the historical value has never yet been duly
appreciated is rude as a work of art, and yet there is on it the impress
of such individuality as demonstrates that the sculptor did his best to
represent the king. Singularly fine as achievements of the sculptor's
art are the effigies of Henry III., Queen Eleanor of Castile, and her
ill-fated son Edward II., the two former in Westminster Abbey, the last
in Gloucester cathedral; and of their fidelity also as portraits no
doubt can be entertained. In like manner the effigies of Edward III. and
his queen Philippa, and those of their grandson Richard II. and his
first consort, Anne of Bohemia (all at Westminster), and of their other
grandson, Henry of Lancaster, with his second consort, Joan of Navarre,
at Canterbury--all convince us that they are true portraits. Next follow
the effigies of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York,--to be succeeded, and
the royal series to be completed, by the effigies of Queen Elizabeth and
Mary Stuart, all of them in Westminster Abbey. Very instructive would be
a close comparison between the two last-named works and the painted
portraits of the rival queens, especially in the case of Mary, the
pictures of whom differ so remarkably from one another.

As the 15th century advanced, the rank of the personage represented and
the character of the art that distinguishes any effigy goes far to
determine its portrait qualities. Still later, when more exact
face-portraiture had become a recognized element, sculptors must be
supposed to have aimed at the production of such resemblance as their
art would enable them to give to their works; and accordingly, when we
compare effigies with painted portraits of the same personages, we find
that they corroborate one another. The prevalence of portraiture in the
effigies of the 16th and 17th centuries, when their art generally
underwent a palpable decline, by no means raises all works of this
class, or indeed the majority of them, to the dignity of true portraits;
on the contrary, in these effigies, as in those of earlier periods, it
is the character of the art in each particular example that affects its
merit, value and authority as a portrait. In judging of these latter
effigies, however, we must estimate them by the standard of art of their
own era; and, as a general rule, the effigies that are the best as works
of art in their own class are the best also and the most faithful in
their portraiture. The earlier effigies, usually produced without any
express aim at exact portraiture, as we now employ that expression, have
nevertheless strong claims upon our veneration. Often their sculpture is
very noble; and even when they are rudest as works of art, there is
rarely lacking a rough grandeur about them, as exhibited in the fine
bold figure of Fair Rosamond's son, Earl William of the Long Sword,
which reposes in such dignified serenity in his own cathedral at
Salisbury. These effigies may not bring us closely face to face with
remote generations, but they do place before us true images of what the
men and women of those generations were.

Observant students of monumental effigies will not fail to appreciate
the singular felicity with which the medieval sculptors adjusted their
compositions to the recumbent position in which their "images"
necessarily had to be placed. Equally worthy of notice is the manner in
which many monumental effigies, particularly those of comparatively
early date, are found to have assumed an aspect neither living nor
lifeless, and yet impressively life-like. The sound judgment also, and
the good taste of those early sculptors, were signally exemplified in
their excluding, almost without exception, the more extravagant fashions
in the costume of their era from their monumental sculpture, and
introducing only the simpler but not less characteristic styles of dress
and appointments. Monumental effigies, as commonly understood, represent
recumbent figures, and the accessories of the effigies themselves have
been adjusted to that position. With the exceptions when they appear on
one side resting on the elbow (as in the case of Thomas Owen (d. 1598)
and Sir Thomas Heskett (d. 1605), both in Westminster Abbey), these
effigies lie on their backs, and as a general rule (except in the case
of episcopal figures represented in the act of benediction, or of
princes and warriors who sometimes hold a sceptre or a sword) their
hands are uplifted and conjoined as in supplication. The crossed-legged
attitude of numerous armed effigies of the era of mail-armour has been
supposed to imply the personages so represented to have been crusaders
or Knights of the Temple; but in either case the supposition is
unfounded and inconsistent with unquestionable facts. Much beautiful
feeling is conveyed by figures of ministering angels being introduced as
in the act of supporting and smoothing the pillows or cushions that are
placed in very many instances to give support to the heads of the
recumbent effigies. The animals at the feet of these effigies, which
frequently have an heraldic significance, enabled the sculptors, with
equal propriety and effectiveness, to overcome one of the special
difficulties inseparable from the recumbent position. In general,
monumental effigies were carved in stone or marble, or cast in bronze,
but occasionally they were of wood: such is the effigy of Robert
Curthose, son of William I. (d. 1135), whose altar tomb in Gloucester
cathedral was probably set up about 1320.

In addition to recumbent statues, upright figures must receive notice
here, especially those set in wall-monuments in churches mainly. These
usually consisted in half-length figures, seen full-face, placed in a
recess within an architectural setting more or less elaborate. They
belong mainly to the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the many examples in
old St Paul's cathedral (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666) were those
of Dean Colet (d. 1519), William Aubrey (1595) and Alexander Nowell (d.
1601). In St Giles's, Cripplegate, is the similarly designed effigy of
John Speed (d. 1629); while that of John Stow (d. 1605) is a
full-length, seated figure. This, like the figure of Thomas Owen, is in
alabaster, but since its erection has always been described as
terra-cotta--a material which came into considerable favour for the
purpose of busts and half-lengths towards the end of the 16th century,
imported, of course, from abroad. Sometimes the stone monuments were
painted to resemble life, as in the monuments to Shakespeare and John
Combe (the latter now over-painted white), in Holy Trinity Church,
Stratford-on-Avon.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Among the more noteworthy publications are the
  following: _Monumental Effigies in Great Britain_ (Norman Conquest to
  Henry VIII.), by C. A. Stothard, folio (London, 1876); _The Recumbent
  Monumental Effigies in Northamptonshire_, by A. Hartshorne (4to,
  London, 1867-1876); _Sepulchral Memorials_ (Northamptonshire), by W.
  H. Hyett (folio, London, 1817); _Ancient Sepulchral Effigies and
  Monumental Sculpture of Devon_, by W. H. H. Rogers (4to, Exeter,
  1877); _The Ancient Sepulchral Monuments of Essex_, ed. by C. M.
  Carlton (4to, Chelmsford, 1890); and other works dealing with the
  subject according to counties. Of particular value is the _Report of
  the Sepulchral Monuments Committee_ of the Society of Antiquaries,
  laboriously compiled at the request of the Office of Works, arranged
  (1) personally and chronologically, and (2) locally (1872).
       (C. B.; M. H. S.)


FOOTNOTE:

  [1] It is well known that the costume of effigies nearly always
    represented what was actually worn by the remains of the person
    commemorated, when prepared for interment and when lying in state;
    and, in like manner, the aspect of the lifeless countenance, even if
    not designedly reproduced by medieval "image" makers, may long have
    exercised a powerful influence upon their ideas of consistent
    monumental portraiture.



EGAN, PIERCE (1772-1849), English sporting writer, was born in London in
1772. He began life as sporting reporter for the newspapers, and was
soon recognized as the best of his day. In 1814 he wrote, set and
printed a book about the relations of the prince regent (afterwards
George IV.) and Miss Robinson, called _The Mistress of Royalty, or the
Loves of Florizel and Perdita_. But his best-known work is _Life in
London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his Elegant Friend
Corinthian Tom_ (1821), a book describing the amusements of sporting
men, with illustrations by Cruikshank. This book took the popular fancy
and was one of Thackeray's early favourites (see his _Roundabout
Papers_). It was repeatedly imitated, and several dramatic versions were
produced in London. A sequel containing more of country sports and
misadventures probably suggested Dickens's _Pickwick Papers_. In 1824
_Pierce Egan's Life in London and Sporting Guide_ was started, a weekly
newspaper afterwards incorporated with _Bell's Life_. Among his numerous
other books are _Boxiana_ (1818), _Life of an Actor_ (1824), _Book of
Sports_ (1832), and the _Pilgrims of the Thames_ (1838). Egan died at
Pentonville on the 3rd of August 1849.

His son, Pierce Egan (1814-1880), illustrated his own and his father's
books, and wrote a score of novels of varying merit, of which _The Snake
in the Grass_ (1858) is perhaps the best.



EGBO, a secret society flourishing chiefly among the Efiks of the
Calabar district, West Africa. Egbo or Ekpé is a mysterious spirit who
lives in the jungle and is supposed to preside at the ceremonies of the
society. Only males can join, boys being initiated about the age of
puberty. Members are bound by oath of secrecy, and fees on entrance are
payable. The Egbo-men are ranked in seven or nine grades, for promotion
to each of which fresh initiation ceremonies, fees and oaths are
necessary. The society combines a kind of freemasonry with political and
law-enforcing aims. For instance any member wronged in an Egbo district,
that is one dominated by the society, has only to address an Egbo-man or
beat the Egbo drum in the Egbo-house, or "blow Egbo" as it is called,
i.e. sound the Egbo horn before the hut of the wrong-doer, and the whole
machinery of the society is put in force to see justice done. Formerly
the society earned as bad a name as most secret sects, from the
barbarous customs mingled with its rites; but the British authorities
have been able to make use of it in enforcing order and helping on
civilization. The Egbo-house, an oblong building like the nave of a
church, usually stands in the middle of the villages. The walls are of
clay elaborately painted inside and ornamented with clay figures in
relief. Inside are wooden images, sometimes of an obscene nature, to
which reverence is paid. Much social importance attaches to the highest
ranks of Egbo-men, and it is said that very large sums, sometimes more
than a thousand pounds, are paid to attain these dignities. At certain
festivals in the year the Egbo-men wear black wooden masks with horns
which it is death for any woman to look on.

  See Mary H. Kingsley, _West African Studies_ (1901); Rev. Robt. H.
  Nassau, _Fetichism in West Africa_ (1904); C. Partridge, _Cross River
  Natives_ (1905).



EGEDE, HANS (1686-1758), Norwegian missionary, was born in the vogtship
of Senjen, Norway, on the 31st of January 1686. He studied at the
university of Copenhagen, and in 1706 became pastor at Vaagen in the
Lofoten islands, but the study of the chronicles of the northmen having
awakened in him the desire to visit the colony of Northmen in Greenland,
and to convert them to Christianity, he resigned his charge in 1717; and
having, after great difficulty, obtained the sanction and help of the
Danish government in his enterprise, he set sail with three ships from
Bergen on the 3rd of May 1721, accompanied by his wife and children. He
landed on the west coast of Greenland on the 3rd of July, but found to
his dismay that the Northmen were entirely superseded by the Eskimo, in
whom he had no particular interest, and whose language he would be able
to master, if at all, only after years of study. But, though compelled
to endure for some years great privations, and at one time to see the
result of his labours almost annihilated by the ravages of small-pox, he
remained resolutely at his post. He founded the colony of Godthaab, and
soon gained the affections of the people. He converted many of them to
Christianity, and established a considerable commerce with Denmark.
Ill-health compelling him to return home in 1736, he was made principal
of a seminary at Copenhagen, in which workers were trained for the
Greenland mission; and from 1740 to 1747 he was superintendent of the
mission. He died on the 5th of November 1758. He is the author of a book
on the natural history of Greenland.

His work in Greenland was continued, on his retirement, by his son PAUL
EGEDE (1708-1789), who afterwards returned to Denmark and succeeded his
father as superintendent of the Greenland mission. Paul Egede also
became professor of theology in the mission seminary. He published a
Greenland-Danish-Latin dictionary (1750), Greenland grammar (1760) and
Greenland catechism (1756). In 1766 he completed the translation begun
by his father of the New Testament into the Greenland tongue; and in
1787 he translated Thomas à Kempis. In 1789 he published a journal of
his life in Greenland.



EGER, AQIBA (1761-1837), Jewish scholar, was for the last twenty-five
years of his life rabbi of Posen. He was a rigorous casuist of the old
school, and his chief works were legal notes on the Talmud and the code
of Qaro (q.v.). He believed that religious education was enough, and
thus opposed the party which favoured secular schools. He was a
determined foe of the reform movement, which began to make itself felt
in his time.



EGER (Czech, _Cheb_), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 148 m. W.N.W. of
Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 23,665. It is situated on the river Eger, at
the foot of one of the spurs of the Fichtelgebirge, and lies in the
centre of a German district of about 40,000 inhabitants, who are
distinguished from the surrounding population by their costumes,
language, manners and customs. On the rock, to the N.W. of the town,
lies the Burg or Castle, built probably in the 12th century, and now in
ruins. It possesses a massive black tower, built of blocks of lava, and
in the courtyard is an interesting chapel, in Romanesque style with
fantastic ornamentations, which was finished in the 13th century. In the
banquet-room of this castle Wallenstein's officers Terzky, Kinsky, Illo
and Neumann were assassinated a few hours before Wallenstein himself was
murdered by Captain Devereux. The murder took place on the 25th of
February 1634 in the town-house, which was at that time the
burgomaster's house. The rooms occupied by Wallenstein have been
transformed since 1872 into a museum, which contains many historical
relics and antiquities of the town of Eger. The handsome and imposing St
Nicholas church was built in the 13th century and restored in 1892.
There is a considerable textile industry, together with the manufacture
of shoes, machinery and milling. Eger was the birthplace of the novelist
and playwright Braun von Braunthal (1802-1866). About 3 m. N.W. of Eger
is the well-known watering place of Franzensbad (q.v.).

The district of Eger was in 870 included in the new margraviate of East
Franconia, which belonged at first to the Babenbergs, but from 906 to
the counts of Vohburg, who took the title of margraves of Eger. By the
marriage, in 1149, of Adela of Vohburg with the emperor Frederick I.,
Eger came into the possession of the house of Swabia, and remained in
the hands of the emperors until the 13th century. In 1265 it was taken
by Ottakar II. of Bohemia, who retained it for eleven years. After being
repeatedly transferred from the one power to the other, according to the
preponderance of Bohemia or the empire, the town and territory were
finally incorporated with Bohemia in 1350, after the Bohemian king
became the emperor Charles IV. Several imperial privileges, however,
continued to be enjoyed by the town till 1849. It suffered severely
during the Hussite war, during the Swedish invasion in 1631 and 1647,
and in the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742.

  See Drivok, _Ältere Geschichte der deutschen Reichstadt Eger und des
  Reichsgebietes Egerland_ (Leipzig, 1875).



EGER (Ger. _Erlau_, Med. Lat. _Agria_), a town of Hungary, capital of
the county of Heves, 90 m. E.N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900)
24,650. It is beautifully situated in the valley of the river Eger, an
affluent of the Theiss, and on the eastern outskirts of the Mátra
mountains. Eger is the see of an archbishopric, and owing to its
numerous ecclesiastical buildings has received the name of "the
Hungarian Rome." Amongst the principal buildings are the beautiful
cathedral in the Italian style, with a handsome dome 130 ft. high,
erected in 1831-1834 by the archbishop Ladislaus Pyrker (1772-1847); the
church of the Brothers of Mercy, opposite which is a handsome minaret,
115 ft. high, the remains of a mosque dating from the Turkish
occupation, other Roman Catholic churches, and an imposing Greek church.
The archiepiscopal palace; the lyceum, with a good library and an
astronomical observatory; the seminary for Roman priests; and the
town-hall are all noteworthy. On an eminence N.E. of the town, laid out
as a park, are the ruins of the old fortress, and a monument of Stephen
Dobó, the heroic defender of the town against the assaults of the Turks
in 1552. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is the cultivation of
the vineyards of the surrounding hills, which produce the red Erlauer
wine, one of the best in Hungary. To the S.W. of Eger, in the same
county of Heves, is situated the town of Gyöngyös (pop. 15,878). It lies
on the south-western outskirts of the Mátra mountains, and carries on a
brisk trade in the Erlauer wine, which is produced throughout the
district. The Hungarians defeated the Austrians at Gyöngyös on the 3rd
of April 1849. To the S.W. of Gyöngyös is situated the old town of
Hatvan (pop. 9698), which is now a busy railway junction, and possesses
several industrial establishments.

Eger is an old town, and owes its importance to the bishopric created by
King Stephen in 1010, which was one of the richest in the whole of
Hungary. In 1552 Eger resisted the repeated assaults of a large Turkish
force; in 1596, however, it was given up to the Turks by the Austrian
party in the garrison, and remained in their possession until 1687. It
was created an archbishopric in 1814. During the revolution of
1848-1849, Eger was remarkable for the patriotic spirit displayed by its
inhabitants; and it was here that the principal campaigns against the
Austrians were organized.



EGERIA, an ancient Italian goddess of springs. Two distinct localities
were regarded as sacred to her,--the grove of Diana Nemorensis at
Aricia, and a spring in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome at the Porta
Capena. She derives her chief importance from her legendary connexion
with King Numa, who had frequent interviews with her and consulted her
in regard to his religious legislation (Livy i. 19; Juvenal iii. 12).
These meetings took place on the spot where the sacred shield had fallen
from heaven, and here Numa dedicated a grove to the Camenae, like Egeria
deities of springs. After the death of Numa, Egeria was said to have
fled into the grove of Aricia, where she was changed into a spring for
having interrupted the rites of Diana by her lamentations (Ovid,
_Metam._ xv. 479). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male
counterpart of Egeria. Her connexion with Diana Nemorensis, herself a
birth goddess, is confirmed by the fact that her aid was invoked by
pregnant women. She also possessed the gift of prophecy; and the
statement (Dion. Halic. ii. 60) that she was one of the Muses is due to
her connexion with the Camenae, whose worship was displaced by them.



EGERTON, SIR PHILIP DE MALPAS GREY, Bart. (1806-1881), English
palaeontologist, was born on the 13th of November 1806, the son of the
9th baronet. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he
graduated B.A. in 1828. While at college his interest in geology was
aroused by the lectures of W. Buckland, and by his acquaintance with
W.D. Conybeare. Subsequently when travelling in Switzerland with Lord
Cole (afterwards 3rd earl of Enniskillen) they were introduced to Prof.
L. Agassiz at Neufchatel, and determined to make a special study of
fossil fishes. During the course of fifty years they gradually gathered
together two of the largest and finest of private collections--that of
Sir Philip Grey Egerton being at Oulton Park, Tarporley, Cheshire. He
described the structure and affinities of numerous species in the
publications of the Geological Society of London, the _Geological
Magazine_ and the Decades of the Geological Survey; and in recognition
of his services the Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1873 by the
Geological Society. He was elected F.R.S. in 1831, and was a trustee of
the British Museum. As a member of Parliament he represented the city of
Chester in 1830, the southern division of Cheshire from 1835 until 1868,
and the western division from 1868 to 1881. He died in London on the 6th
of April 1881. His collection of fossil fishes is now in the British
Museum.



EGG, AUGUSTUS LEOPOLD (1816-1863), English painter, was born on the 2nd
of May 1816 in London, where his father carried on business as a
gun-maker. He had some schooling at Bexley, and was not at first
intended for the artistic profession; but, developing a faculty in this
line, he entered in 1834 the drawing class of Mr Sass, and in 1836 the
school of the Royal Academy. His first exhibited picture appeared in
1837 at the Suffolk Street gallery. In 1838 he began exhibiting in the
Academy, his subject being a "Spanish Girl"; altogether he sent
twenty-seven works to this institution. In 1848 he became an associate
and in 1860 a full member of the Academy: he had considerable means,
apart from his profession. In 1857 he took a leading part in selecting
and arranging the modern paintings in the Art-Treasures Exhibition in
Manchester. His constitution being naturally frail, he went in 1853,
with Dickens and Wilkie Collins, to Italy for a short trip, and in 1863
he visited Algeria. Here he benefited so far as his chronic lung-disease
was concerned; but exposure to a cold wind while out riding brought on
an attack of asthma, from which he died on the 26th of March 1863 at
Algiers, near which city his remains were buried.

Egg was a gifted and well-trained painter of genre, chiefly in the way
of historical anecdote, or of compositions from the poets and novelists.
Among his principal pictures may be named: 1843, the "Introduction of
Sir Piercie Shafton and Halbert Glendinning" (from Scott's _Monastery_);
1846, "Buckingham Rebuffed"; 1848, "Queen Elizabeth discovers she is no
longer young"; 1850, "Peter the Great sees Catharine for the first
time"; 1854, "Charles I. raising the Standard at Nottingham" (a study);
1855, the "Life and Death of Buckingham"; 1857 and 1858, two subjects
from Thackeray's _Esmond_; 1858, "Past and Present, a triple picture of
a faithless wife"; 1859, the "Night before Naseby"; 1860, his last
exhibited work, the Dinner Scene from _The Taming of the Shrew_. The
Tate Gallery contains one of his earlier pictures, Patricio entertaining
two Ladies, from the _Diable boiteux_; it was painted in 1844.

Egg was rather below the middle height, with dark hair and a handsome
well-formed face; the head of Peter the Great (in the picture of Peter
and Catharine, which may be regarded as his best work, along with the
Life and Death of Buckingham) was studied, but of course considerably
modified, from his own countenance. He was manly, kind-hearted,
pleasant, and very genial and serviceable among brother-artists; social
and companionable, but holding mainly aloof from fashionable circles.
As an actor he had uncommon talent. He appeared among Dickens's company
of amateurs in 1852 in Lord Lytton's comedy _Not so Bad as we Seem_, and
afterwards in Wilkie Collins's _Frozen Deep_, playing the humorous part
of Job Want.



EGG (O.E. _aeg_, cf. Ger. _Ei_, Swed. _aegg_, and prob. Gr. [Greek:
ôon], Lat. _ovum_), the female reproductive cell or ovum of animals,
which gives rise generally only after fertilization to the young. The
largest eggs are those of birds; and this because, to the minute
essential portion of the egg, or germ, from which the young bird grows,
there is added a large store of food-material--the yolk and white of the
egg--destined to nourish the growing embryo while the whole is enclosed
within a hard shell.

The relative sizes of eggs depend entirely on the amount of the
food-yolk thus enclosed with the germ; while the form and texture of the
outer envelope are determined by the nature of the environment to which
the egg is exposed. Where the food material is infinitesimal in quantity
the egg is either not extruded--the embryo being nourished by the
maternal tissues,--or it passes out of the parental body and gives rise
at once to a free-living organism or "larva" (see LARVAL FORMS), as in
the case of many lowly freshwater and marine animals. In such cases no
"egg" in the usual sense of the term is produced.

The number of eggs periodically produced by any given individual depends
on the risks of destruction to which they, and the young to which they
give rise, are exposed: not more than a single egg being annually laid
by some species, while with others the number may amount to millions.


_Birds' Eggs._--The egg of the bird affords, for general purposes, the
readiest example of the modifications imposed on eggs by the external
environment. Since it must be incubated by the warmth of the parent's
body, the outer envelope has taken the form of a hard shell for the
protection of the growing chick from pressure, while the dyes which
commonly colour the surface of this shell serve as a screen to hide it
from egg-eating animals.

Carbonate of lime forms the principal constituent of this shell; but in
addition phosphate of lime and magnesia are also present. In section,
this shell will be found to be made up of three more or less distinct
crystalline layers, traversed by vertical canals, whereby the shell is
made porous so as to admit air to the developing chick.

The outermost, or third, layer of this shell often takes the form of a
glaze, as of porcelain, as for example in the burnished egg of the
ostrich: or it may assume the character of a thick, chalky layer as in
some cuckoos (_Guira_, _Crotophaga ani_), cormorants, grebes and
flamingoes: while in some birds as in the auks, gulls and tinamous, this
outer layer is wanting; yet the tinamous have the most highly glazed
eggs of all birds, the second layer of the shell developing a surface
even more perfectly burnished than that formed by the outermost, third
layer in the ostrich.

While the eggs of some birds have the shell so thin as to be
translucent, e.g. kingfisher, others display considerable thickness, the
maximum being reached in the egg of the extinct _Aepyornis_.

Though in shape differing but little from that of the familiar hen's
egg, certain well-marked modifications of form are yet to be met with.
Thus the eggs of the plover are pear-shaped, of the sand-grouse more or
less cylindrical, of the owls and titmice spherical and of the grebes
biconical.

In the matter of coloration the eggs of birds present a remarkable
range. The pigments to which this coloration is due have been shown, by
means of their absorption spectra (Sorby, _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1875), to
be seven in number. The first of these, oorhodeine, is brown-red in
tone, and rarely absent: the second and third, oocyanin, and banded
oocyanin, are of a beautiful blue, and though differing
spectroscopically give rise to the same product when oxidized: the
fourth and fifth are yellow, and rufous ooxanthine, the former combining
with oocyanin gives rise to the wonderful malachite green of the emu's
egg, while the latter occurs only in the eggs of tinamous: the sixth is
lichenoxanthine, a pigment not yet thoroughly known but present in the
shells of all eggs having a peculiar brick-red colour. Still less is
known of the seventh pigment which is, as yet, nameless. It is a
substance giving a banded absorption spectrum, and which, mixed with
other pigments, imparts an abnormally browner tint. The origin of these
pigments is yet uncertain, but it is probable that they are derived from
the haemoglobin or red colouring matter of the blood. This being so,
then the pigments of the egg-shell differ entirely in their nature from
those which colour the yolk or the feathers.

While many eggs are either colourless or of one uniform tint, the
majority have the surface broken up by spots or lines, or a combination
of both, of varying tints: the pigment being deposited as the egg passes
down the lower portion of the oviduct. That the egg during this passage
turns slowly on its long axis is shown by the fact that the spots and
lines have commonly a spiral direction; though some of the markings are
made during periods of rest, as is shown by their sharp outlines,
movement giving a blurred effect. Where the egg is pyriform, the large
end makes way for the smaller. Many eggs display, in addition to the
strongly marked spots, more or fewer fainter spots embedded in a deeper
layer of the shell, and hence such eggs are said to be "double-spotted,"
e.g. rails and plovers.

Among some species, as in birds of prey, the intensity of this
coloration is said to increase with age up to a certain point, when it
as gradually decreases. Frequently, especially where but two eggs are
laid (Newton), all the dye will be deposited, sometimes on the first,
sometimes on the last laid, leaving the other colourless. But although
of a number of eggs in a "clutch"--as the full complement of eggs in a
nest is called--no two are exactly alike, they commonly bear a very
close resemblance. Among certain species, however, which lay several
eggs, one of the number invariably differs markedly from the rest, as
for example in the eggs of the house-sparrow or in those of the
sparrow-hawk, where, of a clutch of six, two generally differ
conspicuously from the rest. Differing though these eggs do from the
rest of the clutch, all yet present the characters common to the
species. But the eggs of some birds, such as the Australian swamp quail,
_Synoecus australis_, present a remarkably wide range of variation in
the matter of coloration, no two clutches being alike, the extremes
ranging from pure white to eggs having a greenish ground colour and
rufous spots or blotches. But a still more interesting illustration of
variation equally marked is furnished by the chikor partridge (_Caccabis
chukar_), since here the variation appears to be correlated with the
geographical distribution of the species. Thus eggs taken in Greece are
for the most part cream-coloured and unspotted; those from the Grecian
Archipelago are generally spotted and blotched; while more to the
eastward spots are invariably present, and the blotches attain their
maximum development.

But in variability the eggs of the guillemot (_Lomvia troile_) exceed
all others: both in the hue of the ground colour and in the form of the
superimposed markings, these eggs exhibit a wonderful range for which no
adequate explanation has yet been given.

Individual peculiarities of coloration are commonly reproduced, not only
with this species but also in others, year after year.


  Significance of colour.

The coloration of the egg bears no sort of relation to the coloration of
the bird which lays it; but it bears on the other hand a more or less
direct relation to the nature of the environment during incubation.

White eggs may generally be regarded as representing the primitive type
of egg, since they agree in this particular with the eggs of reptiles.
And it will generally be found that eggs of this hue are deposited in
holes or in domed nests. So long indeed as nesting-places of this kind
are used will the eggs be white. And this because coloured eggs would be
invisible in dimly lighted chambers of this description, and therefore
constantly exposed to the risk of being broken by the sitting bird, or
rolling out of reach where the chamber was large enough to admit of
this, whereas white eggs are visible so long as they can be reached by
the faintest rays of light. Pigeons invariably lay white eggs; and while
some deposit them in holes others build an open nest, a mere platform
of sticks. These exceptions to the rule show that the depredations of
egg-eating animals are sufficiently guarded against by the overhanging
foliage, as well as by the great distance from the ground at which the
nest is built. Birds which have reverted to the more ancient custom of
nesting in holes after having developed pigmented eggs, have adopted the
device of covering the shell with a layer of chalky matter (e.g.
puffins), or, to put the case more correctly, they have been enabled to
maintain survival after their return to the more ancient mode of
nidification, because this reversion was accompanied by the tendency to
cover the pigmented surface of the shell with this light-reflecting
chalky incrustation.

Eggs which are deposited on the bare ground, or in other exposed
situations, are usually protectively coloured: that is to say, the hue
of the shell more or less completely harmonizes with the ground on which
the egg is placed. The eggs of the plover tribe afford the most striking
examples of this fact.

But the majority of birds deposit their eggs in a more or less
elaborately constructed nest, and in such cases the egg, so far from
being protectively coloured, often displays tints that would appear
calculated rather to attract the attention of egg-stealing animals;
bright blue or blue spotted with black being commonly met with. It may
be, however, that coloration of this kind is less conspicuous than is
generally supposed, but in any case the safety of the egg depends not so
much on its coloration as on the character of the nest, which, where
protective devices are necessary, must harmonize sufficiently with its
surroundings to escape observation from prowling egg-stealers of all
kinds.

The size of the egg depends partly on the number produced and partly on
the conditions determining the state of the young bird at hatching:
hence there is a great disparity in the relative sizes of the eggs of
different birds. Thus it will be found that young birds which emerge in
the world blind, naked and helpless are the product of relatively small
eggs, while on the contrary young hatched from relatively large eggs are
down-clad and active from birth.

The fact that the eggs must be brooded by the parent is also a
controlling factor in so far as number is concerned, for no more can be
hatched than can be covered by the sitting bird. Other factors, however,
less understood, also exercise a controlling influence in this matter.
Thus the ostrich lays from 12 to 16, the teal 15, the partridge 12-20,
while among many other species the number is strictly limited, as in the
case of the hornbills and guillemots, which lay but a single egg; the
apteryx, divers, petrels and pigeons never lay more than 2, while the
gulls and plovers never exceed 4. Tropical species are said to lay fewer
eggs than their representatives in temperate regions, and further
immature birds lay more and smaller eggs than when fully adult.

Partly owing to the uniformity of shape, size and texture of the shell,
the eggs of birds are by no means easy to distinguish, except in so far
as their family resemblances are concerned: that is to say, except in
particular cases, they cannot be specifically distinguished, and hence
they are of but little or no value for the purposes of classification.

Save only among the megapodes, all birds brood their eggs, the period of
incubation varying from 13 days, as in small passerine birds, to 8
weeks, as in the cassowary, though eggs of the rhea and of _Struthio_
hatch in from 5 to 6 weeks. But the megapodes deposit their eggs in
mounds of decaying vegetable matter or in sand in the neighbourhood of
hot springs, and there without further apparent care leave them. Where
the nestling is active from the moment of hatching the eggs have a
relatively longer incubation period than in cases where the nestlings
are for a long while helpless.


_Eggs of Mammals._--Only in the spiny ant-eater, or _Echidna_, and the
duck-billed platypus, or _Ornithorhynchus_, among the Mammalia, are the
eggs provided with a large store of yolk, enclosed within a shell, and
extruded to undergo development apart from the maternal tissues. In the
case of the echidna the eggs, two in number, are about as large as those
of a sparrow, similar in shape, and have a white, parchment-like shell.
After expulsion they are transferred by the beak of the mother to a
pouch resembling that of the marsupial kangaroos, and there they undergo
development. The _Ornithorhynchus_, on the other hand, lays from two to
four eggs, which in size and general appearance resemble those of the
echidna. They are, however, deposited in a loosely constructed nest at
the end of a long burrow and there brooded. In Marsupials, the eggs are
smaller than those of _Echidna_ and _Ornithorhynchus_, and they contain
a larger proportion of yolk than occurs in higher mammals.


_Eggs of Reptiles._--The eggs of reptiles are invariably provided with a
large amount of food yolk and enclosed with a firm test or shell, which
though generally parchment-like in texture may be calcareous as in
birds, as, for example, in many of the tortoises and turtles and in the
crocodiles.

Among reptiles the egg is always white or yellowish, while the number
laid often far exceeds that in the case of birds. The tuatara of New
Zealand, however, lays but ten--white hard-shelled, long and oval--at
intervals between November and January. The long intervals between the
appearance of the successive eggs is a characteristic feature of the
reptiles, but is met with among the birds only in the megapodes, which,
like the reptiles, do not "brood" their eggs.

Among the Chelonia the number of eggs varies from two to four in some of
the tortoises, to 200 in some of the turtles: while in the crocodiles
between 20 and 30 are produced, hard-shelled and white.

The eggs of the lizards are always white or yellowish, and generally
soft-shelled; but the geckos and the green lizard lay hard-shelled eggs.
Many of the soft-shelled eggs are remarkable for the fact that they
increase in size after extrusion, owing to the stretching of the
membranous shell by the growing embryo. In the matter of number lizards
are less prolific than many of the Chelonia, a dozen eggs being the
general number, though as many as thirty may be produced at a time, as
in the case of the common chameleon.

While as a general rule the eggs of lizards are laid in burrows or
buried, some are retained within the body of the parent until the young
are ready to emerge; or they may even hatch within the oviduct. This
occurs with some chameleons and some lizards, e.g. the slow-worm. The
common English lizard is also viviparous. Normally the young leaves the
egg immediately after its extrusion, but if by any chance this extrusion
is delayed they escape while yet in the oviduct.

The majority of the snakes lay eggs, but most of the vipers and the
aquatic snakes are viviparous, as also are a few terrestrial species.
The shell of the egg is always soft and parchment-like. As a rule the
number of eggs produced among the snakes is not large, twenty or thirty
being common, but some species of python lay as many as a hundred.
Generally, among the oviparous snakes the eggs are buried, but some
species of boas jealously guard them, enclosing them within the coils of
the body.


_Eggs of Amphibia._--Among the amphibia a greater variety obtains in the
matter of the investment of the egg, as well as in the number, size and
method of their disposal. The outer covering is formed by a toughening
of the surface of a thick gelatinous coat which surrounds the essential
parts of the egg. This coat in many species of salamander--using this
name in the wide sense--is produced into threads which serve either to
anchor the eggs singly or to bind them together in bunches.

Viviparity occurs both among the limbless and the tailed Amphibia, the
eggs hatching before they leave the oviduct or immediately after
extrusion. The number of young so produced is generally not large, but
the common salamander (_Salamandra maculosa_) may produce as many as
fifty at a birth, though fifteen is the more normal figure. When the
higher number is reached the young are relatively small and weak.

As a rule among the Amphibia the young leave the egg in the form of
larvae, generally known as "tadpoles"; but many species produce eggs
containing a sufficient amount of food material to enable the whole of
the larval phase to be completed before hatching.

Among the tailless Amphibia (frogs and toads) there are wide differences
in the number of eggs produced, while the methods by which these eggs
are disposed of present a marvellous variety.

As a rule vast quantities of eggs are shed by the female into the water
in the form of "spawn." In the common toad as many as 7000 eggs may be
extruded at a time. These leave the body in the form of two long
strings--one from each oviduct--of translucent globules, gelatinous in
texture, and enclosing a central sphere of yolk, the upper pole of which
is black. The spawn of the common frog differs from that of the toad in
that the eggs all adhere to form a huge jelly-like mass. But in many
species the number of eggs produced are few; and these may be
sufficiently stored with food-yolk to allow of the tadpole stage being
passed before hatching, as in frogs of the genus _Hylodes_. In many
cases the eggs are deposited out of the water and often in quite
remarkable ways.


_Eggs of Fishes._--The eggs of fishes present an extremely wide range of
form, and a no less extensive range in the matter of number. Both among
the cartilaginous and bony fishes viviparity occurs. Most of the sharks
and rays are viviparous, but in the oviparous species the eggs present
some interesting and peculiar forms. Large in size, the outer coat or
"shell" is in all cases horn-like and flexible, but differs greatly in
shape. Thus in the egg of the larger spotted dog-fish it is oblong in
shape, flattened from side to side, and has the angles produced into
long, slender tendrils. As the egg is laid the lower tendrils project
from the vent, and the mother rubs herself against some fixed body. The
tendrils soon catch fast in some slight projection, when the egg is
dragged forth there to remain till hatching takes place. A couple of
narrow slits at each corner of the upper end serve to admit fresh water
to the imprisoned embryo during the later stages of development; when
development is complete escape is made through the end of the shell. In
the rays or "skates," long spines take the place of tendrils, the egg
simply resting at the bottom of the sea. The empty egg-cases of the rays
are often found on the seashore, and are known as "Mermaids' purses."
The egg of the Port Jackson shark (_Cestracion_) is of enormous size,
pear-shaped, and provided with a spiral flange extending along the whole
length of the capsule. In the _Chimaera_ the egg is long, more or less
spindle-shaped, and produced on each side into a broad flange having a
fringed edge, so that the whole bears a close resemblance to a long
leaf, broad and notched at one end, pointed at the other. This likeness
to the seaweed among which it rests is doubtless a protective device,
akin to that of protectively coloured birds' eggs.

Among the bony fishes the eggs generally take the form of small spheres,
enclosed within a tough membrane or capsule. But they present many
important differences, being in some fishes heavy and remaining at the
bottom of the water, in other light and floating on the surface. While
in some species they are distributed separately, in others they adhere
together in masses. The eggs of the salmon, for example, are heavy, hard
and smooth, and deposited separately in a trough dug by the parent and
afterwards covered to prevent them from being carried away by the
stream. In the perch they are adhesive and form long band-like masses of
spawn adhering to water-plants. In the gobies the egg is spindle-shaped,
and attached by one end by means of a network of fibres, resembling
rootlets; while in the smelt the egg is loosely suspended by a membrane
formed by the peeling off of a part of the outer sheath of the capsule.
The eggs of the garfish (_Belone vulgaris_) and of the flying-fish of
the genus _Exocoetus_, attach themselves to foreign objects, or to one
another, by means of threads or cords developed at opposite poles of the
egg.

Among a number of fishes the eggs float at the surface of the sea, often
in enormous masses, when they are carried about at the mercy of tides
and currents. An idea of the size which such masses attain may be
gathered from the fact that the spawn of the angler-fish, _Lophius
piscatorius_, takes the form of a sheet from 2 to 3 ft. wide, and 30 ft.
long. Another remarkable feature of these floating eggs is their
transparency, inasmuch as they are extremely difficult to see, and hence
they probably escape the rapacious maws of spawn-eating animals. The cod
tribe and flat-fishes lay floating eggs of this description.

The maximum number of eggs laid by fishes varies greatly, some species
laying relatively few, others an enormous number. But in all cases the
number increases with the weight and age of the fish. Thus it has been
calculated that the number laid by the salmon is roughly about 1000 to
every pound weight of the fish, a 15 lb. salmon laying 15,000 eggs. The
sturgeon lays about 7,000,000; the herring 50,000; the turbot
14,311,000; the sole 134,000; the perch 280,000. Briefly, the number is
greatest where the risks of destruction are greatest.

The eggs of the degenerate fishes known as the lampreys and hag-fishes
are remarkable for the fact that in the latter they are large in size,
cylindrical in shape, and provided at each end with hooklets whereby
they adhere one to another; while in the lampreys they are extremely
small and embedded in a jelly.


_Molluscs._--Among the Mollusca, Crustacea and Insecta yolk-stored eggs
of very remarkable forms are commonly produced.

In variety, in this connexion, the Mollusca must perhaps be given the
first place. This diversity, indeed, is strikingly illustrated by the
eggs of the Cephalopoda. In the squids (_Loligo_), for example, the eggs
are enclosed in long cylindrical cases, of which there are several
hundreds, attached by one end to a common centre; the whole series
looking strangely like a rough mop-head. Each case, in such a cluster,
contains about 250 eggs, or about 40,000 in all. By way of contrast the
eggs of the true cuttle-fish (_Sepia_) are deposited separately, each
enclosed in a tough, black, pear-shaped capsule which is fastened by a
stalk to fronds of sea-weed or other object. They appear to be extruded
at short intervals, till the full complement is laid, the whole forming
a cluster looking like a bunch of grapes. The octopus differs yet again
in this matter, its eggs being very small, berry-like, and attached to a
stalk which runs through the centre of the mass.

The eggs of the univalve Mollusca are hardly less varied in the shapes
they take. In the common British _Purpura lapillus_ they resemble
delicate pink grains of rice set on stalks; in _Busycon_ they are
disk-shaped, and attached to a band nearly 3 ft. long. The eggs of the
shell-bearing slugs (_Testacella_) are large, and have the outer coat so
elastic that if dropped on a stone floor they will rebound several
inches; while some of the snails (_Bulimus_) lay eggs having a white
calcareous and slightly iridescent shell, in size and shape closely
resembling the egg of the pigeon. Some are even larger than the egg of
the wood-pigeon. The beautiful violet-snail (_Ianthina_)--a marine
species--carries its eggs on the under side of a gelatinous raft. No
less remarkable are the eggs of the whelk; since, like those of the
squids, they are not laid separately but enveloped in capsules, and
these to the number of many hundreds form the large, ball-like masses so
commonly met with on the seashore. When the eggs in these capsules
hatch, the crowd of embryos proceed to establish an internecine warfare,
devouring one another till only the strongest survives!

With the Mollusca, as with other groups of animals, where the eggs are
exposed to great risks they are small, produced in great numbers, and
give rise to larvae. This is well illustrated by the common oyster which
annually disperses about 60,000,000 eggs. But where the risk of
destruction is slight, the eggs are large and produce young differing
from the parent only in size, as in the case of the pigeon-like eggs of
_Bulimus_.


_Crustaceans._--Among the higher Crustacea, as a rule, the eggs are
carried by the female, attached to special appendages on the under side
of the body. But in some--Squillas--they are deposited in burrows.
Generally they are relatively small so that the young which emerge
therefrom differ markedly in appearance from the parents, but in
deep-sea and freshwater species the eggs are large, when the young, on
emerging, differ but little from the adults in appearance.


_Insects, &c._--The eggs of insects though minute, are also remarkable
for the great variety of form which they present, while they are
frequently objects of great beauty owing to the sculptured markings of
the shell. They are generally laid in clusters, either on the ground, on
the leaves of plants, or in the water. Some of the gnats (_Culex_) lay
them on the water. Cylindrical in shape they are packed closely
together, set on end, the whole mass forming a kind of floating raft.
Frequently, as in the case of the stick and leaf insect, the eggs are
enclosed in capsules of very elaborate shapes and highly ornamented.

As to the rest of the Invertebrata--above the Protozoa the eggs are laid
in water, or in damp places. In the former case they are as a rule
small, and give rise to larvae; while eggs hatched on land are sometimes
enclosed in capsules, "cocoons," as in the case of the earthworm, where
this capsule is filled with a milky white fluid, of a highly nutritious
character, on which the embryos feed.

Among some invertebrates two different kinds of eggs are laid by the
same individual. The water-flea, _Daphnia_ (a crustacean), lays two
kinds of eggs known as "summer" and "winter" eggs. The summer eggs are
carried by the female in a "brood-pouch" on the back. The "winter" eggs,
produced at the approach of winter, differ markedly in appearance from
the summer eggs, being larger, darker in colour, thicker shelled, and
enclosed in a capsule formed from the shell or carapace, of the parent's
body. "Winter eggs," however, may be produced in the height of summer.
While the "summer eggs" are unfertilized, the winter eggs are fertilized
by the male, and possess the remarkable power of lying dormant for
months or even years before they develop. The production of these two
kinds of eggs is a device to overcome the cold of winter, or the drying
up of the pools in which the species lives, during the heat of the
summer. The power of resistance which such eggs possess may be seen in
the fact that a sample of mud which had been kept dry for ten years
still contained living eggs. In deep water where neither drought nor
winter cold can seriously affect the _Daphnias_, they propagate all the
year round by unfertilized "summer" eggs.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For further details on this subject the following
  authors should be consulted:--_Mammals_: F. E. Beddard, "Remarks on
  the Ovary of Echidna," _Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin._ vol. viii.
  (1885); W. H. Caldwell, "The Embryology of Monotremata and
  Marsupialia," _Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc._ vol. 178 (1887); E. B. Poulton,
  "The Structures connected with the Ovarian Ovum of the Marsupialia and
  Monotremata," _Quart. Journ. Micros. Sci._ vol. xxiv. (1884). _Birds,
  Systematic_:--H. Seebohm, _Coloured Figures of the Eggs of British
  Birds_ (1896); A. Newton, _Ootheca Wooleyana_ (1907); E. Oates, _Cat.
  Birds' Eggs Brit. Mus._ (appearing), vols. i.-iv. published.
  _General_:--A. Newton, _Dictionary of Birds_ (1896). _Colouring
  matter_:--Newbegin, _Colour in Nature_ (1898). _Reptiles and
  Amphibia_:--H. Gadow, "Reptiles," _Camb. Nat. Hist._ (1901); G. A.
  Boulenger, "The Tailless Batrachians of Europe," _Ray Soc._ (1896).
  _Fishes_:--Bridge and Boulenger, "Fishes, Ascidians, &c.," _Camb. Nat.
  Hist._ (1904); B. Dean, _Fishes Living and Fossil_ (1895); J. T.
  Cunningham, _Marketable Marine Fishes_ (1896). _Invertebrate_:--G. H.
  Carpenter, _Insects. Their Structure and Life_ (1899); L. C. Miall, _A
  History of Aquatic Insects_ (1895); T. R. R. Stebbing, _Crustacea_,
  Internat. Sci. series (1893); M. C. Cooke, "Mollusca," _Camb. Nat.
  Hist._ (1906). For further references to the above and other
  Invertebrate groups see various text-books on Entomology, Zoology.
       (W. P. P.)



EGGENBERG, HANS ULRICH VON, PRINCE (1568-1634), Austrian statesman, was
a son of Siegfried von Eggenberg (d. 1594), and began life as a soldier
in the Spanish service, becoming about 1596 a trusted servant of the
archduke of Styria, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand II. Having become a
Roman Catholic, he was soon the chancellor and chief adviser of
Ferdinand, whose election as emperor he helped to secure in 1619. He
directed the imperial policy during the earlier part of the Thirty
Years' War, and was in general a friend and supporter of Wallenstein,
and an opponent of Maximilian I., duke of Bavaria, and of Spain. He was
largely responsible for Wallenstein's return to the imperial service
early in 1632, and retired from public life just after the general's
murder in February 1634, dying at Laibach, on the 18th of October 1634.
Eggenberg's influence with Ferdinand was so marked that it was commonly
said that Austria rested upon three hills (_Berge_): Eggenberg,
Questenberg and Werdenberg. He was richly rewarded for his services to
the emperor. Having received many valuable estates in Bohemia and
elsewhere, he was made a prince of the Empire in 1623, and duke of
Krumau in 1625.

  See H. von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst, _Hans Ulrich, Fürst von Eggenberg_
  (Vienna, 1880); and F. Mares, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der Beziehungen
  des Fürsten J. U. von Eggenberg zu Kaiser Ferdinand II und zu
  Waldstein_ (Prague, 1893).



EGGER, ÉMILE (1813-1885), French scholar, was born in Paris on the 18th
of July 1813. From 1840 till 1855 he was assistant professor, and from
1855 till his death professor of Greek literature in the Faculté; des
Lettres at Paris University. In 1854 he was elected a member of the
Académie des Inscriptions and in 1873 of the Conseil supérieur de
l'instruction publique. He was a voluminous writer, a sound and
discerning scholar, and his influence was largely responsible for the
revival of the study of classical philology in France. His most
important works were _Essai sur l'histoire de la critique chez les
Grecs_ (1849), _Notions élémentaires de grammaire comparée_ (1852),
_Apollonius Dyscole, essai sur l'histoire des théories grammalicales
dans l'antiquité_ (1854), _Mémoires de littérature ancienne_ (1862),
_Mémoires d'histoire ancienne et de philologie_ (1863), _Les Papyrus
grecs du Musée du Louvre et de la Biblioth&èque Impériale_ (1865),
_Études sur les traités publics chez les Grecs et les Romains_ (1866),
_L'Hellénisme en France_ (1869), _La Littérature grecque_ (1890). He was
also the author of _Observations et réflexions sur le développement de
l'intelligence et du langage chez les enfants_ (1879). Egger died in
Paris on the 1st of September 1885.



EGGLESTON, EDWARD (1837-1902), American novelist and historian, was born
in Vevay, Indiana, on the 10th of December 1837, of Virginia stock.
Delicate health, by which he was more or less handicapped throughout his
life, prevented his going to college, but he was naturally a diligent
student. He was a Methodist circuit rider and pastor in Indiana and
Minnesota (1857-1866); associate editor (1866-1867) of _The Little
Corporal_, Chicago; editor of _The National Sunday School Teacher_,
Chicago (1867-1870); literary editor and later editor-in-chief of _The
Independent_, New York (1870-1871); and editor of _Hearth and Home_ in
1871-1872. He was pastor of the church of Christian Endeavour, Brooklyn,
in 1874-1879. From 1880 until his death on the 2nd of September 1902, at
his home on Lake George, New York, he devoted himself to literary work.
His fiction includes _Mr Blake's Walking Stick_ (1869), for children;
_The Hoosier Schoolmaster_ (1871); _The End of the World_ (1872); _The
Mystery of Metropolisville_ (1873); _The Circuit Rider_ (1874); _Roxy_
(1878); The _Hoosier Schoolboy_ (1883); _The Book of Queer Stories_
(1884), for children; _The Graysons_ (1888), an excellent novel; _The
Faith Doctor_ (1891); and _Duffels_ (1893), short stories. Most of his
stories portray the pioneer manners and dialect of the Central West, and
the _Hoosier Schoolmaster_ was one of the first examples of American
local realistic fiction; it was very popular, and was translated into
French, German and Danish. During the last third of his life Eggleston
laboured on a _History of Life in the United States_, but he lived to
finish only two volumes--_The Beginners of a Nation_ (1896) and _The
Transit of Civilization_ (1900). In addition he wrote several popular
compendiums of American history for schools and homes.

  See G. C. Eggleston, _The First of the Hoosiers_ (Philadelphia, 1903),
  and Meredith Nicholson, _The Hoosiers_ (1900).

His brother GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON (1839-   ), American journalist and
author, served in the Confederate army; was managing editor and later
editor-in-chief of _Hearth and Home_ (1871-1874); was literary editor of
the _New York Evening Post_ (1875-1881), literary editor and afterwards
editor-in-chief of the New York _Commercial Advertiser_ (1884-1889), and
editorial writer for _The World_ (New York) from 1889 to 1900. Most of
his books are stories for boys; others, and his best, are romances
dealing with life in the South especially in the Virginias and the
Carolinas--before and during the Civil War. Among his publications may
be mentioned: _A Rebel's Recollections_ (1874); _The Last of the
Flatboats_ (1900); _Camp Venture_ (1900); _A Carolina Cavalier_ (1901);
_Dorothy South_ (1902); _The Master of Warlock_ (1903); _Evelyn Byrd_
(1904); _A Daughter of the South_ (1905); _Blind Alleys_ (1906); _Love
is the Sum of it all_ (1907); _History of the Confederate War_ (1910);
and _Recollections of a Varied Life_ (1910).



EGHAM, a town in the Chertsey parliamentary division of Surrey, England,
on the Thames, 21 m. W.S.W. of London by the London & South Western
railway. Pop. (1901) 11,895. The church of St John the Baptist is a
reconstruction of 1817; it contains monuments by John Flaxman. Above the
right bank of the river a low elevation, Cooper's Hill, commands fine
views over the valley, and over Windsor Great Park to the west. On the
hill was the Royal Indian Civil Engineering College, commonly called
Cooper's Hill College, of which Sir George Tomkyns Chesney was the
originator and first president (1871). It educated men for the public
works, accounts, railways and telegraph departments of India, and
included a school of forestry; but it was decided, in the face of some
opposition, to close it in 1906, on the theory that it was unnecessary
for a college with such a specialized object to be maintained by the
government, in view of the readiness with which servants for these
departments could be recruited elsewhere. Part of the organization,
including the school of forestry, was transferred to Oxford University.
Cooper's Hill gives name to a famous poem of Sir John Denham (1642). A
large and handsome building houses the Royal Holloway College for Women
(1886), founded by Thomas Holloway; in the neighbourhood is the
sanatorium of the same founder (1885) for the treatment of mental
ailments, accommodating about 250 patients. The college for women,
surrounded by extensive grounds, commands a wide view from the wooded
slope on which it stands. The recreation hall, with its fine art
collection, is the most notable room in this handsome building, which
can receive 250 students. Within the parish, bordering the river, is the
field of Runnymede, which, with Magna Charta Island lying off it, is
famous in connexion with the signature of the charter by King John.
Virginia Water, a large and picturesque artificial lake to the south of
Windsor Great Park, is much frequented by visitors. It was formed under
the direction of the duke of Cumberland, about 1750, and was the work of
the brothers Thomas and Paul Sandby.



EGIN (Armenian _Agn_, "the spring"), an important town in the Mamuret
el-Aziz vilayet of Asiatic Turkey (altitude 3300 ft.). Pop. about
20,000, fairly equally divided between Armenian Christians and Moslems.
It is picturesquely situated in a theatre of lofty, abrupt rocks, on the
right bank of the western Euphrates, which is crossed by a wooden
bridge. The stone houses stand in terraced gardens and orchards, and the
streets are mere rock ladders. Egin was settled by Armenians who
emigrated from Van in the 11th century with Senekherim. On the 8th of
November 1895 and in the summer of 1896 many Armenians were massacred
here.     (D. G. H.)



EGLANTINE (E. Frisian, _egeltiere_; Fr. _aiglantier_), a plant-name of
which Dr R. C. A. Prior (_Popular Names of British Plants_, p. 70) says
that it "has been the subject of much discussion, both as to its exact
meaning and as to the shrub to which it properly belongs." The eglantine
of the herbalists was the sweet-brier, _Rosa rubiginosa_. The
signification of the word seems to be thorn-tree or thorn-bush, the
first two syllables probably representing the Anglo-Saxon _egla_,
_egle_, a prick or thorn, while the termination is the Dutch _tere_,
_taere_, a tree. Eglantine is frequently alluded to in the writings of
English poets, from Chaucer downwards. Milton, in _L'Allegro_, is
thought by the term "twisted eglantine" to denote the honeysuckle,
_Lonicera Periclymenum_, which is still known as eglantine in north-east
Yorkshire.



EGLINTON, EARLS OF. The title of earl of Eglinton has been held by the
famous Scottish family of Montgomerie since 1508. The attempts made to
trace the descent of this house to Roger of Montgomery, earl of
Shrewsbury (d. 1094), one of William the Conqueror's followers, will not
bear examination, and the sure pedigree of the family only begins with
Sir John Montgomerie, lord of Eaglesham, who fought at the battle of
Otterbourne in 1388 and died about 1398. His grandson, Sir Alexander
Montgomerie (d. c. 1460), was made a lord of the Scottish parliament
about 1445 as Lord Montgomerie, and Sir Alexander's great-grandson Hugh,
the 3rd lord (c. 1460-1545), was created earl of Eglinton, or Eglintoun,
in 1508. Hugh, who was a person of importance during the minority of
James V., was succeeded by his grandson Hugh (d. 1546), and then by the
latter's son Hugh (c. 1531-1585), who became 3rd earl of Eglinton. This
nobleman was a firm supporter of Mary queen of Scots, for whom he fought
at Langside, and of the Roman Catholic Church; his son and successor,
Hugh, was murdered in April 1586 by the Cunninghams, a family with which
his own had an hereditary blood feud. In 1612, by the death of Hugh, the
5th earl, the male line of the Montgomeries became extinct.

Having no children Earl Hugh had settled his title and estates on his
cousin, Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther (1588-1661), a younger son
of Robert Seton, 1st earl of Wintoun (c. 1550-1603), and his wife
Margaret, daughter of the 3rd earl of Eglinton. Alexander, who thus
became the 6th earl of Eglinton and took the name of Montgomerie, was
commonly called Greysteel; he was a prominent Covenanter and fought
against Charles I. at Marston Moor. Later, however, he supported the
cause of Charles II., and fell into the hands of Cromwell, who
imprisoned him. His fifth son, Robert Montgomerie (d. 1684), a soldier
of distinction, fought against Cromwell at Dunbar and at Worcester,
afterwards escaping from the Tower of London and serving in Denmark.
Robert's elder brother, Hugh, 7th earl of Eglinton (1613-1669), who also
fought against Cromwell, was the grandfather of Alexander, the 9th earl
(c. 1660-1729), who married, for his third wife, Susannah (1689-1780),
daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy, Bart., of Culzean, a lady celebrated
for her wit and beauty. Alexander, the 10th earl (1723-1769), a son of
the 9th earl, was one of the first of the Scottish landowners to carry
out improvements on his estates. He was shot near Ardrossan by an excise
officer named Mungo Campbell on the 24th of October 1769. His brother
and successor, Archibald, the 11th earl (1726-1796), raised a regiment
of Highlanders with which he served in America during the Seven Years'
War. As he left no male issue he was succeeded in the earldom by his
kinsman Hugh Montgomerie (1739-1819), a descendant of the 6th earl, who
was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Ardrossan in 1806.
Before succeeding to the earldom Hugh had served in the American war and
had been a member of parliament; after this event he began to rebuild
Eglinton castle on a magnificent scale and to construct a harbour at
Ardrossan.

This earl's successor was his grandson, Archibald William, the 13th earl
(1812-1861), who was born at Palermo on the 29th of September 1812. His
father was Archibald, Lord Montgomerie (1773-1814), the eldest son of
the 12th earl, and his mother was Mary (d. 1848), a daughter of the 11th
earl. Educated at Eton, the young earl's main object of interest for
some years was the turf; he kept a large racing stud and won success and
reputation in the sporting world. In 1839 his name became more widely
known in connexion with the famous tournament which took place at
Eglinton castle and is said to have cost him £30,000 or £40,000. This
was made the subject of much ridicule and was partly spoiled by the
unfavourable weather, the rain falling in torrents. Yet it was a real
tournament and the "knights" broke their spears in the orthodox way.
Prince Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.) took part in it, and Lady Seymour,
a daughter of Thomas Sheridan and the wife of Lord Seymour, afterwards
12th duke of Somerset, was the queen of beauty. A list of the
challengers with an account of the jousts and the melée will be found in
the volume on the tournament written by John Richardson, with drawings
by J. H. Nixon. It is also described by Disraeli in _Endymion_. Eglinton
was a staunch Tory, and in February 1852 he became lord-lieutenant of
Ireland under the earl of Derby. He retired with the ministry in the
following December, having by his princely hospitality made himself one
of the most popular of Irish viceroys. When Derby returned to office in
February 1858 he was again appointed lord-lieutenant, and he discharged
the duties of this post until June 1859. In this year he was created
earl of Winton, an earldom which had been held by his kinsfolk, the
Setons, from 1600 until 1716, when George Seton, the 5th earl (c.
1678-1749), was deprived of his honours for high treason. The earl died
on the 4th of October 1861, and was succeeded by his eldest son
Archibald William (1841-1892). When this earl died in 1892 his younger
brother George Arnulph (b. 1848) became 15th earl of Eglinton and 3rd
earl of Winton.

  See Sir W. Fraser, _Memorials of the Montgomeries, earls of Eglinton_
  (1859).



EGMONT, EARLS OF. John Perceval, 1st earl of Egmont (1683-1748), Irish
politician, and partner with J. E. Oglethorpe in founding the American
colony of Georgia, was created earl in 1733. He claimed descent from the
Egmonts of Flanders, but his title was taken from the place in County
Cork where the family residence stood. Its name of Burton House, and
that of Burton manor which formed part of the family estates, were a
reminiscence of Burton in Somerset, where was the earlier English family
property of his great-great-grandfather Richard Perceval (1550-1620),
Burghley's secret agent, and author of a Spanish dictionary published in
1591, whose son Sir Philip Perceval (1605-1647) acquired the Irish
estates by judicious use of his opportunities as commissioner for land
titles and of his interest at court. Sir Philip's son John, grandfather
of the 1st earl, was made a baronet in 1661. The first earl of Egmont
(who had been made Baron Perceval in 1715, and Viscount Perceval in
1723) is chiefly important for his connexion with the colonization of
Georgia, and for his voluminous letters and writings on biography and
genealogy.

John Perceval, 2nd earl of Egmont (1711-1770), his eldest son, was an
active politician, first lord of the admiralty (1763-1766), and
political pamphleteer, and like his father an ardent genealogist. He was
twice married, and had eight sons and eight daughters. One of his
younger sons was Spencer Perceval, prime minister of England. His eldest
son succeeded as 3rd earl, and the eldest by his second marriage (with
Catherine Compton, baroness of Arden in Ireland) was in 1802 created
Baron Arden of the United Kingdom, a title which subsequently became
merged in the Egmont earldom.



EGMONT (EGMOND), LAMORAL, COUNT OF, prince of Gavre (1522-1568), was
born in Hainaut in 1522. He was the younger of the two sons of John IV.,
count of Egmont, by his wife Françoise of Luxemburg, princess of Gavre.
On the death of his elder brother Charles, about 1541, he succeeded to
his titles and estates. In this year he served his apprenticeship as a
soldier in the expedition of the emperor Charles V. to Algiers,
distinguishing himself in the command of a body of cavalry. In 1544 he
married Sabina, sister of the elector palatine Frederick III., and the
wedding was celebrated at Spires with great pomp in the presence of the
emperor and his brother Ferdinand, afterwards emperor. Created knight of
the Golden Fleece in 1546, he accompanied Philip of Spain in his tour
through the Netherland towns, and in 1554 he went to England at the head
of a special embassy to ask the hand of Mary of England for Philip, and
was afterwards present at the wedding ceremony at Winchester. In the
summer of 1557 Egmont was appointed commander of the Flemish cavalry in
the war between Spain and France; and it was by his vehement persuasion
that the battle of St Quentin was fought. The victory was determined by
the brilliant charge that he led against the French. The reputation
which he won at St Quentin was raised still higher in 1558, when he
encountered the French army under de Thermes at Gravelines, on its march
homewards after the invasion of Flanders, totally defeated it, and took
Marshal de Thermes prisoner. The battle was fought against the advice of
the duke of Alva, and the victory made Alva Egmont's enemy. But the
count now became the idol of his countrymen, who looked upon him as the
saviour of Flanders from the devastations of the French. He was
nominated by Philip stadtholder of Flanders and Artois. At the
conclusion of the war by the treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, Egmont was one
of the four hostages selected by the king of France as pledges for its
execution.

The attempt made by King Philip to convert the Netherlands into a
Spanish dependency and to govern it by Spanish ministers excited the
resentment of Egmont and other leading members of the Netherlands
aristocracy. Between him and Cardinal Granvella, the all-powerful
minister of the regent Margaret of Parma, there was no love lost. As a
member of the council of state Egmont joined the prince of Orange in a
vigorous protest addressed to Philip (1561) against the autocratic
proceedings of the minister; and two years later he again protested in
conjunction with the prince of Orange and Count Horn. In the spring of
1564 Granvella left the Netherlands, and the malcontent nobles once more
took their places in the council of state. The resolve, however, of
Philip to enforce the decrees of the council of Trent throughout the
Netherlands once more aroused their resentment. Although himself a good
Catholic, Egmont had no wish to see the Spanish Inquisition established
in his native country. Orange, Egmont and others were convinced that the
enforcement of the decrees in the Netherlands was impossible, and, in
January 1665, Egmont accepted a special mission to Spain to make known
to Philip the state of affairs and the disposition of the people. At
Madrid the king gave him an ostentatiously cordial reception, and all
the courtiers vied with one another in lavishing professions of respect
upon him. They knew his vain and somewhat unstable character, and hoped
to win him over without conceding anything to the wishes of the
Netherlanders. The king gave him plenty of flatteries and promises, but
steadily evaded any serious discussion of the object of his mission, and
Egmont finally returned home without having accomplished anything. At
the same time Philip sent further instructions to the regent to abate
nothing of the severity of the persecution.

Egmont was naturally indignant at the treatment he had received, while
the terrors of the Inquisition were steadily rousing the people to a
state of frenzied excitement. In 1566 a confederacy of the lesser
nobility was formed (_Les Gueux_) whose principles were set out in a
document known as the Compromise. From this league Egmont held aloof; he
declined to take any step savouring of actual disloyalty to his
sovereign. He withdrew to his government of Flanders, and as stadtholder
took active measures for the persecution of heretics. But in the eyes of
Philip he had long been a marked man. The Spanish king had temporized
only until the moment arrived when he could crush opposition by force.
In the summer of 1567 the duke of Alva was despatched to the Netherlands
at the head of an army of veterans to supersede the regent Margaret and
restore order in the discontented provinces. Orange fled to Germany
after having vainly warned Egmont and Horn of the dangers that
threatened them. Alva was at pains to lull their suspicions, and then
suddenly seized them both and threw them in the castle of Ghent. Their
trial was a farce, for their fate had already been determined before
Alva left Spain. After some months of imprisonment they were removed to
Brussels, where sentence was pronounced upon them (June 4) by the
infamous Council of Blood erected by Alva. They were condemned to death
for high treason. It was in vain that the most earnest intercessions
were made in behalf of Egmont by the emperor Maximilian, by the knights
of the order of the Golden Fleece, by the states of Brabant, and by
several of the German princes. Vain, too, was the pathetic pleading of
his wife, who with her eleven children was reduced to want, and had
taken refuge in a convent. Egmont was beheaded at Brussels in the square
before the town hall on the day after his sentence had been publicly
pronounced (June 5, 1568). He met his fate with calm resignation; and in
the storm of terror and exasperation to which this tragedy gave rise
Egmont's failings were forgotten, and he and his fellow-victim to
Spanish tyranny were glorified in the popular imagination as martyrs of
Flemish freedom. From this memorable event, which Goethe made the theme
of his play _Egmont_ (1788), is usually dated the beginning of the
famous revolt of the Netherlands. In 1865 a monument to Counts Egmont
and Horn, by Fraiken, was erected on the spot where they were beheaded.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.--T. Juste, _Le Comte d'Egmont et le comte de Hornes_
  (Brussels, 1862), _Les Pays-Bas sous Philippe II_, 1555-1565 (2 vols.,
  Brussels, 1855); J. L. Motley, _Rise of the Dutch Republic_, 1555-1584
  (3 vols., London, 1856); J. P. Blok, _History of the People of the
  Netherlands_ (tr. from Dutch), vol. iii. (New York, 1900); R. Fruin,
  _Het voorspel van den tastigjarigen oorlag_ (Amsterdam, 1866); E.
  Marx, _Studien zur Geschichte des niederländischen Aufstandes_
  (Leipzig, 1902).     (G. E.)



EGOISM (from Gr. and Lat. _ego_, I, the 1st personal pronoun), a modern
philosophical term used generally, in opposition to "Altruism," for any
ethical system in which the happiness or the good of the individual is
the main criterion of moral action. Another form of the word, "Egotism,"
is really interchangeable, though in ordinary language it is often used
specially (and similarly "egoism," as in George Meredith's _Egoist_) to
describe the habit of magnifying one's self and one's achievements, or
regarding all things from a selfish point of view. Both these ideas
derive from the original meaning of _ego_, myself, as opposed to
everything which is outside myself. This antithesis of ego and non-ego,
self and not-self, may be understood in several senses according to the
connexion in which it is used. Thus the self may be held to include
one's family, property, business, and an indefinitely wider range of
persons or objects in which the individual's interest is for the moment
centred, i.e. everything which I can call "mine." In this, its widest,
sense "a man's Self is the sum total of all that he _can_ call his" (Wm.
James, _Principles of Psychology_, chap x.). This self may be divided up
in many ways according to the various forms in which it may be
expressed. Thus James (ibid.) classifies the various "selves" as the
material, the spiritual, the social and the "pure." Or again the self
may be narrowed down to a man's own person, consisting of an individual
mind and body. In the true philosophical sense, however, the conception
of the ego is still further narrowed down to the individual
consciousness as opposed to all that is outside it, i.e. can be its
object. This conception of the self belongs mainly to metaphysics and
involves the whole problem of the relation between subject and object,
the nature of reality, and the possibility of knowledge of self and of
object. The ordinary idea of the self as a physical entity, obviously
separate from others, takes no account of the problem as to how and in
what sense the individual is conscious of himself; what is the relation
between subject and object in the phenomenon of self-consciousness, in
which the mind reflects upon itself both past and present? The mind is
in this case both subject and object, or, as William James puts it, both
"I" and "me." The phenomenon has been described in various ways by
different thinkers. Thus Kant distinguished the two selves as rational
and empirical, just as he distinguished the two egos as the noumenal or
real and the phenomenal from the metaphysical standpoint. A similar
distinction is made by Herbart. Others have held that the self has a
complex content, the subject self being, as it were, a fuller expression
of the object-self (so Bradley); or again the subject self is the active
content of the mind, and the object self the passive content which for
the moment is exciting the attention. The most satisfactory and also the
most general view is that consciousness is complex and unanalysable.

The relation of the self to the not-self need not to be treated here
(see METAPHYSICS). It may, however, be pointed out that in so far as an
object is cognized by the mind, it becomes in a sense part of the
complex self-content. In this sense the individual is in himself his own
universe, his whole existence being, in other words, the sum total of
his psychic relations, and nothing else being _for him_ in existence at
all. A similar idea is prominent in many philosophico-religious systems
wherein the idea of God or the Infinite is, as it were, the union of the
ego and the non-ego, of subject and object. The self of man is regarded
as having limitations, whereas the Godhead is infinite and
all-inclusive. In many mystical Oriental religions the perfection of the
human self is absorption in the infinite, as a ripple dies away on the
surface of water. The problems of the self may be summed up as follows.
The psychologist investigates the ideal construction of the self, i.e.
the way in which the conception of the self arises, the different
aspects or contents of the self and the relation of the subject to the
object self. At this point the epistemologist takes up the question of
empirical knowledge and considers the kind of validity, if any, which it
can possess. What existence has the known object for the knowing
subject? The result of this inquiry is generally intellectual scepticism
in a greater or less degree, namely, that the object has no existence
for the knower except a relative one, i.e. in so far as it is "known"
(see RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE). Finally the metaphysician, and in another
sphere the theologian, consider the nature of the pure or transcendental
self apart from its relations, i.e. the absolute self.

In ethics, egoistic doctrines disregard the ultimate problems of
selfhood, and assume the self to consist of a man's person and those
things in which he is or ought to be directly interested. The general
statement that such doctrines refer all moral action to criteria of the
individual's happiness, preservation, moral perfection, raises an
obvious difficulty. Egoism merely asserts that the self is all-important
in the application of moral principles, and does not in any way supply
the material of these principles. It is a purely formal direction, and
as such merely an adjunct to a substantive ethical criterion. A
practical theory of ethics seeks to establish a particular moral ideal;
if it is an absolute criterion, then the altruist would place first the
attainment of that ideal by others, while the egoist would seek it for
himself. The same is true of ethical theories which may be described as
material. Of the second type are those, e.g. of Hobbes and Spinoza,
which advocate self-preservation as the ideal, as contrasted with modern
evolutionist moralists who advocate race-preservation. Again, we may
contrast the early Greek hedonists, who bade each man seek the greatest
happiness (of whatever kind), with modern utilitarian and social
hedonists, who prefer the greatest good or the greatest happiness of the
greatest number. It is with hedonistic and other empirical theories that
egoism is generally associated. As a matter of fact, however, egoism has
been no less prominent in intuitional ethics. Thus the man who seeks
only or primarily his own moral perfection is an egoist par excellence.
Such are ascetics, hermits and the like, whose whole object is the
realization of their highest selves.

The distinction of egoistical and altruistic action is further
complicated by two facts. In the first place, many systems combine the
two. Thus Christian ethics may be said to insist equally on duty to self
and duty to others, while crudely egoistic systems become unworkable if
a man renders himself obnoxious to his fellows. On the other hand, every
deliberate action based on an avowedly altruistic principle necessarily
has a reference to the agent; if it is right that A should do a certain
action for the benefit of B, then it tends to the moral self-realization
of A that he should do it. Upon whatsoever principle the rightness of an
action depends, its performance is right _for the agent_. The
self-reference is inevitable in every action in so far as it is regarded
as voluntary and chosen as being of a particular moral quality.

It is this latter fact which has led many students of human character to
state that men do in fact aim at the gratification of their personal
desires and impulses. The laws of the state and the various rules of
conduct laid down by religion or morality are merely devices adopted for
general convenience. The most remarkable statement of this point of view
is that of Friedrich Nietzsche, who went so far as to denounce all forms
of self-denial as cowardice:--let every one who is strong seek to make
himself dominant at the expense of the weak.



EGORIEVSK, a town of Russia, in the government of Ryazañ, 70 m. by rail
E.S.E. of Moscow, by a branch line (15 m.) connecting with the Moscow to
Ryazañ main line. The cotton mills and other factories give occupation
to 6000 persons. Egorievsk has important fairs for grain, hides, &c.,
which are exported. Pop. (1897) 23,932.



EGREMONT, EARLS OF. In 1749 Algernon Seymour, 7th duke of Somerset, was
created earl of Egremont, and on his childless death in February 1750
this title passed by special remainder to his nephew, Sir Charles
Wyndham or Windham, Bart. (1710-1763), a son of Sir William Wyndham of
Orchard Wyndham, Somerset. Charles, who had succeeded to his father's
baronetcy in 1740, inherited Somerset's estates in Cumberland and
Sussex. He was a member of parliament from 1734 to 1750, and in October
1761 he was appointed secretary of state for the southern department in
succession to William Pitt. His term of office, during which he acted in
concert with his brother-in-law, George Grenville, was mainly occupied
with the declaration of war on Spain and with the negotiations for peace
with France and Spain, a peace the terms of which the earl seems to have
disliked. He was also to the fore during the proceedings against Wilkes,
and he died on the 21st of August 1763. Horace Walpole perhaps rates
Egremont's talents too low when he says he "had neither knowledge of
business, nor the smallest share of parliamentary abilities."

The 2nd earl's son and successor, George O'Brien Wyndham (1751-1837),
was more famous as a patron of art and an agriculturist than as a
politician, although he was not entirely indifferent to politics. For
some time the painter Turner lived at his Sussex residence, Petworth
House, and in addition to Turner, the painter Leslie, the sculptor
Flaxman and other talented artists received commissions from Egremont,
who filled his house with valuable works of art. Generous and
hospitable, blunt and eccentric, the earl was in his day a very
prominent figure in English society. Charles Greville says, "he was
immensely rich and his munificence was equal to his wealth"; and again
that in his time Petworth was "like a great inn." The earl died
unmarried on the 11th of November 1837, and on the death of his nephew
and successor, George Francis Wyndham, the 4th earl (1785-1845), the
earldom of Egremont became extinct. Petworth, however, and the large
estates had already passed to George Wyndham (1787-1869), a natural son
of the 3rd earl, who was created Baron Leconfield in 1859.



EGREMONT, a market town in the Egremont parliamentary division of
Cumberland, England, 5 m. S.S.E. of Whitehaven, on a joint line of the
London & North Western and Furness railways. Pop. of urban district
(1901) 5761. It is pleasantly situated in the valley of the Ehen. Ruins
of a castle command the town from an eminence. It was founded c. 1120 by
William de Meschines; it is moated, and retains a Norman doorway and
some of the original masonry, as well as fragments of later date. The
church of St Mary is a modern reconstruction embodying some of the
Norman features of the old church. Iron ore and limestone are raised in
the neighbourhood.

It seems impossible to find any history for Egremont until after the
Norman Conquest, when Henry I. gave the barony of Coupland to William de
Meschines, who erected a castle at Egremont around which the town grew
into importance. The barony afterwards passed by marriage to the
families of Lucy and Multon, and finally came to the Percys, earls of
Northumberland, from whom are descended the present lords of the manor
of Egremont. The earliest evidence that Egremont was a borough occurs in
a charter, granted by Richard de Lucy in the reign of King John, which
gave the burgesses right to choose their reeve, and set out the customs
owing to the lord of the manor, among which was that of providing twelve
armed men at his castle in the time of war. The borough was represented
by two members in the parliament of 1295, but in the following year was
disfranchised, on the petition of the burgesses, on account of the
expense of sending members. In 1267 Henry III. granted Thomas de Multon
a market every Wednesday at Egremont, and a fair every year on the eve,
day and morrow of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. In the _Quo Warranto_
rolls he is found to have claimed by prescription another weekly market
on Saturday. The market rights were purchased from Lord Leconfield in
1885, and the market on Saturday is still held. Richard de Lucy's
charter shows that dyeing, weaving and fulling were carried on in the
town in his time.



EGRESS (Lat. _egressus_, going out), in astronomy, the end of the
apparent transit of a small body over the disk of a larger one;
especially of a transit of a satellite of Jupiter over the disk of that
planet. It designates the moment at which the smaller body is seen to
leave the limb of the other.



EGYPT, a country forming the N.E. extremity of Africa.[1] In the
following account a division is made into (I.) _Modern Egypt_, and (II.)
_Ancient Egypt_; but the history from the earliest times is given as a
separate section (III.).

  Section I. includes Geography, Economics, Government, Inhabitants,
  Finance and Army. Section II. is subdivided into:--(A) Exploration and
  Research; (B) The Country in Ancient Times; (C) Religion; (D) Language
  and Writing; (E) Art and Archaeology; (F) Chronology. Section III. is
  divided into three main periods:--(1) Ancient History; (2) the
  Mahommedan Period; (3) Modern History (from Mehemet Ali).


I. MODERN EGYPT

_Boundaries and Areas._--Egypt is bounded N. by the Mediterranean, S. by
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, N.E. by Palestine, E. by the Red Sea, W. by
Tripoli and the Sahara. The western frontier is ill-defined. The
boundary line between Tripoli and Egypt is usually taken to start from a
point in the Gulf of Sollum and to run S. by E. so as to leave the oasis
of Siwa to Egypt. South of Siwa the frontier, according to the Turkish
firman of 1841, bends eastward, approaching the cultivated Nile-land
near Wadi Halfa, i.e. the southern frontier. This southern frontier is
fixed by agreement between Great Britain and Egypt at the 22° N. The
N.E. frontier is an almost direct line drawn from Taba, near the head of
the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern of the two gulfs into which the Red Sea
divides, to the Mediterranean at Rafa in 34° 15' E. The peninsula of
Sinai, geographically part of Asia, is thus included in the Egyptian
dominions. The total area of the country is about 400,000 sq. m., or
more than three times the size of the British Isles. Of this area
14/15ths is desert. Canals, roads, date plantations, &c., cover 1900 sq.
m.; 2850 sq. m. are comprised in the surface of the Nile, marshes,
lakes, &c. A line corresponding with the 30° N., drawn just S. of Cairo,
divides the country into Lower and Upper Egypt, natural designations in
common use, Lower Egypt being the Delta and Upper Egypt the Nile valley.
By the Arabs Lower Egypt is called Er-Rif, the cultivated or fertile;
Upper Egypt Es Sa'id, the happy or fortunate. Another division of the
country is into Lower, Middle and Upper Egypt, Middle Egypt in this
classification being the district between Cairo and Assiut.

_General Character._--The distinguishing features of Egypt are the Nile
and the desert. But for the river there would be nothing to
differentiate the country from other parts of the Sahara. The Nile,
however, has transformed the land through which it passes. Piercing the
desert, and at its annual overflow depositing rich sediment brought from
the Abyssinian highlands, the river has created the Delta and the
fertile strip in Upper Egypt. This cultivable land is Egypt proper; to
it alone is applicable the ancient name--"the black land." The _Misr_ of
the Arabs is restricted to the same territory. Beyond the Nile valley
east and west stretch great deserts, containing here and there fertile
oases. The general appearance of the country is remarkably uniform. The
Delta is a level plain, richly cultivated, and varied alone by the lofty
dark-brown mounds of ancient cities, and the villages set in groves of
palm-trees, standing on mounds often, if not always, ancient. Groves of
palm-trees are occasionally seen besides those around the villages, but
other trees are rare. In Upper Egypt the Nile valley is very narrow and
is bounded by mountains of no great height. They form the edge of the
desert on either side of the valley, of which the bottom is level rock.
The mountains rarely take the form of peaks. Sometimes they approach the
river in bold promontories, and at others are divided by the dry beds of
ancient watercourses. The bright green of the fields, the reddish-brown
or dull green of the great river, contrasting with the bare yellow
rocks, seen beneath a brilliant sun and a deep-blue sky, present views
of great beauty. In form the landscape varies little and is not
remarkable; in colour its qualities are always splendid, and under a
general uniformity show a continual variety.

  _The Coast Region._--Egypt has a coast-line of over 600 m. on the
  Mediterranean and about 1200 m. on the Red Sea. The Mediterranean
  coast extends from the Gulf of Sollum on the west to Rafa on the east.
  From the gulf to the beginning of the Delta the coast is rock-bound,
  but slightly indented, and possesses no good harbourage. The cliffs
  attain in places a height of 1000 ft. They are the termination of a
  stony plateau, containing several small oases, which southward joins
  the more arid and uninhabitable wastes of the Libyan Desert. The Delta
  coast-line, composed of sandhills and, occasionally, limestone rocks,
  is low, with cape-like projections at the Nile mouths formed by the
  river silt. Two bays are thus formed, the western being the famous Bay
  of Aboukir. It is bounded W. by a point near the ancient Canopic
  mouth, eastward by the Rosetta mouth. Beyond the Delta eastward the
  coast is again barren and without harbours. It rises gradually
  southward, merging into the plateau of the Sinai peninsula. The Red
  Sea coast is everywhere mountainous. The mountains are the northern
  continuation of the Abyssinian table-land, and some of the peaks are
  over 6000 ft. above the sea. The highest peaks, going from north to
  south, are Jebels Gharib, Dukhan, Es Shayib, Fatira, Abu Tiur, Zubara
  and Hammada (Hamata). The coast has a general N.N.W. and S.S.E. trend,
  and, save for the two gulfs into which it is divided by the massif of
  Sinai, is not deeply indented. Where the frontier between Egypt and
  the Sudan reaches the sea is Ras Elba (see further RED SEA).

  _The Nile Valley_ (see also NILE).--Entering Egypt proper, a little
  north of the Second Cataract, the Nile flows through a valley in
  sandstone beds of Cretaceous age as far as 25° N., and throughout this
  part of its course the valley is extremely narrow, rarely exceeding 2
  m. in width. At two points, namely, Kalabsha--the valley here being
  only 170 yds. wide and the river over 100 ft. deep--and Assuan (First
  Cataract), the course of the river is interrupted by outcrops of
  granites and other crystalline rocks, which have been uncovered by the
  erosion of the overlying sandstone, and to-day form the mass of
  islands, with numerous small rapids, which are described not very
  accurately as cataracts; no good evidence exists in support of the
  view that they are the remains of a massive barrier, broken down and
  carried away by some sudden convulsion. From 25° N. northwards for 518
  m. the valley is of the "rift-valley" type, a level depression in a
  limestone plateau, enclosed usually by steep cliffs, except where the
  tributary valleys drained into the main valley in early times, when
  there was a larger rainfall, and now carry off the occasional
  rainstorms that burst on the desert. The cliffs are highest between
  Esna and Kena, where they reach 1800 ft. above sea-level. The average
  width of the cultivated land is about 10 m., of which the greater part
  lies on the left (western) bank of the river; and outside this is a
  belt, varying from a few hundred yards to 3 or 4 m., of stony and
  sandy ground, reaching up to the foot of the limestone cliffs, which
  rise in places to as much as 1000 ft. above the valley. This continues
  as far as 29° N., after which the hills that close in the valley
  become lower, and the higher plateaus lie at a distance of 10 or 15 m.
  back in the desert.

  _The Fayum._--The fertile province of the Fayum, west of the Nile and
  separated from it by some 6 m. of desert, seems to owe its existence
  to movements similar to those which determined the valley itself.
  Lying in a basin sloping in a series of terraces from an altitude of
  65 ft. above sea-level in the east to about 140 ft. _below_ sea-level
  on the north-west, at the margin of the Birket-el-Kerun, this province
  is wholly irrigated by a canalized channel, the Bahr Yusuf, which,
  leaving the Nile at Derut esh Sherif in Upper Egypt, follows the
  western margin of the cultivation in the Nile valley, and at length
  enters the Fayum through a gap in the desert hills by the XIIth
  Dynasty pyramids of Lahun and Hawara (see FAYUM).

  _The Delta._--About 30° N., where the city of Cairo stands, the hills
  which have hitherto run parallel with the Nile turn W.N.W. and E.N.E.,
  and the triangular area between them is wholly deltaic. The Delta
  measures 100 m. from S. to N., having a width of 155 m. on the shore
  of the Mediterranean between Alexandria on the west and Port Said on
  the east. The low sandy shore of the Delta, slowly increasing by the
  annual deposit of silt by the river, is mostly a barren area of
  sand-hills and salty waste land. This is the region of the lagoons and
  marshes immediately behind the coast-line. Southwards the quality of
  the soil rapidly improves, and becomes the most fertile part of Egypt.
  This area is watered by the Damietta and the Rosetta branches of the
  Nile, and by a network of canals. The soil of the Delta is a dark grey
  fine sandy soil, becoming at times almost a stiff clay by reason of
  the fineness of its particles, which consist almost wholly of
  extremely small grains of quartz with a few other minerals, and often
  numerous flakes of mica. This deposit varies in thickness, as a rule,
  from 55 to 70 ft., at which depth it is underlain by a series of
  coarse and fine yellow quartz sands, with occasional pebbles, or even
  banks of gravel, while here and there thin beds of clay occur. These
  sand-beds are sharply distinguished by their colour from the overlying
  Nile deposit, and are of considerable thickness. A boring made in 1886
  for the Royal Society at Zagazig attained a depth of 375 ft. without
  reaching rock, and another, subsequently sunk near Lake Aboukir (close
  to Alexandria), reached a depth of 405 ft. with the same result.
  Numerous other borings to depths of 100 to 200 ft. have given similar
  results, showing the Nile deposit to rest generally on these yellow
  sands, which provide a constant though not a very large supply of good
  water; near the northern limits of the Delta this cannot, however, be
  depended on, since the well water at these depths has proved on
  several occasions to be salt. The surface of the Delta is a wide
  alluvial plain sloping gently towards the sea, and having an altitude
  of 29 ft. above it at its southern extremity. Its limits east and west
  are determined by the higher ground of the deserts, to which the
  silt-laden waters of the Nile in flood time cannot reach. This silt
  consists largely of alumina (about 48%) and calcium carbonate (18%)
  with smaller quantities of silica, oxide of iron and carbon. Although
  the Nile water is abundantly charged with alluvium, the annual deposit
  by the river, except under extraordinary circumstances, is smaller
  than might be supposed. The mean ordinary rate of the increase of the
  soil of Egypt is calculated as about 4½ in. in a century.

  _The Lakes._--The lagoons or lakes of the Delta, going from west to
  east, are Mareotis (Mariut), Edku, Burlus and Menzala. The land
  separating them from the Mediterranean is nowhere more than 10 m.
  wide. East of the Damietta mouth of the Nile this strip is in places
  not more than 200 yds. broad. All the lakes are shallow and the water
  in them salt or brackish. Mareotis, which bounds Alexandria on the
  south side, varies considerably in area according to the rise or fall
  of the Nile; when the Nile is low there is a wide expanse of marsh,
  when at its highest the lake covers about 100 sq. m. In ancient times
  Mareotis was navigable and was joined by various canals to the Nile.
  The country around was cultivated and produced the famous Mareotic
  wine. The canals being neglected, the lake decreased in size, though
  it was still of considerable area in the 15th and 16th centuries, and
  was then noted for the value of its fisheries. When the French army
  occupied Egypt in 1798, Mareotis was found to be largely a sandy
  plain. In April 1801 the British army besieging Alexandria cut through
  the land between Aboukir and the lake, admitting the waters of the sea
  into the ancient bed of Mareotis and laying under water a large area
  then in cultivation. This precedent was twice imitated, first by the
  Turks in 1803 and a second time by the British in 1807. Mareotis has
  no outlet, and the water is kept at a uniform level by means of
  powerful pumps which neutralize the effect of the Nile flood. A
  western arm has been cut off from the lake by a dyke, and in this arm
  a thick crust of salt is formed each year after the evaporation of the
  flood water. Near the shores of the lake wild flowers grow in rich
  profusion. Like all the Delta lakes, Mareotis abounds in wild-fowl.
  North-east of Mareotis was Lake Aboukir, a small sheet of water, now
  dry, lying S.W. of Aboukir Bay. East of this reclaimed marsh and
  reaching to within 4 m. of the Rosetta branch of the Nile, lies Edku,
  22 m. long and in places 16 wide, with an opening, supposed to be the
  ancient Canopic mouth of the Nile, into Aboukir Bay. Burlus begins a
  little eastward of the Rosetta channel, and stretches bow-shaped for
  64 m. Its greatest width is about 16 m. Adjoining it S.E. is an
  expanse of sandy marsh. Several canals or canalized channels enter the
  lake. Opposite the spot where the Bahr-mit Yezir enters is an opening
  into the Mediterranean. Canal and opening indicate the course of the
  ancient Sebennytic branch of the Nile. Burlus is noted for its
  water-melons, which are yellow within and come into season after those
  grown on the banks of the Nile.

  Menzala greatly exceeds the other Delta lakes in size, covering over
  780 sq. m. It extends from very near the Damietta branch of the Nile
  to Port Said. It receives the waters of the canalized channels which
  were once the Tanitic, Mendesian and Pelusiac branches. The northern
  shore is separated from the sea by an extremely narrow strip of land,
  across which, when the Mediterranean is stormy and the lake full, the
  waters meet. Its average length is about 40 m., and its average
  breadth about 15. The depth is greater than that of the other lakes,
  and the water is salt, though mixed with fresh. It contains a large
  number of islands, and the whole lake abounds in reeds of various
  kinds. Of the islands Tennis (anciently Tennesus) contains ruins of
  the Roman period. The lake supports a considerable population of
  fishermen, who dwell in villages on the shore and islands and live
  upon the fish of the lake. The reeds are cover for waterfowl of
  various kinds, which the traveller sees in great numbers, and wild
  boars are found in the marshes to the south. The Suez Canal runs in a
  straight line for 20 m. along the eastern edge of the lake. That part
  of the lake east of where the canal was excavated is now marshy plain,
  and the Tanitic and Pelusiac mouths of the Nile are dry. East of
  Menzala is the site of Serbonis, another dried-up lake, which had the
  general characteristics of the Delta lagoons. In the Isthmus of Suez
  are Lake Timsa and the Great and Little Bitter Lakes, occupying part
  of the ancient bed of the Red Sea. All three were dry or marshy
  depressions previously to the cutting of the Suez Canal, at which time
  the waters of the Mediterranean and Red Sea were let into them (see
  SUEZ CANAL).

  A chain of natron lakes (seven in number) lies in a valley in the
  western desert, 70 to 90 m. W.N.W. of Cairo. In the Fayum province
  farther south is the Birket-el-Kerun, a lake, lying below the level of
  the Nile, some 30 m. long and 5 wide at its broadest part. Kerun is
  all that is left of the Lake of Moeris, an ancient artificial sheet of
  water which played an important part in the irrigation schemes of the
  Pharaohs. The water of el-Kerun is brackish, though derived from the
  Nile, which has at all seasons a much higher level. It is bounded on
  the north by the Libyan Desert, above which rises a bold range of
  mountains; and it has a strange and picturesque wildness. Near the
  lake are several sites of ancient towns, and the temple called
  Kasr-Karun, dating from Roman times, distinguishes the most important
  of these. South-west of the Fayum is the Wadi Rayan, a large and deep
  depression, utilizable in modern schemes for re-creating the Lake of
  Moeris (q.v.).

  [Illustration: Nile Delta.]

  _The Desert Plateaus._--From the southern borders of Egypt to the
  Delta in the north, the desert plateaus extend on either side of the
  Nile valley. The eastern region, between the Nile and the Red Sea,
  varies in width from 90 to 350 m. and is known in its northern part as
  the Arabian Desert. The western region has no natural barrier for many
  hundreds of miles; it is part of the vast Sahara. On its eastern edge,
  a few miles west of Cairo, stand the great pyramids (q.v.) of Gizeh or
  Giza. North of Assuan it is called the Libyan Desert. In the north the
  desert plateaus are comparatively low, but from Cairo southwards they
  rise to 1000 and even 1500 ft. above sea-level. Formed mostly of
  horizontal strata of varying hardness, they present a series of
  terraces of minor plateaus, rising one above the other, and
  intersected by small ravines worn by the occasional rainstorms which
  burst in their neighbourhood. The weathering of this desert area is
  probably fairly rapid, and the agents at work are principally the
  rapid heating and cooling of the rocks by day and night, and the
  erosive action of sand-laden wind on the softer layers; these, aided
  by the occasional rain, are ceaselessly at work, and produce the
  successive plateaus, dotted with small isolated hills and cut up by
  valleys (wadis) which occasionally become deep ravines, thus forming
  the principal type of scenery of these deserts. From this it will be
  seen that the desert in Egypt is mainly a rock desert, where the
  surface is formed of disintegrated rock, the finer particles of which
  have been carried away by the wind; and east of the Nile this is
  almost exclusively the case. Here the desert meets the line of
  mountains which runs parallel to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez. In
  the western desert, however, those large sand accumulations which are
  usually associated with a desert are met with. They occur as lines of
  dunes formed of rounded grains of quartz, and lie in the direction of
  the prevalent wind, usually being of small breadth as compared with
  their length; but in certain areas, such as that lying S.W. and W. of
  the oases of Farafra and Dakhla, these lines of dunes, lying parallel
  to each other and about half a mile apart, cover immense areas,
  rendering them absolutely impassable except in a direction parallel
  to the lines themselves. East of the oases of Baharia and Farafra is a
  very striking line of these sand dunes; rarely more than 3 miles wide,
  it extends almost continuously from Moghara in the north, passing
  along the west side of Kharga Oasis to a point near the Nile in the
  neighbourhood of Abu Simbel--having thus a length of nearly 550 m. In
  the northern part of this desert the dunes lie about N.W.-S.E., but
  farther south incline more towards the meridian, becoming at last very
  nearly north and south.

  _Oases._--In the western desert lie the five large oases of Egypt,
  namely, Siwa, Baharia, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga or Great Oasis,
  occupying depressions in the plateau or, in the case of the last
  three, large indentations in the face of limestone escarpments which
  form the western versant of the Nile valley hills. Their fertility is
  due to a plentiful supply of water furnished by a sandstone bed 300 to
  500 ft. below the surface, whence the water rises through natural
  fissures or artificial boreholes to the surface, and sometimes to
  several feet above it. These oases were known and occupied by the
  Egyptians as early as 1600 B.C., and Kharga (q.v.) rose to special
  importance at the time of the Persian occupation. Here, near the town
  of Kharga, the ancient Hebi, is a temple of Ammon built by Darius I.,
  and in the same oasis are other ruins of the period of the Ptolemies
  and Caesars. The oasis of Siwa (Jupiter Ammon) is about 150 m. S. of
  the Mediterranean at the Gulf of Sollum and about 300 m. W. of the
  Nile (see SIWA). The other four oases lie parallel to and distant 100
  to 150 m. from the Nile, between 25° and 29° N., Baharia being the
  most northerly and Kharga the most southerly.

  Besides the oases the desert is remarkable for two other valleys. The
  first is that of the natron lakes already mentioned. It contains four
  monasteries, the remains of the famous anchorite settlement of
  Nitriae. South of the Wadi Natron, and parallel to it, is a sterile
  valley called the Bahr-bela-Ma, or "River without Water."

  _The Sinai Peninsula._--The triangular-shaped Sinai peninsula has its
  base on the Mediterranean, the northern part being an arid plateau,
  the desert of Tih. The apex is occupied by a massif of crystalline
  rocks. The principal peaks rise over 8500 ft. Owing to the slight
  rainfall, and the rapid weathering of the rocks by the great range of
  temperature, these hills rise steeply from the valleys at their feet
  as almost bare rock, supporting hardly any vegetation. In some of the
  valleys wells or rock-pools filled by rain occur, and furnish
  drinking-water to the few Arabs who wander in these hills (see also
  SINAI).

  [_Geology._--Just as the Nile valley forms the chief geographical
  feature of Egypt, so the geology of the country is intimately related
  to it. The north and south direction of the river has been largely
  determined by faults, though the geologists of the Egyptian Survey are
  finding that the influence of faulting in determining physical outline
  has, in some cases, been overestimated. The oldest rocks, consisting
  of crystalline schists with numerous intrusions of granite, porphyry
  and diorite, occupy the eastern portion of the country between the
  Nile south of Assuan and the Red Sea. The intrusive rocks predominate
  over the schists in extent of area covered. They furnished the chief
  material for the ancient monuments. At Assuan (Syene) the well-known
  syenite of Werner occurs. It is, however, a hornblende granite and
  does not possess the mineralogical composition of the syenites of
  modern petrology. Between Thebes and Khartum the western banks of the
  Nile are composed of Nubian Sandstone, which extends westward from the
  river to the edge of the great Libyan Desert, where it forms the bed
  rock. The age of this sandstone has given rise to much dispute. The
  upper part certainly belongs to the Cretaceous formation; the lower
  part has been considered to be of Karroo age by some geologists, while
  others regard the whole formation to be of Cretaceous age. In the
  Kharga Oasis the upper portion consists of variously coloured
  unfossiliferous clays with intercalated bands of sandstone containing
  fossil silicified woods (_Nicolia Aegyptiaca_ and _Araucarioxylon
  Aegypticum_). They are conformably overlain by clays and limestones
  with _Exogyra Overwegi_ belonging to the Lower Danian, and these by
  clays and white chalk with _Ananchytes ovata_ of the Upper Danian. In
  many instances the Tertiary formation, which occurs between Esna and
  Cairo, unconformably overlies the Cretaceous, the Lower Eocene being
  absent. The fluvio-marine deposits of the Upper Eocene and Oligocene
  formations contain an interesting mammalian fauna, proving that the
  African continent formed a centre of radiation for the mammalia in
  early Tertiary times. _Arsinoitherium_ is the precursor of the horned
  Ungulata; while _Moeritherium_ and _Palaeomastodon_ undoubtedly
  include the oldest known elephants. Miocene strata are absent in the
  southern Tertiary areas, but are present at Moghara and in the north.
  Marine Pliocene strata occur to the south of the pyramids of Giza and
  in the Fayum province, where, in addition, some gravel terraces, at a
  height of 500 ft. above sea-level, are attributed to the Pliocene
  period. The Lake of Moeris, as a large body of fresh water, appears to
  have come into existence in Pleistocene times. It is represented now
  by the brackish-water lake of the Birket-el-Kerun. The superficial
  sands of the deserts and the Nile mud form the chief recent
  formations. The Nile deposits its mud over the valley before reaching
  the sea, and consequently the Delta receives little additional
  material. At Memphis the alluvial deposits are over 50 ft. thick. The
  superficial sands of the desert region, derived in large part from the
  disintegration of the Nubian Sandstone, occupy the most extensive
  areas in the Libyan Desert. The other desert regions of Egypt are
  elevated stony plateaus, which are diversified by extensively
  excavated valleys and oases, and in which sand frequently plays quite
  a subordinate part. These regions present magnificent examples of dry
  erosion by wind-borne sand, which acts as a powerful sand blast
  etching away the rocks and producing most beautiful sculpturing. The
  rate of denudation in exposed positions is exceedingly rapid; while
  spots sheltered from the sand blast suffer a minimum of erosion, as
  shown by the preservation of ancient inscriptions. Many of the
  Egyptian rocks in the desert areas and at the cataracts are coated
  with a highly polished film, of almost microscopic thinness,
  consisting chiefly of oxides of iron and manganese with salts of
  magnesia and lime. It is supposed to be due to a chemical change
  within the rock and not to deposition on the surface.]

  _Minerals._--Egypt possesses considerable mineral wealth. In ancient
  times gold and precious stones were mined in the Red Sea hills. During
  the Moslem period mining was abandoned, and it was not until the
  beginning of the 20th century that renewed efforts were made to
  develop the mining industry. The salt obtained from Lake Mareotis at
  Meks, a western suburb of Alexandria, supplies the salt needed for the
  country, except a small quantity used for curing fish at Lake Menzala;
  while the lakes in the Wadi Natron, 45 m. N.W. of the pyramids of
  Giza, furnish carbonate of soda in large quantities. Alum is found in
  the western oases. Nitrates and phosphates are also found in various
  parts of the desert and are used as manures. The turquoise mines of
  Sinai, in the Wadi Maghara, are worked regularly by the Arabs of the
  peninsula, who sell the stones in Suez; while there are emerald mines
  at Jebel Zubara, south of Kosseir. Petroleum occurs at Jebel Zeit, on
  the west shore of the Gulf of Suez. Considerable veins of haematite of
  good quality occur both in the Red Sea hills and in Sinai. At Jebel
  ed-Dukhan are porphyry quarries, extensively worked under the Romans,
  and at Jebel el-Fatira are granite quarries. At El-Hammamat, on the
  old way from Coptos to Philoteras Portus, are the breccia verde
  quarries, worked from very early times, and having interesting
  hieroglyphic inscriptions. At the various mines, and on the routes to
  them and to the Red Sea, are some small temples and stations, ranging
  from the Pharaonic to the Roman period. The quarries of Syene (Assuan)
  are famous for extremely hard and durable red granite (syenite), and
  have been worked since the days of the earliest Pharaohs. Large
  quantities of this syenite were used in building the Assuan dam
  (1898-1902). The cliffs bordering the Nile are largely quarried for
  limestone and sandstone.

  Gold-mining recommenced in 1905 at Um Rus, a short distance inland
  from the Red Sea and some 50 m. S. of Kosseir, where milling
  operations were started in March of that year. Another mine opened in
  1905 was that of Um Garaiat, E.N.E. of Korosko, and 65 m. distant from
  the Nile.

  _Climate._--Part of Upper Egypt is within the tropics, but the greater
  part of the country is north of the Tropic of Cancer. Except a narrow
  belt on the north along the Mediterranean shore, Egypt lies in an
  almost rainless area, where the temperature is high by day and sinks
  quickly at night in consequence of the rapid radiation under the
  cloudless sky. The mean temperature at Alexandria and Port Said varies
  between 57° F. in January and 81° F. in July; while at Cairo, where
  the proximity of the desert begins to be felt, it is 53° F. in
  January, rising to 84° F. in July. January is the coldest month, when
  occasionally in the Nile valley, and more frequently in the open
  desert, the temperature sinks to 32° F., or even a degree or two
  below. The mean maximum temperatures are 99° F. for Alexandria and
  110° F. for Cairo. Farther south the range of temperature becomes
  greater as pure desert conditions are reached. Thus at Assuan the mean
  maximum is 118° F., the mean minimum 42° F. At Wadi Halfa the figures
  in each case are one degree lower.

  The relative humidity varies greatly. At Assuan the mean value for the
  year is only 38%, that for the summer being 29%, and for the winter
  51%; while for Wadi Halfa the mean is 32%, and 20% and 42% are the
  mean values for summer and winter respectively. A white fog, dense and
  cold, sometimes rises from the Nile in the morning, but it is of short
  duration and rare occurrence. In Alexandria and on all the
  Mediterranean coast of Egypt rain falls abundantly in the winter
  months, amounting to 8 in. in the year; but southwards it rapidly
  decreases, and south of 31° N. little rain falls.

  Records at Cairo show that the rainfall is very irregular, and is
  furnished by occasional storms rather than by any regular rainy
  season; still, most falls in the winter months, especially December
  and January, while, on the other hand, none has been recorded in June
  and July. The average annual rainfall does not exceed 1.50 in. In the
  open desert rain falls even more rarely, but it is by no means
  unknown, and from time to time heavy storms burst, causing sudden
  floods in the narrow ravines, and drowning both men and animals. These
  are more common in the mountainous region of the Sinai peninsula,
  where they are much dreaded by the Arabs. Snow is unknown in the Nile
  valley, but on the mountains of Sinai and the Red Sea hills it is not
  uncommon, and a temperature of 18° F. at an altitude of 2000 ft. has
  been recorded in January.

  The atmospheric pressure varies between a maximum in January and a
  minimum in July, the mean difference being about 0.29 in. In a series
  of records extending over 14 years the mean pressure varied between
  29.84 and 29.90 in.

  The most striking meteorological factor in Egypt is the persistence of
  the north wind throughout the year, without which the climate would be
  very trying. It is this "Etesian" wind which enables sailing boats
  constantly to ascend the Nile, against its strong and rapid current.
  In December, January and February, at Cairo, the north wind slightly
  predominates, though those from the south and west often nearly equal
  it, but after this the north blows almost continuously for the rest of
  the year. In May and June the prevailing direction is north and
  north-north-east, and for July, August, September and October north
  and north-west. From the few observations that exist, it seems that
  farther south the southern winter winds decrease rapidly, becoming
  westerly, until at Assuan and Wadi Haifa the northerly winds are
  almost invariable throughout the year. The _khamsin_, hot sand-laden
  winds of the spring months, come invariably from the south. They are
  preceded by a rapid fall of the barometer for about a day, until a
  gradient from south to north is formed, then the wind commences to
  blow, at first gently, from the south-east; rapidly increasing in
  violence, it shifts through south to south-west, finally dropping
  about sunset. The same thing is repeated on the second and sometimes
  the third day, by which time the wind has worked round to the north
  again. During a khamsin the temperature is high and the air extremely
  dry, while the dust and sand carried by the wind form a thick yellow
  fog obscuring the sun. Another remarkable phenomenon is the _zobaa_, a
  lofty whirlwind of sand resembling a pillar, which moves with great
  velocity. The southern winds of the summer months which occur in the
  low latitudes north of the equator are not felt much north of Khartum.

  One of the most interesting phenomena of Egypt is the mirage, which is
  frequently seen both in the desert and in the waste tracts of
  uncultivated land near the Mediterranean; and it is often so truthful
  in its appearance that one finds it difficult to admit the illusion.

  _Flora._--Egypt possesses neither forests nor woods and, as
  practically the whole of the country which will support vegetation is
  devoted to agriculture, the flora is limited. The most important tree
  is the date-palm, which grows all over Egypt and in the oases. The
  lower branches being regularly cut, this tree grows high and assumes a
  much more elegant form than in its natural state. The dom-palm is
  first seen a little north of 26° N., and extends southwards. The vine
  grows well, and in ancient times was largely cultivated for wine;
  oranges, lemons and pomegranates also abound. Mulberry trees are
  common in Lower Egypt. The sunt tree (_Acacia nilotica_) grows
  everywhere, as well as the tamarisk and the sycamore. In the deserts
  halfa grass and several kinds of thorn bushes grow; and wherever rain
  or springs have moistened the ground, numerous wild flowers thrive.
  This is especially the case where there is also shade to protect them
  from the midday sun, as in some of the narrow ravines in the eastern
  desert and in the palm groves of the oases, where various ferns and
  flowers grow luxuriantly round the springs. Among many trees which
  have been imported, the "lebbek" (_Albizzia lebbek_), a thick-foliaged
  mimosa, thrives especially, and has been very largely employed. The
  weeping-willow, myrtle, elm, cypress and eucalyptus are also used in
  the gardens and plantations.

  The most common of the fruits are dates, of which there are nearly
  thirty varieties, which are sold half-ripe, ripe, dried, and pressed
  in their fresh moist state in mats or skins. The pressed dates of Siwa
  are among the most esteemed. The Fayum is celebrated for its grapes,
  and chiefly supplies the market of Cairo. The most common grape is
  white, of which there is a small kind far superior to the ordinary
  sort. The black grapes are large, but comparatively tasteless. The
  vines are trailed on trelliswork, and form agreeable avenues in the
  gardens of Cairo. The best-known fruits, besides dates and grapes, are
  figs, sycamore-figs and pomegranates, apricots and peaches, oranges
  and citrons, lemons and limes, bananas, which are believed to be of
  the fruits of Paradise (being always in season), different kinds of
  melons (including some of aromatic flavour, and the refreshing
  water-melon), mulberries, Indian figs or prickly pears, the fruit of
  the lotus and olives. Among the more usual cultivated flowers are the
  rose (which has ever been a favourite among the Arabs), the jasmine,
  narcissus, lily, oleander, chrysanthemum, convolvulus, geranium,
  dahlia, basil, the henna plant (_Lawsonia alba_, or Egyptian privet,
  which is said to be a flower of Paradise), the helianthus and the
  violet. Of wild flowers the most common are yellow daisies, poppies,
  irises, asphodels and ranunculuses. The _Poinsettia pulcherrima_ is a
  bushy tree with leaves of brilliant red.

  Many kinds of reeds are found in Egypt, though they were formerly much
  more common. The famous byblus or papyrus no longer exists in the
  country, but other kinds of _cyperi_ are found. The lotus, greatly
  prized for its flowers by the ancient inhabitants, is still found in
  the Delta, though never in the Nile itself. There are two varieties of
  this water-lily, one with white flowers, the other with blue.

  _Fauna._--The chief quadrupeds are all domestic animals. Of these the
  camel and the ass are the most common. The ass, often a tall and
  handsome creature, is indigenous. When the camel was first introduced
  into Egypt is uncertain--it is not pictured on the ancient monuments.
  Neither is the buffalo, which with the sheep is very numerous in
  Egypt. The horses are of indifferent breed, apparently of a type much
  inferior to that possessed by the ancient Egyptians. Wild animals are
  few. The principal are the hyena, jackal and fox. The wild boar is
  found in the Delta. Wolves are rare. Numerous gazelles inhabit the
  deserts. The ibex is found in the Sinaitic peninsula and the hills
  between the Nile and the Red Sea, and the mouflon, or maned sheep, is
  occasionally seen in the same regions. The desert hare is abundant in
  parts of the Fayum, and a wild cat, or lynx, frequents the marshy
  regions of the Delta. The ichneumon (Pharaoh's rat) is common and
  often tame; the coney and jerboa are found in the eastern mountains.
  Bats are very numerous. The crocodile is no longer found in Egypt, nor
  the hippopotamus, in ancient days a frequenter of the Nile. The common
  or pariah dog is generally of sandy colour; in Upper Egypt there is a
  breed of wiry rough-haired black dogs, noted for their fierceness.
  Among reptiles are several kinds of venomous snakes--the horned viper,
  the hooded snake and the echis. Lizards of many kinds are found,
  including the monitor. There are many varieties of beetle, including a
  number of species representing the scarabaeus of the ancients. Locusts
  are comparatively rare. The scorpion, whose sting is sometimes fatal,
  is common. There are many large and poisonous spiders and flies; fleas
  and mosquitoes abound. Fish are plentiful in the Nile, both scaled and
  without scales. The scaly fish include members of the carp and perch
  kind. The _bayad_, a scaleless fish commonly eaten, reaches sometimes
  3½ ft. in length. A somewhat rare fish is the _Polypterus_, which has
  thick bony scales and 16 to 18 long dorsal fins. The _Tetrodon_, or
  ball fish, is found in the Red Sea, as well as in the Nile.

  Some 300 species of birds are found in Egypt, and one of the most
  striking features of a journey up the Nile is the abundance of bird
  life. Many of the species are sedentary, others are winter visitants,
  while others again simply pass through Egypt on their way to or from
  warmer or colder regions. Birds of prey are very numerous, including
  several varieties of eagles--the osprey, the spotted, the golden and
  the imperial. Of vultures the black and white Egyptian variety
  (_Neophron percnopterus_) is most common. The griffon and the black
  vulture are also frequently seen. There are many kinds of kites,
  falcons and hawks, kestrel being numerous. The long-legged buzzard is
  found throughout Egypt, as are owls. The so-called Egyptian eagle owl
  (_Bubo ascalaphus_) is rather rare, but the barn owl is common. The
  kingfisher is found beside every watercourse, a black and white
  species (_Ceryle rudis_) being much more numerous than the common
  kingfisher. Pigeons and hoopoes abound in every village. There are
  various kinds of plovers--the black-headed species (_Pluvianus
  Aegyptius_) is most numerous in Upper Egypt; the golden plover and the
  white-tailed species are found chiefly in the Delta. The spurwing is
  supposed to be the bird mentioned by Herodotus as eating the parasites
  covering the inside of the mouth of the crocodile. Of game-birds the
  most plentiful are sandgrouse, quail (a bird of passage) and snipe.
  Red-legged and other partridges are found in the eastern desert and
  the Sinai hills. Of aquatic birds there is a great variety. Three
  species of pelican exist, including the large Dalmatian pelican.
  Storks, cranes, herons and spoonbills are common. The sacred ibis is
  not found in Egypt, but the buff-backed heron, the constant companion
  of the buffalo, is usually called an ibis. The glossy ibis is
  occasionally seen. The flamingo, common in the lakes of Lower Egypt,
  is not found on the Nile. Geese, duck and teal are abundant. The most
  common goose is the white-fronted variety; the Egyptian goose is more
  rare. Both varieties are depicted on the ancient monuments; the
  white-fronted goose being commonly shown. Several birds of gorgeous
  plumage come north into Egypt in the spring, among others the golden
  oriole, the sun-bird, the roller and the blue-cheeked bee-eater.

  _Egypt as a Health Resort._--The country is largely resorted to during
  the winter months by Europeans in search of health as well as
  pleasure. Upper Egypt is healthier than Lower Egypt, where, especially
  near the coast, malarial fevers and diseases of the respiratory organs
  are not uncommon. The least healthy time of the year is the latter
  part of autumn, when the inundated soil is drying. In the desert, at a
  very short distance from the cultivable land, the climate is uniformly
  dry and unvaryingly healthy. The most suitable places for the
  residence of invalids are Helwan, where there are natural mineral
  springs, in the desert, 14 m. S. of Cairo, and Luxor and Assuan in
  Upper Egypt.

  The diseases from which Egyptians suffer are very largely the result
  of insanitary surroundings. In this respect a great improvement has
  taken place since the British occupation in 1882. Plague, formerly one
  of the great scourges of the country, seems to have been stamped out,
  the last visitation having been in 1844, but cholera epidemics
  occasionally occur.[2] Cholera rarely extends south of Cairo. In 1848
  it is believed that over 200,000 persons died from cholera, but later
  epidemics have been much less fatal. Smallpox is not uncommon, and
  skin diseases are numerous, but the two most prevalent diseases among
  the Egyptians are dysentery and ophthalmia. The objection entertained
  by many natives to entering hospitals or to altering their traditional
  methods of "cure" renders these diseases much more malignant and fatal
  than they would be in other circumstances. The government, however,
  enforces certain health regulations, and the sanitary service is under
  the direction of a European official.

_Chief Towns._--Cairo (q.v.) the capital, a city of Arab foundation, is
built on the east bank of the Nile, about 12 m, above the point where
the river divides, and in reference to its situation at the head of the
Delta has been called by the Arabs "the diamond stud in the handle of
the fan of Egypt." It has a population (1907) of 654,476 and is the
largest city in Africa. Next in importance of the cities of Egypt and
the chief seaport is Alexandria (q.v.), pop. (with Ramleh) 370,009, on
the shore of the Mediterranean at the western end of the Delta. Port
Said (q.v.), pop. 49,884, at the eastern end of the Delta, and at the
north entrance to the Suez Canal, is the second seaport. Between
Alexandria and Port Said are the towns of Rosetta (q.v.), pop. 16,810,
and Damietta (q.v.), pop. 29,354, each built a few miles above the mouth
of the branch of the Nile of the same name. In the middle ages, when
Alexandria was in decay, these two towns were busy ports; with the
revival of Alexandria under Mehemet Ali and the foundation of Port Said
(c. 1860), their trade declined. The other ports of Egypt are Suez
(q.v.), pop. 18,347, at the south entrance of the canal, Kosseir (794)
on the Red Sea, the seat of the trade carried on between Upper Egypt and
Arabia, Mersa Matruh, near the Tripolitan frontier, and El-Arish, pop.
5897, on the Mediterranean, near the frontier of Palestine, and a
halting-place on the caravan route from Egypt to Syria. In the interior
of the Delta are many flourishing towns, the largest being Tanta, pop.
54,437, which occupies a central position. Damanhur (38,752) lies on the
railway between Tanta and Alexandria; Mansura (40,279) is on the
Damietta branch of the Nile, to the N.E. of Tanta; Zagazig (34,999) is
the largest town in the Delta east of the Damietta branch; Bilbeis
(13,485) lies N.N.E. of Cairo, on the edge of the desert and in the
ancient Land of Goshen. Ismailia (10,373) is situated midway on the Suez
Canal. All these towns, which depend largely on the cotton industry, are
separately noticed.

Other towns in Lower Egypt are: Mehallet el-Kubra, pop. 47,955, 16 m. by
rail N.E. of Tanta, with manufactories of silk and cottons; Salihia
(6100), E.N.E. of and terminus of a railway from Zagazig, on the edge of
the desert south of Lake Menzala, and the starting-point of the caravans
to Syria; Mataria (15,142) on Lake Menzala and headquarters of the
fishing industry; Zifta (15,850) on the Damietta branch and the site of
a barrage; Samanud (14,408), also on the Damietta branch, noted for its
pottery, and Fua (14,515), where large quantities of tarbushes are made,
on the Rosetta branch. Shibin el-Kom (21,576), 16 m. S. of Tanta, is a
cotton centre, and Menuf (22,316), 8 m. S.W. of Shibin, in the fork
between the branches of the Nile, is the chief town of a rich
agricultural district. There are many other towns in the Delta with
populations between 10,000 and 20,000.

In Upper Egypt the chief towns are nearly all in the narrow valley of
the Nile. The exceptions are the towns in the oases comparatively
unimportant, and those in the Fayum province. The capital of the Fayum,
Medinet el-Fayum, has a population (1907) of 37,320. The chief towns on
the Nile, taking them in their order in ascending the river from Cairo,
are Beni Suef, Minia, Assiut, Akhmim, Suhag, Girga, Kena, Luxor, Esna,
Edfu, Assuan and Korosko. Beni Suef (23,357) is 77 m. from Cairo by
rail. It is on the west bank of the river, is the capital of a _mudiria_
and a centre for the manufacture of woollen goods. Minia (27,221) is 77
m. by rail farther south. It is also the capital of a mudiria, has a
considerable European colony, possesses a large sugar factory and some
cotton mills. It is the starting-point of a road to the Baharia oasis.
Assiut (q.v.), pop. 39,442, is 235 m. S. of Cairo by rail, and is the
most important commercial centre in Upper Egypt. At this point a barrage
is built across the river. Suhag (17,514) is 56 m. by rail S. of Assiut
and is the headquarters of Girga mudiria. The ancient and celebrated
Coptic monasteries El Abiad (the white) and El Ahmar (the red) are 3 to
4 m. W. and N.W. respectively of Suhag. A few miles above Suhag, on the
opposite (east) side of the Nile is Akhmim (q.v.) or Ekhmim (23,795),
where silk and cotton goods are made. Girga (q.v.), pop. 19,893, is 22
m. S. by rail of Suhag, and on the same (the west) side of the river. It
is noted for its pottery. Kena (q.v.), pop. 20,069, is on the east bank
of the Nile, 145 m. by rail from Assiut. It is the chief seat of the
manufacture of the porous earthenware water-bottles used all over Egypt.
Luxor (q.v.), pop. (with Karnak) 25,229, marks the site of Thebes. It is
418 m. from Cairo, and here the gauge of the railway is altered from
broad to narrow. Esna (q.v.), pop. 19,103, is another place where
pottery is made in large quantities. It is on the west bank of the Nile,
36 m. by rail S. of Luxor. Edfu (q.v.), pop. 19,262, is also on the west
side of the river, 30 m. farther south. It is chiefly famous for its
ancient temple. Assuan (q.v.), pop. 12,618, is at the foot of the First
Cataract and 551 m. S. of Cairo by rail. Three miles farther south, at
Shellal, the Egyptian railway terminates. Korosko, 118 m. by river above
Assuan, is a small place notable as the northern terminus of the caravan
route from the Sudan across the Nubian desert. Since the building of the
railway--which starts 96 m. higher up, at Wadi Halfa--to Khartum, this
route is little used, and Korosko has lost what importance it had.

_Ancient Cities and Monuments._--Many of the modern cities of Egypt are
built on the sites of ancient cities, and they generally contain some
monuments of the time of the Pharaohs, Greeks or Romans. The sites of
other ancient cities now in complete ruin may be indicated. Memphis, the
Pharaonic capital, was on the west bank of the Nile, some 14 m. above
Cairo, and Heliopolis lay some 5 m. N.N.E. of Cairo. The pyramids of
Giza or Gizeh, on the edge of the desert, 8 m. west of Cairo, are the
largest of the many pyramids and other monuments, including the famous
Sphinx, built in the neighbourhood of Memphis. The site of Thebes has
already been indicated. Syene stood near to where the town of Assuan now
is; opposite, on an island in the Nile, are scanty ruins of the city of
Elephantine, and a little above, on another island, is the temple of
Philae. The ancient Coptos (Keft) is represented by the village of Kuft,
between Luxor and Kena. A few miles north of Kena is Dendera, with a
famous temple. The ruins of Abydos, one of the oldest places in Egypt,
are 8 m. S.W. of Balliana, a small town in Girga mudiria. The ruined
temples of Abu Simbel are on the west side of the Nile, 56 m. above
Korosko. On the Red Sea, south of Kosseir, are the ruins of Myos Hormos
and Berenice. Of the ancient cities in the Delta there are remains,
among others, of Sais, Iseum, Tanis, Bubastis, Onion, Sebennytus,
Pithom, Pelusium, and of the Greek cities Naucratis and Daphnae. There
are, besides the more ancient cities and monuments, a number of Coptic
towns, monasteries and churches in almost every part of Egypt, dating
from the early centuries of Christianity. The monasteries, or _ders_,
are generally fort-like buildings and are often built in the desert.
Tombs of Mahommedan saints are also numerous, and are often placed on
the summit of the cliffs overlooking the Nile. The traveller in Egypt
thus views, side by side with the activities of the present day, where
occident and orient meet and clash, memorials of every race and
civilization which has flourished in the valley of the Nile.

_Trade Routes and Communications._--Its geographical position gives
Egypt command of one of the most important trade routes in the world. It
is, as it were, the fort which commands the way from Europe to the East.
This has been the case from time immemorial, and the provision, in 1869,
of direct maritime communication between the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea, by the completion of the Suez Canal, ensured for the Egyptian route
the supremacy in sea-borne traffic to Asia, which the discovery of the
passage to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope had menaced for three
and a half centuries. The Suez Canal is 87 m. long, 66 actual canal and
21 lakes. It has sufficient depth to allow vessels drawing 27 ft. of
water to pass through. It is administered by a company whose
headquarters are in Paris, and no part of its revenue reaches the
Egyptian exchequer (see SUEZ CANAL). Besides the many steamship lines
which use the Suez Canal, other steamers run direct from European ports
to Alexandria. There is also a direct mail service between Suez and Port
Sudan.

  The chief means of internal communication are, in the Delta the
  railways, in Upper Egypt the railway and the river. The railways are
  of two kinds: (1) those state-owned and state-worked, (2) agricultural
  light railways owned and worked by private companies. Railway
  construction dates from 1852, when the line from Alexandria to Cairo
  was begun, by order of Abbas I. The state railways, unless otherwise
  indicated, have a gauge of 4 ft. 8½ in. The main system is extremely
  simple. Trunk lines from Alexandria (via Damanhur and Tanta) and from
  Port Said (via Ismailia) traverse the Delta and join at Cairo. From
  Cairo the railway is continued south up the valley of the Nile and
  close to the river. At first it follows the west bank, crossing the
  stream at Nag Hamadi, 354 m. from Cairo, by an iron bridge 437 yds.
  long. Thence it continues on the east bank to Luxor, where the broad
  gauge ceases. From Luxor the line continues on the standard African
  gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) to Shellal, 3 m. above Assuan and 685 m. from
  Alexandria. This main line service is supplemented by a steamer
  service on the Nile from Shellal to Wadi Halfa, on the northern
  frontier of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, whence there is direct railway
  communication with Khartum and the Red Sea (see SUDAN).

  Branch lines connect Cairo and Alexandria with Suez and with almost
  every town in the Delta. From Cairo to Suez via Ismailia is a distance
  of 160 m. Before the Suez Canal was opened passengers and goods were
  taken to Suez from Cairo by a railway 84 m. long which ran across the
  desert. This line, now disused, had itself superseded the "overland
  route" organized by Lieut. Thomas Waghorn, R.N., c. 1830, for the
  conveyance of passengers and mails to India. In Upper Egypt a line, 40
  m. long, runs west from Wasta, a station 56 m. S. of Cairo, to Abuksa
  in the Fayum mudiria. Another railway goes from Kharga Junction, a
  station on the main line 24 m. S. of Girga, to the oasis of Kharga.
  These lines are privately owned.

  In the Delta the light railways supplement the ordinary lines and
  connect the villages with the towns and seaports. There are over 700
  m. of these lines. The railway development of Egypt has not been very
  rapid. In 1880 944 m. of state lines were open; in 1900 the figure was
  1393, and in 1905, 1688. For several years before 1904 the
  administration of the railways was carried on by an international or
  mixed board for the security of foreign creditors. In the year named
  the railways came directly under the control of the Egyptian
  government, which during the next four years spent £E.3,000,000 on
  improving and developing the lines. In the five years 1902-1906 the
  capital value of the state railways increased from £E.20,383,000 to
  £E.23,200,000 and the net earnings from £E.1,059,000 to £E. 1,475,000.
  The number of passengers carried in the same period rose from 12½ to
  over 22 millions, and the weight of goods from slightly under
  3,000,000 to nearly 6,750,000 tons. In 1906 the light railways carried
  nearly a million tons of goods and over 6,800,000 passengers.

  Westward from Alexandria a railway, begun in 1904 by the khedive,
  Abbas II., runs parallel with the coast, and is intended to be
  continued to Tripoli. The line forms the eastern end of the great
  railway system which will eventually extend from Tangier to
  Alexandria.

  The Nile is navigable throughout its course in Egypt, and is largely
  used as a means of cheap transit of heavy goods. Lock and bridge tolls
  were abolished in 1899 and 1901 respectively. As a result, river
  traffic greatly increased. Above Cairo the Nile is the favourite
  tourist route, while between Shellal (Assuan) and the Sudan frontier
  it is the only means of communication. Among the craft using the river
  the dahabiya is a characteristic native sailing vessel, somewhat
  resembling a house-boat. From the Nile, caravan routes lead westward
  to the various oases and eastward to the Red Sea, the shortest (120
  m.) and most used of the eastern routes being that from Kena to
  Kosseir. Roads suitable for wheeled vehicles are found in Lower Egypt,
  but the majority of the tracks are bridle-paths, goods being conveyed
  on the backs of donkeys, mules and camels.

  _Posts and Telegraphs._--The Egyptian postal system is highly
  organized and efficient, and in striking contrast with its condition
  in 1870, when there were but nineteen post-offices in the country. All
  the branches of business transacted in European post-offices are
  carried on by the Egyptian service, Egypt being a member of the Postal
  Union. It was the first foreign country to establish a penny postage
  with Great Britain, the reduction from 2½d. being made in 1905. The
  inland letters and packages carried yearly exceed 20,000,000 and
  foreign letters (30% to England) number over 4,000,000. Over
  £17,000,000 passes yearly through the post. A feature of the service
  are the travelling post-offices, of which there are some 200.

  All the important towns are connected by telegraph, the telegraphs
  being state-owned and worked by the railway administration. Egypt is
  also connected by cables and land-lines with the outside world. One
  land-line connects at El-Arish with the line through Syria and Asia
  Minor to Constantinople. Another line connects at Wadi Halfa with the
  Sudan system, affording direct telegraphic communication via Khartum
  and Gondokoro with Uganda and Mombasa. The Eastern Telegraph Company,
  by concessions, have telegraph lines across Egypt from Alexandria via
  Cairo to Suez, and from Port Said to Suez, connecting their cables to
  Europe and the East. The principal cables are from Alexandria to
  Malta, Gibraltar and England; from Alexandria to Crete and Brindisi;
  from Suez to Aden, Bombay, China and Australia.

  The telephone is largely used in the big towns, and there is a trunk
  telephone line connecting Alexandria and Cairo.

  _Standard Time._--The standard time adopted in Egypt is that of the
  longitude of Alexandria, 30° E., i.e. two hours earlier than Greenwich
  time. It thus corresponds with the standard time of British South
  Africa.

_Agriculture and Land Tenure._--The chief industry of Egypt is
agriculture. The proportions of the industry depend upon the area of
land capable of cultivation. This again depends upon the fertilizing
sediment brought down by the Nile and the measure in which lands beyond
the natural reach of the flood water can be rendered productive by
irrigation. By means of canals, "basins," dams and barrages, the Nile
flood is now utilized to a greater extent than ever before (see
IRRIGATION: _Egypt_). The result has been a great increase in the area
of cultivated or cultivable land.

At the time of the French occupation of Egypt in 1798, it was found that
the cultivable soil covered 4,429,400 acres, but the quantity actually
under cultivation did not exceed 3,520,000 acres, or six-elevenths of
the entire surface. Under improved conditions the area of cultivated
land, or land in process of reclamation, had risen in 1906 to 5,750,000
acres, while another 500,000 acres of waste land awaited reclamation.

Throughout Egypt the cultivable soil does not present any very great
difference, being always the deposit of the river; it contains, however,
more sand near the river than at a distance from it. Towards the
Mediterranean its quality is injured by the salt with which the air is
impregnated, and therefore it is not so favourable to vegetation. Of the
cultivated land, some three-fourths is held, theoretically, in life
tenancy. The state, as ultimate proprietor, imposes a tax which is the
equivalent of rent. These lands are _Kharaji_ lands, in distinction from
the _Ushuri_ or tithe-paying lands. The _Ushuri_ lands were originally
granted in fee, and are subject to a quit-rent. All tenants are under
obligation to guard or repair the banks of the Nile in times of flood,
or in any case of sudden emergency. Only to this extent does the
_corvée_ now prevail. The land-tax is proportionate, i.e. land under
perennial irrigation pays higher taxes than land not so irrigated (see
below, _Finance_). The unit of land is the _feddan_, which equals 1.03
acre. Out of 1,153,759 proprietors of land in 1905, 1,005,705 owned less
than 5 _feddans_. The number of proprietors owning over 50 _feddans_ was
12,475. The acreage held by the first class was 1,264,084, that by the
second class, 2,356,602. Over 1,600,000 _feddans_ were held in holdings
of from 5 to 50 _feddans_. The state domains cover over 240,000
_feddans_, and about 600,000 _feddans_ are owned by foreigners. The
policy of the government is to maintain the small proprietors, and to do
nothing tending to oust the native in favour of European landowners.

The kind of crops cultivated depends largely on whether the land is
under perennial, flood or "basin" irrigation. Perennial irrigation is
possible where there are canals which can be supplied with water all the
year round from the Nile. This condition exists throughout the Delta and
Middle Egypt, but only in parts of Upper Egypt. Altogether some
4,000,000 acres are under perennial irrigation. In these regions two and
sometimes three crops can be harvested yearly. In places where perennial
irrigation is impossible, the land is divided by rectangular dikes into
"basins." Into these basins--which vary in area from 600 to 50,000
acres--water is led by shallow canals when the Nile is in flood. The
water is let in about the middle of August and the basins are begun to
be emptied about the 1st of October. The land under basin irrigation
covers about 1,750,000 acres. In the basins only one crop can be grown
in the year. This basin system is of immemorial use in Egypt, and it was
not until the time of Mehemet Ali (c. 1820) that perennial irrigation
began. High land near the banks of the Nile which cannot be reached by
canals is irrigated by raising water from the Nile by steam-pumps,
water-wheels (_sakias_) worked by buffaloes, or water-lifts (_shadufs_)
worked by hand. There are several thousand steam-pumps and over 100,000
_sakias_ or _shadufs_ in Egypt. The _fellah_ divides his land into
little square plots by ridges of earth, and from the small canal which
serves his holding he lets the water into each plot as needed. The same
system obtains on large estates (see further IRRIGATION: _Egypt_).
There are three agricultural seasons: (1) summer (_sefi_), 1st of April
to 31st of July, when crops are grown only on land under perennial
irrigation; (2) flood (_Nili_), 1st of August to 30th of November; and
(3) winter (_shetwi_), 1st of December to 31st of March. Cotton, sugar
and rice are the chief summer crops; wheat, barley, flax and vegetables
are chiefly winter crops; maize, millet and "flood" rice are _Nili_
crops; millet and vegetables are also, but in a less degree, summer
crops. The approximate areas under cultivation in the various seasons
are, in summer, 2,050,000 acres; in flood, 1,500,000 acres; in winter,
4,300,000 acres. The double-cropped area is over 2,000,000 acres.
Although on the large farms iron ploughs, and threshing and
grain-cleaning machines, have been introduced, the small cultivator
prefers the simple native plough made of wood. Corn is threshed by a
_norag_, a machine resembling a chair, which moves on small iron wheels
or thin circular plates fixed to axle-trees, and is drawn in a circle by
oxen.

  _Crops._--Egypt is third among the cotton-producing countries of the
  world. Its production per acre is the greatest of any country but,
  owing to the restricted area available, the bulk raised is not more
  than one-tenth of that of the United States and about half that of
  India. Some 1,600,000 acres of land, five-sixths being in Lower Egypt,
  are devoted to cotton growing. The climate of Lower Egypt being very
  suitable to the growth of the plant, the cotton produced there is of
  excellent quality. The seed is sown at the end of February or
  beginning of March and the crop is picked in September and October.
  The cotton crop increased from 1,700,000 _kantars_[3] in 1878 to
  4,100,000 in 1890, had reached 5,434,000 in 1900, and was 6,750,000 in
  1905. Its average value, 1897-1905, was over £14,000,000 a year. The
  cotton exported was valued in 1907 at £E.23,598,000, in 1908 at
  £E.17,091,612.

  While cotton is grown chiefly in the Delta, the sugar plantations,
  which cover about 100,000 acres, are mainly in Upper Egypt. The canes
  are planted in March and are cut in the following January or February.
  Although since 1884 the production of sugar has largely increased,
  there has not been a corresponding increase in its value, owing to the
  low price obtained in the markets of the world. Beetroot is also grown
  to a limited extent for the manufacture of sugar. The sugar exported
  varied in annual value in the period 1884-1905 from £400,000 to
  £765,000.

  A coarse and strong tobacco was formerly extensively grown, but its
  cultivation was prohibited in 1890. Flax and hemp are grown in a few
  places.

  Maize in Lower Egypt and millet (of which there are several varieties)
  in Upper Egypt are largely grown for home consumption, these grains
  forming a staple food of the peasantry. The stalk of the maize is also
  a very useful article. It is used in the building of the houses of the
  fellahin, as fuel, and, when green, as food for cattle. Wheat and
  barley are important crops, and some 2,000,000 acres are sown with
  them yearly. The barley in general is not of good quality, but the
  desert or "Mariut" barley, grown by the Bedouins in the coast region
  west of Alexandria, is highly prized for the making of beer. Beans and
  lentils are extensively sown, and form an important article of export.
  The annual value of the crops is over £3,000,000. Rice is largely
  grown in the northern part of the Delta, where the soil is very wet.
  Two kinds are cultivated: _Sultani_, a summer crop, and _Sabaini_, a
  flood crop. _Sabaini_ is a favourite food of the fellahin, while
  _Sultani_ rice is largely exported. In the absence of grass, the chief
  green food for cattle and horses is clover, grown largely in the basin
  lands of Upper Egypt. To a less extent vetches are grown for the same
  purpose.

  _Vegetables and Fruit._--Vegetables grow readily, and their
  cultivation is an important part of the work of the fellahin. The
  onion is grown in great quantities along the Nile banks in Upper
  Egypt, largely for export. Among other vegetables commonly raised are
  tomatoes (the bulk of which are exported), potatoes (of poor quality),
  leeks, marrows, cucumbers, cauliflowers, lettuce, asparagus and
  spinach.

  The common fruits are the date, orange, citron, fig, grape, apricot,
  peach and banana. Olives, melons, mulberries and strawberries are also
  grown, though not in very large numbers. The olive tree flourishes
  only in the Fayum and the oases. The Fayum also possesses extensive
  vineyards. The date is a valuable economic asset. There are some
  6,000,000 date-palms in the country, 4,000,000 being in Upper Egypt.
  The fruit is one of the chief foods of the people. The value of the
  crop is about £1,500,000 a year.

  _Roses and Dyes._--There are fields of roses in the Fayum, which
  supply the market with rose-water. Of plants used for dyeing, the
  principal are bastard saffron, madder, woad and the indigo plant. The
  leaves of the henna plant are used to impart a bright red colour to
  the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and the nails of both
  hands and feet, of women and children, the hair of old ladies and the
  tails of horses. Indigo is very extensively employed to dye the
  shirts of the natives of the poorer classes; and is, when very dark,
  the colour of mourning; therefore, women at funerals, and generally
  after a death, smear themselves with it.

  _Domestic Animals._--The Egyptians are not particularly a pastoral
  people, though the wealth of the Bedouin in the Eastern or Arabian
  Desert consists in their camels, horses, sheep and goats. In the Nile
  valley the chief domestic animals are the camel, donkey, mule, ox,
  buffalo, sheep and goat. Horses are comparatively few, and are seldom
  seen outside the large towns, the camel and donkey being the principal
  beasts of burden. The cattle are short-horned, rather small and well
  formed. They are quiet in disposition, and much valued for
  agricultural labour by the people, who therefore very rarely slaughter
  them for meat. Buffaloes of an uncouth appearance and of a dark slaty
  colour, strikingly contrasting with the neat cattle, abound in Egypt.
  They are very docile, and the little children of the villagers often
  ride them to or from the river. The buffaloes are largely employed for
  turning the _sakias_. Sheep (of which the greater number are black)
  and goats are abundant, and mutton is the ordinary butcher's meat. The
  wool is coarse and short. Swine are very rarely kept, and then almost
  wholly for the European inhabitants, the Copts generally abstaining
  from eating their meat. Poultry is plentiful and eggs form a
  considerable item in the exports. Pigeons are kept in every village
  and their flesh is a common article of food.

  _Fishing._--The chief fishing-ground is Lake Menzala, where some 4000
  persons are engaged in the industry, but fish abound in the Nile also,
  and are caught in large quantities along the coast of the Delta. The
  salting and curing of the fish is done chiefly at Mataria, on Lake
  Menzala, and at Damietta. Dried and salted fish eggs, called
  _batarekh_, command a ready market. The average annual value of the
  fisheries is about £200,000.

  _Canals._--The irrigation canals, which are also navigable by small
  craft, are of especial importance in a country where the rainfall is
  very slight. The Delta is intersected by numerous canals which derive
  their supply from four main channels. The Rayya Behera, known in its
  lower courses first as the Khatatba and afterwards as the Rosetta
  canal, follows the west bank of the Rosetta branch of the Nile and has
  numerous offshoots. The most important is the Mahmudia (50 m. long),
  which connects Alexandria with the Rosetta branch, taking a similar
  direction to that of the ancient canal which it succeeded. This canal
  supplies Alexandria with fresh water.

  The Rayya Menufia, or Menuf canal, connects the two branches of the
  Nile and supplies water to the large number of canals in the central
  part of the Delta. Following the right (eastern) bank of the Damietta
  branch is the Rayya Tewfiki, known below Benha as the Mansuria, and
  below Mansura as the Fareskur, canal. This canal has many branches.
  Farther east are other canals, of which the most remarkable occupy in
  part the beds of the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches. That following the
  old Tanitic channel is called the canal of Al-Mo'izz, the first
  Fatimite caliph who ruled in Egypt, having been dug by his orders, and
  the latter bears the name of the canal of Abu-l-Muneggi, a Jew who
  executed this work, under the caliph Al-Amir, in order to water the
  province called the Sharkia. From this circumstance this canal is also
  known as the Sharkawia. From a town on its bank it is called in its
  lower course the Shibini canal. The superfluous water from all the
  Delta canals is drained off by _bahrs_ (rivers) into the coast lakes.
  The Ismailia or Fresh-water canal branches from the Nile at Cairo and
  follows, in the main, the course of the canal which anciently joined
  the Nile and the Red Sea. It dates from Pharaonic times, having been
  begun by "Sesostris," continued by Necho II. and by Darius Hystaspes,
  and at length finished by Ptolemy Philadelphus. This canal, having
  fallen into disrepair, was restored in the 7th century A.D. by the
  Arabs who conquered Egypt, but appears not long afterwards to have
  again become unserviceable. The existing canal was dug in 1863 to
  supply fresh water to the towns on the Suez Canal. Although designed
  for irrigation purposes, the Delta canals are also used for the
  transport of passengers and goods.

  In Upper Egypt the most important canals are the Ibrahimia and the
  Bahr Yusuf (the River of Joseph). They are both on the west side of
  the Nile. The Ibrahimia takes its water from the Nile at Assiut, and
  runs south to below Beni Suef. It now supplies the Bahr Yusuf, which
  runs parallel with and west of the Ibrahimia, until it diverges to
  supply the Fayum--a distance of some 350 m. It leaves the Ibrahimia at
  Derut near its original point of departure from the Nile. Although the
  Joseph whence it takes its name is the celebrated Saladin, it is
  related that he merely repaired it, and it is not doubted to be of a
  much earlier period. Most probably it was executed under the Pharaohs.
  By some authorities it is believed to be a natural channel canalized.
  Besides supplying the canals of the Fayum with summer water, it fills
  many of the "basins" of Upper Egypt with water in flood time.

_Manufactures and Native Industries._--Although essentially an
agricultural country, Egypt possesses several manufactures. In connexion
with the cotton industry there are a few mills where calico is made or
oil crushed, and ginning-mills are numerous. In Upper Egypt there are a
number of factories for sugar-crushing and refining, and one or two
towns of the Delta possess rice mills. Flour mills are found in every
part of the country, the maize and other grains being ground for home
consumption. Soap-making and leather-tanning are carried on, and there
are breweries at Alexandria and Cairo. The manufacture of tobacco into
cigarettes, carried on largely at Alexandria and Cairo, is another
important industry. Native industries include the weaving of silk,
woollen, linen and cotton goods, the hand-woven silk shawls and
draperies being often rich and elegant. The silk looms are chiefly at
Mehallet el-Kubra, Cairo and Damietta. The Egyptians are noted for the
making of pottery of the commoner kinds, especially water-jars. There is
at Cairo and in other towns a considerable industry in ornamental wood
and metal work, inlaying with ivory and pearl, brass trays, copper
vessels, gold and silver ornaments, &c. At Cairo and in the Fayum, attar
of roses and other perfumes are manufactured. Boat-building is an
important trade.

  _Commerce._--The trade of Egypt has developed enormously since the
  British occupation in 1882 ensured to all classes of the community the
  enjoyment of the profit of their labour. The total value of the
  exterior trade increased in the 20 years 1882 to 1902 from £19,000,000
  to £32,400,000. The wealth of Egypt lying in the cultivation of its
  soil, almost all the exports are agricultural produce, while the
  imports are mostly manufactured goods, minerals and hardware. The
  chief exports in order of importance are: raw cotton, cotton seed,
  sugar, beans, cigarettes, onions, rice and gum-arabic. The gum is not
  of native produce, being in transit from the Sudan. Of less importance
  are the exports of hides and skins, eggs, wheat and other grains,
  wool, quails, lentils, dates and Sudan produce in transit. The
  principal articles imported are: cotton goods and other textiles,
  coal, iron and steel, timber, tobacco, machinery, flour, alcoholic
  liquors, petroleum, fruits, coffee and live animals. There is an _ad
  valorem_ duty of 8% on imports and of about 1% on exports. Tobacco and
  precious stones and metals pay heavier duties. The tobacco is imported
  chiefly from Turkey and Greece, is made into cigarettes in Egypt, and
  in this form exported to the value of about £500,000 yearly.

  In comparison with cotton, all other exports are of minor account. The
  cotton exported, of which Great Britain takes more than half, is worth
  over three-fourths of the total value of goods sent abroad. Next to
  cotton, sugar is the most important article exported. A large
  proportion of the sugar manufactured is, however, consumed in the
  country and does not figure in the trade returns. Of the imports the
  largest single item is cotton goods, nearly all being sent from
  England. Woollen goods come chiefly from England, Austria and Germany,
  silk goods from France. Large quantities of ready-made clothes and
  fezes are imported from Austria. Iron and steel goods, machinery,
  locomotives, &c., come chiefly from England, Belgium and Germany, coal
  from England, live stock from Turkey and the Red Sea ports, coffee
  from Brazil, timber from Russia, Turkey and Sweden.

  A British consular report (No. 3121, annual series), issued in 1904,
  shows that in the period 1887-1902 the import trade of Egypt nearly
  doubled. In the same period the proportion of imports from the United
  Kingdom fell from 39.63 to 36.76%. Though the percentage decreased,
  the value of imports from Great Britain increased in the same period
  from £2,500,000 to £4,500,000. In addition to imports from the United
  Kingdom, British possessions took 6.0% of the import trade. Next to
  Great Britain, Turkey had the largest share of the import trade, but
  it had declined in the sixteen years from 19 to 15%. France about 10%,
  and Austria 6.72%, came next, but their import trade was declining,
  while that of Germany had risen from less than 1 to over 3%, and
  Belgium imports from 1.74 to 4.27%.

  In the same period (1887-1902) Egyptian exports to Great Britain
  decreased from 63.25 to 52.30%, Germany and the United States showing
  each an increase of over 6.0%. Exports to Germany had increased from
  0.13 to 6.75%, to the United States from 0.26 to 6.70%. Exports to
  France had remained practically stationary at 8.0%; those to Austria
  had dropped from 6.3% to 4.0%, to Russia from 9.11 to 8.43%.

  For the quinquennial period 1901-1905, the average annual value of the
  exterior trade was:--imports £17,787,296; exports £18,811,588; total
  £36,598,884. In 1907 the total value of the merchandise imported and
  exported, exclusive of transit, re-exportation and specie, was
  £E.54,134,000--constituting a record trade return. The value of the
  imports was £E.26,121,000, of the exports £E.28,013,000.

  _Shipping._--More than 90% of the external trade passes through the
  port of Alexandria. Port Said, which in consequence of its position at
  the northern entrance of the Suez Canal has more frequent and regular
  communication with Europe, is increasing in importance and is the port
  where mails and passengers are landed. Over 3000 ships enter and clear
  harbour at Alexandria every year. The total tonnage entering the port
  increased in the five years 1901-1905 from 2,555,259 to 3,591,281. In
  the same period the percentage of British shipping, which before 1900
  was nearly 50, varied from 40 to 45. No other nation had more than 12%
  of the tonnage, Italy, France, Austria and Turkey each having 9 to
  12%. The tonnage of German ships increased in the five years mentioned
  from 3 to 7%. In number of steamships entering the harbour Great
  Britain is first, with some 800 yearly, or about 50% of all steamers
  entering. The sailing boats entering the harbour are almost entirely
  Turkish. They are vessels of small tonnage.

  The transit trade with the East, which formerly passed overland
  through Egypt, has been diverted to the Suez Canal, the traffic
  through which has little to do with the trade or shipping of Egypt.
  The number of ships using the canal increased in the 20 years
  1880-1900 from 2000 to 4000, while in the same period the tonnage rose
  from 4,300,000 to 14,000,000. In 1905 the figures were:--Number of
  ships that passed through the canal, 4116 (2484 being British and 600
  German), net tonnage 13,134,105 (8,356,940 British and 2,113,484
  German). Next to British and German the nationality of ships using the
  canal in order of importance is French, Dutch, Austrian, Italian and
  Russian. About 250,000 passengers (including some 40,000 pilgrims to
  Mecca) pass through the canal in a year (see further SUEZ).

  _Currency._--The monetary system in force dates from 1885, when
  through the efforts of Sir Edgar Vincent the currency was placed on a
  sound basis. The system is based on the single gold standard. The unit
  is a gold coin called a pound and equal to £1, 0s. 6d. in English
  currency. The Egyptian pound (£E.) is divided into 100 piastres, of
  which there are coins in silver of 20, 10, 5 and 2 piastres. One, ½,
  1/5 and 1/10 piastre pieces are coined in nickel and 1/20 and 1/40
  piastre pieces in bronze. The one piastre piece is worth a fraction
  over 2½d. The 1/40 of a piastre is popularly called a para and the
  native population generally reckon in paras. The legal piastre is
  called the piastre tariff (P.T.), to distinguish it from the ½
  piastre, which in local usage in Cairo and Alexandria is called a
  piastre. Officially the ½ piastre is known as 5 milliemes, and so with
  the coins of lower denomination, the para being ¼ millieme. The old
  terms _kis_ or "purse" (500 piastres) and _khazna_ or "treasury" (1000
  purses) are still occasionally used. Formerly European coins of all
  kinds were in general circulation, now the only foreign coins current
  are the English sovereign, the French 20 franc piece and the Turkish
  mejidie, a gold coin worth 18 shillings. For several years no Egyptian
  gold pieces have been coined. Egyptian silver money is minted at
  Birmingham, and nickel and bronze money at Vienna. Bank-notes, of the
  National Bank, are issued for £E.100, £E.50, £E.10, £E.5 and £E.1, and
  for 50 piastres. The notes are not legal tender, but are accepted by
  the government in payment of taxes.

  The history of the currency reform in Egypt is interesting as
  affording a practical example of a system much discussed in connexion
  with the currency question in India, namely, a gold standard without a
  gold coinage. The Egyptian pound is practically nonexistent, nearly
  all that were coined having been withdrawn from circulation. Their
  place has been taken by foreign gold, principally the English
  sovereign, which circulates at a value of 97½ piastres. In practice
  the system works perfectly smoothly, the gold flowing in and out of
  the country through the agency of private banking establishments in
  proportion to the requirements of the circulation. It is, moreover,
  very economical for the government. As in most agricultural countries,
  there is a great expansion of the circulation in the autumn and winter
  months in order to move the crops, followed by a long period of
  contracted circulation throughout the rest of the year. Under the
  existing system the fluctuating requirements of the currency are met
  without the expense of alternately minting and melting down.

  _Weights and Measures._--The metrical system of weights and measures
  is in official but not in popular use, except in the foreign quarters
  of Cairo, Alexandria, &c. The most common Egyptian measures are the
  _fitr_, or space measured by the extension of the thumb and first
  finger; the _shibr_, or span; and the cubit (of three kinds = 22-2/3,
  25 and 26½ in.). The measure of land is the _feddan_, equal to 1.03
  acres, subdivided into 24 _kirats_. The _ardeb_ is equal to about 5
  bushels, and is divided into 6 _waybas_, and each _wayba_ into 24
  _rubas_. The _okieh_ equals 1.32 oz., the _rotl_ .99 lb., the _oke_
  2.75 lb., the _kantar_ (or 100 _rotls_ or 36 _okes_) 99.04 lb.

_Constitution and Administration._--Egypt is a tributary state of the
Turkish empire, and is ruled by an hereditary prince with the style of
khedive, a Persian title regarded as the equivalent of king. The
succession to the throne is by primogeniture. The central administration
is carried on by a council of ministers, appointed by the khedive, one
of whom acts as prime minister. To these is added a British financial
adviser, who attends all meetings of the council of ministers, but has
not a vote; on the other hand, no financial decision may be taken
without his consent. The ministries are those of the interior, finance,
public works, justice, war, foreign affairs and public instruction,[4]
and in each of these are prepared the drafts of decrees, which are then
submitted to the council of ministers for approval, and on being signed
by the khedive become law. No important decision, however, has been
taken since 1882 without the concurrence of the British minister
plenipotentiary. With a few exceptions, laws cannot, owing to the
Capitulations, be enforced against foreigners except with the consent of
the powers.

While the council of ministers with the khedive forms the legislative
authority, there are various representative bodies with strictly limited
powers. The legislative council is a consultative body, partly elective,
partly nominative. It examines the budget and all proposed
administrative laws, but cannot initiate legislation, nor is the
government bound to adopt its suggestions. The general assembly consists
of the legislative council and the ministers of state, together with
popularly elected members, who form a majority of the whole assembly. It
has no legislative functions, but no new direct personal tax nor land
tax can be imposed without its consent. It must meet at least once in
every two years.

For purposes of local government the chief towns constitute
governorships (_moafzas_), the rest of the country being divided into
_mudirias_ or provinces. The governors and _mudirs_ (heads of provinces)
are responsible to the ministry of the interior. The provinces are
further divided into districts, each of which is under a _mamur_, who in
his turn supervises and controls the _omda_, mayor or head-man, of each
village in his district.

The governorships are: Cairo; Alexandria, which includes an area of 70
sq. m.; Suez Canal, including Port Said and Ismailia; Suez and El-Arish.
Lower Egypt is divided into the provinces of: Behera, Gharbia, Menufia,
Dakahlia, Kaliubia, Sharkia. The oasis of Siwa and the country to the
Tripolitan frontier are dependent on the province of Behera. Upper
Egypt: Giza, Beni Suef, Fayum, Minia, Assiut, Girga, Kena, Assuan. The
peninsula of Sinai is administered by the war office.

_Justice._--There are four judicial systems in Egypt: two applicable to
Egyptian subjects only, one applicable to foreigners only, and one
applicable to foreigners and, to a certain extent, natives also. This
multiplicity of tribunals arises from the fact that, owing to the
Capitulations, which apply to Egypt as part of the Turkish empire,
foreigners are almost entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the
native courts. It will be convenient to state first the law as regards
foreigners, and secondly the law which concerns Egyptians. Criminal
jurisdiction over foreigners is exercised by the consuls of the fifteen
powers possessing such right by treaty, according to the law of the
country of the offender. These consular courts also judge civil cases
between foreigners of the same nationality.

Jurisdiction in civil matters between natives and foreigners and between
foreigners of different nationalities is no longer exercised by the
consular courts. The grave abuse to which the consular system was
subject led to the establishment, in February 1876, at the instance of
Nubar Pasha and after eight years of negotiation, of International or
"Mixed" Tribunals to supersede consular jurisdiction to the extent
indicated. The Mixed Tribunals employ a code based on the _Code
Napoléon_ with such additions from Mahommedan law as are applicable.
There are three tribunals of first instance, and an appeal court at
Alexandria. These courts have both foreign and Egyptian judges--the
foreign judges forming the majority of the bench. In certain designated
matters they enjoy criminal jurisdiction, including, since 1900,
offences against the bankruptcy laws. Cases have to be conducted in
Arabic, French, Italian and English, English having been admitted as a
"judicial language" by khedivial decree of the 17th of April 1905.
Besides their judicial duties, the courts practically exercise
legislative functions, as no important law can be made applicable to
Europeans without the consent of the powers, and the powers are mainly
guided by the opinions of the judges of the Mixed Courts.

The judicial systems applicable solely to Egyptians are supervised by
the ministry of justice, to which has been attached since 1890 a British
judicial adviser. Two systems of laws are administered:--(1) the
_Mehkemehs_, (2) the Native Tribunals. The _mehkemehs_, or courts of the
cadis, judge in all matters of personal status, such as marriage,
inheritance and guardianship, and are guided in their decisions by the
code of laws founded on the Koran. The grand cadi, who must belong to
the sect of the _Hanifis_, sits at Cairo, and is aided by a council of
_Ulema_ or learned men. This council consists of the sheikh or religious
chief of each of the four orthodox sects, the sheikh of the mosque of
Azhar, who is of the sect of the _Shafi'is_, the chief (_nakib_) of the
_Sherifs_, or descendants of Mahomet, and others. The cadis are chosen
from among the students at the Azhar university. (In the same manner, in
matters of personal law, Copts and other non-Moslem Egyptians are, in
general, subject to the jurisdiction of their own religious chiefs.)

For other than the purposes indicated, the native judicial system, both
civil and criminal, was superseded in 1884 by tribunals administering a
jurisprudence modelled on that of the French code. It is, in the words
of Lord Cromer, "in many respects ill adapted to meet the special needs
of the country" (_Egypt_, No. 1, 1904, p. 33). The system was, on the
advice of an Anglo-Indian official (Sir John Scott), modified and
simplified in 1891, but its essential character remained unaltered. In
1904, however, more important modifications were introduced. Save on
points of law, the right of appeal in criminal cases was abolished, and
assize courts, whose judgments were final, established. At the same time
the penal code was thoroughly revised, so that the Egyptian judges were
"for the first time provided with a sound working code" (Ibid. p. 49).
The native courts have both native and foreign judges. There are courts
of summary jurisdiction presided over by one judge, central tribunals
(or courts of first instance) with three judges, and a court of appeal
at Cairo. A committee of judicial surveillance watches the working of
the courts of first instance and the summary courts, and endeavours, by
letters and discussions, to maintain purity and sound law. There is a
_procureur-général_, who, with other duties, is entrusted with criminal
prosecutions. His representatives are attached to each tribunal, and
form the _parquet_ under whose orders the police act in bringing
criminals to justice. In the _markak_ (district) tribunals, created in
1904 and presided over by magistrates with jurisdiction in cases of
misdemeanour, the prosecution is, however, conducted directly by the
police. Special Children's Courts have been established for the trial of
juvenile offenders.

The police service, which has been subject to frequent modification, was
in 1895 put under the orders of the ministry of the interior, to which a
British adviser and British inspectors are attached. The provincial
police is under the direction of the local authorities, the _mudirs_ or
governors of provinces, and the _mamurs_ or district officials; to the
_omdas_, or village head-men, who are responsible for the good order of
the villages, a limited criminal jurisdiction has been entrusted.

_Religion._--The great majority of the inhabitants are Mahommedans. In
1907 the Moslems numbered over ten millions, or 91.8% of the entire
population. The Christians in the same year numbered 880,000, or 8% of
the population. Of these the Coptic Orthodox church had some 667,000
adherents. Among other churches represented were the Greek Orthodox, the
Armenian, Syrian and Maronite, the Roman Catholic and various Protestant
bodies. The last-named numbered 37,000 (including 24,000 Copts). There
were in 1907 over 38,000 Jews in Egypt.

The Mahommedans are Sunnites, professing the creed commonly termed
"orthodox," and are principally of the persuasion of the _Shafi'is_,
whose celebrated founder, the imam ash-Shafi'i, is buried in the great
southern cemetery of Cairo. Many of them are, however, _Hanifis_ (to
which persuasion the Turks chiefly belong), and in parts of Lower, and
almost universally in Upper, Egypt, _Malikis_. Among the Moslems the
_Sheikh-el-Islam_, appointed by the khedive from among the _Ulema_
(learned class), exercises the highest religious and, in certain
subjects, judicial authority. There is also a grand cadi, nominated by
the sultan of Turkey from among the _Ulema_ of Stamboul. Valuable
property is held by the Moslems in trust for the promotion of religion
and for charitable purposes, and is known as the Wakfs administration.
The revenue derived is over £250,000 yearly.

The Coptic organization includes in Egypt three metropolitans and
twelve bishops, under the headship of the patriarch of Alexandria. The
minor orders are arch-priests, priests, archdeacons, deacons, readers
and monks (see COPTS: _Coptic Church_).

_Education._--Two different systems of education exist, one founded on
native lines, the other European in character. Both systems are more or
less fully controlled by the ministry of public instruction. The
government has primary, secondary and technical schools, training
colleges for teachers, and schools of agriculture, engineering, law,
medicine and veterinary science. The government system, which dates back
to a period before the British occupation, is designed to provide, in
the main, a European education. In the primary schools Arabic is the
medium of instruction, the use of English for that purpose being
confined to lessons in that language itself. The school of law is
divided into English and French sections according to the language in
which the students study law. Besides the government primary and
secondary schools, there are many other schools in the large towns owned
by the Moslems, Copts, Hebrews, and by various missionary societies, and
in which the education is on the same lines. A movement initiated among
the leading Moslems led in 1908 to the establishment as a private
enterprise of a national Egyptian university devoted to scientific,
literary and philosophical studies. Political and religious subjects are
excluded from the curriculum and no discrimination in regard to race or
religion is allowed.

  Education on native lines is given in _kuttabs_ and in the Azhar
  university in Cairo. _Kuttabs_ are schools attached to mosques, found
  in every village and in every quarter of the larger towns. In these
  schools the instruction given before the British occupation was very
  slight. All pupils were taught to recite portions of the Koran, and a
  proportion of the scholars learnt to read and write Arabic and a
  little simple arithmetic. Those pupils who succeeded in committing to
  memory the whole of the Koran were regarded as _fiki_ (learned in
  Mahommedan law), and as such escaped liability to military
  conscription. The government has improved the education given in the
  _kuttabs_, and numbers of them have been taken under the direct
  control of the ministry of public instruction. In these latter schools
  an excellent elementary secular education is given, in addition to the
  instruction in the Koran, to which half the school hours are devoted.
  The number of pupils in 1905 was over 12,000 boys and 2000 girls.
  Grants-in-aid are given to other schools where a sufficiently good
  standard of instruction is maintained. No grant is made to any
  _kuttab_ where any language other than Arabic is taught. In all there
  are over 10,000 kuttabs, attended by some 250,000 scholars. The number
  of pupils in private schools under government inspection was in 1898,
  the first year of the grant-in-aid system, 7536; in 1900, 12,315; in
  1905, 145,691. The number of girls in attendance rose from 598 in 1898
  to 997 in 1900 and 9611 in 1905. The Copts have about 1000 primary
  schools, in which the teaching of Coptic is compulsory, a few
  industrial schools, and one college for higher instruction.

  Cairo holds a prominent place as a seat of Moslem learning, and its
  university, the Azhar, is considered the first of the eastern world.
  Its professors teach "grammatical inflexion and syntax, rhetoric,
  versification, logic, theology, the exposition of the Koran, the
  traditions of the Prophet, the complete science of jurisprudence, or
  rather of religious, moral, civil and criminal law, which is chiefly
  founded on the Koran and the traditions, together with arithmetic as
  far as it is useful in matters of law. Lectures are also given on
  algebra and on the calculations of the Mahommedan calendar, the times
  of prayer, &c." (E. W. Lane, _Modern Egyptians_). The students come
  from all parts of the Mahommedan world. They number about 8000, of
  whom some 2000 are resident. The students pay no fees, and the
  professors receive no salaries. The latter maintain themselves by
  private teaching and by copying manuscripts, and the former in the
  same manner, or by reciting the Koran. To meet the demand for better
  qualified judges for the Moslem courts a training college for cadis
  was established in 1907. Besides the subjects taught at the Azhar
  university, instruction is given in literature, mathematics and
  physical science. The necessity for a reorganization of the Azhar
  system itself being also recognized by the high Moslem dignitaries in
  Egypt, a law was passed in 1907 creating a superior board of control
  under the presidency of the Sheikh el-Azhar to supervise the
  proceedings of the university and other similar establishments. This
  attempt to reform the Azhar met, however, with so much opposition that
  in 1909 it was, for the time, abandoned.

  In 1907, of the sedentary Egyptian population over seven years of age,
  some 12% of the Moslems could read and write, female literacy having
  increased 50% since 1897; of the foreign population over seven years
  of age 75% could read and write. Of the Coptic community about 50% can
  read and write.

  _Literature and the Press._--Since the British occupation there has
  been a marked renaissance of Arabic learning and literature in Egypt.
  Societies formed for the encouragement of Arabic literature have
  brought to light important texts bearing on Mahommedan history,
  antiquities and religion. Numbers of magazines and reviews are
  published in Arabic which cater both for the needs of the moment and
  the advancement of learning. Side by side with these literary organs
  there exists a vernacular press largely devoted to nationalist
  propaganda. Prominent among these papers is _Al Lewa_ (_The
  Standard_), founded in 1900. Other papers of a similar character are
  _Al Omma_, _Al Moayad_ and _Al Gerida_. The _Mokattam_ represents the
  views of the more enlightened and conservative section of the native
  population. In Cairo and Alexandria there are also published several
  newspapers in English and French.

  AUTHORITIES.--(a) General descriptions, geography, travel, &c.:
  _Description de l'Égypte_, 10 folio vols. and atlas of 10 vols.
  (Paris, 1809-1822), compiled by the scientific commission sent to
  Egypt by Bonaparte; Clot Bey, _Aperçu général sur l'Égypte_, 2 vols.
  (Paris, 1840); Boinet Bey, _Dictionnaire géographique de l'Égypte_
  (Cairo, 1899); Murray's and Baedeker's handbooks and _Guide Joanne_;
  G. Ebers, _Egypt, Descriptive, Historical and Picturesque_, translated
  from the German edition of 1879 by Clara Bell, new edition, 2 vols.
  (London, 1887); Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, _Modern Egypt and Thebes_ (2
  vols., London, 1843); Lady Duff Gordon, _Letters from Egypt_, complete
  edition (London, 1902), an invaluable account of social conditions in
  the period 1862-1869; A. B. Edwards, _A Thousand Miles up the Nile_
  (2nd edition, London, n.d. [1889]); _Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers_
  (London, 1892); H. W. Mardon, _Geography of Egypt ..._ (London, 1902),
  an excellent elementary text-book; D. G. Hogarth, _The Nearer East_
  (London, 1902), contains brief but suggestive chapters on Egypt; S.
  Lane Poole, _Egypt_ (London, 1881); A. B. de Guerville, _New Egypt_,
  translated from the French (London, 1905); R. T. Kelly, _Egypt Painted
  and Described_ (London, 1902). The best maps are those of the Survey
  Department, Cairo, on the scale of 1:50000 (1.3 in. to the mile).

  (b) Administration: Sir John Bowring's _Report on Egypt ..._ to Lord
  Palmerston (London, 1840) shows the system obtaining at that period.
  For the study of the state of Egypt at the time of the British
  occupation, 1882, and the development of the country since, the most
  valuable documents[5] are:

  I. _Official._--The _Reports on the Finances, Administration and
  Condition of Egypt_, issued yearly since 1892 (the reports 1888-1891
  were exclusively financial). Up to 1906 the reports were by Lord
  Cromer (Sir Evelyn Baring). They clearly picture the progress of the
  country. The following reports are specially valuable as exhibiting
  the difficulties which at the outset confronted the British
  administrators:--_Correspondence respecting the Reorganization of
  Egypt_ (1883); _Reports by Mr Villiers Stuart respecting
  Reorganization of Egypt_ (1883 and 1895); _Despatch from Lord Dufferin
  forwarding the Decree constituting the New Political Institutions of
  Egypt_ (1883); _Reports on the State of Egypt and the Progress of
  Administrative Reforms_ (1885); _Reports by Sir H. D. Wolff on the
  Administration of Egypt_ (1887). Annual returns are published in Cairo
  in English or French by the various ministries, and British consular
  reports on the trade of Egypt and of Alexandria and of the tonnage and
  shipping of the Suez Canal are also issued yearly.

  II. _Non-official._--Lord Cromer, _Modern Egypt_ (2 vols., 1908), an
  authoritative record; Alfred (Lord) Milner, _England in Egypt_, first
  published in 1892, the story being brought up to 1904 in the 11th
  edition; Sir A. Colvin, _The Making of Modern Egypt_ (1906); J. Ward,
  _Pyramids and Progress_ (1900); A. S. White, _The Expansion of Egypt_
  (1899); and F. W. Fuller, _Egypt and the Hinterland_ (1901). See also
  the works cited in _History_, last section.

  (c) Law: H. Lamba, _De l'évolution de la condition juridique des
  Européens en Égypte_ (Paris, 1896); J. H. Scott, _The Law affecting
  Foreigners in Egypt ..._ (Edinburgh, 1907); _The Egyptian Codes_
  (London, 1892).

  (d) Irrigation, agriculture, geology, &c.: _Despatch from Sir Evelyn
  Baring enclosing Report on the Condition of the Agricultural
  Population in Egypt_ (1888); _Notes on Egyptian Crops_ (Cairo, 1896);
  Yacub Artin Bey, _La Propriété foncière en Égypte_ (Bulak, 1885);
  _Report on Perennial Irrigation and Flood Protection for Egypt_, 1
  vol. and atlas (Cairo, 1894). The reports (_Egypt_, No. 2, 1901, and
  _Egypt_, No. 2, 1904), by Sir William Garstin on irrigation projects
  on the Upper Nile are very valuable records--notably the 1904 report.
  W. Willcocks, _Egyptian Irrigation_ (2nd ed., 1899); H. G. Lyons, _The
  Physiography of the River Nile and its Basin_ (Cairo, 1906); Leigh
  Canney, _The Meteorology of Egypt and its Influence on Disease_
  (1897). Annual meteorological reports are issued by the Public Works
  Department, Cairo. The same department issues special irrigation
  reports. See for geology Carl von Zittel, _Beiträge zur Geologie und
  Paläontologie der libyschen Wüste_ (Cassel, 1883); _Reports of the
  Geological Survey of Egypt_ (Cairo, 1900, et seq.).

  (e) Natural history, anthropology, &c.: F. Pruner, _Ägyptens
  Naturgeschichte und Anthropologie_ (Erlangen, 1848); R. Hartmann,
  _Naturgeschichtliche Skizze der Nilländer_ (Berlin, 1866); Captain G.
  E. Shelley, _Birds of Egypt_ (London, 1872).     (F. R. C.)


_Inhabitants._

The population enumerated at the census taken in April 1907 was
11,189,978. In these figures nomad Arabs or Bedouins, estimated to
number 97,381, are not included. The total population was thus returned
at 11,287,359, or some 16% more than in 1897 when the inhabitants
numbered 9,734,405. The figures for 1897 compared with 6,813,919 in
1882, an increase of 43.5% in fifteen years. Thus, during the first
twenty-five years of the British occupation of the country the
population increased by nearly 4,500,000. In 1800 the French estimated
the population at no more than 2,460,000; the census of 1846 gave the
figures at 4,476,440. From that year to 1882 the average annual increase
was 1.25%. If the desert regions be excluded, the population of Egypt is
extremely dense, being about 939 per sq. m. This figure may be compared
with that of Belgium, the most densely populated country in Europe, 589
per sq. m., and with that of Bengal, 586 per sq. m. In parts of Menufia,
a Delta province, the density rises to 1352 per sq. m., and in the Kena
province of Upper Egypt to 1308.

The population is generally divisible into--

  1. The fellahin or peasantry and the native townsmen.
  2. The Bedouins or nomad Arabs of the desert.
  3. The Nuba, Nubians or Berberin, inhabitants of the Nile valley
       between Assuan and Dongola.
  4. Foreigners.

The first of these divisions includes both the Moslem and Coptic
inhabitants. The Bedouins, or the Arabs of the desert, are of two
different classes: first, Arabic-speaking tribes who range the deserts
as far south as 26° N.; secondly, the tribes inhabiting the desert from
Kosseir to Suakin, namely the Hadendoa, Bisharin and the Ababda tribes.
This group speak a language of their own, and are probably descendants
of the Blemmyes, who occupied these parts in ancient times (see ARABS;
BEDOUINS; HADENDOA; BISHARIN; &c.). The Nubas are of mixed negro and
Arab blood. They are mainly agriculturists, though some are keen traders
(see NUBIA).

Foreigners number over 150,000 and form 1½% of the total population. They
are chiefly Greeks--of whom the majority live in Alexandria--Italians,
British and French. Syrians and Levantines are numerous, and there is a
colony of Persians. The Turkish element is not numerically strong--a few
thousands only--but holds a high social position.

Of the total population, about 20% is urban. In addition to the 97,000
pure nomads, there are half a million Bedouins described as
"semi-sedentaries," i.e. tent-dwelling Arabs, usually encamped in those
parts of the desert adjoining the cultivated land. The rural classes are
mainly engaged in agriculture, which occupies over 62% of the adults.
The professional and trading classes form about 10% of the whole
population, but 50% of the foreigners are engaged in trade. Of the total
population the males exceed the females by some 46,000.


    Physical characteristics of the Egyptians.

  The Coptic inhabitants are described in the article COPTS, and the
  rural population under FELLAH. It remains here to describe
  characteristics and customs common to the Moslem Egyptians and
  particularly to those of the cities. In some respects the manner of
  life of the natives has been modified by contact with Europeans, and
  what follows depicts in general the habits of the people where little
  affected by western culture. With regard to physical characteristics
  the Egyptians are of full average height (the men are mostly 5 ft. 8
  in. or 5 ft. 9 in), and both sexes are remarkably well proportioned
  and of strong physique. The Cairenes and the inhabitants of Lower
  Egypt generally have a clear complexion and soft skin of a light
  yellowish colour; those of Middle Egypt have a tawny skin, and the
  dwellers in Upper Egypt a deep bronze or brown complexion. The face of
  the men is of a fine oval, forehead prominent but seldom high,
  straight nose, eyes deep set, black and brilliant, mouth well formed,
  but with rather full lips, regular teeth beautifully made, and beard
  usually black and curly but scanty. Moustaches are worn, while the
  head is shaved save for a small tuft (called _shusheh_) upon the
  crown. As to the women, "from the age of about fourteen to that of
  eighteen or twenty, they are generally models of beauty in body and
  limbs; and in countenance most of them are pleasing, and many
  exceedingly lovely; but soon after they have attained their perfect
  growth, they rapidly decline." There are few Egyptian women over forty
  who retain either good looks or good figures. "The forms of womanhood
  begin to develop themselves about the ninth and tenth year: at the
  age of fifteen or sixteen they generally attain their highest degree
  of perfection. With regard to their complexions, the same remarks
  apply to them as to the men, with only this difference, that their
  faces, being generally veiled when they go abroad, are not quite so
  much tanned as those of the men. They are characterized, like the men,
  by a fine oval countenance, though in some instances it is rather
  broad. The eyes, with very few exceptions, are black, large and of a
  long almond-form, with long and beautiful lashes, and an exquisitely
  soft, bewitching expression--eyes more beautiful can hardly be
  conceived: their charming effect is much heightened by the concealment
  of the other features (however pleasing the latter may be), and is
  rendered still more striking by a practice universal among the females
  of the higher and middle classes, and very common among those of the
  lower orders, which is that of blackening the edge of the eyelids both
  above and below the eye, with a black powder called 'kohl'" (Lane,
  _Modern Egyptians_). Both sexes, but especially the women, tattoo
  several parts of the person, and the women stain their hands and feet
  with the red dye of the henna.


    Dress and social life.

  The dress of the men of the upper and middle classes who have not
  adopted European clothing--a practice increasingly common--consists of
  cotton drawers, and a cotton or silk shirt with very wide sleeves.
  Above these are generally worn a waistcoat without sleeves, and a long
  vest of silk, called kaftan, which has hanging sleeves, and reaches
  nearly to the ankles. The kaftan is confined by the girdle, which is a
  silk scarf, or cashmere or other woollen shawl. Over all is worn a
  long cloth robe, the gibbeh (or jibbeh) somewhat resembling the kaftan
  in shape, but having shorter sleeves, and being open in front. The
  dress of the lower orders is the shirt and drawers, and waistcoat,
  with an outer shirt of blue cotton or brown woollen stuff; some wear a
  kaftan. The head-dress is the red cloth fez or tarbush round which a
  turban is usually worn. Men who have otherwise adopted European
  costume retain the tarbush. Many professions and religions, &c., are
  distinguished by the shape and colour of the turban, and various
  classes, and particularly servants, are marked by the form and colour
  of their shoes; but the poor go usually barefoot. Many ladies of the
  upper classes now dress in European style, with certain modifications,
  such as the head-veil. Those who retain native costume wear a very
  full pair of silk trousers, bright coloured stockings (usually pink),
  and a close-fitting vest with hanging sleeves and skirts, open down
  the front and at the sides, and long enough to turn up and fasten into
  the girdle, which is generally a cashmere shawl; a cloth jacket,
  richly embroidered with gold, and having short sleeves, is commonly
  worn over the vest. The hair in front is combed down over the forehead
  and cut across in a straight line; behind it is divided into very many
  small plaits, which hang down the back, and are lengthened by silken
  cords, and often adorned with gold coins and ornaments. A small
  tarbush is worn on the back of the head, sometimes having a plate of
  gold fixed on the crown, and a handkerchief is tastefully bound round
  the temples. The women of the lower orders have trousers of printed or
  dyed cotton, and a close waistcoat. All wear the long and elegant
  head-veil. This is a simple "breadth" of muslin, which passes over the
  head and hangs down behind, one side, being drawn forward over the
  face in the presence of a man. A lady's veil is of white muslin,
  embroidered at the ends in gold and colours; that of a person of the
  lower class is simply dyed blue. In going abroad the ladies wear above
  their indoor dress a loose robe of coloured silk without sleeves, and
  nearly open at the sides, and above it a large enveloping piece of
  black silk, which is brought over the head, and gathered round the
  person by the arms and hands on each side. A face-veil entirely
  conceals the features, except the eyes; it is a long and narrow piece
  of thick white muslin, reaching to a little below the knees. The women
  of the lower orders have the same out-door dress of different
  materials and colour. Ladies use slippers of yellow morocco, and
  abroad, inner boots of the same material, above which they wear, in
  either case, thick shoes, having only toes. The poor wear red shoes,
  very like those of the men. The women, especially in Upper Egypt, not
  infrequently wear nose-rings.

  Children, though often neglected, are not unkindly treated, and
  reverence for their parents and the aged is early inculcated. They are
  also well grounded in the leading doctrines of Islam. Boys are
  circumcised at the age of five or six years, when the boy is paraded,
  generally with a bridal procession, on a gaily caparisoned horse and
  dressed in woman's clothes. Most parents send their boys to school
  where a knowledge of reading and writing Arabic--the common tongue of
  the Egyptians--is obtainable, and from the closing years of the 19th
  century a great desire for the education of girls has arisen (see §
  _Education_).

  It is deemed disreputable for a young man not to marry when he has
  attained a sufficient age; there are, therefore, few unmarried men.
  Girls, in like manner, marry very young, some at ten years of age, and
  few remain single beyond the age of sixteen; they are generally very
  prolific. The bridegroom never sees his future wife before the wedding
  night, a custom rendered more tolerable than it otherwise might be by
  the facility of divorce. A dowry is always given, and a simple
  marriage ceremony performed by a _fiki_ (a schoolmaster, or one who
  recites the Koran, properly one learned in _fiqh_, Mahommedan law) in
  the presence of two witnesses. The bridal of a virgin is attended with
  great festivity and rejoicing, a grandee's wedding sometimes
  continuing eleven days and nights. On the last day, which should be
  that terminating with the eve of Friday, or of Monday, the bride is
  taken in procession to the bridegroom's house, accompanied by her
  female friends, and a band of musicians, jugglers, wrestlers, &c. As
  before stated, a boy about to be circumcised joins in such a
  procession, or, frequently, a succession of such boys. Though allowed
  by his religion four wives, most Egyptians are monogamists. A man may,
  however, possess any number of concubines, who, though objects of
  jealousy to the legal wife, are tolerated by her in consideration of
  her superior position and power over them, a power which she often
  uses with great tyranny; but certain privileges are possessed by
  concubines, especially if they have borne sons to their master. A
  divorce is rendered obligatory by the simple words "Thou art
  divorced." Repudiation may take place twice without being final, but
  if the husband repeats thrice "Thou art divorced" the separation is
  absolute. In that case the dowry must be returned to the wife.

  Elaborate ceremonies are observed at funerals. Immediately on death
  the corpse is turned towards Mecca, and the women of the household,
  assisted by hired mourners, commence their peculiar wailing, while
  fikis recite portions of the Koran. The funeral takes place on the day
  of the death, if that happen in the morning; otherwise on the next
  day. The corpse, having been washed and shrouded, is placed in an open
  bier, covered with a cashmere shawl, in the case of a man; or in a
  closed bier, having a post in front, on which are placed feminine
  ornaments, in that of a woman or child. The funeral procession is
  headed by a number of poor, and generally blind, men, chanting the
  profession of the faith, followed by male friends of the deceased, and
  a party of schoolboys, also chanting, generally from a poem
  descriptive of the state of the soul after death. Then follows the
  bier, borne on the shoulders of friends, who are relieved by the
  passers-by, such an act being deemed highly meritorious. Behind come
  the women relatives and the hired wailers. On the way to the cemetery
  the corpse is generally carried to some revered mosque. Here the
  funeral service is performed by the imam, and the procession then
  proceeds to the tomb. In the burials of the rich, water and bread are
  distributed to the poor at the grave; and sometimes a buffalo or
  several buffaloes are slaughtered there, and the flesh given away. The
  tomb is a vault, surmounted by an oblong stone monument, with a stele
  at the head and feet; and a cupola, supported by four walls, covers
  the whole in the case of sheikhs' tombs and those of the wealthy.
  During the night following the interment, called the Night of
  Desolation, or that of Solitude, the soul being believed to remain
  with the body that one night, fikis are engaged at the house of the
  deceased to recite various portions of the Koran, and, commonly, to
  repeat the first clause of the profession of the faith, "There is no
  God but God," three thousand times. The women alone put on mourning
  attire, by dyeing their veils, shirts, &c., dark blue, with indigo;
  and they stain their hands, and smear the walls, with the same colour.
  Everything in the house is also turned upside down. The latter customs
  are not, however, observed on the death of an old man. At certain
  periods after the burial, a khatmeh, or recitation of the whole of the
  Koran, is performed, and the tomb is visited by the women relations
  and friends of the deceased. The women of the peasants of Upper Egypt
  perform strange dances, &c., at funerals, which are regarded partly as
  relics of ancient Egyptian customs.

  The harem system of appointing separate apartments to the women, and
  secluding them from the gaze of men, is observed in Egypt as in other
  Moslem countries, but less strictly. The women of an Egyptian
  household in which old customs are maintained never sit in the
  presence of the master, but attend him at his meals, and are treated
  in every respect as inferiors. The mother, however, forms a remarkable
  exception to this rule; in rare instances, also, a wife becomes a
  companion to her husband. On the other hand, if a pair of women's
  shoes are placed outside the door of the harem apartments, they are
  understood to signify that female visitors are within, and a man is
  sometimes thus excluded from the upper portion of his own house for
  many days. Ladies of the upper or middle classes lead a life of
  extreme inactivity, spending their time at the bath, which is the
  general place of gossip, or in receiving visits, embroidering, and the
  like, and in absolute _dolce far niente_. Both sexes are given to
  licentiousness.

  The principal meals are breakfast, about an hour after sunrise;
  dinner, or the mid-day meal, at noon; and supper, which is the chief
  meal of the day, a little after sunset. Pastry, sweetmeats and fruit
  are highly esteemed. Coffee is taken at all hours, and is, with a
  pipe, presented at least once to each guest. Tobacco is the great
  luxury of the men of all classes in Egypt, who begin and end the day
  with it, and generally smoke all day with little intermission. Many
  women, also, especially among the rich, adopt the habit. The smoking
  of hashish, though illegal, is indulged in by considerable numbers of
  people. Men who can afford to keep a horse, mule or ass are very
  seldom seen to walk. Ladies ride asses and sit astride. The poorer
  classes cannot fully observe the harem system, but the women are in
  general carefully veiled. Some of them keep small shops, and all fetch
  water, make fuel, and cook for their households. Domestic slavery
  lingers but is moribund. The majority of the slaves are negresses
  employed in household duties.

  In social intercourse the Egyptians observe many forms of salutation
  and much etiquette; they are very affable, and readily enter into
  conversation with strangers. Their courtesy and dignity of manner are
  very striking, and are combined with ease and a fluency of discourse.
  They have a remarkable quickness of apprehension, a ready wit, a
  retentive memory, combined, however, with religious pride and
  hypocrisy, and a disregard for the truth. Their common discourse is
  full of asseverations and expressions respecting sacred things. They
  entertain reverence for their Prophet; and the Koran is treated with
  the utmost respect--never, for example, being placed in a low
  situation--and this is the case with everything they esteem holy. They
  are fatalists, and bear calamities with surprising resignation. Their
  filial piety and respect for the aged have been mentioned, and
  benevolence and charity are conspicuous in their character. Humanity
  to animals is another virtue, and cruelty is openly discountenanced in
  the streets. Their affability, cheerfulness and hospitality are
  remarkable, as well as frugality and temperance in food and drink, and
  honesty in the payment of debt. Their cupidity is mitigated by
  generosity; their natural indolence by the necessity, especially among
  the peasantry, to work hard to gain a livelihood. Egyptians, however,
  are as a rule suspicious of all not of their own creed and country.
  Murders and other grave crimes are rare, but petty larcenies are very
  common.

  The amusements of the people are generally not of a violent kind,
  being in keeping with their sedentary habits and the heat of the
  climate. The bath is a favourite resort of both sexes and all classes.
  They are acquainted with chess, draughts, backgammon, and other games,
  among which is one peculiar to themselves, called Mankalah, and played
  with cowries. Notwithstanding its condemnation by Mahomet, music is
  the most favourite recreation of the people; the songs of the boatmen,
  the religious chants, and the cries in the streets are all musical.
  There are male and female musical performers; the former are both
  instrumental and vocal, the latter (called _'Almeh_, pl. _'Awalim_)
  generally vocal. The 'Awalim are, as their name ("learned") implies,
  generally accomplished women, and should not be confounded with the
  Ghawazi, or dancing-girls. There are many kinds of musical
  instruments. The music, vocal and instrumental, is generally of little
  compass, and in the minor key; it is therefore plaintive, and strikes
  a European ear as somewhat monotonous, though often possessing a
  simple beauty, and the charm of antiquity, for there is little doubt
  that the favourite airs have been handed down from remote ages. The
  Ghawazi (sing. Ghazia) form a separate class, very similar to the
  gipsies. They intermarry among themselves only, and their women are
  professional dancers. Their performances are often objectionable and
  are so regarded by many Egyptians. They dance in public, at fairs and
  religious festivals, and at private festivities, but, it is said, not
  in respectable houses. Mehemet Ali banished them to Esna, in Upper
  Egypt; and the few that remained in Cairo called themselves 'Awalim,
  to avoid punishment. Many of the dancing-girls of Cairo to-day are
  neither 'Awalim nor Ghawazi, but women of the very lowest class whose
  performances are both ungraceful and indecent. A most objectionable
  class of male dancers also exists, who imitate the dances of the
  Ghawazi, and dress in a kind of nondescript female attire. Not the
  least curious of the public performances are those of the
  serpent-charmers, who are generally Rifa'ia (Saadia) dervishes. Their
  power over serpents has been doubted, yet their performances remain
  unexplained; they, however, always extract the fangs of venomous
  serpents. Jugglers, rope-dancers and farce-players must also be
  mentioned. In the principal coffee-shops of Cairo are to be found
  reciters of romances, surrounded by interested audiences.


    Public festivals.

  The periodical public festivals are exceedingly interesting, but many
  of the remarkable observances connected with them are passing away.
  The first ten days of the Mahommedan year are held to be blessed, and
  especially the tenth; and many curious practices are observed on these
  days, particularly by the women. The tenth day, being the anniversary
  of the martyrdom of Hosain, the son of Ali and grandson of the
  Prophet, the mosque of the Hasanen at Cairo is thronged to excess,
  mostly by women. In the evening a procession goes to the mosque, the
  principal figure being a white horse with white trappings, upon which
  is seated a small boy, the horse and the lad, who represents Hosain,
  being smeared with blood. From the mosque the procession goes to a
  private house, where a mullah recites the story of the martyrdom.
  Following the order of the lunar year, the next festival is that of
  the Return of the Pilgrims, which is the occasion of great rejoicing,
  many having friends or relatives in the caravan. The Mahmal, a kind of
  covered litter, first originated by Queen Sheger-ed-Dur, is brought
  into the city in procession, though not with as much pomp as when it
  leaves with the pilgrims. These and other processions have lost much
  of their effect since the extinction of the Mamelukes, and the gradual
  disuse of gorgeous dress for the retainers of the officers of state. A
  regiment of regular infantry makes but a sorry substitute for the
  splendid cavalcade of former times. The Birth of the Prophet (Molid
  en-Nebi), which is celebrated in the beginning of the third month, is
  the greatest festival of the whole year. For nine days and nights
  Cairo has more the aspect of a fair than of a city keeping a religious
  festival. The chief ceremonies take place in some large open spot
  round which are erected the tents of the khedive, of great state
  officials, and of the dervishes. Next in time, and also in importance,
  is the Molid El-Hasanen, commemorative of the birth of Hosain, and
  lasting fifteen days and nights; and at the same time is kept the
  Molid of al-Salih Ayyub, the last sovereign but two of the Ayyubite
  dynasty. In the seventh month occur the Molid of the sayyida Zenab,
  and the commemoration of the Miarag, or the Prophet's miraculous
  journey to heaven. Early in the eighth month (Sha'ban), the Molid of
  the imam Shafi'i is observed; and the night of the middle of that
  month has its peculiar customs, being held by the Moslems to be that
  on which the fate of all living is decided for the ensuing year. Then
  follows Ramadan, the month of abstinence, a severe trial to the
  faithful; and the Lesser Festival (Al-'id as-saghir), which commences
  Shawwal, is hailed by them with delight. A few days after, the Kiswa,
  or new covering for the Ka'ba at Mecca, is taken in procession from
  the citadel, where it is always manufactured, to the mosque of the
  Hasanen to be completed; and, later, the caravan of pilgrims departs,
  when the grand procession of the Mahmal takes place. On the tenth day
  of the last month of the year the Great Festival (Al-'id al-kabir), or
  that of the Sacrifice (commemorating the willingness of Ibrahim to
  slay his son Ismail--according to the Arab legend), closes the
  calendar. The Lesser and Great Festivals are those known in Turkish as
  the Bairam (q.v.).

  The rise of the Nile is naturally the occasion of annual customs, some
  of which are doubtless relics of antiquity; these are observed
  according to the Coptic calendar. The commencement of the rise is
  commemorated on the night of the 11th of Bauna, the 17th of June,
  called that of the Drop (Lelet-en-Nukta), because a miraculous drop is
  then supposed to fall and cause the swelling of the river. The real
  rise begins at Cairo about the summer solstice, or a few days later,
  and early in July a crier in each district of the city begins to go
  his daily rounds, announcing, in a quaint chant, the increase of water
  in the nilometer of the island of Roda. When the river has risen 20 or
  21 ft., he proclaims the Wefa en-Nil, "Completion" or "Abundance of
  the Nile." On the following day the dam which closed the canal of
  Cairo was cut with much ceremony. The canal having been filled up in
  1897 the ceremony has been much modified, but a brief description of
  what used to take place may be given. A pillar of earth before the dam
  is called the "Bride of the Nile," and Arab historians relate that
  this was substituted, at the Moslem conquest, for a virgin whom it was
  the custom annually to sacrifice, to ensure a plentiful inundation. A
  large boat, gaily decked out, representing that in which the victim
  used to be conveyed, was anchored near, and a gun on board fired every
  quarter of an hour during the night. Rockets and other fireworks were
  also let off, but the best, strangely, after daybreak. The governor of
  Cairo attended the ceremony, with the cadi and others, and gave the
  signal for the cutting of the dam. As soon as sufficient water had
  entered, boats ascended the canal to the city. The crier continues his
  daily rounds, with his former chant, excepting on the Coptic New
  Year's Day, when the cry of the Wefa is repeated, until the Salib, or
  Discovery of the Cross, the 26th or 27th of September, at which
  period, the river having attained its greatest height, he concludes
  his annual employment with another chant, and presents to each house
  some limes and other fruit, and dry lumps of Nile mud.

  The period of the hot winds, called the khamsin, that is, "the
  fifties," is calculated from the day after the Coptic Easter, and
  terminates on the day of Pentecost, and the Moslems observe the
  Wednesday preceding this period, called "Job's Wednesday," as well as
  its first day, when many go into the country from Cairo, "to smell the
  air." This day is hence called Shem en-Nesim, or "the smelling of the
  zephyr." The Ulema observe the same custom on the first three days of
  the spring quarter.

  Tombs of saints abound, one or more being found in every town and
  village; and no traveller up the Nile can fail to remark how every
  prominent hill has the sepulchre of its patron saint. The great saints
  of Egypt are the imam Ash-Shafi'i, founder of the persuasion called
  after him, the sayyid Ahmad al-Baidawi, and the sayyid Ibrahim
  Ed-Desuki, both of whom were founders of orders of dervishes.
  Al-Baidawi, who lived in the 13th century A.D., is buried at the town
  of Tanta, in the Delta, and his tomb attracts many thousands of
  visitors at each of the three festivals held yearly in his honour;
  Ed-Desuki is also much revered, and his festivals draw together, in
  like manner, great crowds to his birthplace, the town of Desuk. But,
  besides the graves of her native saints, Egypt boasts of those of
  several members of the Prophet's family, the tomb of the sayyida
  Zeyneb, daughter of 'Ali, that of the sayyida Sekeina, daughter of
  Hosain, and that of the sayyida Nefisa, great-granddaughter of Hasan,
  all of which are held in high veneration. The mosque of the Hasanen
  (or that of the "two Hasans") is the most reverenced shrine in the
  country, and is believed to contain the head of Hosain. Many orders of
  Dervishes live in Egypt, the following being the most celebrated:--(1)
  the Rifa'ia, and their sects the 'Ilwania and Saadia; (2) the Qadiria
  (Kahiria), or howling dervishes; (3) the Ahmedia, or followers of the
  sayyid Ahmad al-Baidawi, and their sects the Beyumia (known by their
  long hair), Shinnawia, Sharawia and many others; and (4) the Baramia,
  or followers of the sayyid Ibrahim Ed-Desuki. These are all presided
  over by a direct descendant of the caliph Abu Bekr, called the Sheikh
  El-Bekri. The Saadia are famous for charming and eating live serpents,
  &c., and the 'Ilwania for eating fire, glass, &c. The Egyptians firmly
  believe in the efficacy of charms, a belief associated with that in
  an omnipresent and over-ruling providence. Thus the doors of houses
  are inscribed with sentences from the Koran, or the like, to preserve
  from the evil eye, or avert the dangers of an unlucky threshold;
  similar inscriptions may be observed over most shops, while almost
  every one carries some charm about his person. The so-called sciences
  of magic, astrology and alchemy still flourish.

  AUTHORITIES.--The standard authority for the Moslem Egyptians is E. W.
  Lane's _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians_, first published
  in 1836. The best edition is that of 1860, edited, with additions, by
  E. S. Poole. See also B. Saint-John, _Village Life in Egypt_ (2 vols.,
  1852); S. Lane Poole, _Social Life in Egypt_ (1884); P. Arminjon,
  _L'Enseignement, la doctrine, el la vie dans les universités
  musulmanes d'Égypte_ (Paris, 1907). For the language see J. S.
  Willmore, _The Spoken Arabic of Egypt_ (2nd ed., London, 1905); Spitta
  Bey, _Grammatik des arabischen Vulgardialektes von Ägypten, Contes
  arabes modernes_ (Leiden, 1883). For statistical information consult
  the reports on the censuses of 1897 and 1907, published by the
  Ministry of the Interior, Cairo, in 1898 and 1909.
       (E. S. P.; S. L.-P.; F. R. C.)


_Finance._

The important part which the financial arrangements have played in the
political and social history of Egypt since the accession of Ismail
Pasha in 1863 is shown in the section _History_ of this article. Here it
is proposed to trace the steps by which Egypt, after having been brought
to a state of bankruptcy, passed through a period of great stress, and
finally attained prosperity and a large measure of financial autonomy.

In 1862 the foreign debt of Egypt stood at £3,292,000. With the
accession of Ismail (q.v.) there followed a period of wild extravagance
and reckless borrowing accompanied by the extortion of every piastre
possible from the fellahin. The real state of affairs was disclosed in
the report of Mr Stephen Cave, a well-known banker, who was sent by the
British government in December 1875 to inquire into the situation. The
Cave report showed that Egypt suffered from "the ignorance, dishonesty,
waste and extravagance of the East" and from "the vast expense caused by
hasty and inconsiderate endeavours to adopt the civilization of the
West." The debtor and creditor account of the state from 1864 to 1875
showed receipts amounting to £148,215,000. Of this sum over £94,000,000
had been obtained from revenue and nearly £4,000,000 by the sale of the
khedive's shares in the Suez Canal to Great Britain. The rest was
credited to: loans £31,713,000, floating debt £18,243,000. The cash
which reached the Egyptian treasury from the loans and floating debt was
far less than the nominal amount of such loans, none of which cost the
Egyptian government less than 12% per annum. When the expenditure during
the same period was examined the extraordinary fact was disclosed that
the sum raised by revenue was only three millions less than that spent
on administration, tribute and public works, including a sum of
£10,500,000, described as "expenses of questionable utility or policy."
The whole proceeds of the loans and floating debt had been absorbed in
payment of interest and sinking funds, with the exception of £16,000,000
debited to the Suez Canal. In other words, Egypt was burdened with a
debt of £91,000,000--funded or floating--for which she had no return,
for even from the Suez Canal she derived no revenue, owing to the sale
of the khedive's shares.

Soon after Mr Cave's report appeared (March 1876), default took place on
several of the loans. Nearly the whole of the debt, it should be stated,
was held in England or France, and at the instance of French financiers
the stoppage of payment was followed by a scheme to unify the debt. This
scheme included the distribution of a bonus of 25% to holders of
treasury bonds. These bonds had then reached a sum exceeding £20,000,000
and were held chiefly by French firms. The unification scheme was
elaborated in a khedivial decree of the 7th of May 1876, but was
rendered abortive by the opposition of the British bondholders. Its
place was taken by another scheme drawn up by Mr (afterwards Lord)
Goschen and M. Joubert, who represented the British and French
bondholders respectively. The details of this settlement, promulgated by
decree of the 17th of November 1876, need not be given, as it was
superseded in 1880. One of the securities devised for the benefit of the
bondholders in the abortive scheme of May 1876 was retained in the
Goschen-Joubert settlement, and being continued in later settlements
grew to be one of the most important institutions in Egypt. This
security was the establishment of a Treasury of the Public Debt, known
by its French title of _Caisse de la Dette_, and commonly spoken of
simply as "the Caisse." The duty of this body was to act as receivers of
the revenues assigned to the service of the debt. To render their powers
effective they were given the right to sue the Egyptian government in
the Mixed Tribunals for any breach of engagement to the bondholders.


  The Law of Liquidation.

The Goschen-Joubert settlement was accompanied by guarantees against
maladministration by the appointment of an Englishman and a Frenchman to
superintend the revenue and expenditure--the "Dual Control"; while a
commission was appointed in 1878 to investigate the condition of the
country. The settlement of 1880 was effected on the basis of the
proposals made by this commission, and was embodied in the Law of
Liquidation of July 1880--after the deposition of Ismail. For the
purposes of the new settlement the loans raised by Ismail on his private
estates, those known as the Daïra (i.e. "administrations") and Domains
loans, were brought into account. By the Law of Liquidation the floating
debt was paid off, the whole debt being consolidated into four large
loans, upon which the rate of interest was reduced to a figure which it
was considered Egypt was able to bear. The Egyptian debt under this
composition was:

  Privileged debt        £22,609,000
  Unified debt            58,018,000
  Daïra Sanieh loan        9,513,000
  Domains loan             8,500,000
                         -----------
                         £98,640,000

The rate of interest was, on the Privileged debt and Domains loan, 5%;
on the Unified debt and Daïra loan, 4%. Under this settlement the total
annual charges on the country amounted to £4,500,000, about half the
then revenue of Egypt. These charges included the services of the
Privileged and Unified debts, the tribute to Turkey and the interest on
the Suez Canal shares held by Great Britain, but excluded the interest
on the Daïra and Domains loans, expected to be defrayed by the revenues
from the estates on which those loans were secured. The general revenue
of Egypt was divided between the bondholders and the government, any
surplus on the bondholders' share being devoted to the redemption of the
capital.

The 1880 settlement proved little more lasting than that of 1876. After
a brief period of prosperity, the Arabi rising, the riots at Alexandria,
and the events generally which led to the British occupation of Egypt in
1882, followed by the losses incurred in the Sudan in the effort to
prevent it falling into the hands of the Mahdi, brought Egypt once more
to the verge of financial disaster. The situation was an anomalous one.
While the revenue assigned to the service of the debt was more than
sufficient for the payment of interest and the sinking fund was in full
operation, the government found that their share of the revenue was
altogether inadequate for the expenses of administration, and they were
compelled to borrow on short loans at high rate of interest. Moreover,
to make good the losses incurred at Alexandria, and to get money to pay
the charges arising out of the Sudan War and the Arabi rebellion, a new
loan was essential. On the initiative of Great Britain a conference
between the representatives of the great powers and Turkey was held in
London, and resulted in the signing of a convention in March 1885. The
terms agreed upon in this instrument, known as the London Convention,
were embodied in a khedivial decree, which, with some modification in
detail, remained for twenty years the organic law under which the
finances of Egypt were administered.


  Provisions of the London Convention.

The principle of dividing the revenue of the country between the Caisse,
as representing the bondholders, and the government was maintained by
the London Convention. The revenue assigned to the service of the debt,
namely, that derived from the railway, telegraphs, port of Alexandria,
customs (including tobacco) and from four of the provinces, remained as
before. It was recognized, however, that the non-assigned revenue was
insufficient to meet the necessary expenses of government, and a scale
of administrative expenditure was drawn up. This was originally fixed at
£E.5,237,000,[6] but subsequently other items were allowed, and in 1904,
the last year in which the system described existed, it was
£E.6,300,600. The Caisse was authorized, after payment of the coupons on
the debt, to make good out of their balance in hand the difference
between the authorized expenditure and the non-assigned revenue. If a
surplus remained to the Caisse after making good such deficit the
surplus was to be divided equally between the Caisse and the government;
the government to be free to spend its share as it pleased, while the
Caisse had to devote its share to the reduction of the debt. This
limitation of administrative expenditure was the cardinal feature and
the leading defect of the convention. Those responsible for this
arrangement--the most favourable for Egypt that Great Britain could
secure--failed to recognize the complete change likely to result from
the British occupation of Egypt, and probably regarded that occupation
as temporary. The system devised might have been justifiable as a check
on a retrograde government, but was wholly inapplicable to a reforming
government and a serious obstacle to the attainment of national
prosperity. In practice administrative expenditure always exceeded the
amount fixed by the convention. Any excess could, however, only be met
out of the half-share of the eventual surplus reached in the manner
described. Consequently, in order to meet new expenditure necessitated
by the growing wants of a country in process of development, just double
the amount of revenue had to be raised.

To return to the provisions of the London Convention. The convention
left the permanent rate of interest on the debt, as fixed by the Law of
Liquidation, unchanged, but to afford temporary relief to the Egyptian
exchequer a reduction of 5% on the interest of the debt was granted for
two years, on condition that if at the end of that period payment,
including the arrears of the two years, was not resumed in full, another
international commission was to be appointed to examine into the whole
financial situation. Lastly, the convention empowered Egypt to raise a
loan of nine millions, guaranteed by all the powers, at a rate of
interest of 3%. For the service of this loan--known as the Guaranteed
loan--an annuity of £315,000 was provided in the Egyptian budget for
interest and sinking fund. The £9,000,000 was sufficient to pay the
Alexandria indemnities, to wipe out the deficits of the preceding years,
to give the Egyptian treasury a working balance of £E.500,000 and
thereby avoid the creation of a fresh floating debt, and to provide a
million for new irrigation works. To the wise foresight which, at a
moment when the country was sinking beneath a weight of debt, did not
hesitate to add this million for expenditure on productive works, the
present prosperity of Egypt is largely due.

The provisions of the London Convention did not exhaust the restrictions
placed upon the Egyptian government in respect of financial autonomy.
These restrictions were of two categories, (1) those independent of the
London Convention, (2) those dependent upon that instrument. In the
first category came (a) the prohibition to raise a loan without the
consent of the Porte. The right to raise loans had been granted to the
khedive Ismail in 1873, but was taken away in 1879 by the firman
appointing Tewfik khedive. (b) Next came the inability to levy taxes on
foreigners without the consent of their respective governments. This
last obligation was, in virtue of the Capitulations, applicable to Egypt
as part of the Ottoman empire. The only exception, resulting from the
Ottoman law under which foreigners are allowed to acquire and hold real
property, is the land tax. (All taxes formerly paid by natives and not
by foreigners have been abolished in Egypt, but the immunity described
constitutes a most serious obstacle to the redistribution of the burden
of taxation in a more equitable manner.)

From the purely Egyptian point of view the most powerful restriction in
this first category remains to be named. In 1883 the supervision
exercised over the finances by French and British controllers was
replaced by that of a British official called the financial adviser. The
British government has declared that "no financial decision shall be
taken without his consent," a declaration never questioned by the
Egyptian government. This restriction, therefore, is at the same time
the chief safeguard for the purity of Egypt's finances.

In the second category of restrictions, namely, those dependent on the
London Convention, were the various commissions or boards known as Mixed
Administrations and having relations of a quasi-independent character
with the ministry of finance. Of these boards by far the most important
was the Caisse. As first constituted it consisted of a French, an
Austrian, and an Italian member; a British member was added in 1877 and
a German and a Russian member in 1885. The revenue assigned to the debt
charges was paid direct to the Caisse without passing through the
ministry of finance. The assent of the Caisse (as well as that of the
sultan) was necessary before any new loan could be issued, and in the
course of a few years from its creation this body acquired very
extensive powers. Besides the Caisse there was the Railway Board, which
administered the railways, telegraphs and port of Alexandria for the
benefit of the bondholders, and the Daïra and Domains commissions, which
administered the estates mortgaged to the holders of those loans. Each
of the three boards last named consisted of an Englishman, a Frenchman
and an Egyptian.


  The race against bankruptcy.

During the two years that followed the signing of the London Convention,
the financial policy of the Egyptian government was directed to placing
the country in a position to resume full payment of the interest on the
debt in 1887, and thereby to avoid the appointment of an international
commission. By the exercise of the most rigid economy in all branches
this end was attained, though budgetary equilibrium was only secured by
a variety of financial expedients, justified by the vital importance of
saving Egypt from further international interference. By such means this
additional complication was averted, but the struggle to put Egypt in a
genuinely solvent position was by no means over. It was not until his
report on the financial results of 1888 that Sir Evelyn Baring
(afterwards Lord Cromer) was able to inform the British government that
the situation was such that "it would take a series of untoward events
seriously to endanger the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency
of the Egyptian government." From this moment the corner was turned, and
the era of financial prosperity commenced. The results of the labours of
the preceding six years began to manifest themselves with a rapidity
which surprised the most sanguine observers. The principal feature of
the successive Egyptian budgets of 1890-1894 was the fiscal relief
afforded to the population. From 1894 onward more attention was paid
than had hitherto been possible to the legitimate demands of the
spending departments and to the prosecution of public works. Of these
the most notable was the construction (1898-1902) of the Assuan dam,
which by bringing more land under cultivation permanently increased the
resources of the country and widened the area of taxation.


  Reserve funds.

With the accumulating proofs of the financial stability of the country
various changes were made in connexion with the debt charges. With the
consent of the powers a General Reserve Fund was created by decree of
the 12th of July 1888, into which was paid the Caisse's half-share in
the eventual surplus of revenue. This fund, primarily intended as a
security for the bondholders, might be drawn upon for extraordinary
expenditure with the consent of the commissioners of the Caisse. Large
sums were so advanced for the purposes of drainage and irrigation and
other public works, and in relief of taxation. The defect of this
arrangement consisted in the necessity of obtaining the consent of the
commissioners--a consent sometimes withheld on purely political grounds.
At the same time it is believed that but for the faculty given by the
decree of 1888 to spend the General Reserve Fund on public works, the
financial system elaborated by the London Convention would have broken
down altogether. Between 1888 and 1904 about £10,000,000 was devoted
from this fund to public works.

In June 1890 the assent of the powers was obtained to the conversion of
the Preference (Privileged), Domains and Daïra loans on the following
conditions, imposed at the initiative of the French government:--

  1. The employment of the economies resulting from the conversion was
  to be the subject of future agreement with the powers.

  2. The Daïra loan was to be reimbursed at 85%, instead of 80%, as
  provided by the Law of Liquidation.

  3. The sales of Domains and Daïra lands were to be restricted to
  £E.300,000 a year each, thus prolonging the period of liquidation of
  those estates.

The interest on the Preference stock was reduced from 5 to 3½%, and on
the Domains from 5 to 4¼%. As regards the Daïra loan, there was no
apparent reduction in the rate of interest, which remained at 4%, but
the bondholders received £85 of the new stock for every £100 of the old.
The capital of the debt was increased by £1,945,000 by these
conversions, while the annual economy to the Egyptian government
amounted at the time of the conversion to £E.348,000. Further, an
engagement was entered into that there should be no reimbursement of the
loans till 1905 for the Preference and Daïra, and 1908 for the Domains.
By an arrangement concluded in June 1898, between the Egyptian
government and a syndicate, the unsold balance of the Daïra estates was
taken over by the syndicate in October 1905, for the amount of the debt
remaining, when the Daïra loan ceased to exist. The fund formed by the
accumulation of the economies resulting from the conversion of the
Privileged, Daïra and Domains loan was known as the Conversion Economies
Fund. The fund could not be used for any purpose without the consent of
the powers, and the money paid into it was invested by the Caisse in
Egyptian stock. The fund therefore acted as a very expensive sinking
fund, the market price of the stock purchased being above par. Up to
1904 the consent of the powers to the employment of this fund for any
purpose of public utility was withheld. On the 31st of December of that
year the fund amounted to £E.6,031,000. It may be added that besides the
General Reserve Fund and the Conversion Economies Fund, there existed
another fund called the Special Reserve Fund. This was constituted in
1886 and was chiefly made up of the net savings of the Egyptian
government on its share of the annual surpluses from revenue. Of the
three funds this last-named was the only one at the absolute disposal of
the government. The whole of the extraordinary expenditure of the Sudan
campaigns of 1896-1898, with the exception of £800,000 granted by the
British government, was paid out of this fund--a sum amounting in round
figures to £1,500,000.


  An era of prosperity.

Notwithstanding all the hampering conditions stated, the prosperity of
the country became more manifest each succeeding year. During the four
years 1883-1886, both inclusive, the aggregate deficit amounted to
£E.2,606,000. In 1887 there was practical equilibrium in the budget, in
1888 there was a deficit of £E.53,000. In 1889 there was a surplus of
£E.218,000, and from that date onward every year has shown a surplus. In
1895 the surplus exceeded, for the first time, £E.1,000,000. The growth
of revenue was no less marked. "In 1883--the first complete year after
the British occupation--the revenue was slightly under 9 millions. This
sum was collected with difficulty. The revenue steadily rose until, in
1890, the figure of 10 millions was exceeded. In 1897 a figure of over
11 millions was attained. Continuing to rise with ever-increasing
rapidity, a revenue of close on 12 millions was collected in 1901 and
1902, in spite of the fact that during the latter of these two years the
Nile flood was one of the lowest on record. In 1903 the revenue amounted
to 12½ millions, and in 1904 the unprecedented figure of £E.13,906,000
was reached."[7] Yet during this period the amount of direct taxation
remitted reached £E.1,900,000 a year. Arrears of land tax to the extent
of £E.1,245,000 were cancelled. In indirect taxation the salt tax had
been reduced by 40%, the postal, railway and telegraph rates lowered,
octroi duties and bridge and lock dues abolished. The only increase of
taxation had been on tobacco, on which the duty was raised from P.T. 14
to P.T. 20 per kilogramme. At the same time the house duty, with the
consent of the powers, had been imposed on European residents. The fact
that during the period under review Egypt suffered very severely from
the general fall in the price of commodities makes the prosperity of the
country the more remarkable. Had it not been for the great increase of
production as the result of improved irrigation and the fiscal relief
afforded to landowners, the agricultural depression would have impaired
the financial situation. In this connexion it should be stated that
during 1899 the reassessment of the land tax, a much-needed reform, was
seriously taken in hand. The existing assessment, made before the
British occupation, had long been condemned by all competent
authorities, but the inherent intricacies and difficulties of the
problem had hitherto postponed a solution. After careful study and a
preliminary examination of the land, a scheme was passed which has given
satisfaction to the landowning community, and which distributes the tax
equitably in proportion to the fertility of the soil. The reassessment
was completed in 1907.


  The cost of internationalism.

While the country thus prospered it also suffered greatly from the
restrictions imposed by the system of international control. This system
produced a great disproportion between the sums available for capital
and those available for administrative expenditure. Although the money
for public works could be obtained out of grants from the General
Reserve Fund, there was no fund from which to provide a sufficient sum
to keep those works in order. Moreover, to avoid having to pay half the
amount received into the General Reserve Fund the government was
compelled to keep certain items of revenue and expenditure out of the
accounts altogether--a violation of the principles of sound finance.
Then there was the glaring anomaly of allowing the Conversion Economies
to accumulate at compound interest in the hands of the commissioners of
the Caisse, instead of using the money for remunerative purposes. The
net result of internationalism was to impose an extra charge of about
£1,750,000 a year on the Egyptian treasury.


  Egypt gains financial liberty.

All these cumbersome restrictions were swept away by the khedivial
decree of the 28th of November 1904, a decree which received the assent
of the powers and was the result of the Anglo-French agreement of April
1904 (see § HISTORY). The decree did not affect the inability of Egypt
to tax foreigners without their consent nor remove the right of Turkey
to veto the issue of new loans, but in other respects the financial
changes made by it were of a radical character. The main effect was to
give to the Egyptian government a free hand in the disposal of its own
resources so long as the punctual payment of interest on the debt was
assured. The plan devised by the London Convention of fixing a limit to
administrative expenditure was abolished. The consent of the Caisse to
the raising of a new loan was no longer required. The Caisse itself
remained, but shorn of all political and administrative powers, its
functions being strictly limited to receiving the assigned revenues and
to ensuring the due payment of the coupon. The nature of the assigned
revenue was altered, the land tax being substituted for those previously
assigned, that tax being chosen as it had a greater character of
stability than any other source of revenue. By this means Egypt gained
complete control of its railways, telegraphs, the port of Alexandria and
the customs, and as a consequence the mixed administration known as the
Railway Board ceased to exist. Moreover, it was provided that when the
Caisse had received from the land tax the amount needed for the service
of the debt, the balance of the tax was to be paid direct to the
Egyptian treasury. The Conversion Economies Fund was also placed at the
free disposal of the Egyptian government. The General Reserve Fund
ceased to exist, but for the better security of the bondholders a
reserve fund of £1,800,000 was constituted and left in the hands of the
Caisse to be used in the highly improbable event of the land tax being
insufficient to meet the debt charges. Moreover, the Caisse started
under the new arrangement with a cash balance of £1,250,000. The
interest of the money lying in the hands of the Caisse goes towards
meeting the debt charges and thus reduces the amount needed from the
land tax. The bondholders gained a further material advantage by the
consent of the Egyptian government to delay the conversion of the loans,
which under previous arrangements they would have been free to do in
1905. It was agreed that there should be no conversion of the Guaranteed
or Privileged debts before 1910 and no conversion of the Unified debt
until 1912. Such were the chief provisions of the khedivial decree, and
in 1905, for the first time, it was possible to draw up the Egyptian
budget in accordance with the needs of the country and on perfectly
sound principles.

  In the system adopted in 1905 and since maintained, recurring and
  non-recurring expenditure were shown separately, the non-recurring
  expenditure being termed "special." At the same time a new General
  Reserve Fund was created, made up chiefly of the surpluses of the old
  General Reserve, Special Reserve, and Conversion Economies funds. This
  new fund started with a capital of £13,376,000 and was replenished by
  the surpluses of subsequent years, by the interest earned by its
  temporary investment, and by the sums accruing by the liquidation of
  the Daïra and Domains loans. During 1905 and 1906 about £3,000,000 was
  paid into the fund through the liquidation of the Daïra loan. From
  this fund, which had a balance of over £12,000,000 in 1906, is taken
  capital expenditure on remunerative public works in Egypt and the
  Sudan, and while the fund lasts the necessity for any new loan is
  avoided. The greater freedom of action attained as the result of the
  Anglo-French declaration of 1904 enabled the Egyptian government to
  advance simultaneously along the lines of fiscal reform and increased
  administrative expenditure. Thus in 1906 the salt monopoly was
  abolished at a cost to the revenue of £175,000, while the reduction of
  import duties on coal and other fuels, live-stock, &c., involved a
  further loss of £118,000, and an increase of over £1,000,000 in
  expenditure was budgeted for. The accounts for 1907 showed a total
  revenue of £E.16,368,000 and a total expenditure of £E.14,280,000, a
  surplus of £E.2,088,000. The annual growth of revenue for the previous
  five years averaged over £E.500,000. About one-third of the annual
  revenue is derived from the land tax; customs and tobacco duties yield
  about £3,000,000, and an equal or larger amount is received from
  railways and other revenue-earning departments. The chief items of
  ordinary expenditure are tribute and debt charges, the expenses of the
  civil administration, of the Egyptian army (between £500,000 and
  £600,000 yearly), of the revenue-earning departments and of pensions.

  It will be convenient here to summarize the position of the Egyptian
  debt at the close of 1905, that is at the period immediately following
  the liquidation of the Daïra loan. In a previous table it has been
  shown that under the Law of Liquidation of 1880 the total debt was
  £98,640,000. In 1883, the first complete year after the British
  occupation, the capital of the debt--then exclusively held by the
  public--was £96,457,000. In 1885 the Guaranteed loan, the nominal
  capital of which was £9,424,000, was issued, and in 1891 the debt
  reached its maximum figure of £106,802,000. At that period the charge
  for interest and sinking fund was £4,127,000. On the 31st of December
  1905 the total capital of the debt was as follows:--

    Guaranteed 3%            £7,849,000
    Preference 3½%           31,128,000
    Unified 4%               55,972,000
    Domains 4¼%               1,535,000
                             ----------
                     Total  £96,484,000

  The charge on account of interest and sinking fund was £3,709,000.
  Thus the capital of the debt in 1905 stood at almost the exact figure
  it did in 1883, although by borrowing and conversion operations nearly
  £17,000,000 had in the meantime been added to the capital. This
  reduction was brought about by surplus revenue, and by the operation
  of the sinking fund in the case of the Guaranteed loan, while
  £15,729,000 had been wiped out by the sale of Daïra and Domains
  property. These figures do not, however, indicate fully the prosperity
  of the country, for although the nominal amount of the capital was
  practically identical in 1883 and 1905, in the latter year the
  Egyptian government or the Caisse held stock (bought with surplus
  revenue) to the value of £8,770,000. The amount of debt in the hands
  of the public was therefore only £87,714,000, that is to say
  £8,743,000 less than in 1883, while the interest charge to be borne by
  the taxpayer of Egypt was £3,378,000, being £890,000 less than in
  1883. The charge amounts to about 40% of the national expenditure. On
  the other hand, Egypt is not now weighed down with a huge warlike
  expenditure. There is no navy to support, and the army costs but 7% of
  the total expenditure.

  AUTHORITIES.--A concise view of the financial situation in 1877 will
  be found in J. C. McCoan's _Egypt as it is_ (London n.d.). Mr Cave's
  report is printed in an appendix. The subsequent history of Egyptian
  finance is told in the following blue-books, &c.:--_Correspondence
  respecting the State Domains of Egypt_ (1883); _Statement of the
  Revenue and Expenditure of Egypt, together with a List of the Egyptian
  Bonds and the Charges for their Services_ (1885); _Reports on the
  Finances of Egypt_, by the British agent, yearly from 1888;
  _Convention ... relative to the Finance of Egypt, signed at London,
  March 18, 1885; Khedivial decree of the 28th November 1904; Compte
  général de l'administration des finances_, issued yearly at Cairo.
  Consult also the works of Lord Cromer, Lord Milner, and Sir A. Colvin
  cited under § History, last section.     (E. Go.; F. R. C.)


_The Egyptian Army._

  Early history.

The fellah soldier has been aptly likened to a bicycle, which although
incapable of standing up alone, is very useful while under the control
of a skilful master. It is generally believed that the successes gained
in the time of the Pharaohs were due to foreign legions; and from
Cambyses to Alexander, from the Ptolemies to Antony (Cleopatra), from
Augustus to the 7th century, throughout the Arab period, and from
Saladin's dynasty down to the middle of the 13th century, the military
power of Egypt was dependent on mercenaries. The Mamelukes (slaves),
imported from the eastern borders of the Black Sea and then trained as
soldiers, usurped the government of Egypt, and held it till 1517, when
the Ottomans began to rule. This form of government, speaking generally,
endured till the French invasion at the end of the 18th century. British
and Turkish troops drove the French out after an occupation of two
years, the British troops remaining till 1803. Then Mehemet Ali, a small
tobacconist of Kavala, Macedonia, coming with Albanian mercenaries, made
himself governor, and later (1811), by massacring the Mamelukes, became
the actual master of the country, and after seven years' war brought
Arabia under Egypt's rule. He subdued Nubia and Sennar in 1820-22; and
then, requiring a larger army, he obtained instructors from France. To
them were handed over 1000 Turks and Circassians to be trained as
officers, who later took command of 30,000 Sudanese. These died so
rapidly in Egypt from pneumonia[8] that Mehemet Ali conscripted over
250,000 fellahin, and in so arbitrary a fashion that many peasants
mutilated themselves to avoid the much-dreaded service. The common
practice was to place a small piece of nitrate of silver into the eye,
which was then kept tightly bandaged till the sight was destroyed.
Battalions were then formed of one-eyed men, and of soldiers who, having
cut off their right-hand fingers, were made to shoot from the left
shoulder. Every man who could not purchase exemption, with the exception
of those living in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, on becoming 19 years old
was liable nominally to 12 years' service; but many men were kept for 30
or 40 years, in spite of constant appeals. Nevertheless the experiment
succeeded. The docile, yet robust and hardy peasants, under their
foreign leaders, gained an unbroken series of successes in the first
Syrian War; and after the bloody battle of Konia (1832), where the raw
Turkish army was routed and the grand vizier taken prisoner, it was only
European intervention which prevented the Egyptian general, Ibrahim
Pasha, from marching unopposed to the Bosphorus. The defeat of the
Turkish army at Nizib (Nezeeb or Nisib), in the second Syrian War
(1839), showed that it was possible to obtain favourable military
results with Egyptians when stiffened by foreigners and well commanded.
Ibrahim, the hero of Konia, declared, however, that no native Egyptian
ought to rise higher than the rank of sergeant; and in the Syrian
campaigns nearly all the officers were Turks or Circassians, as were
several non-commissioned officers. In the cavalry and artillery many of
the privates were foreigners, numbers of the janissaries who escaped the
massacre at Stamboul (1832) having joined Mehemet Ali's army.

In the reign of Abbas, who succeeded Mehemet Ali, the Egyptian troops
were driven from Nejd, and the Wahhabi state recovered its independence.
The next viceroy, Said, began as an ardent soldier, but took to
agriculture, and at his death (1863) 3000 men only were retained under
arms. Ismail, on succeeding, immediately added 27,000 men, and in seven
years was able to put 100,000 men, well equipped, in the field. He sent
10,000 men to help to suppress a rebellion in Crete, and conquered the
greater part of the (Nile) Sudan; but an expedition of 11,000 men, sent
to Abyssinia under Prince Hasan and Rateb Pasha, well equipped with guns
and all essentials, was, in two successive disasters (1875 and 1876),
practically destroyed. The education of Egyptians in continental cities
had not produced the class of leaders who led the fellahin to victory at
Konia.

Ismail's exactions from the Egyptian peasantry reacted on the army,
causing discontent; and when he was tottering on the throne he
instigated military demonstrations against his own government, and, by
thus sapping the foundations of discipline, assisted Arabi's revolution;
the result was the battle of Tell el-Kebir, the British occupation, and
the disbandment of the army, which at that time in Egypt proper
consisted of 18,000 men. Ismail had collected 500 field-guns, 200
Armstrong cannon, and had created factories of warlike and other stores.
These latter were conducted extravagantly, and badly administered.


  Reorganization.

In January 1883, Major-General Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., was given
£200,000, and directed to spend it in raising a fellahin force of 6000
men for the defence of Egypt. He was assisted at first by 26 officers,
amongst whom were two who later became successively sirdars--Colonel F.
Grenfell, commanding a brigade, and Lieutenant H. Kitchener, R.E.,
second in command of the cavalry regiment. There were four batteries,
eight battalions, and a camel company. Each battalion of the 1st
infantry brigade had three British mounted officers, Turks and Egyptians
holding the corresponding positions in the battalions of the 2nd
Brigade. The sirdar selected these native officers from those of Arabi's
followers who had been the least prominent in the recent mutiny;
non-commissioned officers who had been drill-instructors in the old army
were recalled temporarily, but all the privates were conscripted from
their villages. The earlier merciless practice had been in theory
abolished by a decree based on the German system, published in 1880; but
owing to defective organization, and internal disturbances induced by
Khedive Ismail's follies, the law had not been applied, and the 6000
recruits collected at Cairo in January 1883 represented the biggest and
strongest peasants who could not purchase exemption by bribing the
officials concerned. The difficulties experienced in applying the 1880
decree were great, but the perseverance of British officers gave the
oppressed peasants, in 1885, an equitable law, which has been since
improved by the decree of 1900. General considerations later caused the
sirdar to allow exemption by payment of (Badalia) £20 before ballot.
This tax, which is popular amongst the peasantry, produced in 1906
£E.150,000, and over £250,000 in 1908. This is a marked indication of
the increasing prosperity of the fellahin. A portion of the badalia is
expended in the betterment of the soldier's position. He is no longer
drafted into the police on completing his army service, but goes free at
the end of five years with a gift of £E.20. The sirdar is allowed,
moreover, to use £20,000 per annum of the badalia for the improvement of
the education of the rank and file. As an experiment the police is now a
voluntary service, except in Alexandria and Cairo, for which cities
peasants are conscripted for the police under army conditions. The
recruiting superintending committee, travelling through districts,
supervise every ballot, and work under stringent rules which render
systematic bribery difficult. The recruits who draw unlucky numbers at
19 years of age are seldom called up till they are 23, when they are
summoned by name and escorted by a policeman to Cairo. To prevent
substitution on the journey each recruit wears a string girdle sealed in
lead. The periods of service are: with the colours, 5 years; in the
reserve, 5 years, during which time they may be called up for police
service, manoeuvres, &c. The pay is £E.3, 14s. per annum for all
services, and the liberal scale of rations of meat, bread and rice
remains as before in theory, but in practice the value of pay and food
received is greatly enhanced. So also with the pension and promotion
regulations. They were in 1882 sufficiently liberal on paper, but had
never been carried into effect.

The efforts of 48 American officers, who under Gen. C. P. Stone
zealously served Ismail, had entirely failed to overcome Egyptian
venality and intrigue; and in spite of the military schools, with a
comprehensive syllabus, the only perceptible difference between the
Egyptian officer and private in 1879 consisted, according to one of the
Americans, in the fact that the first was the product of the harem, and
the second of the field. Marshal Marmont, writing in 1839, mentions the
capacity of the Egyptians for endurance; and it was tested in 1883,
especially in the 2nd Brigade, since its officers (Turks and Egyptians),
anxious to excel as drill-masters, worked their men not only from morn
till eve, but also by lamplight in the corridors of the barracks. On the
31st March 1883, ten weeks after the arrival of the first draft of
recruits, about 5600 men went through the ceremonial parade movements as
practised by the British guards in Hyde Park, with unusual precision.
The British officers had acquired the words of command in Turkish, as
used in the old army, an attempt to substitute Egyptian words having
failed owing to lack of crisp, sharp-sounding words. As the Egyptian
brigadier, who had spent some years in Berlin, spoke German fluently,
and it was also understood by the senior British officers, that language
was used for all commands given by the sirdar on that special parade.
The British drill-book, minus about one-third of the least serviceable
movements, was translated by an English officer, and by 1900 every
necessary British official book had been published in English and
Arabic, except the new Recruiting Law (1885) and a manufacturing manual,
for which French and Arabic editions are in use. The discipline of the
old army had been regulated by a translation of part of the Code
Napoleon, which was inadequate for an Eastern army, and the sirdar
replaced it by the British Army Act of 1881, slightly modified, and
printed in Arabic.

The task undertaken by the small body of British officers was difficult.
There was not one point in the former administration of the army
acceptable to English gentlemen. That there had been no adequate
auxiliary departments, without which an army cannot move or be
efficient, was comparatively a minor difficulty. To succeed, it was
essential that the fellah should be taught that discipline might be
strict without being oppressive, that pay and rations would be fairly
distributed, that brutal usage by superiors would be checked, that
complaints would be thoroughly investigated, and impartial justice meted
out to soldiers of all ranks. An epidemic of cholera in the summer of
1883 gave the British officers their first chance of acquiring the
esteem and confidence of their men, and the opportunity was nobly
utilized. While the patient fellah, resigned to the decrees of the
Almighty, saw the ruling Egyptian class hurry away from Cairo, he saw
also those of his comrades who were stricken tenderly nursed, soothed in
death's struggles, and in many cases actually washed, laid out and
interred by their new self-sacrificing and determined masters. The
regeneration of the fellahin army dates from that epidemic.

When the Egyptian Army of the Delta was dispersed at Tell el-Kebir, the
khedive had 40,000 troops in the Sudan, scattered from Massawa on the
Red Sea to 1200 m. towards the west, and from Wadi Halfa, 1500 m.
southward to Wadelai, near Albert Nyanza. These were composed of Turks,
Albanians, Circassians and some Sudanese. Ten thousand fellahin,
collected in March 1883, mainly from Arabi's former forces, set out from
Duem, 100 m. south of Khartum, in September 1883, under Hicks Pasha, a
dauntless retired Indian Army officer, to vanquish the Mahdi. They
disappeared in the deserts of Kordofan, where they were destroyed by the
Mahdists about 50 m. south of El Obeid. In the wave of successful
rebellion, except at Khartum, few of the Egyptian garrisons were killed
when the posts fell, long residence and local family ties rendering easy
their assimilation in the ranks of the Mahdists.

Baker Pasha, with about 4000 constabulary, who were old soldiers,
attempted to relieve Tokar in February 1884. He was attacked by 1200
tribesmen and utterly routed, losing 4 Krupp guns, 2 machine guns and
3000 rifles. Only 1400 Egyptians escaped the slaughter.

The sirdar made an attempt to raise a battalion of Albanians, but the
few men obtained mutinied when ordered to proceed to the Sudan, and it
was deemed advisable, after the ringleaders had been executed, to
abandon the idea, and rely on blacks to stiffen the fellahin. Then the
9th (Sudanese) Battalion was created for service at Suakin, and four
others having been successively added, these (with one exception--at
Gedaref) have since borne the brunt of all the fighting which has been
done by the khedivial troops. The Egyptian troops in the operations near
Suakin behaved well; and there were many instances of personal gallantry
by individual soldiers. In the autumn of 1884, when a British expedition
went up the Nile to endeavour to relieve the heroic Gordon, besieged in
Khartum, the Egyptians did remarkably good work on the line of
communication from Assiut to Korti, a distance of 800 m., and the
training and experience thus gained were of great value in all
subsequent operations. The honesty and discipline of the fellah were
shown to be undoubtedly of a high order. When the crews of the
whale-boats were conveying stores, the forwarding officers tried to keep
brandy and such like medical comforts from the European crews, coffee
and tea from Canadian voyageurs and sugar from Kroo boys. The only
immaculate carrier was the Egyptian. A large sum of specie having failed
under British escort to reach Dongola, an equivalent sum was handed to
an Egyptian lieutenant of six months' service, with 10 men, and duly
reached its destination.

Twelve years later the standard of honesty was unimpaired, and the
British officers had imparted energy and activity into Egyptians of all
ranks. The intelligent professional knowledge of the native officers,
taught under British gentlemen, and the constant hard work cheerfully
rendered by the fellah soldiers, were the main factors of the success
achieved at Omdurman on the 2nd of September 1898. The large depots of
stores at Assuan, Halfa and Dongola could only be cursorily supervised
by British officers, and yet when the stores were received at the
advance depot the losses were infinitesimal.


  Character of Egyptian soldier.

By nature the fellah is unwarlike. Born in the valley of a great river,
he resembles in many respects the Bengali, who exists under similar
conditions; but the Egyptian has proved capable of greater improvement.
He is stronger in frame, and can undergo greater exertion. Singularly
unemotional, he stood steady at Tell el-Kebir after Arabi Pasha and all
his officers, from general to subaltern, had fled, and gave way only
when decimated by the British field artillery firing case shot. At El
Teb, however, in 1884 he allowed himself to be slaughtered by tribesmen
formerly despised, and only about one-fourth of the force under General
Valentine Baker escaped. Baker Pasha's force was termed constabulary,
yet his men were all old soldiers, though new to their gallant leader
and to the small band of their brave but strange British officers. Since
that fatal day, however, many of the fellahin have shown they are
capable of devoted conduct, and much has been done to raise in the
soldiers a sense of self-respect, and, in spite of centuries of
oppression, of veracity. The barrack-square drill was smart under the
old system, but there was no fire discipline, and all individuality was
crushed. Now both are encouraged, and the men, receiving their full
rations, are unsurpassable in endurance at work and in marching. All the
troops present in the surprise fight when the Dervish force was
destroyed at Firket in June 1896 had covered long distances, and one
battalion (the 10th Sudanese) accomplished 90 m. within 72 hours,
including the march back to railhead immediately after the action. The
troops under Colonel Parsons, Royal Artillery, who beat the Dervishes at
Gedaref, were so short of British officers that all orders were
necessarily given in Arabic and carried to commanders of units by Arabs.
While an Egyptian battalion was attacking in line, it was halted to
repel a rush from the rear, and front and rear ranks were simultaneously
engaged, firing in opposite directions--yet the fellahin were absolutely
steady; they shot well and showed no signs of trepidation. On the other
hand, neither was there any exultation after their victory. It has been
aptly said "the fellah would make an admirable soldier if he only
wished to kill some one!" The fellahin furnish three squadrons, five
batteries, three garrison artillery companies and nine battalions.

The well-educated Egyptian officer, with his natural aptitude for
figures, does subordinate regimental routine carefully, and works well
when supervised by men of stronger character. The ordinary Egyptian is
not self-reliant or energetic by nature, and, like most Eastern people,
finds it difficult to be impartial where duty and family or other
personal relations are in the balance. The black soldier has, on the
other hand, many of the finest fighting qualities. This was observed by
British officers, from the time of the preliminary operations about
Kosha and at the action near Ginnis in December 1885 down to the
brilliant operations in the pursuit of the Mahdists on the Blue Nile
after the action of Gedaref (subsequent to the battle of Omdurman), and
the fighting in Kordofan in 1899, which resulted in the death of the
khalifa and his amirs.

Black soldiers served in the army of Mehemet Ali, but their fighting
value was not then duly appreciated. Prior to the death of the khalifa,
many of his soldiers deserted to join their brethren who had been
captured by the sirdar's troops, during the gradual advance up the Nile.
After 1899 many more enlisted: the greater number were Shilluks and
Dinkas coming from the country between Fashoda and the equatorial
provinces, but a proportion came from the western borders of the Sudan,
and some from Wadai and Bornu. Many were absolute savages, difficult to
control, wayward and thoughtless like children. Sudanese are very
excitable and apt to get out of hand; unlike the fellahs they are not
fond of drill, and are slow to acquire it; but their dash, pugnacious
instincts and desire to close with an enemy, are valuable military
qualities. The Sudanese, moreover, shoot better than the fellahin, whose
eyesight is often defective. The Sudanese captain can seldom read or
write, and is therefore in the hands of the Egyptian-born company
quartermaster-sergeant as regards pay and clothing accounts. He is slow,
and as a rule has little knowledge of drill. Nevertheless he is
self-reliant, much respected by his men, and can be trusted in the field
to carry out any orders received from his British officer. The most
efficient companies in the Sudanese battalions are apparently those in
which the captain is a black and the lieutenants are Egyptians.

  In 1908 the Egyptian army, with a total establishment of 18,000,
  consisted of three squadrons of cavalry (one composed of Sudanese)
  each numbering 116 men; four batteries of field artillery and a Maxim
  battery, horses and mules being used, with a total strength of 1257 of
  all ranks; the camel corps, 626 of all ranks (fellahin and Sudanese);
  and nine fellahin and six Sudanese infantry battalions, 10,631 of all
  ranks. Every battalion receives two additional companies on
  mobilization and takes the field with six companies.

  The armament of the infantry is Martini-Henry rifle and bayonet; of
  the cavalry, lance, sword and carbine.

  There are seven gunboats on the Nile.

  The medical department (reorganized in 1883 by Surgeon-Major J. G.
  Rogers at the time of the cholera epidemic) controls in peace fourteen
  station hospitals, and in war furnishes a mobile field hospital to
  each brigade. There are also veterinary station hospitals. The supply
  department controls mills at Tura, Halfa and Khartum.

  The stringent system of selecting British officers, originated by the
  first sirdar in 1883, is shown by the fact that of the 24 employed in
  creating the army, 14 rose to be generals. The competition for
  employment in the army is still severe. In 1908 there were 140 British
  warrant and non-commissioned officers. Four of the fellahin battalions
  were officered by Orientals; in the other five, British officers
  commanded. Seven officers were employed with the artillery, six with
  the camel corps. Each of the Sudanese battalions had four British
  officers, and each squadron of cavalry one. Twelve medical and two
  veterinary officers are also employed departmentally, as well as
  officers acting as directors of supply, &c. Since the assumption of
  command by the third sirdar, Colonel (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, the
  ordnance, supply and engineer services have been separately
  administered, and a financial secretary is charged with the duty of
  preparing the budget, making contracts, &c. The total annual
  expenditure is £500,000.

  The reorganized military school system under British control, for
  supplying officers, dates from 1887. The course lasts for about two
  years, and two hundred students can be accommodated. After the
  reconquest of the Sudan one-fourth of the cadets in the military
  school of Cairo were Sudanese. Later, however, the Sudanese cadets
  were transferred to a branch school at Khartum.

  The army raised by the first sirdar in January 1883 was highly
  commended for its work on the line of communication in 1884-1885, and
  its artillery and camelry distinguished themselves in the action at
  Kirbekan in February 1885. Colonel Sir Francis Grenfell succeeded
  General Sir Evelyn Wood in March 1885, and while under his command the
  army continued to improve, and fought successful actions at Gemaiza,
  Argin, Toski and Tokar. At Toski the Dervish force was nearly
  annihilated. In March 1892 Colonel Kitchener succeeded General Sir
  Francis Grenfell, and four years later began his successful reconquest
  of the Sudan. In June 1896, owing to the indefatigable exertions of
  Major Wingate, a perfected system of secret intelligence enabled the
  sirdar to bring an overwhelming force of 6 to 1 against the Dervish
  outpost at Firket and destroy it. In September 1896 a skirmish at
  Hafir, with similarly successful tactics, gave the British commander
  the possession of Dongola. On the 7th of August 1897 Colonel Hunter
  surprised and annihilated a weak Dervish garrison at Abu Hamed, to
  which place, by the 31st of October 1897, a railway had been laid
  across the Nubian desert from Wadi Halfa, a distance of 230 m., the
  "record" construction of 5300 yds surveyed, embanked and laid in one
  day having been attained. On the 26th of December 1897 the Italian
  troops handed over Kassala to Colonel Parsons, R.A. On the 8th of
  April 1898 a British division, with the Egyptian army, destroyed the
  Dervish force under the amir Mahmud Ahmed, on the Atbara river. On the
  2nd of September the khalifa attacked the British-Egyptian troops at
  Kerreri (near Omdurman), and being routed, his men dispersed; Khartum
  was occupied, and on the 19th of September the Egyptian flag was
  rehoisted at Fashoda. On the 22nd of September 1898 Gedaref was taken
  from the amir Ahmed Fedil by Colonel Parsons, and on the 26th of
  December the army of Ahmed Fedil was finally defeated and dispersed
  near Roseires. The khalifa's army, reduced to an insignificant number,
  after several unsuccessful engagements withdrew to the west of the
  Nile, where it was attacked, on the 24th of November 1899, after a
  forced march by Colonel Wingate, and annihilated. The khalifa himself
  was killed; while the victor, who had joined the Egyptian army in 1883
  as aide-de-camp to the first sirdar, in December 1899 became the
  fourth sirdar, as Major-General Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
  D.S.O., &c.     (E. Wo.)


II. ANCIENT EGYPT

A. _Exploration and Research._--Owing to its early development of a high
civilization with written records, its wealth, and its preservative
climate, Egypt is the country which most amply repays archaeological
research. It is especially those long ages during which Egypt was an
independent centre of culture and government, before its absorption in
the Persian empire in the 6th century B.C., that make the most powerful
appeal to the imagination and can often justify this appeal by the
splendour of the monuments representing them. Later, however, the
history of Hellenism, the provincial history of the Roman empire, the
rise of Christianity and the triumph of Islam successively receive
brilliant illustration in Egypt.

As early as the 17th century travellers began to bring home specimens of
ancient Egyptian handiwork: a valuable stele from Sakkara of the
beginning of the Old Kingdom was presented to the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford in 1683. In the following century the Englishman R. Pococke
(1704-1765), the Dane F. L. Norden (1708-1742), both travelling in 1737,
and others later, planned, described or figured Egyptian ruins in a
primitive way and identified many of the sites with cities named in
classical authors. Napoleon's great military expedition in 1798 was
accompanied by a scientific commission including artists and
archaeologists, the results of whose labours fill several of the
magnificent volumes of the _Description de l'Égypte_. The antiquities
collected by the expedition, including the famous Rosetta stone, were
ceded to the British government at the capitulation of Alexandria, in
1801. Thereafter Mehemet Ali threw Egypt freely open to Europeans, and a
busy traffic in antiquities began, chiefly through the agency of the
consuls of different powers. From the year 1820 onwards the growth of
the European collections was rapid, and Champollion's decipherments (see
below, § "Language and Writing") of the hieroglyphic inscriptions,
dating from 1821, added fresh impetus to the fashion of collecting, in
spite of doubts as to their trustworthiness. In 1827 a combined
expedition led by Champollion and Rosellini was despatched by the
governments of France and Tuscany, and accomplished a great deal of
valuable work in copying scenes and inscriptions. But the greatest of
such expeditions was that of Lepsius, under the auspices of the
Prussian government, in 1842-1845. Its labours embraced not only Egypt
and Nubia (as far as Khartum) but also the Egyptian monuments in Sinai
and Syria; its immense harvest of material is of the highest value, the
new device of taking paper impressions or "squeezes" giving Lepsius a
great advantage over his predecessors, similar to that which was later
conferred by the photographic camera.

A new period was opened in Egyptian exploration in 1858 when Mariette
was appointed director of archaeological works in Egypt, his duties
being to safeguard the monuments and prevent their exploitation by
dealers. As early as 1835 Mehemet Ali had given orders for a museum to
be formed; little however, was accomplished before the whole of the
resulting collection was given away to the Archduke Maximilian of
Austria in 1855. Mariette, who was appointed by the viceroy Said Pasha
at the instance of the French government, succeeded in making his office
effective and permanent, in spite of political intrigues and the whims
of an Oriental ruler; he also secured a building on the island of Bulak
(Bulaq) for a viceregal museum in which the results of his explorations
could be permanently housed. Supported by the French interest, the
established character of this work as a department of the Egyptian
government (which also claims the ancient sites) has been fully
recognized since the British occupation. The "Service of Antiquities"
now boasts a large annual budget and employs a number of European and
native officials--a director, curators of the museum, European
inspectors and native sub-inspectors of provinces (at Luxor for Upper
Egypt and Nubia, at Assiut for Middle Egypt and the Fayum, at Mansura
for Lower Egypt, besides a European official in charge of the government
excavations at Memphis). The museum, no longer the property of an
individual, was removed in 1889 from the small building at Bulak to a
disused palace at Giza, and since 1902 has been established at
Kasr-en-Nil, Cairo, in a special building, of ample size and safe from
fire and flood. In the year 1881 the directorship of the museum was
temporarily undertaken by Prof. Maspero, who resumed it in 1899. The
admirably conducted Archaeological Survey of the portion of Nubia
threatened by the raising of the Assuan dam is in the charge of another
department--the Survey department, directed for many years up to 1909 by
Captain H. G. Lyons. Non-official agencies (supported by voluntary
contributions) for exploration in Egypt comprise the Egypt Exploration
Fund, started in London in 1881, with its two branches, viz. the
Archaeological Survey (1890) for copying and publishing the monuments
above ground, and the Graeco-Roman Branch (1897), well known through the
brilliant work in Greek papyri of B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt; and the
separate Research Account founded by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie in
London (University College) in 1896, and since 1905 called the British
School of Archaeology in Egypt (see especially MEMPHIS). The _Mission
archéologique française au Caire_, established as a school by the French
government in 1881, was re-organized in 1901 on a lavish scale under the
title _Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire_, and
domiciled with printing-press and library in a fine building near the
museum. As the result of an excellent bargain, it was afterwards removed
to the Munira palace in the south-east part of the city. An
archaeologist is attached to the German general consulate to look after
the interests of German museums, and is director of the German Institute
of Archaeology. The Orient-Gesellschaft (German Orient-Society) has
worked in Egypt since 1901 with brilliant results. Excavations and
explorations are also conducted annually by the agents of universities
and museums in England, America and Germany, and by private explorers,
concessions being granted generally on the terms that the Egyptian
government shall retain half of the antiquities discovered, while the
other half remains for the finders.

The era of scientific excavation began with Flinders Petrie's work at
Tanis in 1883. Previous explorers kept scientific aims in view, but the
idea of scientific archaeology was not realized by them. The procedure
in scientific excavation is directed to collecting and interpreting all
the information that can be obtained from the excavation as to the
history and nature of the site explored, be it town, temple, house,
cemetery or individual grave, wasting no evidence that results from it
touching the endless problems which scientific archaeology
affords--whether in regard to arts and crafts, manners and customs,
language, history or beliefs. This is a totally different thing from
mere hunting for inscriptions, statues or other portable objects which
will present a greater or less value in themselves even when torn from
their context. Such may, of course, form the greater part of the harvest
and working material of a scientific excavator; their presence is most
welcome to him, but their complete absence need be no bar to his
attainment of important historical results. The absence of scientific
excavation in Egypt was deplored by the Scottish archaeologist Alexander
Henry Rhind (1833-1863), as early as 1862. Since Flinders Petrie began,
the general level of research has gradually risen, and, while much is
shamefully bad and destructive, there is a certain proportion that fully
realizes the requirements of scientific archaeology.

_Antiquities, Sites, &c._--The remains for archaeological investigation
in Egypt may be roughly classified as material and literary: to the
latter belong the texts on papyri and the inscriptions, to the former
the sites of ancient towns with the temples, fortifications and houses;
remains of roads, canals, quarries and other matters falling within the
domain of ancient topography; the larger monuments, as obelisks,
statues, stelae, &c.; and finally the small antiquities--utensils,
clothes, weapons, amulets, &c. Where moisture can reach the antiquities
their preservation is no better in Egypt than it would have been in
other countries; for this reason all the papyri in the Delta have
perished unless they happen to have been charred by fire. A terrible
pest is a kind of termite which is locally abundant and has probably
visited most parts of Egypt at one time or another, destroying all dead
vegetable or animal material in the soil that was not specially
protected.

In Lower Egypt the cities built of crude brick were very numerous,
especially after the 7th century B.C., but owing to the value of stone
very few of their monuments have escaped destruction: even the mounds of
rubbish which marked their sites furnish a valuable manure for the
fields and in consequence are rapidly disappearing. Granite and other
hard stones, having but a limited use (for millstones and the like),
have the best chance of survival. At Bubastis, Tanis, Behbeit (Iseum)
and Heliopolis considerable stone remains have been discovered. In the
north of the Delta wherever salt marshes have prevented cultivation in
modern times, the mounds, such as those of Pelusium, still stand to
their full height, and the more important are covered with ruins of
brick structures of Byzantine and Arab date.

Middle and Upper Egypt were less busy and prosperous in the later ages
than Lower Egypt. There was consequently somewhat less consumption of
the old stone-work. Moreover, in many places equally good material could
be obtained without much difficulty from the cliffs on both sides of the
Nile. Yet even the buried portions of limestone buildings have seldom
been permitted to survive on the cultivated land; the Nubian sandstone
of Upper Egypt was of comparatively little value, and, generally
speaking, buildings in that material have fallen into decay rather than
been destroyed by quarrying.

Starting from Cairo and going southward we have first the great
pyramid-field, with the necropolis of Memphis as its centre; stretching
from Abu Roash on the north to Lisht on the south, it is followed by the
pyramid group of Dahshur, the more isolated pyramids of Medum and
Illahun, and that of Hawara in the Fayum. On the east bank are the
limestone quarries of Turra and Masara opposite Memphis. South of the
Fayum on the western border of the desert are the tombs of Deshasha,
Meir and Assiut, and on the east bank those of Beni Hasan, the rock-cut
temple of Speos Artemidos, the tombs of El Bersha and Sheikh Said, the
tombs and stelae of El Amarna with the alabaster quarries of Hanub in
the desert behind them, and the tombs of Deir el Gebrawi. Beyond Assiut
are the tombs of Dronka and Rifa, the temples of Abydos and Dendera, and
the tombs, &c., at Akhmim and Kasr es Saiyad. Farther south are the
stupendous ruins of Thebes on both sides of the river, the temple of
Esna, the ruins and tombs of El Kab, the temple of Edfu, the quarries of
Silsila and the temple of Ombos, followed by the inscribed rocks of the
First Cataract, the tombs and quarries of Assuan and the temples of
Philae.

[Illustration: EGYPT Scale, 1:8,400,000]

In Nubia, owing to the poverty of the country and its scanty population,
the proportion of monuments surviving is infinitely greater than in
Egypt. Here are the temples of Debod, the temple and quarries of
Kertassi, the temples of Kalabsha, Bet el Wali, Dendur, Gerf Husen,
Dakka, Maharaka, Es-Sebu'a, 'Amada and Derr, the grottos of Elles ya,
the tombs of Aniba, the temple of Ibrim, the great rock-temples of
Abu-Simbel, the temples at Jebel Adda and Wadi Halfa, the forts and
temples of Semna, the temples of Amara (Meroitic) and Soleb. Beyond are
the Ethiopian temples and pyramids of Jebel Barkal and the other
pyramids of Napata at Tangassi, &c., the still later pyramids of Meroe
at Begerawia, and the temples of Mesauwarat and Naga reaching to within
50 m. of Khartum.

Outside the Nile valley on the west are temples in the Great and Little
Oases and the Oasis of Ammon: on the east quarries and stelae on the
Hammamat road to the Red Sea, and mines and other remains at Wadi
Maghara and Serabit el Khadim in the Sinai peninsula. In Syria there are
tablets of conquest on the rocks at the mouth of the Nahr el Kelb.

Of the collections of Egyptian antiquities in public museums, those of
the British Museum, Leiden, Berlin, the Louvre, Turin were already very
important in the first half of the 19th century, also in a less degree
those of Florence, Bologna and the Vatican. Most of these have since
been greatly increased and many others have been created. By far the
largest collection in the world is that at Cairo. In America the museums
and universities of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and New
York have collections of greater or less interest. Besides these the
museums of Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Oxford are noteworthy in
Great Britain for their Egyptian antiquities, as are those of St
Petersburg, Vienna, Marseilles, Munich, Copenhagen, Palermo and Athens;
there are also collections in most of the British colonies. Private
collections are numerous.

_Literary Records._--In estimating the sources of information regarding
pre-Christian Egypt, the native sources, first opened to us by
Champollion, are infinitely the most important. With very few exceptions
they are contemporary with the events which they record. Of the
composition of history and the description of their own manners and
customs by the Egyptians for posterity, few traces have reached our day.
Consequently the information derived from their monuments, in spite of
their great abundance, is of a fortuitous character. For one early
papyrus that survives, many millions must have perished. If the journals
of accounts, the letters and business documents, had come down to us _en
masse_, they would no doubt have yielded to research the history and
life of Egypt day by day; but those that now represent a thousand years
of the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom together would not half fill an
ordinary muniment chest. A larger proportion of the records on stone
have survived, but that an event should be inscribed on stone depends on
a variety of circumstances and not necessarily on its importance. There
may seem to be a great abundance of Egyptian monuments, but they have to
cover an enormous space of time, and even in the periods which are best
represented, gravestones recording the names of private persons with a
prayer or two are scarcely material for history. A scrap of annals has
been found extending from the earliest times to the Vth Dynasty, as well
as a very fragmentary list of kings reaching nearly to the end of the
Middle Kingdom, to help out the scattered data of the other monuments.
As to manners and customs, although we possess no systematic
descriptions of them from a native source, the native artists and
scribes have presented us with exceptionally rich materials in the
painted and sculptured scenes of the tombs from the Old and Middle
Kingdoms and the New Empire. For the Deltaic dynasties these sources
fail absolutely, the scenes being then either purely religious or
conventional imitations of the earlier ones.

Fortunately the native records are largely supplemented by others:
valuable information comes from cuneiform literature, belonging to two
widely separated periods. The first group is contemporary with the
XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties and consists in the first place of the Tell
el Amarna tablets with others related to them, containing the reports of
governors of the Syrian possessions of Egypt, and the correspondence of
the kings of Babylon, Assur, Mitanni and Khatti (the Hittites) with the
Pharaohs. The sequel to this is furnished by Winckler's discovery of
documents relating to Rameses II. of the XIXth Dynasty in the Hittite
capital at Boghaz Keui (see also HITTITES and PTERIA). The other group
comprises the annals and inscriptions of the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon
and Assur-bani-pal, recording their invasions of Egypt under the XXVth
Dynasty. There are also a few references to Egypt of later date down to
the reign of Darius. In Hebrew literature the Pentateuch, the historical
books and the prophets alike contain scanty but precious information
regarding Egypt. Aramaic papyri written principally by Jews of the
Persian period (5th century B.C.) have been found at Syene and Memphis.

Of all the external sources the literary accounts written in Greek are
the most valuable. They comprise fragments of the native historian
Manetho, the descriptions of Egypt in Herodotus and Diodorus, the
geographical accounts of Strabo and Ptolemy, the treatise of Plutarch on
Isis and Osiris and other monographs or scattered notices of less
importance. Our knowledge of the history of Alexander's conquest, of the
Ptolemies and of the Roman occupation is almost entirely derived from
Greek sources, and in fact almost the same might be said of the history
of Egypt as far back as the beginning of the XXVIth Dynasty. The
non-literary Greek remains in papyri and inscriptions which are being
found in great abundance throw a flood of light on life in Egypt and the
administration of the country from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus to
the Arab conquest. On the other hand, papyri and inscriptions in Latin
are of the greatest rarity, and the literary remains in that language
are of small importance for Egypt.

Arabic literature appears to be entirely barren of authentic information
regarding the earlier condition of the country. Two centuries of
unchallenged Christianity had broken almost completely the traditions of
paganism, even if the Moslems had been willing to consider them, either
in their fanciful accounts of the origins of cities, &c., or elsewhere.

B. _The Country in Ancient Times._--The native name of Egypt was Kemi
(KM·T), clearly meaning "the black land," Egypt being so called from the
blackness of its alluvial soil (cf. Plut. _De Is. et Os._ cap. 33): in
poetical inscriptions _Kemi_ is often opposed to _Toshri_, "the red
land," referring to the sandy deserts around, which however, would
probably be included in the term Kemi in its widest sense. Egypt is
called in Hebrew Mizraim, [Hebrew: Mizraim], possibly a dual form
describing the country in reference to its two great natural and
historical divisions of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: but Mizraim
(poetically sometimes Mazor) often means Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt being
named Pathros, "the south land." In Assyrian the name was Musri, Misri:
in Arabic it is Misr, [Arabic: Misr], pronounced Masr in the vulgar
dialect of Egypt. These names are certainly of Semitic origin and
perhaps derive from the Assyrian with the meaning "frontier-land" (see
MIZRAIM). Winckler's theory of a separate Musri immediately south of
Palestine is now generally rejected (see, for instance, Ed. Meyer, _Die
Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme_, 455). The Greek [Greek: Aigyptos]
(Aegyptus) occurs as early as Homer; in the _Odyssey_ it is the name of
the Nile (masc.) as well as of the country (fem.): later it was confined
to the country. Its origin is very obscure (see Pietschmann in
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie_, s.v. "Aigyptos"). Brugsch's
derivation from Hakeptah, a name of the northern capital, Memphis,
though attractive, is unconfirmed.

Egypt normally included the whole of the Nile valley from the First
Cataract to the sea; pure Egyptians, however, formed the population of
Lower Nubia above the Cataract in prehistoric times; at some periods
also the land was divided into separate kingdoms, while at others Egypt
stretched southward into Nubia, and it generally claimed the
neighbouring Libyan deserts and oases on the west and the Arabian
deserts on the east to the shore of the Red Sea, with Sinai and the
Mediterranean coast as far as Rhinocorura (El Arish). The physical
features in ancient times were essentially the same as at the present
day. The bed of the Nile was lower: it appears to have risen by its own
deposits at a rate of about 4 in. in a century. In the north of the
Delta, however, there was a sinking of the land, in consequence of which
the accumulations on some of the ancient sites there extend below the
present sea-level. On the other hand at the south end of the Suez canal
the land may have risen bodily, since the head of the Gulf of Suez has
been cut off by a bank of rock from the Bitter lakes, which were
probably joined to it in former days. The banks of the Nile and the
islands in it are subject to gradual but constant alteration--indeed,
several ancient sites have been much eroded or destroyed--and the main
volume of the stream may in course of time be diverted into what has
previously been a secondary channel. According to the classical writers,
the mouths or branches of the Nile in the Delta were five in number
(seven including two that were artificial): now there are only two. In
Upper Egypt the main stream tended as now to flow along the eastern edge
of the valley, while to the west was a parallel stream corresponding to
the Bahr Yusuf. From the latter a canal or branch led to the Lake of
Moeris, which, until the 3rd century B.C., filled the deep depression of
the Fayum, but is now represented only by the strongly brackish waters
of the Birket el Kerun, left in the deepest part. The area of alluvial
land has probably not changed greatly in historic times. The principal
changes that have occurred are due to the grip which civilization has
taken upon the land in the course of thousands of years, often weakening
but now firmer than ever. In early days no doubt the soil was cultivated
in patches, but gradually a great system of canals was organized under
the control of the central government, both for irrigation and for
transport. The wild flora of the alluvial valley was probably always
restricted and eventually was reduced almost to the "weeds of
cultivation," when every acre of soil, at one period of the year under
water, and at another roasted under the burning heat of a semi-tropical
sun, was carefully tilled. The acacia abounded on the borders of the
valley, but the groves were gradually cut down for the use of the
carpenter and the charcoal-burner. The desert was full of wild life, the
balance of nature being preserved by the carnivorous animals preying on
the herbivorous; trees watered by soakage from the Nile protected the
undergrowth and encouraged occasional rainfall. But this balance was
upset by the early introduction of the goat and later of the camel,
which destroyed the sapling trees, while the grown ones fell to the axe
of the woodcutter. Thus in all probability the Egyptian deserts have
become far poorer in animals and trees than they were in primitive
times. Much of Lower Egypt was left in a wilder state than Upper Egypt.
The marshy lands in the north were the resort of fishermen and fowlers,
and the papyrus, the cultivation of which was a regular industry,
protected an abundance of wild life. The abandonment of papyrus culture
in the 8th century A.D., the neglect of the canals, and the inroads of
the sea, have converted much of that country into barren salt marsh,
which only years of draining and washing can restore to fertility.

The rich alluvial deposits of the Nile which respond so readily to the
efforts of the cultivator ensured the wealth of the country. Moulded
into brick, without burning, this black clay also supplied the common
wants of the builder, and even the palaces of the greatest kings were
constructed of crude brick. For more lasting and ambitious work in
temples and tombs the materials could be obtained from the rocks and
deserts of the Nile valley. The chief of these was limestone of varying
degrees of fineness, composing the cliffs which lined the valley from
the apex of the Delta to the neighbourhood of El Kab; the best quality
was obtained on the east side opposite Memphis from the quarries of
Turra and Masara. From El Kab southward its place was taken by Libyan
sandstone, soft and easily worked, but unsuitable for fine sculpture.
These two were the ordinary building stones. In the limestone was found
the flint or chert used for weapons and instruments in early times. For
alabaster the principal quarry was that of Hanub in the desert 10 m.
behind El Amarna, but it was obtained elsewhere in the limestone region,
including a spot near Alexandria. A hard and fine-grained quartzite
sandstone was quarried at Jebel Ahmar behind Heliopolis, and basalt was
found thence along the eastern edge of the Delta to near the Wadi
Tumilat. Red granite was obtained from the First Cataract, breccia and
diorite were quarried from very early times in the Wadi Hammamat, on the
road from Coptos to the Red Sea, and porphyry was brought, chiefly in
Roman times but also in the prehistoric age, from the same region at
Jebel Dokhan.

Egypt was poor in metals. Gold was obtained chiefly from Nubia: iron was
found in small quantities in the country and at one time was worked in
the neighbourhood of Assuan. Some copper was obtained in Sinai. Of
stones that were accounted precious Sinai produced turquoise and the
Egyptian deserts garnet, carnelian and jasper.

The native supply of wood for industrial purposes was exceedingly bad:
there was no native wood long enough and straight enough to be used in
joiners' work or sculpture without fitting and patching: palm trees were
abundant, and if the trees could be spared, their split stems could be
used for roofing. For boatbuilding papyrus stems and acacia wood were
employed, and for the best work cedar-wood was imported from Lebanon.

Egypt was isolated by the deserts and the sea. The Nile valley afforded
a passage by ship or on foot into Nubia, where, however, little wealth
was to be sought, though gold and rarities from the Sudan, such as ivory
and ebony, came that way and an armed raid could yield a good spoil in
slaves and cattle. The poverty-stricken and barbarous Nubians were
strong and courageous, and gladly served in Egypt as mercenary soldiers
and police. Through the oases also ran paths to the Sudan by which the
raw merchandise of the southern countries could be brought to Egypt.
Eastward, roads led through the Arabian mountains to the Red Sea, whence
ships made voyages to the incense-bearing land of Puoni (Punt) on the
Somali coast of Africa, rich also in gold and ivory. The mines of Sinai
could be reached either by sea or by land along the route of the Exodus.
The roads to Syria skirted the east border of the Delta and then
followed the coast from near Pelusium through El Arish and Gaza. A
secondary road branched off through the Wadi Tumilat, whence the ways
ran northwards to Syria and southwards to Sinai. On the Libyan side the
oasis of Siwa could be reached from the Lake of Moeris or from Terrana
(Terenuthis), or by the coast route which also led to the Cyrenaica. The
Egyptians had some traffic on the Mediterranean from very remote times,
especially with Byblus in Phoenicia, the port for cedar-wood.

Of the populations surrounding Egypt the negroes (Nehsi) in the south
(Cush) were the lowest in the scale of civilization: the people of Puoni
and of Libya (the Tehen, &c.) were pale in colour and superior to the
negroes, but still show no sign of a high culture. The Syrians and the
Keftiu, the latter now identified with the Cretans and other
representatives of the Aegean civilization, are the only peoples who by
their elaborate clothing and artistic products reveal themselves upon
the ancient Egyptian monuments as the equals in culture of the Egyptian
nation.

The Egyptians seem to have applied no distinctive name to themselves in
early times: they called themselves proudly _romi_ (RMTW), i.e. simply
"men," "people," while the despised races around them, collectively
H'SWT, "desert-peoples," were distinguished by special appellations.
The races of mankind, including the Egyptians, were often called the
Nine Archers. Ultimately the Egyptians, when their insularity
disappeared under the successive dominations of Ethiopia, Assyria and
Persia, described themselves as _rem-n-Kemi_, "men of Egypt." Whence the
population of Egypt as we trace it in prehistoric and historic times
came, is not certain. The early civilization of Egypt shows remarkable
coincidences with that of Babylonia, the language is of a Semitic type,
the religion may well be a compound of a lower African and a higher
Asiatic order of ideas. According to the evidence of the mummies, the
Egyptians were of slender build, with dark hair and of Caucasian type.
Dr Elliott Smith, who has examined thousands of skeletons and mummies of
all periods, finds that the prehistoric population of Upper Egypt, a
branch of the North African-Mediterranean-Arabian race, changed with the
advent of the dynasties to a stronger type, better developed than before
in skull and muscle. This was apparently due to admixture with the Lower
Egyptians, who themselves had been affected by Syrian immigration.
Thereafter little further change is observable, although the rich lands
of Egypt must have attracted foreigners from all parts. The Egyptian
artists of the New Empire assigned distinctive types of feature as well
as of dress to the different races with which they came into contact,
Hittites, Syrians, Libyans, Bedouins, negroes, &c.

The people of Egypt were not naturally fierce or cruel. Intellectually,
too, they were somewhat sluggish, careless and unbusinesslike. In the
mass they were a body of patient labourers, tilling a rich soil, and
hating all foreign lands and ways. The wealth of their country gave
scope for ability within the population and also attracted it from
outside: it enabled the kings to organize great monumental enterprises
as well as to arm irresistible raids upon the inferior tribes around.
Urged on by necessity and opportunity, the Egyptians possessed
sufficient enterprise and originating power to keep ahead of their
neighbours in most departments of civilization, until the more warlike
empires of Assyria and Persia overwhelmed them and the keener intellects
of the Greeks outshone them in almost every department. The debt of
civilization to Egypt as a pioneer must be considerable, above all
perhaps in religious thought. The moral ideals of its nameless teachers
were high from an early date: their conception of an after-life was
exceedingly vivid: the piety of the Egyptians in the later days was a
matter of wonder and scoffing to their contemporaries; it is generally
agreed that certain features in the development of Christianity are to
be traced to Egypt as their birthplace and nidus.

  For researches into the ethnography of Egypt and the neighbouring
  countries, see W. Max Müller, _Asien und Europa nach den altäg.
  Inschriften_ (Leipzig, 1893), _Egyptological Researches_ (Washington,
  1906); for measurements of Egyptian skulls, Miss Fawcett in
  _Biometrika_ (1902); A. Thomson and D. Randall-MacIver, _The Ancient
  Races of the Thebaid_ (Oxford, 1905) (cf. criticisms in _Man_, 1905;
  and for comparisons with modern measurements, C. S. Myers, _Journ.
  Anthropological Institute_, 1905, 80). W. Flinders Petrie has
  collected and discussed a series of facial types shown in prehistoric
  and early Egyptian sculpture, _Journal Anthropological Institute_,
  1901, 248. For Elliott Smith's results see _The Cairo Scientific
  Journal_, No. 30, vol. iii., March 1909.

_Divisions._--In ancient times Egypt was divided into two regions,
representing the kingdoms that existed before Menes. Lower Egypt,
comprising the Delta and its borders, formed the "North Land," _To-meh_,
and reached up the valley to include Memphis and its province or "nome,"
while the remainder of the Egyptian Nile valley was "the South," _Shema_
(SM'W [HRGs: sw-w-a]). The south, if only as the abode of the sun,
always had the precedence over the north in Egypt, and the west over the
east. Later the two regions were known respectively as P-to-res
(Pathros), "the south land," and P-to-meh, "the north land." In
practical administration this historic distinction was sometimes
observed, at others ignored, but in religious tradition it had a firm
hold. In Roman times a different system marked off a third region,
namely Middle Egypt, from the point of the Delta southward.
Theoretically, as its name Heptanomis implies, this division contained
seven nomes, actually from the Hermopolite on the south to the Memphite
on the north (excluding the Arsinoite according to the papyri). Some
tendency to this existed earlier. Egypt to the south of the Heptanomis
was the Thebais, called P-tesh-en-Ne, "the province of Thebes," as early
as the XXVIth Dynasty. The Thebais was much under the influence of the
Ethiopian kingdom, and was separated politically in the troubled times
of the XXIIIrd Dynasty, though the old division into Upper and Lower
Egypt was resumed in the XXVIth Dynasty.

If Upper and Lower Egypt represented ancient kingdoms, the nomes have
been thought to carry on the traditions of tribal settlements. They are
found in inscriptions as early as the end of the IIIrd Dynasty, and the
very name of Thoth, and that of another very ancient god, are derived
from those of two contiguous nomes in Lower Egypt. The names are written
by special emblems placed on standards, such as an ibis, [HRG: G26], a
jackal [HRG: E15:R12], a hare [HRG: wn:R12], a feathered crown [HRG:
Swty:R12], a sistrum [HRG: zSSt:R12], a blade [HRG: T30:R12], &c.,
suggesting tribal badges. Some nomes having a common badge but
distinguished as "nearer" or "further," i.e. "northern" or "southern,"
have simply been split, as they are contiguous: in one case, however,
corresponding "eastern" and "western" Harpoon nomes are widely separated
on opposite sides of the Delta. In a few cases, such as "the West," "the
Beginning of the East," it is obvious that the names are derived solely
from their geographical situation. It is quite possible that the
divisions are geographical in the main, but it seems likely that there
were also religious, tribal and other historical reasons for them. How
their boundaries were determined is not certain: in Upper Egypt in many
cases a single nome embraced both sides of the river. The number and
nomenclature of the nomes were never absolutely fixed. In temples of
Ptolemaic and Roman age the full series is figured presenting their
tribute to the god, and this series approximately agrees with the
scattered data of early monuments. The normal number of the nomes in the
sacred lists appears to be 42, of which 22 belonged to Upper Egypt and
20 to Lower Egypt. In reality again these nome-divisions were treated
with considerable freedom, being split or reunited and their boundaries
readjusted. Each nome had its metropolis, normally the seat of a
governor or nomarch and the centre of its religious observances. During
the New Empire, except at the beginning, the nomes seem to have been
almost entirely ignored: under the Deltaic dynasties (except of course
in the traditions of the sacred writing) they were named after the
metropolis, as "the province (_tosh_) of Busiris," "the province of
Sais," &c.: hence the Greek names [Greek: Bousiritês nomos], &c. The
Arsinoite nome was added by the Ptolemies after the draining of the Lake
of Moeris (q.v.), and in the later Ptolemaic and the Roman times many
changes and additions to the list must have been made. In Christian
texts the "provinces" appear to have been very numerous.

  See H. Brugsch, _Geographische Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler_
  (3 vols., Leipzig, 1857-1860), and for the nomes on monuments of the
  Old Kingdom, N. de G. Davies, _Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep_
  (London, 1901), p. 24 et sqq.

_King and Government._--The government of Egypt was monarchical. The
king (for titles see PHARAOH) was the head of the hierarchy: he was
himself divine and is often styled "the good god," and was the proper
mediator between gods and men. He was also the dispenser of office,
confirmer of hereditary titles and estates and the fountain of justice.
Oaths were generally sworn by the "life" of the king. The king wore
special headdresses and costumes, including the crowns of Upper [HRG:
HDt] and Lower Egypt [HRG: N] (often united [HRG: S5]), and the cobra
upon his forehead. Females were admitted to the succession, but very few
instances occur before the Cleopatras. The most notable Pharaonic queen
in her own right was Hatshepsut in the XVIIIth Dynasty, but her reign
was ignored by the later rulers even of her own family. A certain
Nitocris of about the VIIIth Dynasty and Scemiophris of the XIIth
Dynasty are in the lists, but are quite obscure. Yet inheritance through
the female line was fully recognized, and marriage with the heiress
princess was sought by usurpers to legitimate the claims of their
offspring. Often, especially in the XIIth Dynasty, the king associated
his heir on the throne with him to ensure the succession.

From time to time feudal conditions prevailed: the great landowners and
local princes had establishments of their own on the model of the royal
court, and were with difficulty kept in order by the monarch. In rare
cases during the Middle Kingdom (inscriptions in the tomb of Ameni at
Beni Hasan, graffiti in the quarries of Hanub) documents were dated in
the years of reign of these feudatory nobles. Under the Empire all power
was again centralized in the hands of the Pharaoh. The apportionment of
duties amongst the swarm of officials varied from age to age, as did
their titles. Members of the royal family generally held high office.
Under the Empire Egypt was administered by a vast bureaucracy, at the
head of which, responsible to the king, was the vizier, or sometimes two
viziers, one for Upper Egypt, the other for Lower Egypt (in which case
the former, stationed at Thebes, had the precedence). The duties of the
vizier and the procedure in his court are detailed in a long inscription
which is repeated in three tombs of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Thebes
(Breasted, _Records_, ii. § 663 et seqq.). The strictest impartiality
was enjoined upon him, and he was advised to hold aloof from the people
in order to preserve his authority. The office of vizier was by no means
a sinecure. All the business of the country was overlooked by
him--treasury, taxation, army, law-courts, expeditions of every kind.
Egypt was the vast estate of Pharaoh, and the vizier was the steward of
it.

_Army._--The youth of Egypt was liable to be called upon for service in
the field under the local chiefs. Their training consisted of gymnastic
and warlike exercises which developed strength and discipline that would
be as useful in executing public works and in dragging large monuments
as in strictly military service. They were armed in separate companies
with bows and arrows, spears, daggers and shields, and the officers
carried battle-axes and maces. The army, commanded in chief by Una under
the VIth Dynasty for raids in Sinai or Palestine, comprised levies from
every part of Egypt and from Nubia, each under its own leader. Under the
New Empire, when Egypt was almost a military state, the army was a more
specialized institution, the art of war in siege and strategy had
developed, divisions were formed with special standards, there were
regiments armed with battle-axes and scimitars, and chariots formed an
essential part of the host. Egyptian cavalry are not represented upon
the monuments, and we hear little of such at any time. Herodotus divides
the army into two classes, the Calasiries and the Hermotybies; these
names, although he was not aware of it, mean respectively horse- and
foot-soldiers, but it is possible that the former name was only
traditional and had characterized those who fought from chariots, a mode
of warfare that was obsolete in Herodotus's own day: as a matter of fact
both classes are said to have served on the warships of Xerxes' fleet.

_Arms and Armour._--From the contents of graves and other remains, and
the sculptured and painted scenes, an approximate idea can be obtained
of the weapons of the Egyptians at all periods from the prehistoric age
onwards. Only a few points are here noted. Stone mace-heads are found in
the earliest cemeteries, together with flint implements that may be the
heads of lances, &c., and thin leaf-shaped daggers of bronze. Stone
arrow-heads are common on the surface of the desert. Thin bronze
arrow-heads appear at an early date; under the Empire they are stouter
and furnished with a tang, and later still, towards the Greek period,
they are socketed (often three-sided), or, if of iron, still tanged. The
wooden club, a somewhat primitive weapon, seems to have been considered
characteristic of foreigners from very early times, and, in scenes
dating from the Middle Kingdom, belong principally to the levies from
the surrounding barbarians. The dagger grew longer and stouter, but the
sword made its appearance late, probably first in the hands of the
_Sherdana_ (Sardinian?), mercenaries of the time of Rameses II. A
peculiar scimitar, _khopsh_ [HRG], is characteristic of the Empire.
Slings are first heard of in Egyptian warfare in the 8th century B.C.
The chariot was doubtless introduced with the horse in the Hyksos
period; several examples have been discovered in the tombs of the New
Kingdom. Shields were covered with ox-hide and furnished with round
sighting-holes above the middle. Cuirasses of bronze scales were worn by
the kings and other leaders. The linen corslets of the Egyptian soldiery
at a later time were famous, and were adopted by the Persian army.
According to the paintings of the Middle Kingdom in the tombs of Beni
Hasan, the battlements of brick fortresses were attacked and wrenched
away with long and massive spears. No siege engines are depicted, even
in the time of the Empire, and the absence of original representations
after the XXth Dynasty renders it difficult to judge the advances made
in the art of war during the first half of the last millennium B.C. The
inscription of Pankhi, however, proves that in the 8th century
approaches and towers were raised against the walls of besieged cities.

_Priesthood._--The priesthood was in a great degree hereditary, though
perhaps not essentially so. In each temple the priests were divided into
four orders (until Ptolemy Euergetes added a fifth), each of which
served in turn for a lunar month under the chief priest or prophet. They
received shares of the annual revenues of the temple in kind, consisting
of linen, oil, flesh, bread, vegetables, wine, beer, &c. The "divine
servants" or "prophets" had residences assigned them in the temple area.
In late times the priests were always shaven, and paid the greatest
attention to cleanliness and ceremonial purity already implied in their
ancient name. Fish and beans then were abhorred by them. Among the
priests were the most learned men of Egypt, but probably many were
illiterate. For the Hellenistic period see W. Otto, _Priester und Tempel
im hellenistichen Ägypten_ (Leipzig, 1905 foll.).

  For ancient Egyptian life and civilization in all departments, the
  principal work is Ad. Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, translated by H.
  M. Tirard (London, 1894), (the original _Ägypten und ägyptisches Leben
  im Altertum_, 2 vols., was published in 1885 at Tübingen); G. Maspero,
  _Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, translated by A. P. Morton
  (London, 1892), (_Lectures historiques_, Paris, 1890); also J. G.
  Wilkinson, _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_, new ed. by
  S. Birch (3 vols., London, 1878). The annual _Archaeological Reports_
  of the Egypt Exploration Fund contain summaries of the work done each
  year in the several departments of research.

  Of the innumerable publications of Egyptian monuments, scenes and
  inscriptions, C. R. Lepsius, _Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien_
  (Berlin, 1849-1859), and Memoirs of the _Archaeological Survey_ of the
  Egypt Exploration Fund, may be specified. For antiquities in museums
  there is the sumptuous _Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes
  du musée de Caire_; for excavations the Memoirs of the Egypt
  Exploration Fund, of the Research Account, of the British School of
  Archaeology, of the Liverpool School of Archaeology, of the Deutsche
  Orient-Gesellschaft, of the Hearst Egyptian Expedition, of the
  Theodore M. Davis excavations (Tombs of the Kings).

_Trade and Money._--There is little evidence to show how buying and
selling were carried on in ancient Egypt. A unique scene in a tomb of
the IVth Dynasty, however, shows men and women exchanging commodities
against each other--fish, fish-hooks, fans, necklaces, &c. Probably this
was a market in the open air such as is held weekly at the present time
in every considerable village. Rings of metal, gold, silver and bronze
played some part in exchange, and from the Hyksos period onwards formed
the usual standards by which articles of all kinds might be valued. In
the XVIIIth Dynasty the value of meat, &c., was reckoned in gold;
somewhat later copper seems the commonest standard, and under the
Deltaic dynasties silver. But barter must have prevailed much longer.
The precious metals were kept in the temples under the tutelage of the
deities. During the XXVth and XXVIth Dynasties silver of the treasury of
Harshafe (at Heracleopolis Magna) was commonly prescribed in contracts,
and in the reign of Darius we hear of silver of the treasury of Ptah (at
Memphis). Aryandes, satrap of Egypt, is said by Herodotus to have been
punished by Darius for coining money of equal fineness with that of the
king in Persia: thus coinage had then begun in Egypt. But the early
coins that have been found there are mainly Greek, and especially
Athenian, and it was not until the introduction of a regular currency in
the three metals under the Ptolemies that much use was made of coined
money.

Corn was the staple produce of Egypt and may have been exported
regularly, and especially when there was famine in other countries. In
the Tell el-Amarna letters the friendly kings ask Pharaoh for "much
gold." Papyrus rolls and fine linen were good merchandise in Phoenicia
in the 10th century B.C. From the earliest times Egypt was dependent on
foreign countries to supply its wants in some degree. Vessels were
fashioned in foreign stone as early as the Ist Dynasty. All silver must
have been imported, and all copper except a little that the Pharaohs
obtained from the mines of Sinai. Cedar wood was brought from the
forests of Lebanon, ivory, leopard skins and gold from the south, all
kinds of spices and ingredients of incense from Somaliland and Arabia,
fine linen and beautifully worked vessels from Syria and the islands.
Such supplies might be obtained by forcible raiding or as tribute of
conquered countries, or perhaps as the free offerings of simple savages
awed by the arrival of ships and civilized well-armed crews, or again by
royal missions in which rich gifts on both sides were exchanged, or
lastly by private trading. For deciding how large a share was due to
trade, there is almost no evidence. But there are records of expeditions
sent out by the king to obtain the rarities of different countries, and
the hero of the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor was upon this quest.
Egyptian objects of the age of the XVIIIth Dynasty are found in the
Greek islands and on the mainland among remains of the Mycenaean epoch,
and on the other hand the products of the workshops of Crete and other
centres of that culture are found in Egypt and are figured as "tribute
of the Keftiu" in the tomb-paintings, though we have no information of
any war with or conquest of that people. It must be a case of trade
rather than tribute here and in like instances. According to the papyrus
of Unamun at the end of the weak XXth Dynasty payment for cedar was
insisted on by the king of Byblus from the Egyptian commissioner, and
proofs were shown to him of payment having been made even in the more
glorious times of Egypt. Trade both internal and external must have been
largely in the hands of foreigners. It is impossible to say at what
period Phoenician traffic by sea with Egypt began, but it existed as
early as the IIIrd Dynasty. In the time of Herodotus much wine was
imported from Syria and Greece. Amasis II. (c. 570 B.C.) established
Naucratis as the centre of Greek trade in Egypt. Financial transactions
by Jews settled at the southern extremity of Egypt, at Assuan, are found
as early as the reign of Artaxerxes.

_Hunting, Fishing, &c._--In the desert hunting was carried on by hunters
with bows and arrows, dogs and nets to check the game. Here in ancient
times were found the oryx, addax, ibex, gazelle, bubale, ostrich, hyena
and porcupine, more rarely the wild ox and wild sheep (_O.
tragelaphus_). All of these were considered fit for the table. The lion,
leopard and jackal were not eaten. Pigeons and other birds were caught
in traps, and quails were netted in the fields and on the sea-shore. In
the papyrus marshes the hippopotamus was slain with harpoons, the wild
boar, too, was probably hunted, and the sportsman brought down wild-fowl
with the boomerang, or speared or angled for fish. Enormous quantities
of wild-fowl of many sorts were taken in clap-nets, to be preserved in
jars with salt. Fish were taken sometimes in hand-nets, but the
professional fishermen with their draw-nets caught them in shoals. The
fishing industry was of great importance: the annual catch in the Lake
of Moeris and its canal formed an important part of the Egyptian
revenue. The fish of the Nile, which were of many kinds (including
mullets, &c., which came up from the sea), were split and dried in the
sun: others were salted and so preserved. A supply of sea fish would be
obtained off the coast of the Delta and at the mouth of the Lake
Serbonis.

_Farming, Horticulture, &c._--The wealth of Egypt lay in its
agriculture. The regular inundations, the ease of irrigating the rich
alluvial flats, and the great heat of the sun in a cloudless sky, while
limiting the natural flora, gave immense opportunities to the
industrious farmer. The normal rise of the Nile was sixteen cubits at
the island of Roda, and two cubits more or less caused a failure of the
harvest. In the paintings we see gardens irrigated by handbuckets and
_shadufs_; the latter (buckets hung on a lever-pole) were probably the
usual means of raising water for the fields in ancient times, and still
are common in Egypt and Nubia, although water-wheels have been known
since the Ptolemaic age, if not earlier. Probably a certain amount of
cultivation was possible all the year round, and there was perhaps a
succession of harvests; but there was a pause after the main harvests
were gathered in by the end of April, and from then till June was the
period in which taxes were collected and loans were repaid. Under the
Ptolemaic régime the records show a great variety of crops, wheat and
barley being probably the largest (see B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt,
_Tebtunis Papyri_, i. 560; J. P. Mahaffy and J. G. Smyly, _Petrie
Papyri_, iii. p. 205). Earlier the _boti_, in Greek [Greek: olyra]
(spelt? or durra?) was the main crop, and earlier again inferior
varieties of wheat and barley took the lead, with _boti_ apparently in
the second place. The bread was mainly made of _boti_, the beer of
barley. There were green crops such as clover, and lentils, peas, beans,
radishes, onions, lettuces (as a vegetable and for oil), castor oil and
flax were grown. The principal fruit trees were the date palm, useful
also for its wood and fibre, the pomegranate, fig and fig-sycamore. The
vine was much cultivated in early times, and the vintage is a subject
frequently depicted. Later the wine of the Mareotic region near
Alexandria was celebrated even amongst Roman epicures. Papyrus, which
grew wild in the marshes, was also cultivated, at least in the later
ages: its stems were used for boat-building, and according to the
classical authors for rope-making, as well as for the famous writing
material. About the 8th century A.D. paper drove the latter out of use,
and the papyrus plant quickly became extinct. The Indian lotus described
by Herodotus is found in deposits of the Roman age. Native lotuses, blue
and white, were much used for decoration in garlands, &c., also the
chrysanthemum and the corn-flower.

  See chapters on plant remains by Newberry in W. M. F. Petrie, _Hawara,
  Biahmu, and Arsinoe_ (London, 1889); _Kahun, Gurob and Hawara_ (1890);
  V. Loret, _La Flore pharaonique_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1892), and the
  authorities there cited.

_Domestic Animals and Birds._--The farmer kept up a large stock of
animals: in the houses there were pets and in the temples sacred
creatures of many kinds. Goats browsed on the trees and herbage at the
edge of the desert. Sheep of a peculiar breed with horizontal twisted
horns and hairy coat are figured on the earliest monuments: a more
valuable variety, woolly with curved horns, made its appearance in the
Middle Kingdom and pushed out the older form: sheep were driven into the
ploughed fields to break the clods and trample in the seed. The oxen
were long-horned, short-horned and polled. They drew the plough,
trampled the corn sheaves round the circular threshing floor, and were
sometimes employed to drag heavy weights. The pig is rarely figured and
was less and less tolerated as the Egyptians grew in ceremonial purity.
A variety of wild animals caught in the chase were kept alive and fed
for slaughter. Geese and ducks of different sorts were bred in countless
numbers by the farmers, also pigeons and quails, and in the early ages
cranes. The domestic fowl was unknown in Egypt before the Deltaic
dynasties, but Diodorus in the first century B.C. describes how its eggs
were hatched artificially, as they are at the present day. Bee-keeping,
too, must have been a considerable industry, though dates furnished a
supply of sweetening material.

The farm lands were generally held at a rent from an overlord, who might
according to times and circumstances be the king, a feudal prince, or a
temple-corporation. The stock also might be similarly held, or might
belong to the farmers. The ordinary beast of burden, even in the desert,
was the ass. The horse seems to have been introduced with the chariot
during the Hyksos period. It is thought that the camel is shown in rude
figures of the earliest age, but it is scarcely traceable again before
the XXVIth Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic period it was used for desert
transport and gradually became common. Strange to say, it is only very
rarely that men are depicted riding on animals, and never before the New
Kingdom.

The dog was of many varieties as early as the XIIth Dynasty, when the
greyhound and turnspit and other well-marked forms are seen. The cat was
sometimes trained by the sportsman to catch birds. Monkeys were commonly
kept as pets. The sacred beasts in the various temples, tame as far as
possible, were of almost every conceivable variety, from the vulture to
the swallow or the goose, from the lion to the shrew-mouse, from the
hippopotamus to the sheep and the monkey, from the crocodile to the
tortoise and the cobra, from the carp to the eel; the scorpion and the
scarab beetle were perhaps the strangest in this strange company of
deities.

  For agriculture see J. J. Tylor and F. Ll. Griffith, _The Tomb of
  Paheri_ at El Kab, in the XIth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
  Together with hunting and fishing it is illustrated in many of the
  Memoirs of the _Archaeological Survey_ of the same society. See also
  Lortet and M. C. Gaillard, _La Faune momifiée de l'ancienne Égypte_
  (Lyons, 1905).

_Law._--No code of Egyptian laws has come down to us. Diodorus names a
series of Egyptian kings who were law-givers, ending with Amasis (Ahmosi
II.) and Darius. Frequent reference is made in inscriptions to customs
and laws which were traditional, and perhaps had been codified in the
sacred books. From time to time regulations on special points were
issued by royal decree: a fragment of such a decree, directed by
Horemheb of the XVIIIth Dynasty against oppression of the peasantry by
officials and prescribing penalties, is preserved on a stela in the
temple of Karnak, and enactments of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Euergetes
II. are known from papyri. In the Ptolemaic age matters arising out of
native contracts were decided according to native law by [Greek:
laokritai], while travelling courts of [Greek: chrêmatistai]
representing the king settled litigation on Greek contracts and most
other disputes. Affairs were decided in accordance with the code of the
country, [Greek: tês chôras nomoi], the Greek code, [Greek: politikoi
nomoi], modelled, it would seem, on Athenian law or royal decrees,
[Greek: prostagmata]. "Native" law was still quoted in Roman times, but
the significance of the expression remains to be ascertained. In ancient
Egypt petitions were sent to the king or the great feudal landowners in
whose territory the petitioner or his adversary dwelt or the injury was
committed: courts were composed of royal or feudal officials, or in the
New Kingdom of officials or responsible citizens. The right of appeal to
the king probably existed at all times. The statement of the case and
the evidence were frequently ordered to be put in writing. The evidence
was supported by oath: in criminal cases, such as the harem conspiracy
against Rameses III., torture of the accused was resorted to to extract
evidence, the bastinado being applied on the hands and the feet.
Penalties in the New Kingdom were death (by starvation or
self-inflicted), fines, beating with a certain number of blows so as to
open a specified number of wounds on as many different parts of the body
(e.g. five wounds, i.e. on hands, feet and back?), also cutting off the
nose with banishment to Nubia or the Syrian frontier. In the times of
the Old Kingdom decapitation was in use, and a decree exists of the
Middle Kingdom degrading a nomarch of Coptos and his family for ever
from his office and from the priesthood on account of services to a
rival pretender.

As to legal instruments: contracts agreed to in public or before
witnesses and written on papyrus are found as early as the Middle
Kingdom and perhaps belong to all historic times, but are very scarce
until the XXVth Dynasty. Two wills exist on papyrus of the XIIth
Dynasty, but they are isolated, and such are not again found among
native documents, though they occur in Greek in the Ptolemaic age. The
virtual will of a high priest of Ammon under the XXIInd Dynasty is put
in the form of a decree of the god himself.

From the time of the XXVth Dynasty there is a great increase in written
documents of a legal character, sales, loans, &c., apparently due to a
change in law and custom; but after the reign of Darius I. there is
again almost a complete cessation until the reign of Alexander, probably
only because of the disturbed condition of the country. Under Ptolemy
Philadelphus Greek documents begin to be numerous: under Euergetes II.
(Physcon) demotic contracts are particularly abundant, but they cease
entirely after the first century of Roman rule.

Marriage contracts are not found earlier than the XXVIth Dynasty. Women
had full powers of inheritance (though not of dealing with their
property), and succession through the mother was of importance. In the
royal line there are almost certain instances of the marriage of a
brother with an heiress-sister in Pharaonic times: this was perhaps
helped by the analogy of Osiris and Isis: in the Ptolemaic dynasty it
was an established custom, and one of the stories of Khamois, written in
the Ptolemaic age, assumes its frequency at a very remote date. It would
be no surprise to find examples of the practice in other ranks also at
an early period, as it certainly was prevalent in the Hellenistic age,
but as yet it is very difficult to prove its occurrence. The native
contracts with the wife gave to her child all the husband's property,
and divorce or separation was provided for, entailing forfeiture of the
dowry. The "native law" of Roman times allowed a man to take his
daughter away from her husband if the last quarrelled with him.

Slavery is traceable from an early date. Private ownership of slaves,
captured in war and given by the king to their captor or otherwise, is
certainly seen at the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Sales of slaves
occur in the XXVth Dynasty, and contracts of servitude are found in the
XXVIth Dynasty and in the reign of Darius, appearing as if the consent
of the slave was then required. Presumably at this late period there
were eunuchs in Egypt, though adequate evidence of their existence there
is not yet forthcoming. They must have originated among a more cruel
people. That circumcision (though perhaps not till puberty) was
regularly practised is proved by the mummies (agreeing with the
testimony of Herodotus and the indications of the early tomb sculptures)
until an edict of Hadrian forbade it: after that, only priests were
circumcised.

  See A. H. Gardiner, _The Inscription of Mes_ (from Sethe's
  _Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ägyptens_, iv.); J.
  H. Breasted, _Ancient Records_, Egypt, passim, esp. i. § 190, 535 et
  seqq., 773, ii. 54, 671, iii. 45, 367, iv. 416, 499, 795; F. Ll.
  Griffith, _Catalogue of the John Rylands Demotic Papyri_; B. P.
  Grenfell and J. P. Mahaffy, _Revenue Laws of Philadelphus_ (Oxford,
  1896); B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, _Tebtunis Papyri_, part i.
  (London, 1902); Bouché-Leclercq, _Histoire des Lagides_, tome iv.
  (Paris, 1907).

_Science._--The Egyptians sought little after knowledge for its own
sake: they might indulge in religious speculation, but their science was
no more than the knowledge of practical methods. Undoubtedly the
Egyptians acquired great skill in the application of simple means to the
fulfilment of the most difficult tasks. But the books that have come
down to us prove how greatly their written theoretical knowledge fell
short of their practical accomplishment. The explanation of the fact may
partly be that the mechanical and other discoveries of the most
ingenious minds among them, when not in constant requisition by later
generations, were misunderstood or forgotten, and even in other cases
were preserved only as rules of thumb by the craftsmen and experts, who
would jealously hide them as secrets of trade. Men of genius were not
wanting in the long history of Egypt; two doctors, Imhotp (Imuthes), the
architect of Zoser, in the IIIrd Dynasty, and Amenophis (Amenhotp), son
of Hap, the wise scribe under Amenophis III. in the XVIIIth, eventually
received the honours of deification; and Hardadf under Cheops of the
IVth Dynasty was little behind these two in the estimation of posterity.
Such men, who, capable in every field, designed the Great Pyramids and
bestowed the highest monumental fame on their masters, must surely have
had an insight into scientific principles that would hardly be credited
to the Egyptians from the written documents alone.

_Mathematics._--The Egyptian notation for whole numbers was decimal,
each power of 10 up to 100,000 being represented by a different figure,
on much the same principle as the Roman numerals. Fractions except 2/3
were all primary, i.e. with the numerator unity: in order to express
such an idea as 9/13 the Egyptians were obliged to reduce it to a series
of primary fractions through double fractions 2/13 + 2/13 + 2/13 + 2/13
+ 1/13 = 4(1/8 + 1/52 + 1/104) + 1/13 = ½ + 2/13 + 1/26 = ½ + 1/8 + 1/26
+ 1/52 + 1/104; this operation was performed in the head, only the
result being written down, and to facilitate it tables were drawn up of
the division of 2 by odd numbers. With integers, besides adding and
subtracting, it was easy to double and to multiply by 10: multiplying
and dividing by 5 and finding the 1½ value were also among the
fundamental instruments of calculation, and all multiplication proceeded
by repetitions of these processes with addition, e.g. 9 × 7 = (9 × 2 ×
2) + (9 × 2) + 9. Division was accomplished by multiplying the divisor
until the dividend was reached; the answer being the number of times the
divisor was so multiplied. Weights and measures proceeded generally on
either a decimal or a doubling system or a combination of the two. Apart
from a few calculations and accounts, practically all the materials for
our knowledge of Egyptian mathematics before the Hellenistic period date
from the Middle Kingdom.

  The principal text is the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in the British
  Museum, written under a Hyksos king c. 1600 B.C.; unfortunately it is
  full of gross errors. Its contents fall roughly into the following
  scheme, but the main headings are not shown in the original:--

  I. _Arithmetic._--A. Tables and rule to facilitate the employment of
  fractions.

    (a) Table of the divisions of 2 by odd numbers from 3 to 99 (e.g. 2
          ÷ 11 = 1/6 + 1/66), see above.
    (b) Conversions of compound fractions (e.g. 2/3 × 1/3 = 1/6 + 1/18),
          with rule for finding 2/3 of a fraction.

  B. The "bread" calculation--a division by 10 of the units 1 to 9.

  C. "Completing" calculations.

    (a) Adding multiples of a fraction to produce a more convenient
          fraction (perhaps connected with the use of palms and
          cubits in decoration in a proportion based on the number 8).
    (b) Finding the difference between a given fraction and a given
          whole number.

  D. _Ahe_[9] or "mass"-problems (of the form x + x/n = a, to find the
  _ahe_ x).

  E. _Tooun_-problems (_tooun_, "rising," seems to be the difference
  between the shares of two sets of persons dividing an amount between
  them on a lower and a higher scale).

  II. _Geometry._--A. Measurement of volume (amounts of grain in
  cylindrical and rectangular spaces of different dimensions and vice
  versa).

  B. Measurement of area (areas of square, circular, triangular, &c.,
  fields).

  C. Proportions of pyramids and other monuments with sloping sides.

  III. _Miscellaneous problems_ (and tables) such as are met with in
  bread-making, beer-making, food of live-stock, &c. &c.

  The method of estimating the area of irregular fields and the cubic
  contents of granaries, &c., is very faulty. It would be interesting to
  find material of later date, such as Pythagoras is reported to have
  studied.

  See A. Eisenlohr, _Ein mathematisches Handbuch der alten Ägypter_
  (Leipzig, 1877); F. Ll. Griffith, "The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus" in
  _Proceedings of the Soc. of Biblical Archaeology_, Nov. 1891, March,
  May and June 1894.

_Astronomy._--The brilliant skies of day and night in Egypt favoured the
development of astronomy. A papyrus of the Roman period in the British
Museum attributes the invention of horoscopes to the Egyptians, but no
early instance is known. Professor Petrie has indeed suggested, chiefly
on chronological grounds, that a table of stars on the ceiling of the
Ramesseum temple and another in the tomb of Rameses VI. (repeated in
that of Rameses IX. without alteration) were horoscopes of Rameses II.
and VI.; but Mahler's interpretation of the tables on which this would
rest appears to be false. Astronomy played a considerable part in
religious matters for fixing the dates of festivals and determining the
hours of the night. The titles of several temple books are preserved
recording the movements and phases of the sun, moon and stars. The
rising of Sothis (Sirius) at the beginning of the inundation was a
particularly important point to fix in the yearly calendar (see below, §
"Chronology"). The primitive clock[10] of the temple time-keeper
(horoscopus), consisting of a [Greek: hôrologion kai phoinika] (Clemens
Alex. _Strom._, vi. 4. 35), has been identified with two inscribed
objects in the Berlin Museum; these are a palm branch with a sight-slit
in the broader end, and a short handle from which a plummet line was
hung. The former was held close to the eye, the latter in the other
hand, perhaps at arm's length. From the above-mentioned tables of
culmination in the tombs of Rameses VI. and IX. it seems that for fixing
the hours of the night a man seated on the ground faced the horoscopus
in such a position that the line of observation of the Pole-star passed
over the middle of his head. On the different days of the year each hour
was determined by a fixed star culminating or nearly culminating in it,
and the position of these stars at the time is given in the tables as
"in the centre," "on the left eye," "on the right shoulder," &c.
According to the texts, in founding or rebuilding temples the north axis
was determined by the same apparatus, and we may conclude that it was
the usual one for astronomical observations. It is conceivable that in
ingenious and careful hands it might give results of a high degree of
accuracy.

  See L. Borchardt, "Ein altägyptisches astronomisches Instrument" in
  _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache_, xxxvii. (1899), p. 10; Ed.
  Meyer, _Ägyptische Chronologie_, p. 36. Besides the sun and moon, five
  planets, thirty-six dekans, and constellations to which animal and
  other forms are given, appear in the early astronomical texts and
  paintings. The zodiacal signs were not introduced till the Ptolemaic
  period. See H. Brugsch, _Die Ägyptologie_ (Leipzig, 1891), pp. 315 et
  seqq., for a full account of all these.

_Medicine._--Except, that splints are sometimes found on the limbs of
bodies of all periods, at present nothing is known, from texts or
otherwise, of the existence of Egyptian surgery or dentistry. For
historical pathology the examination of mummies and skeletons is
yielding good results. There is little sign of the existence of gout or
of syphilitic diseases until late times (see MUMMY). A number of papyri
have been discovered containing medical prescriptions. The earliest are
of the XIIth Dynasty from Kahun, one being veterinary, the other
gynaecological. The finest non-religious papyrus known, the Ebers
Papyrus, is a vast collection of receipts. One section, giving us some
of "the mysteries of the physician," shows how lamentably crude were his
notions of the constitution of the body. It teaches little more than
that the pulse is felt in every part of the body, that there are vessels
leading from the heart to the eyes, ears, nose and all the other
members, and that "the breath entering the nose goes to the heart and
the lungs." The prescriptions are for a great variety of ailments and
afflictions--diseases of the eye and the stomach, sores and broken
bones, to make the hair grow, to keep away snakes, fleas, &c. Purgatives
and diuretics are particularly numerous, and the medicines take the form
of pillules, draughts, liniments, fumigations, &c. The prescriptions are
often fanciful and may thus bear some absurd relation to the disease to
be cured, but generally they would be to some extent effective. Their
action was assisted by spells, for general use in the preparation or
application, or for special diseases. In most cases several ingredients
are prescribed together: when the amounts are indicated it is by measure
not by weight, and evidently no very potent drugs were employed, for the
smallest measure specified is equal to about half of a cubic inch.
Little has yet been accomplished in identifying the diseases and the
substances named in the medical papyri.

  See G. A. Reisner, _The Hearst Medical Papyrus_ (Leipzig, 1905),
  (XVIIIth Dynasty), and for a great magical text of the Roman period
  (3rd century A.D.) with some prescriptions, F. Ll. Griffith and H.
  Thompson, _The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden_ (London,
  1904).

_Literature_.--The vast mass of writing which has come down to us from
the ancient Egyptians comprises documents of almost every conceivable
kind, business documents and correspondence, legal documents, memorial
inscriptions, historical, scientific, didactic, magical and religious
literature; also tales and lyrics and other compositions in poetical
language. Most of these classes are dealt with in this article under
special headings. In addition there should be mentioned the abundant
explanatory inscriptions attached to wall-scenes as a secondary element
in those compositions. As early as the Middle Kingdom, papyri are found
containing classified lists of words, titles, names of cities, &c., and
of nomes with their capitals, festivals, deities and sacred things,
calendars, &c.

To a great extent the standard works in all classes date from an early
age, not later than the Middle Kingdom, and subsequent works of religion
and learning like the later additions were largely written in the same
style. Several books of proverbs or "instructions" were put in
circulation during the Middle Kingdom. Kagemni and Ptahhotp of the Old
Kingdom were nominally or really the instructors in manners: King
Amenemhe I. laid down the principles of conduct in government for his
son Senwosri I., preaching on the text of beneficence rewarded by
treachery; Kheti points out in detail to his schoolboy son Pepi the
advantages enjoyed by scribes and the miseries of all other careers.
Some of these books are known only in copies of the New Kingdom. The
instructions of Ani to his son Khenshotp are of later date. In demotic
the most notable of such works is a papyrus of the first century A.D. at
Leiden.

A number of Egyptian tales are known, dating from the Middle Kingdom and
later. Some are so sober and realistic as to make it doubtful whether
they are not true biographies and narratives of actual events. Such are
the story of Sinuhi, a fugitive to Syria in the reign of Sesostris
[Senwosri] I., and perhaps the narrative of Unamun of his expedition in
quest of cedar wood for the bark of the Theban Ammon in the XXIst
Dynasty. Others are highly imaginative or with miraculous incidents,
like the story of the Predestined Prince and the story of the Two
Brothers, which begins with a pleasing picture of the industrious
farmer, and, in demotic of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, two stories
of the learned Sethon Khamois, son of Rameses II. and high priest of
Ptah, with his rather tragical experiences at the hands of magicians.
The stories of the Middle Kingdom were in choice diction, large portions
of them being rhetorical or poetical compositions attributed to the
principal characters. The story of Sinuhi is of this description and was
much read during the New Kingdom. Another, of the Eloquent Peasant whose
ass had been stolen, was only a framework to the rhetoric of endless
petitions. The tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor in the Red Sea was a piece
of simpler writing, not unpicturesque, of the marvellous type of a
Sindbad story. If all these are deficient in literary merit, they are
deeply interesting as revelations of primitive mind and manners. Of New
Kingdom tales, the story of the Two Brothers is frankly in the simplest
speech of everyday life, while others are more stilted. The demotic
stories of Khamois are simple, but the "Rape of Inaros' Cuirass" (at
Vienna) is told in a stiff and high-flown style.

In general it may be said of Egyptian literary compositions that apart
from their interest as anthropological documents they possess no merit
which would entitle them to survive. They are more or less touched by
artificiality, but so far as we are able to appreciate them at present
they very seldom attain to any degree of literary beauty. Most of the
compositions in the literary language, whether old or archaistic, are in
a stilted style and often with parallelisms of phrase like those of
Hebrew poetry. Simple prose narrative is here quite exceptional. Some
few hymns contain stanzas of ten lines, each line with a break in the
middle. There is no sign of rhyming in Egyptian poetry, and the rhythm
is not yet recognizable owing to our ignorance of the ancient
vocalization. In old Egyptian tales the narrative portions are
frequently in prose; New Egyptian and demotic contain as a rule little
else. Hymns exist in both of these later forms of the language, and a
few love songs in Late Egyptian.

  See W. M. F. Petrie, _Egyptian Tales_ (2 vols., London, 1895); G.
  Maspero, _Les Contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne_ (3rd edition,
  Paris, 1906); W. Max Müller, _Die Liebespoesie der alten Ägypter_
  (Leipzig, 1899).     (F. LL. G.)

C. _Religion._--1. _Introductory._--Copious as are the sources of
information from which our knowledge of the Egyptian religion is drawn,
there is nevertheless no aspect of the ancient civilization of Egypt
that we really so little understand. While the youth of Egyptological
research is in part responsible for this, the reason lies still more in
the nature of the religion itself and the character of the testimony
bearing upon it. For a true appreciation of the chaotic polytheism that
reveals itself even in the earliest texts it would be necessary to be
able to trace its development, stage by stage, out of a number of naive
primitive cults; but the period of growth lies behind recorded history,
and we are here reduced to hypotheses and _a posteriori_
reconstructions. The same criticism applies, no doubt, to other
religions, like those of Greece and Rome. In Egypt, however, the
difficulty is much aggravated by the poor quality of the evidence. The
religious books are textually very corrupt, one-sided in their
subject-matter, and distributed over a period of more than two thousand
years. The greatest defect of all is their relative silence with regard
to the myths. For the story of Isis and Osiris we have indeed the late
treatise ascribed to Plutarch, and a few fragments of other myths may be
culled from earlier native sources. But in general the tales that passed
current about the gods are referred to only in mysterious and recondite
allusions; as Herodotus for his own times explicitly testifies, a
reticence in such matters seems to have been encouraged by the priests.
Thus with regard to Egyptian theology we are very imperfectly informed,
and the account that is here given of it must be looked upon as merely
provisional. The actual practices of the cult, both funerary and divine,
are better known, and we are tolerably familiar with the doctrines as to
the future state of the dead. There is good material, too, for the study
of Egyptian magic, though this branch has been somewhat neglected
hitherto.

2. _Main Sources._--(a) _The Pyramid texts,_ a vast collection of
incantations inscribed on the inner walls of five royal tombs of the Vth
and VIth Dynasties at Sakkara, discovered and first published by
Maspero. Much of these texts is of extreme antiquity; one incantation at
least has been proved to belong to an age anterior to the unification of
the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Later copies also exist, but possess
little independent critical value. The subject-matter is funerary, i.e.
it deals with the fate of the dead king in the next life. Some chapters
describe the manner in which he passes from earth to heaven and becomes
a star in the firmament, others deal with the food and drink necessary
for his continued existence after death, and others again with the royal
prerogatives which he hopes still to enjoy; many are directed against
the bites of snakes and stings of scorpions. It is possible that these
incantations were recited as part of the funerary ritual, but there is
no doubt that their mere presence in the tombs was supposed to be
magically effective for the welfare of the dead. Originally these texts
had an application to the king alone, but before the beginning of the
XIIth Dynasty private individuals had begun to employ them on their own
behalf. They seem to be relatively free from textual corruption, but the
vocabulary still occasions much difficulty to the translator.

(b) _The Book of the Dead_ is the somewhat inappropriate name applied to
a large similar collection of texts of various dates, certain chapters
of which show a tendency to become welded together into a book of fixed
content and uniform order. A number of chapters contained in the later
recensions are already found on the sarcophagi of the Middle Kingdom,
together with a host of funereal texts not usually reckoned as belonging
to the Book of the Dead; these have been published by Lepsius and Lacau.
The above-mentioned nucleus, combined with other chapters of more recent
origin, is found in the papyri of the XVIIIth-XXth Dynasties, and forms
the so-called Theban recension, which has been edited by Naville in an
important work. Here already more or less rigid groups of chapters may
be noted, but individual manuscripts differ greatly in what they include
and exclude. In the Saite period a sort of standard edition was drawn
up, consisting of 165 chapters in a fixed order and with a common title
"the book of going forth in the day"; this recension was published by
Lepsius in 1842 from a Turin papyrus. Like the Pyramid texts, the Book
of the Dead served a funerary purpose, but its contents are far more
heterogeneous; besides chapters enabling the dead man to assume what
shape he will, or to issue triumphant from the last judgment, there are
lists of gates to be passed and demons to be encountered in the nether
world, formulae such as are inscribed on sepulchral figures and amulets,
and even hymns to the sun-god. These texts are for the most part
excessively corrupt, and despite the translations of Pierret, Renouf and
Budge, much labour must yet be expended upon them before they can rank
as a first-rate source.

(c) The texts of the _Tombs of the Kings at Thebes_ (XVIIIth-XXth Dyn.)
consist of a series of theological books compiled at an uncertain date;
they have been edited by Naville and Lefébure. The chief of these,
extant in a longer and a shorter version, is called _The book of that
which is in the Nether World_ (familiarly known as the _Am Duat_) and
deals with the journey of the sun during the twelve hours of the night.
_The Book of Gates_ treats of the same topic from a more theological
standpoint. _The Litanies of the Sun_ contain the acclamations with
which the sun-god Re was greeted, when at eventide his bark reached the
entrance of the nether world. Another treatise relates the destruction
of mankind, and the circumstances that led to the creation of the
heavens in the form of a cow.

(d) Among the _later religious books_ one or two deserve a special
mention, such as _The Overthrowing of Apophis_, the serpent enemy of the
sun-god; _The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys_ over their murdered
brother Osiris; _The Book of Breathings_, a favourite book among the
later Theban priests. Several of these books were used in the ritual of
feast days, but all have received a secondary funerary employment, and
are therefore found buried with the dead in their tombs.

(e) The _Ritual texts_ have survived only in copies not earlier than the
New Kingdom. The temple ritual employed in the daily cult is illustrated
by the scenes depicted on the inner walls of the great temples: the
formulae recited during the performance of the ceremonies are recorded
at length in the temple of Seti I. (XIXth Dyn.) at Abydos, as well as in
some later papyri in Berlin. The whole material has been collected and
studied by Moret. The funerary ritual is known from texts in the Theban
tombs (XVIIIth-XXth Dyn.) and papyri and sarcophagi of later date; older
versions are contained in the Pyramid texts and _The Book of the Dead_.
Schiaparelli has done much towards gathering together this scattered
material. The ritual observed during the process of embalmment is
preserved in late papyri in Paris and Cairo published by Maspero.

(f) The _magical_ documents have been comparatively little studied, in
spite of their great interest. They deal for the most part with the
hearing of diseases, the bites of snakes and scorpions, &c., but
incidentally cast many sidelights on the mythology and superstitious
beliefs. The best-known of these books is the _Papyrus Harris_ published
by F. J. Chabas, but other papyri of as great or greater importance are
to be found in the Leiden, Turin and other collections. A curious book
published by A. Erman contains spells to be used by mothers for the
protection of their children. A papyrus in London contains a calendar of
lucky and unlucky days. A late class of stelae, of which the best
specimen has been published by Golenischeff, consists of spells of
various kinds originally intended for the use of the living, but later
employed for funerary purposes.

(g) Under the heading _Miscellaneous_ we must mention a number of
sources of great value: the grave-stones, or stelae, especially those
from Abydos, which throw much light on funerary beliefs; the great
_Papyrus Harris_, the longest of all papyri, which enumerates the gifts
of Rameses III. (XXth Dyn.) to the various temples of Egypt; the hymns
to the gods preserved in Cairo and Leiden papyri; and the inscriptions
of the Ptolemaic temples (Dendera, Edfu, &c.), which teem with good
religious material. Nor can any attempt here be made to summarize the
remaining native Egyptian sources, literary and archaeological, that
deserve notice.

(h) Among the classical writers, Plutarch in his treatise _Concerning
Isis and Osiris_ is the most important. Diodorus also is useful.
Herodotus, owing to his religious awe and dread of divulging sacred
mysteries, is only a second-rate source.

3. _The Gods._--The end of the pre-dynastic period, in which we dimly
descry a number of independent tribes in constant warfare with one
another, was marked by the rise of a united Egyptian state with a single
Pharaonic ruler at its head. The era of peace thus inaugurated brought
with it a rapid progress in all branches of civilization; and there soon
emerged not only a national art and a condition of material prosperity
shared by the entire land in common, but also a state religion, which
gathered up the ancient tribal cults and floating cosmical conceptions,
and combining them as best it could, imposed them on the people as a
whole. By the time that the Pyramid texts were put into writing,
doubtless long before the Vth Dynasty, this religion had assumed a
stereotyped appearance that clung to it for ever afterwards. But the
multitude of the deities and the variety of the myths that it strove to
incorporate prevented the development of a uniform theological system,
and the heterogeneous origin of the religion remained irretrievably
stamped upon its face. Written records were few at the time when the
pantheon was built up, so that the process of construction cannot be
followed historically from stage to stage; but it is possible by arguing
backwards from the later facts to discern the main tendencies at work,
and the principal elementary cults that served as the materials.


  Classification of pre-dynastic gods.

The gods of the pre-dynastic period may be divided into two chief
groups, the tribal or local divinities and the cosmic or explanatory
deities. At the beginning each tribe had its own particular god, who in
essence was nothing but the articulate expression of the inner cohesion
and of the outward independence of the tribe itself, but who outwardly
manifested himself in the form of some animal or took up his abode in
some fetish of wood or stone. In times of peace this visible emblem of
the god's presence was housed in a rude shrine, but in war-time it was
taken thence and carried into the battlefield on a standard. We find
such divine standards [HRG: R12] often depicted on the earliest
monuments, and among the symbols placed upon them may be detected the
images of many deities destined to play an important part in the later
national pantheon, such as the falcon Horus [HRG: G5:R12], the wolf
Wepwawet (Ophois) [HRG: zAb:R12], the goddess Neith [HRG: R25:R12],
symbolized by a shield transfixed with arrows, and the god Min [HRG:
R23:R12], the nature of whose fetish is obscure. In course of time the
tribes became localized in particular districts, under the influence of
a growing central authority, and their gods then passed from tribal into
local deities. Hence it came about that the provincial districts or
nomes, as they were called, often derived their names from the gods of
tribes that settled in them, these names being hieroglyphically written
with the sign for "district" surmounted by standards of the type above
described, e.g. [HRG: E15:R12], "the nome of the dog Anubis," the 17th
or Cynopolite nome of Upper Egypt. In this way a large number of deities
came to enjoy special reverence in restricted territories, e.g. the ram
[HRG:] Khnum in Elephantine, the jerboa or okapi (?) [HRG: E20] Seth in
Ombos, the ibis [HRG: G26] Thoth in Hermopolis Magna, and of the gods
named above, Horus in Hieraconpolis, Wepwawet in Assiut, Neith in Sais,
and Min in Coptos. As towns and villages gradually sprang up, they too
adopted as their patron some one or other of the original tribal gods,
so that these came to have different seats of worship all over Egypt.
For this reason it is often hard to tell where the primitive cult-centre
of a particular deity is to be sought; thus Horus seems equally at home
both at Buto in the Delta and at Hieraconpolis in Upper Egypt, and the
earliest worship of Seth appears to have been claimed no less by Tanis
in the north than by Ombos in the south. The effect of the localization
of gods in many different places was to give them a double aspect; so,
for instance, Khnum the god of Elephantine could in one minute be
regarded as identical with Khnum the god of Esna, while in the next
minute and without any conscious sense of contradiction the two might be
looked upon as entirely separate beings. In order that there might be no
ambiguity as to what divinity was meant, it became usual, in speaking of
any local deity, to specify the place of which he was "lord." The
tendency to create new forms of a god by instituting his worship in new
local centres persisted throughout the whole course of Egyptian history,
unhindered by the opposite tendency which made national out of local
gods. Some of the cosmic gods, like the sun-god Re of Heliopolis and of
Hermonthis, early acquired a local in addition to their cosmic aspect.

In the innermost principle of their existence, as patrons and protectors
of restricted communities, the primitive tribal gods did not differ from
one another. But externally they were distinguishable by the various
shapes that their worshippers ascribed to them; and there can be little
doubt that even in the beginning each had his own special attributes and
particular mythical traits. These, however, may have borne little
resemblance to the later conceptions of the same gods with which we are
made familiar by the Pyramid texts. Thus we have no means of
ascertaining what the earliest people of Sais thought about their
goddess Neith, though her fetish would seem to point to her warlike
nature. Nor are we much wiser in respect of those primitive tribal gods
that are represented on the oldest monuments in animal form. For though
we may be sure that the shape of an animal was that in which these gods
were literally visible to their worshippers, yet it is impossible to
tell whether some one living animal was chosen to be the earthly
tenement of the deity, or whether he revealed himself in every
individual of a species, or whether merely the cult-image was roughly
hewn into the shape of an animal. Not too much weight must be attached
to later evidence on this point; for the New Kingdom and still more the
Graeco-Roman period witnessed a strange recrudescence of supposed
primitive cults, to which they gave a form that may or may not have been
historically exact. In some places whole classes of animals came to be
deemed sacred. Thus at Bubastis, where the cat-headed Bast (Ubasti) was
worshipped, vast cemeteries of mummified cats have been found; and
elsewhere similar funerary cults were accorded to crocodiles, lizards,
ibises and many other animals. In Elephantine Khnum was supposed to
become incarnate in a ram, at whose death the divinity left him and took
up his abode in another. So too the bull of Apis (a black animal with
white spots) was during its lifetime regarded as a reincarnation of
Ptah, the local god of Memphis, and similarly the Mnevis and Bacis bulls
were accounted to be "the living souls" of Etom of Heliopolis and of Re
of Hermonthis respectively; these latter cults are certainly secondary,
for Ptah himself was never, either early or late, depicted otherwise
than in human form, as a mummy or as a dwarf; and Etom and Re are but
different names of the sun-god. The form of a snake, attributed to many
local goddesses, especially in later times (e.g. Meresger of the Theban
necropolis), was borrowed from the very ancient deity Outo (Buto); the
semblance of a snake became so characteristic of female divinities that
even the word "goddess" was written with the hieroglyph of a snake.
Other animal shapes particularly affected by goddesses were those of a
lioness (Sakhmi, Pakhe) or a cow (Hathor, Isis). The primitive animal
gods are not to be confused with the animal forms ascribed to many
cosmic deities; thus when the sun-god Re was pictured as a scarabaeus,
or dung-beetle, rolling its ball of dung behind it, this was certainly
mere poetical imagery. Or else a cosmic god might assume an animal shape
through assimilation with some tribal god, as when Re was identified
with Horus and therefore depicted as a falcon.

With the advance of civilization and the transformation of the tribal
gods into national divinities, the beliefs held about them must have
become less crude. At a very early date the anthropomorphizing tendency
caused the animal deities to be represented with human bodies, though as
a rule they retained their animal heads; so in the case of Seth as early
as the IInd Dynasty. The other gods carry their primitive fetishes in
their hands (like Neith, who is depicted holding arrows) or on their
heads (so Nefertem [Iphthimis] with his lotus-flower). At the same time
the gods began to acquire human personalities. In a few instances this
may have come about by the emphasizing of a really primitive trait; as
when the wolf Ophois, in consonance with the predatory nature of that
animal, developed into a god of war. In other cases the transitional
steps are shrouded in mystery; we do not know, for example, why the ibis
Thoth subsequently became the patron of the fine arts, the inventor of
writing, and the scribe of the gods. But the main factor in this
evolutionary process was undoubtedly the formation of myths, which
brought gods of independent origin into relation with one another, and
thus imbued them with human passions and virtues. Here dim historic
recollections often determined the features of the story, and in one
famous legend that knits together a group of gods all seemingly local in
origin we can still faintly trace how the tale arose, was added to, and
finally crystallized in a coherent form.

Osiris was a wise and beneficent king, who reclaimed the Egyptians from
savagery, gave them laws and taught them handicrafts. The prosperous
reign of Osiris was brought to a premature close by the machinations of
his wicked brother Seth, who with seventy-two fellow-conspirators
invited him to a banquet, induced him to enter a cunningly-wrought
coffin made exactly to his measure, then shut down the lid and cast the
chest into the Nile. Isis, the faithful wife of Osiris, set forth in
search of her dead husband's body, and after long and adventure-fraught
wanderings, succeeded in recovering it and bringing it back to Egypt.
Then while she was absent visiting her son Horus in the city of Buto,
Seth once more gained possession of the corpse, cut it into fourteen
pieces, and scattered them all over Egypt. But Isis collected the
fragments, and wherever one was found, buried it with due honour; or,
according to a different account, she joined the limbs together by
virtue of her magical powers, and the slain Osiris, thus resurrected,
henceforth reigned as king of the dead in the nether world. When Horus
grew up he set out to avenge his father's murder, and after terrible
struggles finally conquered and dispossessed his wicked uncle; or, as
another version relates, the combatants were separated by Thoth, and
Egypt divided between them, the northern part falling to Horus and the
southern to Seth. Such is the story as told by Plutarch, with certain
additions and modifications from older native sources. There existed,
however, a very ancient tradition according to which Horus and Seth were
hostile brothers, not nephew and uncle; and many considerations may be
urged in support of the thesis which regards their struggles as
reminiscences of wars between two prominent tribes or confederations of
tribes, one of which worshipped the falcon Horus while the other had the
okapi (?) Seth as its patron and champion. The Horus-tribes were the
victors, and it was from them that the dynastic line sprang; hence the
Pharaoh always bore the name of Horus, and represented in his own
hallowed person the ancient tribal deity. Of Osiris we can only state
that he was originally the local god of Busiris, whatever further
characteristics he primitively possessed being quite obscure. Isis was
perhaps the local goddess of Buto, a town not far distant from Busiris;
this geographical proximity would suffice to explain her connexion with
Osiris in the tale. A legend now arose, we know not how or why, which
made Seth the brother and murderer of Osiris; and this led to a fusion
of the Horus-Seth and the Seth-Isis-Osiris _motifs_. The relationships
had now to be readjusted, and the most popular view recognized Horus as
the son and avenger of Osiris. The more ancient account survived,
however, in the myth that Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and Nephthys (a
goddess who plays but a minor part in the Osiris cycle) were all
children of the earth-god Keb and the sky-goddess Nut, born on the five
consecutive days added on at the end of the year (the so-called
epagomenal days). Later generations reconciled these contradictions by
assuming the existence of two Horuses, one, the brother of Osiris, Seth
and Isis, being named Haroeris, i.e. Horus the elder, while the other,
the child of Isis and Osiris, was called Harpocrates, i.e. Horus the
child.


  Cosmic deities.

The second main class of divinities that entered into the composition of
the Egyptian pantheon was due to that innate and universal speculative
bent which seeks, and never fails to find, an explanation of the facts
of the external world. Behind the great natural phenomena that they
perceived all around them, the Egyptians, like other primitive folk,
postulated the existence of divine wills not dissimilar in kind to their
own, though vastly superior in power. Chief among these cosmic deities
was the sun-god Re, whose supremacy seemed predestined under the
cloudless sky of Egypt. The oldest conceptions represented Re as sailing
across the heavens in a ship called "Manzet," "the bark of the dawn"; at
sunset he stepped aboard another vessel named "Mesenktet," "the bark of
the dusk," which bore him back from west to east during the night. Later
theories symbolized Re in many different ways. For some he was identical
with Horus, and then he was falcon-headed and was called Hor-akhti, the
Horus of the horizons. Others pictured him to themselves as a tiny
infant in the early dawn, as full-grown at noon, and as an infirm old
man in the evening. When the sky was imagined as a cow, he was a calf
born anew every morning. The moon was a male deity, who likewise fared
across the heavens in a boat; hence he was often named Chons, "the
sailor." The ibis-god Thoth was early identified with the moon. The
stars and planets were likewise gods. Among them the bright star Sirius
was held in special esteem; it was a goddess Sothis (Sopde), often
identified by the Egyptians with Isis. The constellations that seemed
unceasingly to speed across the sky were named "the never-resting ones,"
and the circumpolar stars, which never sink beneath the horizon, were
known as "the imperishables." Concerning earth and sky there were many
different opinions. Some thought that the sky was a goddess Nut, whom
the god Show held aloof from her husband Keb the earth, on whose back
the plants and trees grew. Others believed in a celestial ocean,
personified under the name of Nun, over which the heavenly bodies sailed
in boats. At a later date the sky was held to be a cow (Hathor) whose
four feet stood firm upon the soil; or else a vast face, in which the
right eye was the sun and the left eye the moon. Alongside these
fanciful conceptions there existed a more sober view, according to which
the earth was a long oval plain, and the sky an iron roof supported by
the tops of mountains or by four pillars [HRG] at the cardinal points.
Beneath the ground lay a dark and mysterious region, now conceived as an
inverse heaven (Nenet), now as a vast series of caverns whose gates were
guarded by demons. This nether world was known as the Duat (Dat, Têi),
and through it passed the sun on his journey during the hours of night;
here too, as many thought, dwelt the dead and their king Osiris. That
great natural feature of Egypt, the Nile, was of course one of the gods;
his name was Hapi, and as a sign of his fecundity he had long pendulous
breasts like a woman. In contradistinction to the tribal gods, it rarely
happened that the cosmic deities enjoyed a cult. But there are a few
important exceptions: Re in Heliopolis (here identified with a local god
Etom) and in Hermonthis; Hathor at Dendera and elsewhere. Certain of the
tribal gods early became identified with cosmic divinities, and the
latter thus became the objects of a cult; so, for instance, the Horus of
Edfu was a sun-god, and Thoth in Hermopolis Magna was held to be the
moon.


  Minor deities and demons.

An extension of the principle that created the cosmic gods gave rise to
a large number of minor deities and demons. Day and night, the year, the
seasons, eternity, and many similar conceptions were each represented by
a god or goddess of their own, who nevertheless possessed but a shadowy
and doubtful existence. Human attributes like Taste, Knowledge, Joy and
so forth were likewise personified, no less than abstract ideas such as
Fate, Destiny and others; rather more clearly defined than the rest was
Maat, the goddess of Truth and Right, who was fabled to be the daughter
of Re and may even have had a cult. Certain gods were purely functional,
that is to say, they appeared at special times to perform some
appointed task, at the completion of which they vanished. Such were
Nepri, the god of the corn-harvest; Meskhonit, the goddess who attended
every child-bed; Tait, the goddess of weaving. Numberless semi-divine
beings had no other purpose than to fill out the myths, as, for
instance, the chattering apes that greeted the sun-god Re as he rose
above the eastern horizon, and the demons who opened the gates of the
nether world at the approach of the setting sun.


  Foreign deities.

We take this opportunity of mentioning sundry other divinities who were
later introduced to swell the already overcrowded ranks of the pantheon.
Contact with foreign lands brought with it several new deities, Baal,
Anat and Resheph from Syria, and the misshapen dwarf Bes from the south;
earlier than these, the Astarte of Byblus, whom the Egyptians identified
with Hathor. In Thebes Amenophis I. and his spouse Nefertari were
worshipped as patron gods of the necropolis many centuries after their
death. Two men of exceptional wisdom received divine honours, and had
temples of their own in the Ptolemaic period; these were Imouthes, who
had lived under Zoser of the IIIrd Dynasty, and Amenophis son of Hapu, a
contemporary of the third king of the same name (XVIIIth Dyn.). The hill
of Sheikh Abd-el-gurna at Thebes was looked upon as a particularly holy
place, and was revered as a goddess. Almost anything that was regarded
with awe, any object used in the divine ritual could at a given moment
be envisaged as a deity. Thus the boat of Osiris (Neshemet) and those of
the sun-god were goddesses; and various wands and sceptres belonging to
certain gods were imagined as harbouring the divine being. Truly it
might have been said in ancient Egypt: of the making of gods there is no
end!


  Theological combinations.

For such order as can be discerned in the mythological conceptions of
the Egyptians the priesthood was largely responsible. At a very early
date the theological school of Heliopolis undertook the task of
systematizing the gods and the myths, and it is mainly to them that is
due the Egyptian religion as we find it in the Pyramid texts. Their
influence is particularly conspicuous in the prominent place accorded to
the sun-god Re, and in the creation-legend that made him the father of
gods and men. First of all living things was Re; legend told how he
arose as a naked babe from a lotus-flower that floated on the primeval
ocean Nun. Others held the view that he crept from an egg that lay on a
hill in the midst of a lake called Desdes; and a third, more barbarous,
tale related his obscene act of self-procreation. Re became the father
of the pair of gods Show and Tefnut (Tphenis), who emanated from his
spittle. They again gave birth to Keb and Nut, from whom in their turn
sprang Osiris and Seth, Isis and Nephthys. These nine gods were together
known as the great Ennead or cycle of nine. A second series of nine
deities, with Horus as its first member, was invented at the same time
or not long afterwards, and was called the Lesser Ennead. In later times
the theory of the Ennead became very popular and was adopted by most of
the local priesthoods, who substituted their own favourite god for Re,
sometimes retaining and sometimes changing the names of the other eight
deities. Thus locally many different gods came to be viewed as the
creators of the world. Only in two instances, however, did a local god
ever obtain wide acceptance in the capacity of demiurge: Ptah of
Memphis, who was famed as an artist and master-builder, and Khnum of
Elephantine, who was said to have moulded mankind on the potter's wheel.

Already in the Pyramid texts the importance of Osiris almost rivals that
of Re. His worship does not seem to have been due to Heliopolitan
influence, and may possibly have been propagated by active missionary
effort. It is apparently through the funeral cult that Osiris so early
took a firm hold on the imagination of the people; for at a very ancient
date he was identified with every dead king, and it needed but a slight
extension of this idea to make him into a king of the dead. In later
times the moral aspect of his tale was doubtless the main cause of its
continued popularity; Osiris was named Onnophris, "the good Being" _par
excellence_, and Seth was contrasted with him as the author and the root
of all evil. Still the Egyptians themselves seem to have been somewhat
at a loss to account for the great veneration that they paid to Osiris.
Successive theories interpreted him as the god of the earth, as the god
of the Nile, as a god of vegetation, as a moon-god and as a sun-god; and
nearly every one of these theories has been claimed to be the primitive
truth by some scholar or another.

Nowhere is the conservatism of the Egyptians more clearly displayed than
in the tenacity with which they clung to the old forms of the theology,
such as we have essayed to describe. Neither the influx of new deities
nor the diligence of the priestly authors and commentators availed to
break down the cast-iron traditions with which the compilers of the
Pyramid texts were already familiar. It is true that with the
displacement of the capital town certain local deities attained a degree
of power that, superficially regarded, seems to alter the entire
perspective of the religion. Thus Ammon, originally the obscure local
god of Thebes, was raised by the Theban monarchs of the XIIth and of the
XVIIIth to XXIst Dynasties to a predominant position never equalled by
any other divinity; and, by similar means, Suchos of the Fayum, Ubasti
of Bubastis, and Neith of Sais, each enjoyed for a short space of time a
consideration that no other cause would have secured to them. But
precisely the example of Ammon proves the hopelessness of any attempt to
change the time-honoured religious creed; his priests identified him
with the sun-god Re, whose cult-centre was thus merely transferred a few
hundred miles to the South. Nor could even the violent religious
revolution of Akhenaton (Amenophis IV.), of which we shall later have
occasion to speak, sweep away for ever beliefs that had persisted for so
many generations.

But if the facts of the religion, broadly viewed, never underwent a
change, the interpretation of those facts did so in no small degree. The
religious books were for the most part written in archaic language,
which was only imperfectly understood by the priests of later times; and
hence great scope was given to them to exercise their ingenuity as
commentators. By the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty some early chapters of
the Book of the Dead had been provided with a triple commentary.
Unfortunately the methods pursued were as little reasonable as those
adopted by the medieval Jewish Rabbis; instead of the context being
studied as a whole, with a view to the recovery of its literal sense,
each single verse was considered separately, and explained as an
allusion to some obscure myth or as embodying some mystical meaning.
Thus so far from simplifying or really elucidating the religion, these
priestly labours tended rather to confuse one legend with another and to
efface the personality of individual gods. The ease with which one god
could be identified with another is perhaps the most striking
characteristic of later Egyptian theology. There are but few of the
greater deities who were not at some time or another identified with the
solar god Re. His fusion with Horus and Etom has already been noted;
further we find an Ammon-Re, a Sobk-Re, a Khnum-Re; and Month, Onouris,
Show and Osiris are all described as possessing the attributes of the
sun. Ptah was early assimilated to the sepulchral gods Sokaris and
Osiris. Pairs of deities whose personalities are often blended or
interchanged are Hathor and Nut, Sakhmi and Pakhe, Seth and Apophis. So
too in Abydos, his later home, Osiris was identified with Khante-Amentiu
(Khentamenti, Khentamenthes), "the chief of those who are in the West,"
a name that was given to a vaguely-conceived but widely-venerated
divinity ruler of the dead. Many factors helped in the process of
assimilation. The unity of the state was largely influential in bringing
about the suppression of local differences of belief. The less important
priesthoods were glad to enhance the reputation of the deity they served
by identifying him with some more important god. And the mystical bent
of the Egyptians found satisfaction in the multiplicity of forms that
their gods could assume; among the favourite epithets which the hymns
apply to divinities are such as "mysterious of shapes," "multiple of
faces."


  Monotheistic tendency.

The goal towards which these tendencies verged was monotheism; and
though this goal was only once, and then quite ephemerally, reached,
still the monotheistic idea was at most periods, so to speak, in the
air. Sometimes the qualities common to all the gods were abstracted, and
the resultant notion spoken of as "the god." At other times, and
especially in the hymns addressed to some divinity, all other gods were
momentarily forgotten, and he was eulogized as "the only one," "the
supreme," and so forth. Or else several of the chief deities were
consciously combined and regarded as different emanations or aspects of
a Sole Being; thus a Ramesside hymn begins with the words "Three are all
the gods, Ammon, Re and Ptah," and then it is shown how these three
gods, each in his own particular way, gave expression and effect to a
single divine purpose.


  Akhenaton.

For a brief period at the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty a real monotheism,
as exclusive as that of Judaism or of Islam, was adopted as the state
religion of Egypt. The young Pharaoh Amenophis IV. seems to have been
fired by genuine fanatical enthusiasm, though political motives, as well
as doctrinal considerations, may have prompted him in the planning of
his religious revolution (see also § History). The Theban god Ammon-Re
was then supreme, and the ever-growing power of his priesthood may well
have inflamed the jealousy of their Heliopolitan rivals. Amenophis began
his reign in Thebes as an adherent of the traditional faith, but after a
few years he abandoned that town and built a new capital for his god
Aton 200 m. farther north, at a place now called El Amarna. The new
deity was a personification of the sun's disk. The name Re was
suppressed, as too intimately associated with that of Ammon; and Ammon,
together with all the other gods, was put to the ban. Amenophis even
changed his own name, of which the name of Ammon formed an element, to
Akhenaton, "the brilliancy of the Aton," and the capital was called
Khitaton, "The Horizon of the Aton." The new dogmas were known as "the
Teaching," and their tenets, as revealed in the poems composed in honour
of the Aton, breathe the purest and most exalted monotheistic spirit.
The movement had, no doubt, met with serious opposition from the very
start, and the reaction soon set in. The immediate successors of
Akhenaton strove to follow in his footsteps, but the conservative nature
of Egypt quickly asserted itself. Not sixty years after the accession of
Akhenaton, his city was abandoned, its rulers branded as heretics, and
the old religion restored in Thebes as completely as if the Aton had
never existed.

Having thus failed to become rational, Egyptian theology took refuge in
learning. The need for a more spiritual and intellectual interpretation
of the pantheon still remained, and gave rise to a number of theological
sciences. The names of the gods and the places of their worship were
catalogued and classified, and manuals were devoted to the topography of
mythological regions. Much ingenuity was expended on the development of
a history of the gods, the groundwork of which had been laid in much
earlier times. Re was not only the creator of the world, but he was also
the first king of Egypt. He was followed on the throne by the other
eight members of his Ennead, then by the lesser Ennead and by other
gods, and finally by the so-called "worshippers of Horus." The latter
were not wholly mythical personages, though they were regarded as
demigods (Manetho calls them "the dead," [Greek: nekues]); they have
been shown to be none other than the dim rulers of the predynastic age.
The Pharaohs of the historic period were thus divine, not only by virtue
of their connexion with Horus (see above), but also as descendants of
Re; and the king of Egypt was called "the good god" during his lifetime,
and "the great god" after his death. The later religious literature is
much taken up with the mythical and semi-mythical dynasties of kings,
and the priests compiled, with many newly-invented details, the
chronicles of the wars they were supposed to have waged.


  Later developments.

In a similar manner, the ethical and allegorical methods of
interpretation came into much greater prominence towards the end of the
New Kingdom. The Osirian legend, as we have already seen, was early
accepted as symbolizing the conflict between good and evil. So too the
victories of Re over the serpent named Apophis were more or less clearly
understood as a simile of the antithetical nature of light and darkness.
In one text at least as ancient as the XVIIIth Dynasty (the copy that we
have dates only from the Ethiopian period) an ingenious attempt is made
to represent Ptah as the source of all life: from him, it is said,
emanated Horus as "heart" or "mind" and Thoth as "tongue," and through
the conjoint action of these two, the mind conceiving the design and the
tongue uttering the creative command, all gods and men and beasts
obtained their being. Of this kind of speculation much more must have
existed than has reached us. It is doubtless such explanations as these
that the Greeks had in view when they praised the wisdom of the ancient
Egyptians; and in the classical period similar semi-philosophical
interpretations altogether supplanted, among the learned at least, the
naive literal beliefs of earlier times. Plutarch in his treatise on Isis
and Osiris well exemplifies this standpoint: for him every god and every
rite is symbolic of some natural or moral truth.

The final stages of the Egyptian religion are marked by a renewed
popularity of all its more barbarous elements. Despairing, as it would
seem, of discovering the higher wisdom that the more philosophic of the
priests supposed that religion to conceal, the simpler-minded sought to
work out their own salvation by restoring the worship of the gods to its
most primitive forms. Hence came the fanatical revival of animal-worship
which led to feud and bloodshed between neighbouring towns--a feature of
Egyptian religion that at once amused and scandalized contemporary Greek
and Latin authors (Plut. De Iside, 72; Juv. xv. 33). Nevertheless
Egyptian cults, and particularly those of Serapis and Isis, found
welcome acceptance on European soil; and the shrines of Egyptian deities
were established in all the great cities of the Roman Empire. Serapis
was a god imported by the first Ptolemy from Sinope on the Black Sea,
who soon lost his own identity by assimilation with Osiris-Apis, the
bull revered in Memphis. Far down into the Roman age the worship of
Serapis persisted and flourished, and it was only when the Serapeum of
Alexandria was razed to the ground by order of Theodosius the Great
(A.D. 391) that the death-blow of the old Egyptian religion was struck.

  Notes are here added on some divinities who have received inadequate
  or no attention in the preceding pages. For information as to Ammon,
  Anubis, Apis, Bes, Bubastis, Buto, Isis and Thoth, reference must be
  made to the special articles on these gods.

  ARSAPHES, in Egyptian _Harshafe_, "he who is upon his lake," the
  ram-headed god of Heracleopolis Magna, gained an ephemeral importance
  during the IXth Dynasty, which arose from his town. Outwardly, he
  resembles Khnum. Little is known about him, and he is seldom
  mentioned. The burial-place of his priests in later times was in 1904
  discovered at Abusir el Meleq.

  CHONS, "he who travels by boat," perhaps originally a mere epithet of
  the moon-god Ioh or Thoth, is chiefly familiar as the third member of
  the Theban triad. As such he is represented as a youthful god, wearing
  a skull-cap surmounted by the moon. His cult was revived and became
  popular in Ptolemaic times. A curious story about the sending of his
  statue to Mesopotamia to heal a daughter of the king of Bakhtan is
  related upon a stele that purports to date from the Ramesside period:
  it has been proved to be a pious fraud invented by the priests not
  earlier than the Greek period.

  HATHOR, whose name means "house of Horus," was at all times a very
  important deity. She is depicted as a cow, or with a broad human
  countenance, the cow's ears just showing from under a massive wig.
  Probably at first a goddess of the sky, she is early mentioned in
  connexion with Re. Later she was often identified with Isis, and her
  name was used to designate foreign goddesses like those of Puoni and
  Byblus. Unlike most cosmic deities, she was worshipped in many
  localities, chief among which was Dendera, where her magnificent
  temple, of Ptolemaic date, still stands. "The seven Hathors" is a name
  given to certain fairies, who appeared shortly after the birth of an
  infant, and predicted his future.

  KHNUM or KHNOUM, a ram-headed god, whose principal place of worship
  was the island of Elephantine (there associated with Satis and
  Anukis), but also revered elsewhere, e.g. together with Nebtu in Esna.
  He enjoyed great repute as a creator, and was supposed to use the
  potter's wheel for the purpose. In this capacity he is sometimes
  accompanied by the frog-headed goddess Heket.

  MONTH, a hawk-headed god of the Thebaid: in Thebes itself his cult was
  superseded by that of Ammon, but it persisted in Hermonthis. He was
  often given the solar attributes, and was credited as a great warrior.

  MIN, the god of Coptos and Panopolis (Akhmim), seems to have been
  early looked upon as a deity of the harvest and crops. His cult dates
  from the earliest times. Represented as ithyphallic, with two tall
  plumes on his head, the right arm upraised and bearing a scourge. In
  old times he is identified with Horus: later Ammon was confused with
  him, and depicted in his image.

  NECHBET (Nekhbi, Nekhebi), the vulture-goddess of El Kab, called
  Eileithyia by the Greeks. She gained an ascendancy as patroness of the
  south at the time when the two kingdoms were striving for the mastery.
  It is as such, in opposition to Buto the goddess of the north, that
  she is most often named on the monuments.

  NEITH, the very ancient and important goddess of Sais, the Greek
  Athene. On the earliest monuments she is represented by a shield
  transfixed by arrows. Later she wears the crown of Lower Egypt, and
  carries in her hands a bow and arrows, a sign of her warlike
  character. In the XXVIth Dynasty, when a line of Pharaohs sprang from
  Sais, she regained a prominent position, and was given many cosmogonic
  attributes, including the title of mother of Re.

  NEPHTHYS, the sister of Osiris and wife of Seth, daughter of Keb and
  Nut, plays a considerable rôle in the Osiris story. She sided with
  Isis and aided her to bring Osiris back to life. Isis and Nephthys are
  often mentioned together as protectresses of the dead.

  ONOURIS, Egyptian _En-huri_, "sky-bearer," the god of Thinis. Later
  identified with Shu (Show), who holds heaven and earth apart.

  PTAH, the Hephaestus of the Greeks, a demiurgic and creative god,
  special patron of hand-workers and artisans. Worshipped in Memphis, he
  perhaps owed his importance more to the political prominence of that
  town than to anything else. He was early identified with an ancient
  but obscure god Tenen, and further with the sepulchral deity Sokaris.
  He is represented either as a closely enshrouded figure whose
  protruding hands grasp a composite sceptre, the whole standing on a
  pedestal within a shrine; or else as a misshapen dwarf.

  SAKHMI, a lion-headed goddess of war and strife, whose name signifies
  the mighty. She was worshipped at Latopolis (Esna), but also at a late
  date as a member of the Memphite triad, with Ptah as husband and
  Nefertem (Iphthimis) as son: often, too, confounded with Ubasti.

  SETH (Egyptian Set, Sth or Sts), by the Greeks called Typhon, was
  depicted as an animal [HRG] that has been compared with the jerboa by
  some, and with the okapi by others, but which the Egyptians themselves
  occasionally conceived to be nothing but a badly drawn ass. In
  historic times his cult was celebrated at Tanis and Ombos. He regained
  a certain prestige as god of the Hyksos rulers, and two Pharaohs of
  the XIXth Dynasty derived their name Sethos (Seti) from him. But,
  generally speaking, he was abominated as a power of evil, and his
  figure was often obliterated on the monuments. He is named in similes
  as a great warrior, and as such and "son of Nut" he is identified with
  the Syrian Baal.

4. _The Divine Cult._--In the midst of every town rose the temple of the
local god, a stately building of stone, strongly contrasting with the
mud and plaster houses in which even the wealthiest Egyptians dwelt. It
was called the "house of the god" [HRGs], and in it the deity was
supposed to reside, attended by his "servants" [HRGs] the priests. There
was indeed a certain justification for this contention, even when a
contrary theory assigned to the divinity a place in the sky, as in the
case of the lunar divinity Thoth; for in the inmost sanctuary stood a
statue of the god, which served as his representative for the purposes
of the cult. Originally each temple was dedicated to one god only; but
it early became usual to associate with him a mate of the opposite sex,
besides a third deity who might be represented either as a second wife
or as a child. As examples of such triads, as they are called, may be
mentioned that of Thebes, consisting of Ammon, Mut and Chons, father,
mother and child; and as typical of the other kind, where a god was
accompanied by two goddesses, that of Elephantine, consisting of Khnum,
Satis and Anukis. The needs of the god were much the same as those of
mortals; no more than they could he dispense with food and drink,
clothes for his apparel, ointment for his limbs, and music and dancing
to rejoice his heart. The only difference was that the divine statue was
half-consciously recognized as a lifeless thing that required carefully
regulated rites and ceremonies to enable it to enjoy the good things
offered to it. Early every morning the officiating priest proceeded to
the holy of holies, after the preliminaries of purification had cleansed
him from any miasma that might interfere with the efficacy of the rites.
Then with the prescribed gestures, and reciting appropriate formulae all
the while, he broke the seal upon the door of the shrine, loosed the
bolts, and at last stood face to face with the god. There followed a
series of prostrations and adorations, culminating in the offering of a
small image of Maat, the goddess of Truth. This seems to have been the
psychological moment of the entire service: hitherto the statue had been
at best a god in _posse_; now the symbolical act placed him in
possession of all his faculties, he was a god in truth, and could
participate like any mortal in the food and luxuries that his servants
put before him. The daily ceremony closed with ablutions, anointings and
a bountiful feast of bread, geese, beer and oxen; having taken his fill
of these, the god returned to his shrine until the next morning, when
the ritual was renewed. The words that accompanied the manual gestures
are, in the rituals that have come down to us, wholly dominated by the
myth of Osiris: it is often hard to discern much connexion between the
acts and the formulae recited, but the main thought is clearly that the
priest represents Horus, the pious son of the dead divinity Osiris. That
this conception is very old is proved by the fact that even in the
Pyramid texts "the eye of Horus" is a synonym for all offerings: an
ancient tale of which only shreds have reached us related how Seth had
torn the eye of Horus from him, though not before he himself had
suffered a still more serious mutilation; and by some means, we know not
how, the restoration of the eye was instrumental in bringing about the
vindication of Osiris. As to the manual rites of the daily cult, all
that can here be said is that incense, purifications and anointings with
various oils played a large part; the sacrifices consisted chiefly of
slaughtered oxen and geese; burnt offerings were a very late innovation.

At an early date the rites practised in the various temples were
conformed to a common pattern. This holds good not only for the daily
ritual, but also for many festivals that were celebrated on the same day
throughout the whole length of the land. Such were the calendrical
feasts, called "the beginnings of the seasons," and including, for
example, the monthly and half-monthly festivals, that of the New Year
and that of the rising of Sirius (Sothis). But there were also local
feast days like that of Neith in Sais (Hdt. ii. 62) or that of Ammon in
southern Opi (Luxor). These doubtless had a more individual character,
and often celebrated some incident supposed to have occurred in the
lifetime of the god. Sometimes, as in the case of the feast of Osiris in
Abydos, a veritable drama would be enacted, in which the whole history
of the god, his sufferings and final triumph were represented in mimic
form. At other times the ceremonial was more mysterious and symbolical,
as in the feast of the raising of the Ded-column [HRG] when a column of
the kind was drawn by cords into an upright position. But the most
common feature of these holy days was the procession of the god, when he
was carried on the shoulders of the priests in his divine boat far
beyond the precincts of his temple; sometimes, indeed, even to another
town, where he paid a visit to the god of the place. These occasions
were public holidays, and passed amid great rejoicings. The climax was
reached when at a given moment the curtains of the shrine placed on the
boat were withdrawn, and the god was revealed to the eyes of the
awe-struck multitude. Music and dancing formed part of the festival
rites.


  Temples.

As with the rites and ceremonies, so also the temples were early
modelled upon a common type. Lofty enclosure walls, adorned with scenes
from the victorious campaigns of the Pharaoh, shut off the sacred
buildings from the surrounding streets. A small gateway between two
massive towers or pylons gave admittance to a spacious forecourt open to
the sky, into which the people were allowed to enter at least on feast
days. Farther on, separated from the forecourt by smaller though still
massive pylons, lay a hypostyle hall, so called from its covered
colonnades; this hall was used for all kinds of processions. Behind the
hypostyle hall, to which a second similar one might or might not be
added, came the holy of holies, a dark narrow chamber where the god
dwelt; none but the priests were admitted to it. All around lay the
storehouses that contained the treasures of the god and the
appurtenances of the divine ritual. The temples of the earliest times
were of course far more primitive than this: from the pictures that are
all that is now left to indicate their nature, they seem to have been
little more than huts or sheds in which the image of the god was kept.
One temple of a type different from that above described has survived at
Abusir, where it has been excavated by German explorers. It was a
splendid edifice dedicated to the sun-god Re by a king of the Vth
Dynasty, and was probably a close copy of the famous temple of
Heliopolis. The most conspicuous feature was a huge obelisk on a broad
superstructure [HRG]: the obelisk always remained closely connected with
the solar worship, and probably took the place of the innermost shrine
and statue of other temples. The greater part of the sanctuary was left
uncovered, as best befitted a dwelling-place of the sun. Outside its
walls there was a huge brick model of the solar bark in which the god
daily traversed the heavens.


  Power of the priests.

As the power of the Pharaohs increased, the maintenance of the cult
became one of the most important affairs of state. The most illustrious
monarchs prided themselves no less on the buildings they raised in
honour of the gods than on the successful wars they waged: indeed the
wars won a religious significance through the gradual elevation of the
god of the capital to god of the nation, and a large part of the spoils
was considered the rightful perquisite of the latter. Countless were the
riches that the kings heaped upon the gods in the hope of being requited
with long life and prosperity on the throne of the living. It became the
theory that the temples were the gifts of the Pharaoh to his fathers the
gods, and therefore in the scenes of the cult that adorn the inner walls
it is always he who is depicted as performing the ceremonies. As a
matter of fact the priesthoods were much more independent than was
allowed to appear. Successive grants of land placed no small portion of
the entire country in their hands, and the administration of the temple
estates gave employment to a large number of officials and serfs. In the
New Kingdom the might of the Theban god Ammon gradually became a serious
menace to the throne: in the reign of Rameses III. he could boast of
more than 80,000 dependants, and more than 400,000 cattle. It is not
surprising that a few generations later the high priests of Ammon
supplanted the Pharaohs altogether and founded a dynasty of their own.

At no period did the priests form a caste that was quite distinctly
separated from the laity. In early times the feudal lords were
themselves the chief priests of the local temples. Under them stood a
number of subordinate priests, both professional and lay. Among the
former were the _kher-heb_, a learned man entrusted with the conduct of
the ceremonies, and the "divine fathers," whose functions are obscure.
The lay priests were divided into four classes that undertook the
management of the temple in alternate months; their collective name was
the "hour-priesthood." Perhaps it was to them that the often recurring
title _oueb_, "the pure," should properly be restricted, though strict
rules as to personal purity, dress and diet were demanded of all
priests. The personnel of the temple was completed by various
subordinate officials, doorkeepers, attendants and slaves. In the New
Kingdom the leading priests were more frequently mere clerics than
theretofore, though for instance the high priest of Ammon was often at
the same time the vizier of southern Egypt. In some places the highest
priests bore special names, such as the _Ouer maa_, "the Great Seer," of
Re in Heliopolis, or the _Khorp himet_, "chief artificer," of the
Memphite Ptah. Women could also hold priestly rank, though apparently in
early times only in the service of goddesses; "priestess of Hathor" is a
frequent title of well-born ladies in the Old Kingdom. At a later date
many wealthy dames held the office of "musicians" (_shemat_) in the
various temples. In the service of the Theban Ammon two priestesses
called "the Adorer of the God" and the "Wife of the God" occupied very
influential positions, and towards the Saite period it was by no means
unusual for the king to secure these offices for his daughters and so to
strengthen his own royal title.

5. _The Dead and their Cult._--While the worship of the gods tended
more and more to become a monopoly of the state and the priests, and
provided no adequate outlet for the religious cravings of the people
themselves, this deficiency was amply supplied by the care which they
bestowed upon their dead: the Egyptians stand alone among the nations of
the world in the elaborate precautions which they took to secure their
own welfare beyond the tomb. The belief in immortality, or perhaps
rather the incapacity to grasp the notion of complete annihilation, is
traceable from the very earliest times: the simplest graves of the
prehistoric period, when the corpses were committed to the earth in
sheepskins and reed mats, seldom lack at least a few poor vases or
articles of toilet for use in the hereafter. In proportion as the
prosperity of the land increased, and the advance of civilization
afforded the technical means, so did these primitive burials give place
to a more lavish funereal equipment. Tombs of brick with a single
chamber were succeeded by tombs of stone with several chambers, until
they really merited the name of "houses of eternity" that the Egyptians
gave to them. The conception of the tomb as the residence of the dead is
the fundamental notion that underlies all the ritual observances in
connexion with the dead, just as the idea of the temple as the
dwelling-place of the god is the basis of the divine cult. The
parallelism between the attitude of the Egyptians towards the dead and
their attitude towards the gods is so striking that it ought never to be
lost sight of: nothing can illustrate it better than the manner in which
the Osirian doctrines came to permeate both kinds of cult.


  Tombs.

The general scheme of Egyptian tombs remained the same throughout the
whole of the dynastic period, though there were many variations of
detail. By preference they were built in the Western desert, the Amente,
near the place where the sun was seen to go to rest, and which seemed
the natural entrance to the nether world. A deep pit led down to the
sepulchral chamber where the dead man was deposited amid the funereal
furniture destined for his use; and no device was neglected that might
enable him to rest here undisturbed. This aim is particularly
conspicuous in the pyramids, the gigantic tombs which the Pharaohs of
the Old Kingdom constructed for themselves: the passages that lead to
the burial chamber were barred at intervals by vast granite blocks, and
the narrow opening that gave access to them was hidden from view beneath
the stone casing of the pyramid sides. Quite separate from this part of
the tomb lay the rooms employed for the cult of the dead: their walls
were often adorned with pictures from the earthly life of the deceased,
which it was hoped he might still continue to enjoy after death. The
innermost chamber was the chapel proper: on its western side was
sculptured an imitation door for the dead man to pass through, when he
wished to participate in the offerings brought by pious relatives. It
was of course only the few who could afford elaborate tombs of the kind:
the poor had to make shift with an unpretentious grave, in which the
corpse was placed enveloped only by a few rags or enclosed in a rough
wooden coffin.


  Embalming and burial.

The utmost care was taken to preserve the body itself from decay. Before
the time of the Middle Kingdom it became usual for the rich to have
their bodies embalmed. The intestines were removed and placed in four
vases (the so-called Canopic jars) in which they were supposed to enjoy
the protection of the four sons of Horus, the man-headed Mesti, the
ape-headed Hapi, the jackal Duamutef and the falcon Kebhsenuf. The
corpse was treated with natron and asphalt, and wound in a copious
swathing of linen bandage, with a mask of linen and stucco on the face.
The "mummy" thus prepared was then laid on its side like a sleeper, the
head supported by a head-rest, in a sarcophagus of wood or stone. The
operations in connexion with the mummy grow more and more elaborate
towards the end of the Pharaonic period: already in the New Kingdom the
wealthiest persons had their mummies laid in several coffins, each of
which was gaudily painted with mythological scenes and inscriptions. The
costliest process of embalmment lasted no less than seventy days. Many
superstitious rites had to be observed in the course of the process: a
late book has preserved to us the magical formulae that were repeated by
the wise _kher-heb_ priest (who in the necropolis performed the
functions of taricheutes, "embalmer"), as each bandage was applied.

A large number of utensils, articles of furniture and the like were
placed in the burial-chamber for the use of the dead--jars, weapons,
mirrors, and even chairs, musical instruments and wigs. In the early
times statuettes of servants, representing them as engaged in their
various functions (brewers, bakers, &c.), were included for the same
purpose; they were supposed to perform their menial functions for their
deceased lord in the future life. In the Middle Kingdom these are
gradually replaced by small models of the mummy itself, and the belief
arose that when their owner was called upon to perform any distasteful
work in the nether world, they would answer to his name and do the task
for him. The later _ushebti_-figures, little statuettes of wood, stone
or faience, of which several hundreds are often found in a single tomb,
are confused survivals of both of the earlier classes of statuettes.
Still more important than all such funereal objects are the books that
were placed in the grave for the use of the dead: in the pyramids they
are written on the walls of the sepulchral chamber and the passages
leading to it; in the Middle Kingdom usually inscribed on the inner
sides of the sarcophagus; in later times contained in rolls of papyrus.
The Pyramid texts and the _Book of the Dead_ are the most important of
these, and teach us much about the dangers and needs that attended the
dead man beyond the tomb, and about the manner in which it was thought
they could be counteracted.

The burial ceremony itself must have been an imposing spectacle. In many
cases the mummy had to be conveyed across the Nile, and boats were gaily
decked out for this purpose. On the western bank a stately procession
conducted the deceased to his last resting-place. At the door of the
tomb the final ceremonies were performed; they demanded a considerable
number of actors, chief among whom were the _sem_-priest and the
_kher-heb_ priest. It was a veritable drama that was here enacted, and
recalled in its incidents the story of Osiris, the divine prototype of
all successive generations of the Egyptian dead.


  The soul.

  However carefully the preliminary rites of embalmment and burial might
  have been performed, however sumptuous the tomb wherein the dead man
  reposed, he was nevertheless almost entirely at the mercy of the
  living for his welfare in the other world: he was as dependent on a
  continued cult on the part of the surviving members of his family as
  the gods were dependent on the constant attendance of their priests.
  That portion of a man's individuality which required, even after
  death, food and drink, and the satisfaction of sensuous needs, was
  called by the Egyptians the _ka_, and represented in hieroglyphs by
  the uplifted hands [HRG]. This _ka_ was supposed to be born together
  with the person to whom it belonged, and on the very rare occasions
  when it is depicted, wears his exact semblance. The conception of this
  psychical entity is too vaguely formulated by the Egyptians and too
  foreign to modern thought to admit of exact translation: of the many
  renderings that have been proposed, perhaps "double" is the most
  suitable. At all events the _ka_ has to be distinguished from the
  soul, the _bai_ (in hieroglyphs [HRG] or [HRG]), which was of more
  tangible nature, and might be descried hovering around the tomb in the
  form of a bird or in some other shape; for it was thought that the
  soul might assume what shape it would, if the funerary rites had been
  duly attended to. The gods had their _ka_ and _bai_, and the forms
  attributed to the latter are surprising; thus we read that the soul of
  the sky Nun is Re, that of Osiris the Goat of Mendes, the souls of
  Sobk are crocodiles, and those "of all the gods are snakes"; similarly
  the soul of Ptah was thought to dwell in the Apis bull, so that each
  successive Apis was during its lifetime the reincarnation of the god.
  Other parts of a man's being to which at given moments and in
  particular contexts the Egyptians assigned a certain degree of
  separate existence are the "name" [HRG] _ran_, the "shadow" [HRG],
  _khaibet_, and the "corpse" [HRG], _khat_.

It was, however, the _ka_ alone to which the cult of the dead was
directly addressed. This cult was a positive duty binding on the
children of a dead man, and doubtless as a rule discharged by them with
some regularity and conscientiousness; at least, on feast-days offerings
would be brought to the tomb, and the ceremonies of purification and
opening the mouth of the deceased would be enacted. But there could be
little guarantee that later generations would perpetuate the cult. It
therefore became usual under the Old Kingdom for the wealthiest persons
to make testamentary dispositions by which certain other persons agreed
for a consideration to observe the required rites at stated periods:
they received the name of "servants of the _ka_," and stood in the same
relation to the deceased as the priests to the gods. Or again, contracts
might be made with a neighbouring temple, the priesthood of which bound
itself to reserve for the contracting party some portion of the
offerings that had already been used for the divine cult. There is
probably a superstitious reason for the preference shown by the dead for
offerings of this kind; no wish is commoner than that one may receive
"bread and beer that had gone up on to the altar of the local god," or
"with which the god had been sated"; something of the divine sanctity
still clung about such offerings and made them particularly desirable.
In spite of all the precautions they took and the contracts they made,
the Egyptians could never quite rid themselves of the dread that their
tombs might decay and their cult be neglected; and they sought therefore
to obtain by prayers and threats what they feared they might lose
altogether. The occasional visitor to the tomb is reminded by its
inscriptions of the many virtues of the dead man while he yet lived, and
is charged, if he be come with empty hands, at least to pronounce the
funerary formula; it will indeed cost him nothing but "the breath of his
mouth"! Against the would-be desecrator the wrath of the gods is
invoked: "with him shall the great god reckon there where a reckoning is
made."

The funerary customs that have been described are meaningless except on
the supposition that the tomb was the regular dwelling-place of the
dead. But just as the Egyptians found no contradiction between the view
of the temple as the residence of the god and the conception of him as a
cosmic deity, so too they often attributed to the dead a continued
existence quite apart from the tomb. According to a widely-spread
doctrine of great age the deceased Egyptian was translated to the
heavens, where he lived on in the form of a star. This theme is
elaborated with great detail in the Pyramid texts, where it is the dead
king to whom this destiny is promised. It was perhaps only a restricted
aristocracy who could aspire to such high honour: the [HRG] _ikh_, or
"glorified being," who has his place in the sky seems often to hold an
intermediate position between the gods and the rank and file of the
dead. But in a few early passages the required qualification appears to
be rather moral integrity than exalted station. The life of the dead man
in the sky is variously envisaged in different texts: at one moment he
is spoken of as accompanying the sun-god in his celestial bark, at
another as a mighty king more powerful than Re himself; the crudest
fancy of all pictures him as a hunter who catches the stars and gods,
and cooks and eats them. According to another conception that persisted
in the imagination of the Egyptians longer than any of the ideas just
mentioned, the home of the dead in the heavens was a fertile region not
very different from Egypt itself, intersected by canals and abounding in
corn and fruit; this place was called the Sokhet Earu or "field of
Reeds."

Even in the oldest texts these beliefs are blended inextricably with the
Osirian doctrines. It is not so much as king of the dead that Osiris
here appears, but every deceased Egyptian was regarded as himself an
Osiris, as having undergone all the indignities inflicted upon the god,
but finally triumphant over the powers of death and evil impersonated by
Seth. This notion became so popular, that beside it all other views of
the dead sink into insignificance; it permeates the funerary cult in all
its stages, and from the Middle Kingdom onwards the dead man is
regularly called "the Osiris so-and-so," just as though he were
completely identical with the god. One incident of the tale of Osiris
acquired a deep ethical meaning in connexion with the dead. It was
related how Seth had brought an accusation against Osiris in the great
judgment hall of Heliopolis, and how the latter, helped by the skilful
speaker Thoth, had emerged from the ordeal acquitted and triumphant. The
belief gradually grew up that every dead man would have to face a
similar trial before he could be admitted to a life of bliss in the
other world. A well-known vignette in the _Book of the Dead_ depicts the
scene. In a shrine sits Osiris, the ruler and judge of the dead,
accompanied by forty-two assessors; and before him stands the balance on
which the heart of the deceased man is to be weighed against Truth;
Thoth stands behind and registers the result. The words that accompany
this picture are still more remarkable: they form a long negative
confession, in which the dead man declares that he has sinned neither
against man nor against the gods. Not all the sins named are equally
heinous according to modern conceptions; many of them deal with petty
offences against religious usages that seem to us but trifling. But it
is clear that by the time this chapter was penned it was believed that
no man could attain to happiness in the hereafter if he had not been
upright, just and charitable in his earthly existence. The date at which
these conceptions became general is not quite certain, but it can hardly
be later than the Middle Kingdom, when the dead man has the epithet
"justified" appended to his name in the inscriptions of his tomb.

It was but a natural wish on the part of the Egyptians that they should
desire to place their tombs near the traditional burying-place of
Osiris. By the time of the XIIth Dynasty it was thought that this lay in
Abydos, the town where the kings of the earliest times had been
interred. But it was only in a few cases that such a wish could be
literally fulfilled. It therefore became customary for those who
possessed the means to dedicate at least a tombstone in the
neighbourhood of "the staircase of the great god," as the sacred spot
was called. And those who had found occasion to visit Abydos in their
lifetime took pleasure in recalling the part that they had there taken
in the ceremonies of Osiris. Such pilgrims doubtless believed that the
pious act would stand to their credit when the day of death arrived.

6. _Magic._--Among the rites that were celebrated in the temples or
before the statues of the dead were many the mystical meaning of which
was but imperfectly understood, though their efficacy was never doubted.
Symbolical or imitative acts, accompanied by spoken formulae of set form
and obscure content, accomplished, by some peculiar virtues of their
own, results that were beyond the power of human hands and brain. The
priests and certain wise men were the depositaries of this mysterious
but highly useful art, that was called _hik_ or "magic"; and one of the
chief differences between gods and men was the superior degree in which
the former were endowed with magical powers. It was but natural that the
Egyptians should wish to employ magic for their own benefit or
self-gratification, and since religion put no veto on the practice so
long as it was exercised within legal bounds, it was put to a widespread
use among them. When magicians made figures of wax representing men whom
they desired to injure, this was of course an illegal act like any
other, and the law stepped in to prevent it: one papyrus that has been
preserved records the judicial proceedings taken in such a case in
connexion with the harem conspiracy against Rameses III.

One of the chief purposes for which magic was employed was to avert
diseases. Among the Egyptians, as in other lands, illnesses were
supposed to be due to evil spirits or the ghosts of dead men who had
taken up their abode in the body of the sufferer, and they could only be
driven thence by charms and spells. But out of these primitive notions
arose a real medical science: when the ailment could be located and its
nature roughly determined, a more materialistic view was taken of it;
and many herbs and drugs that were originally used for some
superstitious reason, when once they had been found to be actually
effective, easily lost their magical significance and were looked upon
as natural specifics. It is extremely hard to draw any fixed line in
Egypt between magic and medicine; but it is curious to note that simple
diagnoses and prescriptions were employed for the more curable diseases,
while magical formulae and amulets are reserved for those that are
harder to cope with, such as the bites of snakes and the stings of
scorpions.

The formulae recited for such purposes are not purely cabalistic, though
inasmuch as mystery is of the very essence of magic, foreign words and
outlandish names occur in them by preference. Often the magician relates
some mythical case where a god had been afflicted with a disease similar
to that of the patient, but had finally recovered: a number of such
tales were told of Horus, who was usually healed by some device of his
mother Isis, she being accounted as a great enchantress. The mere
recitation of such similar cases with their happy issue was supposed to
be magically effective; for almost unlimited power was supposed to be
inherent in mere words. Often the demon is directly invoked, and
commanded to come forth. At other times the gods are threatened with
privations or even destruction if they refuse to aid the magician: the
Egyptians seem to have found little impiety in such a use of the divine
name, though to us it would seem the utmost degree of profanity when,
for instance, a magician declares that if his spell prove ineffective,
he "will cast fire into Mendes and burn up Osiris."

The verbal spells were always accompanied by some manual performance,
the tying of magical knots or the preparation of an amulet. In these
acts particular significance was attached to certain numbers: a
sevenfold knot, for example, was more efficacious than others. Often the
formula was written on a strip of rag or a scrap of papyrus and tied
round the neck of the person for whom it was intended. Beads and all
kinds of amulets could be infused with magical power so as to be potent
phylacteries to those who wore them.

In conclusion, it must be emphasized that in Egypt magic stands in no
contrast or opposition to religion, at least as long as it was
legitimately used. The religious rites and ceremonies are full of it.
When a pretence was made of opening, with an iron instrument, the mouth
of the divine statue, to the accompaniment of recited formulae, this can
hardly be termed anything but magic. Similarly, the potency attributed
to _ushebti_-figures and the copies of the _Book of the Dead_ deposited
in the tombs is magical in quality. What has been considered under this
heading, however, is the use that the same principles of magic were put
to by men in their own practical life and for their own advantage.

  AUTHORITIES.--An excellent list of books and articles on the various
  topics connected with Egyptian Religion will be found in H. O. Lange's
  article on the subject in P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye, _Lehrbuch
  der Religionsgeschichte_ (Tübingen, 1905), vol. i. pp. 172-245. Among
  general works may be especially recommended A. Erman, _Die ägyptische
  Religion_ (Berlin, 1905); and chapters 2 and 3 in G. Maspero,
  _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient, les origines_, vol. i.
  (Paris, 1895).     (A. H. G.)

D. _Egyptian Language and Writing.--Decipherment._--Although attempts
were made to read Egyptian hieroglyphs so far back as the 17th century,
no promise of success appeared until the discovery of the Rosetta stone
in 1799 by the French engineers attached to Napoleon's expedition to
Egypt. This tablet was inscribed with three versions, in hieroglyphic,
demotic and Greek, of a long decree of the Egyptian priests in honour of
Ptolemy V., Epiphanes and his wife Cleopatra. The Greek and demotic
versions were still almost perfect, but most of the hieroglyphic text
had been broken away with the top of the tablet; portions of about half
of the lines remained, but no single line was complete. In 1802 J. D.
Akerblad, a Swedish orientalist attached to the embassy in Paris,
identified the proper names of persons which occurred in the demotic
text, being guided to them by the position of their equivalents in the
Greek. These names, all of them foreign, were written in an alphabet of
a limited number of characters, and were therefore analysed with
comparative ease.

The hieroglyphic text upon the Rosetta stone was too fragmentary to
furnish of itself the key to the decipherment. But the study of this
with the other scanty monuments and imperfect copies of inscriptions
that were available enabled the celebrated physicist Thomas Young
(1773-1829) to make a beginning. In an article completed in 1819 and
printed (over the initials I. J.) in the supplement to the 4th, 5th and
6th editions of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (vol. iv., 1824), he
published a brief account of Egyptian research, with five plates
containing the "rudiments of an Egyptian vocabulary." It appears that
Young could place the hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek texts of the
Rosetta stone very correctly parallel; but he could not accurately break
up the Egyptian sentences into words, much less could he attribute to
the words their proper sounds. Yet he recognized correctly the names of
Apis and Re, with many groups for words such as "assembly," "good,"
"name," and important signs such as those which distinguish feminine
words. In a bad copy of another monument he rightly guessed the royal
name of Berenice in its cartouche by the side of that of Ptolemy, which
was already known from its occurrence on the Rosetta stone. He
considered that these names must be written in phonetic characters in
the hieroglyphic as in demotic, but he failed to analyse them correctly.
It was clear, however, that with more materials and perseverance such
efforts after decipherment must eventually succeed.

Meanwhile J. F. Champollion "le Jeune" (see CHAMPOLLION; and Hartleben,
_Champollion, sein Leben und sein Werk_, Berlin, 1906) had devoted his
energies whole-heartedly since 1802, when he was only eleven years old,
to preparing himself for the solution of the Egyptian problem, by wide
linguistic and historical studies, and above all by familiarizing
himself with every scrap of Egyptian writing which he could find. By
1818 he made many equations between the demotic and the hieroglyphic
characters, and was able to transcribe the demotic names of Ptolemy and
Cleopatra into hieroglyphics. At length, in January 1822, a copy of the
hieroglyphic inscription on the Bankes obelisk, which had long been
fruitlessly in the hands of Young, reached the French savant. On the
base of this obelisk was engraved a Greek inscription in honour of
Ptolemy Euergetes II. and Cleopatra; of the two cartouches on the
obelisk one was of Ptolemy, the other was easily recognized as that of
Cleopatra, spelt nearly as in Champollion's experimental transcript of
the demotic name, only more fully. This discovery, and the recognition
of the name Alexander, gave fourteen alphabetic signs, including
homophones, with ascertained values. Starting from these, by the
beginning of September Champollion had analysed a long series of
Ptolemaic and Roman cartouches. His next triumph was on the 14th of
September, when he read the names of the ancient Pharaohs Rameses and
Tethmosis in some drawings just arrived from Egypt, proving that his
alphabetic characters were employed, in conjunction with syllabic signs,
for spelling native names; this gave him the assurance that his
discovery touched the essential nature of the Egyptian writing and not
merely, as had been contended, a special cipher for the foreign words
which might be quite inapplicable to the rest of the inscriptions. His
progress continued unchecked, and before the end of the year the
connexion of ancient Egyptian and Coptic was clearly established.
Subsequently visits to the museums of Italy and an expedition to Egypt
in 1828-1829 furnished Champollion with ample materials. The _Précis du
système hiéroglyphique_ (1st ed. 1823, 2nd ed. 1828) contained the
philological results of his decipherments down to a certain point. But
his MS. collections were vast, and his illness after the strenuous
labours of the expedition and his early death in 1832 left all in
confusion. The _Grammaire égyptienne_ and _Dictionnaire égyptien_,
edited from these MSS. by his brother, precious as they were, must be a
very imperfect register of the height of his attainments. In his last
years he was able to translate long texts in hieroglyphic and in
hieratic of the New Kingdom and of the later periods with some
accuracy, and his comprehension of demotic was considerable. Champollion
outdistanced all his competitors from the first, and had practically
nothing to thank them for except material to work on, and too often that
had been intentionally withheld from him. In eleven years he broke
ground in all directions; if the ordinary span of life had been allowed
him, with twenty or thirty more years of labour he might have brought
order into the chaos of different ages and styles of language and
writing; but, as it was, the task of co-ordination remained to be done
by others. For one year, before his illness incapacitated him,
Champollion held a professorship in Paris; but of his pupils and
fellow-workers, F. P. Salvolini, insincere and self-seeking, died young,
and Ippolito Rosellini (1800-1843) showed little original power. From
1832 to 1837 there was a pause in the march of Egyptology, and it seemed
as if the young science might be overwhelmed by the storm of doubts and
detraction that was poured upon it by the enemies of Champollion. Then,
however, Lepsius in Germany and Samuel Birch in England took up the
thread where the master had dropped it, and E. de Rougé, H. Brugsch,
François Joseph Chabas and a number of lesser lights quickly followed.
Brugsch (q.v.) was the author of a hieroglyphic and demotic dictionary
which still holds the field, and from time to time carried forward the
study of demotic by a giant's stride. De Rougé (d. 1872) in France was a
brilliant translator of hieroglyphic texts and the author of an
important grammatical work. Chabas (1817-1882) especially addressed
himself to the reading of the hieratic texts of the New Kingdom. By such
labours after forty years the results attained by Champollion in
decipherment were entirely superseded. Yet, while the values of the
signs were for the most part well ascertained, and the meanings of most
works fixed with some degree of accuracy, few grammatical rules had as
yet been established, the varieties of the language at different periods
had not been defined, and the origins of the hieroglyphs and of their
values had not been investigated beyond the most obvious points. At this
time a rare translator of Egyptian texts in all branches was arising in
G. Maspero (q.v.), while E. Revillout addressed himself with success to
the task of interpreting the legal documents of demotic which had been
almost entirely neglected for thirty years. But the honour of
inaugurating an epoch marked by greater precision belongs to Germany.
The study of Coptic had begun in Europe early in the 17th century, and
reached a high level in the work of the Dane Georg Zoega (1755-1809) at
the end of the 18th century. In 1835, too late for Champollion to use
it, Amadeo Peyron (1785-1870) of Turin published a Coptic lexicon of
great merit which is still standard, though far from satisfying the
needs of scholars of the present day. In 1880 Ludwig Stern (_Koptische
Grammatik_) admirably classified the grammatical forms of Coptic. The
much more difficult task of recovering the grammar of Egyptian has
occupied thirty years of special study by Adolf Erman and his school at
Berlin, and has now reached an advanced stage. The greater part of
Egyptian texts after the Middle Kingdom having been written in what was
even then practically a dead language, as dead as Latin was to the
medieval monks in Italy who wrote and spoke it, Erman selected for
special investigation those texts which really represented the growth of
the language at different periods, and, as he passed from one epoch to
another, compared and consolidated his results.

  The _Neuägyptische Grammatik_ (1880) dealt with texts written in the
  vulgar dialect of the New Kingdom (Dyns. XVIII. to XX.). Next
  followed, in the _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und
  Alterthumskunde_, studies on the Old Kingdom inscription of Una, and
  the Middle Kingdom contracts of Assiut, as well as on an "Old Coptic"
  text of the 3rd century A.D. At this point a papyrus of stories
  written in the popular language of the Middle Kingdom provided Erman
  with a stepping-stone from Old Egyptian to the Late Egyptian of the
  _Neuägyptische Grammatik_, and gave the connexions that would bind
  solidly together the whole structure of Egyptian grammar (see _Sprache
  des Papyrus Westcar_, 1889). The very archaic pyramid texts enabled
  him to sketch the grammar of the earliest known form of Egyptian
  (_Zeitschrift d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellschaft_, 1892), and in 1894
  he was able to write a little manual of Egyptian for beginners
  (_Ägyptische Grammatik_, 2nd ed., 1902), centring on the language of
  the standard inscriptions of the Middle and New Kingdoms, but
  accompanying the main sketch with references to earlier and later
  forms. Of the work of Erman's pupils we may mention G. Steindorff's
  little _Koptische Grammatik_ (1894, ed. 1904), improving greatly on
  Stern's standard work in regard to phonology and the relationship of
  Coptic forms to Egyptian, and K. Sethe's _Das Ägyptische Verbum_
  (1899). The latter is an extensive monograph on the verb in Egyptian
  and Coptic by a brilliant and laborious philologist. Owing to the very
  imperfect notation of sound in the writing, the highly important
  subject of the verbal roots and verbal forms was perhaps the obscurest
  branch of Egyptian grammar when Sethe first attacked it in 1895. The
  subject has been reviewed by Erman, _Die Flexion des ägyptischen
  Verbums_ in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of the Berlin Academy, 1900. The
  Berlin school, having settled the main lines of the grammar, next
  turned its attention to lexicography. It has devised a scheme, founded
  on that for the Latin Thesaurus of the Berlin Academy, which almost
  mechanically sorts the whole number of occurrences of every word in
  any text examined. Scholars in England, America and Denmark, as well
  as in Germany, have taken part in this great enterprise, and though
  the completion of it may be far off, the collections of classified
  material already made are very valuable for consultation.[11] At
  present Egyptologists depend on Heinrich Brugsch's admirable but
  somewhat antiquated _Wörterbuch_ and on Levi's useful but entirely
  uncritical _Vocabolario_. Though demotic has not yet received serious
  attention at Berlin, the influence of that great school has made
  itself felt amongst demotists, especially in Switzerland, Germany,
  America and England. The death of Heinrich Brugsch in 1895 was a very
  severe blow to demotic studies; but it must be admitted that his
  brilliant gifts lay in other directions than exact grammatical
  analysis. Apart from their philological interest, as giving the
  history of a remarkable language during a period of several thousand
  years, the grammatical studies of the last quarter of the 19th century
  and afterwards are beginning to bear fruit in regard to the exact
  interpretation of historical documents on Egyptian monuments and
  papyri. Not long ago the supposed meaning of these was extracted
  chiefly by brilliant guessing, and the published translations of even
  the best scholars could carry no guarantee of more than approximate
  exactitude, where the sense depended at all on correct recognition of
  the syntax. Now the translator proceeds in Egyptian with some of the
  sureness with which he would deal with Latin or Greek. The meaning of
  many words may be still unknown, and many constructions are still
  obscure; but at least he can distinguish fairly between a correct text
  and a corrupt text. Egyptian writing lent itself only too easily to
  misunderstanding, and the writings of one period were but half
  intelligible to the learned scribes of another. The mistaken readings
  of the old inscriptions by the priests at Abydos (Table of Abydos),
  when attempting to record the names of the kings of the 1st Dynasty on
  the walls of the temple of Seti I., are now admitted on all sides; and
  no palaeographer, whether his field be Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian
  or any other class of MSS., will be surprised to hear that the
  Egyptian papyri and inscriptions abound in corruptions and mistakes.
  The translator of to-day can, if he wishes, mark where certainty ends
  and mere conjecture begins, and it is to be hoped that advantage will
  be taken more widely of this new power. The Egyptologist who has long
  lived in the realm of conjecture is too prone to consider any series
  of guesses good enough to serve as a translation, and forgets to
  insert the notes of interrogation which would warn workers in other
  fields from implicit trust.

_Language and Writing._--The history of the Egyptian language is
evidenced by documents extending over a very long range of time. They
begin with the primitive inscriptions of the Ist Dynasty (not later than
3300 B.C.) and end with the latest Coptic compositions of about the 14th
century A.D. The bulk of the hieroglyphic inscriptions are written in a
more or less artificial literary language; but in business documents,
letters, popular tales, &c., the scribes often adhered closely to the
living form of the tongue, and thus reveal its progressive changes.

The stages of the language are now distinguished as follows:--

_Old Egyptian._--This is properly the language of the Old Kingdom. In it
we have (a) the recently discovered inscriptions of the Ist Dynasty, too
brief and concise to throw much light on the language of that time; and
the great collections of spells and ritual texts found inscribed in the
Pyramids of the Vth and VIth Dynasties, which must even then have been
of high antiquity, though they contain later additions made in the same
style. (b) A few historical texts and an abundance of short inscriptions
representing the language of the IVth, Vth and VIth Dynasties. The
ordinary _literary language_ of the later monuments is modelled on Old
Egyptian. It is often much affected by contemporary speech, but
preserves in the main the characteristics of the language of the Old
Kingdom.

_Middle and Late Egyptian._--These represent the vulgar speech of the
Middle and New Kingdoms respectively. The former is found chiefly in
tales, letters, &c., written in hieratic on papyri of the XIIIth Dynasty
to the end of the Middle Kingdom; also in some inscriptions of the
XVIIIth Dynasty. Late Egyptian is seen in hieratic papyri of the XVIIIth
to the XXIst Dynasties. The spelling of Late Egyptian is very
extraordinary, full of false etymologies, otiose signs, &c., the old
orthography being quite unable to adapt itself neatly to the profoundly
modified language; nevertheless, this clumsy spelling is expressive, and
the very mistakes are instructive as to the pronunciation.

_Demotic._--Demotic Egyptian seems to represent approximately the vulgar
speech of the Saite period, and is written in the "demotic" character,
which may be traced back to the XXVIth Dynasty, if not to a still
earlier time. With progressive changes, this form of the language is
found in documents reaching down to the fall of Paganism in the 4th
century A.D.[12] Under the later Ptolemies and the Roman rule documents
in Greek are more abundant than in demotic, and the language of the
ruling classes must have begun to penetrate the masses deeply.

_Coptic._--This, in the main, represents the popular language of early
Christian Egypt from the 3rd to perhaps the 10th century A.D., when the
growth of Coptic as a literary language must have ceased. The Greek
alphabet, reinforced by a few signs borrowed from demotic, rendered the
spoken tongue so accurately that four distinct, though closely allied,
dialects are readily distinguishable in Coptic MSS.; ample remains are
found of renderings of the Scriptures into all these dialects. The
distinctions between the dialects consist largely in pronunciation, but
extend also to the vocabulary, word-formation and syntax. Such
interchanges are found as _l_ for _r_, [Coptic: qima] (_k_, _ch_) for
[Coptic: dandia] (_dj_), final _i_ for final _e_, _a_ for _e_, _a_ for
_o_. Early in the 2nd century A.D., pagan Egyptians, or perhaps
foreigners settled in Egypt, essayed, as yet unskilfully, to write the
native language in Greek letters. This _Old Coptic_, as it is termed,
was still almost entirely free from Greek loan-words, and its strong
archaisms are doubtless accounted for by the literary language, even in
its most "vulgar" forms, having moved more slowly than the speech of the
people. Christian Coptic, though probably at first contemporary with
some documents of Old Coptic, contrasts strongly with the latter. The
monks whose task it was to perfect the adaptation of the alphabet to the
dialects of Egypt and translate the Scriptures out of the Greek, flung
away all pagan traditions. It is clear that the basis which they chose
for the new literature was the simplest language of daily life in the
monasteries, charged as it was with expressions taken from Greek,
pre-eminently the language of patristic Christianity. There is evidence
that the amount of stress on syllables, and the consequent length of
vowels, varied greatly in spoken Coptic, and that the variation gave
much trouble to the scribes; the early Christian writers must have taken
as a model for each dialect the deliberate speech of grave elders or
preachers, and so secured a uniform system of accentuation. The remains
of Old Coptic, though very instructive in their marked peculiarities,
are as yet too few for definite classification. The main divisions of
Christian Coptic as recognized and named at present are: Sahidic
(formerly called Theban), spoken in the upper Thebais; Akhmimic, in the
neighbourhood of Akhmim, but driven out by Sahidic about the 5th
century; Fayumic, in the Fayum (formerly named wrongly "Bashmuric," from
a province of the Delta); Bohairic, the dialect of the "coast district"
(formerly named "Memphite"), spoken in the north-western Delta. Coptic,
much alloyed with Arabic, was spoken in Upper Egypt as late as the 15th
century, but it has long been a dead language.[13] Sahidic and Bohairic
are the most important dialects, each of these having left abundant
remains; the former spread over the whole of Upper Egypt, and the latter
since the 14th century has been the language of the sacred books of
Christianity throughout the country, owing to the hierarchical
importance of Alexandria and the influence of the ancient monasteries
established in the north-western desert.

The above stages of the Egyptian language are not defined with absolute
clearness. Progress is seen from dynasty to dynasty or from century to
century. New Egyptian shades off almost imperceptibly into demotic, and
it may be hoped that gaps which now exist in the development will be
filled by further discovery.

Coptic is the only stage of the language in which the spelling gives a
clear idea of the pronunciation. It is therefore the mainstay of the
scholar in investigating or restoring the word-forms of the ancient
language. Greek transcriptions of Egyptian names and words are valuable
as evidence for the vocalization of Egyptian. Such are found from the
6th century B.C. in the inscription of Abu Simbel, from the 5th in
Herodotus, &c., and abound in Ptolemaic and later documents from the
beginning of the 3rd century B.C. onwards. At first sight they may seem
inaccurate, but on closer examination the Graecizing is seen to follow
definite rules, especially in the Ptolemaic period. A few cuneiform
transcriptions, reaching as far back as the XVIIIth Dynasty, give
valuable hints as to how Egyptian was pronounced in the 15th century
B.C. Coptic itself is of course quite inadequate to enable us to restore
Old Egyptian. In it the Old Egyptian verbal forms are mostly replaced by
periphrases; though the strong roots are often preserved entire, the
weaker consonants and the [Hebrew: ts] have largely or entirely
disappeared, so that the language appears as one of biliteral rather
than triliteral roots. Coptic is strongly impregnated with Greek words
adopted late; moreover, a certain number of Semitic loan-words flowed
into Egyptian at all ages, and especially from the 16th century B.C.
onwards, displacing earlier words. It is only by the most careful
scrutiny, or the exercise of the most piercing insight, that the
imperfectly spelled Egyptian has been made to yield up one grammatical
secret after another in the light brought to bear upon it from Coptic.
Demotic grammar ought soon to be thoroughly comprehensible in its forms,
and the study of Late Egyptian should not stand far behind that of
demotic. On the other hand, Middle Egyptian, and still more Old
Egyptian, which is separated from Middle Egyptian by a wide gap, will
perhaps always be to us little more than consonantal skeletons, the
flesh and blood of their vocalization being for the most part
irretrievably lost.[14]

In common with the Semitic languages, the Berber languages of North
Africa, and the Cushite languages of North-East Africa, Egyptian of all
periods possesses grammatical gender, expressing masculine and feminine.
Singularly few language groups have this peculiarity; and our own great
Indo-European group, which possesses it, is distinguished from those
above mentioned by having the neuter gender in addition. The
characteristic triliteral roots of all the Semitic languages seemed to
separate them widely from others; but certain traits have caused the
Egyptian, Berber and Cushite groups to be classed together as three
subfamilies of a Hamitic group, remotely related to the Semitic. The
biliteral character of Coptic, and the biliteralism which was believed
to exist in Egyptian, led philologists to suspect that Egyptian might be
a surviving witness to that far-off stage of the Semitic languages when
triliteral roots had not yet been formed from presumed original
biliterals; Sethe's investigations, however, prove that the Coptic
biliterals are themselves derived from Old Egyptian triliterals, and
that the triliteral roots enormously preponderated in Egyptian of the
earliest known form; that view is, therefore, no longer tenable. Many
remarkable resemblances have been observed in the grammatical structure
of the Berber and Cushite groups with Semitic (cf. H. Zimmern,
_Vergleichende Grammatik d. semitischen Sprachen_, Berlin, 1898,
especially pronouns and verbs); but the relationship must be very
distant, and there are no ancient documents that can take back the
history of any one of those languages more than a few centuries. Their
connexion with Semitic and Egyptian, therefore, remains at present an
obscure though probable hypothesis. On the other hand, Egyptian is
certainly related to Semitic. Even before the triliterality of Old
Egyptian was recognized, Erman showed that the so-called
pseudo-participle had been really in meaning and in form a precise
analogue of the Semitic perfect, though its original employment was
almost obsolete in the time of the earliest known texts. Triliteralism
is considered the most essential and most peculiar feature of Semitic.
But there are, besides, many other resemblances in structure between the
Semitic languages and Egyptian, so that, although the two vocabularies
present few points of clear contact, there is reason to believe that
Egyptian was originally a characteristic member of the Semitic family of
languages. See Erman, "Das Verhältnis d. ägyptischen zu d. semitischen
Sprachen" (_Zeitschrift d. deutschen morgenl. Gesellschaft_, 1892);
Zimmern, _Vergl. Gram._, 1898; Erman, "Flexion d. ägyptischen Verbums"
(_Sitzungsberichte d. Berl. Akad._, 1900). The Egyptians proper are not,
and so far as we can tell never were, Semitic in physical feature. As a
possible explanation of the facts, Erman supposes that a horde of
conquering Semites, like the Arabs of a later day, imposed their
language on the country, but disappeared, being weakened by the climate
or absorbed by the native population. The latter acquired the Semitic
language imperfectly from their conquerors; they expressed the verbal
conjugations by periphrases, mispronounced the consonants, and so
changed greatly the appearance of the vocabulary, which also would
certainly contain a large proportion of native non-Semitic roots. Strong
consonants gave place to weak consonants (as [Arabic: Qaaf] has done to
[Arabic sign], in the modern Arabic of Egypt), and then the weak
consonants disappearing altogether produced biliterals from the
triliterals. Much of this must have taken place, according to the
theory, in the prehistoric period; but the loss of weak consonants, of
[ayin] and of one of two repeated consonants, and the development of
periphrastic conjugations continued to the end. The typical Coptic root
thus became biliteral rather than triliteral, and the verb, by means of
periphrases, developed tenses of remarkable precision. Such verbal
resemblances as exist between Coptic and Semitic are largely due to late
exchanges with Semitic neighbours.

  The following sketch of the Egyptian language, mainly in its earliest
  form, which dates from some three or four thousand years B.C., is
  founded upon Erman's works. It will serve to contrast with Coptic
  grammar on the one hand and Semitic grammar on the other.

  THE EGYPTIAN ALPHABET

    [HRG: M17] = _l_; so conventionally transcribed since it unites two
           values, being sometimes y but often [Hebrew: alef] (especially
           at the beginning of words), and from the earliest times used in
           a manner corresponding to the Arabic _hamza_, to indicate a
           prosthetic vowel. Often lost.

    [HRG: Z4] and [HRG: M17-M17] are frequently employed for _y_.

    [HRG: G1] = '([Hebrew: alef]); easily lost or changes to _y_.

    [HRG: D36] = '([Hebrew: ayin]); lost in Coptic. This rare sound, well
           known in Semitic, occurs also in Berber and Cushite languages.

    [HRG: G43] = _w_; often changes to _y_.

    [HRG: D58] = _b_.

    [HRG: Q3] = _p_.

    [HRG: I9] = _f_.

    [HRG: G17] = _m_.

    [HRG: N35] = _n_.

    [HRG] = _r_; often lost, or changes to _y_. _r_ and _l_ are
           distinguished in later demotic and in Coptic.

    [HRG] = _h_    } distinction lost in Coptic.
    [HRG] = _[h.]_ }

    [HRG] = _h_; in Coptic [Coptic: sai] (_sh_) or [Coptic: xai] (_kh_)
           correspond to it.

    [HRG] = _[h=]_; generally written with [HRG] (_[vs]_) in the Old
           Kingdom, but [HRG] corresponds to _kh_ in Coptic.

    [HRG] = _s_    } distinction lost at the end of the Old Kingdom.
    [HRG] = _[/s]_ }

    [HRG] = _[vs]_ (_sh_).

    [HRG] = _q_; Coptic [Coptic: kappa].

    [HRG] = _k_ } Coptic [Coptic: kappa]; or [Coptic: qima],
                }    [Coptic: dandia], according to dialect.
    [HRG] = _g_ } Coptic [Coptic: kappa]; or [Coptic: qima].

    [HRG] = _[t=]_; often lost at the end of words.

    [HRG] = _t_ ([theta]); often changes to _t_, otherwise Coptic
           [Coptic: tau]; or [Coptic: dandia], [Coptic: qima].

    [HRG] = _d_; in Coptic reduced to _t_.

    [HRG] = _d_ (_z_); often changes to _d_, Coptic [Coptic: tau];
           otherwise in Coptic [Coptic: dandia].


  _ROOTS_

  Egyptian roots consist of consonants and semi-consonants only, the
  inflexion being effected by internal vowel-change and the addition of
  consonants or vowels at the beginning or end. The Egyptian system of
  writing, as opposed to the Coptic, showed only the consonantal
  skeletons of words: it could not record internal vowel-changes; and
  semi-consonants, even when radicals, were often omitted in writing.


  _PERSONAL PRONOUNS_

  Sing. 1. c. _iw_ (?) later _wi_.     Pl. 1. c. _n_.                Du.
        2. m. _kw_.                        2. c. _tn_.               2. c. _tny_.
           f. _tn_.
        3. _m_. *_fy_, surviving only      3. m. _sn_, early lost,   3. c. _sny_.
                       in a special                    except as
                       verbal form.                    suffix.
           f. _sy_.                           f. *_st_ surviving
                                                       as 3. c.

  From these are derived the suffixes, which are shortened forms
  attached to nouns to express the possessor, and to verbs to express
  the subject. In the latter case the verb was probably in the
  participle, so that _sdmii-sn_, "they hear," is literally "hearing
  are they." The singular suffixes are: (1) c. _-i_; (2) m. _-k_, f.
  _-t_; (3) m. _-f_, f. _-s_;--the dual and plural have no special
  forms.

  Another series of absolute pronouns is: (2) m. _twt_, _tw_; f. _tmt_,
  _tm_; (3) m. _swt_, _sw_; f. _stt_, _st_. Of these _twt_, _tmt_, &c.,
  are emphatic forms.

  Many of the above absolute pronouns were almost obsolete even in the
  Old Kingdom. In ordinary texts some survive, especially as objects of
  verbs, namely, _wi_, _tw_, _tn_, _sw_, _st_. The suffixes of all
  numbers and persons except the dual were in full use throughout, to
  Coptic; _sn_, however, giving way to a new suffix, _-w_, which
  developed first in the New Kingdom.

  Another absolute pronoun of the first person is _ink_, [Coptic: Anoch]
  like Heb. [Hebrew: Anochi]. It is associated with a series for the
  second and third persons: _nt-k_, _nt-t_, _nt-f_, _nt-sn_, &c.; but
  from their history, use and form, it seems probable that the last are
  of later formation, and are not to be connected with the Semitic
  pronouns (chiefly of the 2nd person) resembling them.


  _DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS_

  There are several series based on m. _p_; f. _t_; pl. _n_; but _n_ as
  a plural seems later than the other two. From them are developed a
  weak demonstrative to which possessive suffixes can be attached,
  producing the definite and possessive articles (_p'_, _t'_, _n'_,
  "the," _p'y-f_, "his," _p'y-s_ "her," &c.) of Middle Egyptian and the
  later language.


  _NOUNS_

  Two genders, m. (ending _w_, or nothing), f. (ending _t_). Three
  numbers: singular, dual (m. _wi_, f. _ti_, gradually became obsolete),
  plural (m. _w_; f. _wt_). No case-endings are recognizable, but
  construct forms--to judge by Coptic--were in use. Masculine and
  feminine nouns of instrument or material are formed from verbal roots
  by prefixing _m_; e.g. _m·sdm·t_, "stibium," from _sdm_, "paint the
  eye." Substantives and adjectives are formed from substantives and
  prepositions by the addition of _y_ in the masculine; e.g. _n·t_,
  "city," _nt·y_, "belonging to a city," "citizen"; _hr_, "upon," _hr·y_
  (f. _hr·t_; pl. _hr·w)_, "upper." This is not unlike the Semitic
  _nisbe_ ending _iy_, _ay_ (e.g. Ar. _beled_, "city," _beledi_,
  "belonging to a city"). Adjectives follow the nouns they qualify.


  _NUMERALS_

  1, _w'_; 2, _sn_; 3, _hmt_; 4, _fdw_; 5, _dw'_; 6, _sis_ (or _sw'_ ?);
  7, _sfh_; 8, _hmn_; 9, _psd_; 10, _mt_. 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (?) resemble
  Semitic numerals. 20 and 30 (_m'b_) had special names; 40-90 were
  named as if plurals of the units 4-9, as in Semitic. 100, _snt_; 1000,
  _h'_; 10,000, _zb'_; 100,000, _hfnw_.


  _VERBS_

  The forms observable in hieroglyphic writing lead to the following
  classification:--

  STRONG VERBS.
         Biliteral      Often showing traces of an original III. inf.;
                                   in early times very rare.

         Triliteral     Very numerous.

                        { Generally formed by reduplication.
         Quadriliteral  {   In Late Egyptian they were no longer
         Quinqueliteral {   inflected, and were conjugated with the help
                        {   of _iry_, "do."

  WEAK VERBS.
         II. geminatae  Properly triliterals, but, with the 2nd or 3rd
                            radical alike, these coalesced in many forms
                            where no vowel intervened, and gave the word
                            the appearance of a biliteral.

         III. gem.      Rare.

         III. inf.      Numerous. III. _w_, and III. _i_ were
                            unified early. Some very common verbs, "do,"
                            "give," "come," "bring" are irregular.

         IV. inf.       Partly derived from adjectival formations in
                            _y_, from nouns and infinitives:--e.g. _s·ip_,
                            inf. _sipt_; adj. _sipty_; verb (4 lit.),
                            _sipty_.

  Many verbs with weak consonants--I_y_, I_w_, II. inf. (_m[w]t_), and
  those with [Hebrew: alef]--are particularly difficult to trace
  accurately, owing to defective writing.

  It seems that all the above classes may be divided into two main
  groups, according to the form of the infinitive:--with masculine
  infinitive the strong triliteral type, and with feminine infinitive
  the type of the III. inf. The former group includes all except III.
  inf., IV. inf., and the causative of the biliterals, which belong to
  the second group.

  It is probable that the verb had a special form denoting condition, as
  in Arabic. There was a causative form prefixing _s_, and traces of
  forms resembling _Pi'el_ and _Niphal_ are observed. Some roots are
  reduplicated wholly or in part with a frequentative meaning, and there
  are traces of gemination of radicals.

  _Pseudo-Participle._--In very early texts this is the past indicative,
  but more commonly it is used in sentences such as, _gm-n-f wi
  'h'·kwi_, "he found me I stood," i.e. "he found me standing." The
  indicative use was soon given up and the pseudo-participle was
  employed only as predicate, especially indicating a state; e.g. _ntr·t
  sm·ti_, "the goddess goes"; _iw-k wd'·ti_, "thou art prosperous." The
  endings were almost entirely lost in New Egyptian. For early times
  they stand thus:--

    Sing. 3. masc.   _i_, late _w_.  Dual _wii_.   Pl. _w_.
             fem.    _ti_.           _tiiw_            _ti_.
          2. masc.   _ti_                              _tiwny_.
             fem.    _ti_
          1. c.      _kwi_.                            _wyn_.

  The pseudo-participle seems, by its inflexion, to have been the
  perfect of the original Semitic conjugation. The simplest form being
  that of the 3rd person, it is best arranged like the corresponding
  tense in Semitic grammars, beginning with that person. There is no
  trace of the Semitic imperfect in Egyptian. The ordinary conjugation
  is formed quite differently. The verbal stem is here followed by the
  subject-suffix or substantive--_sdm-f_, "he hears"; _sdmw stn_,
  "the king hears." It is varied by the addition of particles, &c., _n_,
  _in_, _hr_, _tw_, thus:--

  _sdm-f_, "he hears"; _sdm-w-f_, "he is heard" (_pl. sdm-ii-sn_, "they
  are heard"); _sdm-tw-f_, "he is heard"; _sdm-n-f_, "he heard";
  _sdm-n-tw-f_, "he was heard"; also, _sdm-in-f_, _sdm-hr-f_,
  _sdm-k'-f_. Each form has special uses, generally difficult to
  define, _sdm-f_ seems rather to be imperfect, _sdm-n-f_ perfect, and
  generally to express the past. Later, _sdm-f_ is ordinarily expressed
  by periphrases; but by the loss of _n_, _sdm-n-f_ became itself
  _sdm-f_, which is the ordinary past in demotic. Coptic preserves
  _sdm-f_ forms of many verbs in its causative (e.g. [Coptic: tanchof]
  "cause him to live," from Egyptian _di·t·nh-f_), and, in its
  periphrastic conjugation, the same forms of _wn_, "be," and _iry_,
  "do." With _sdm-f_ (_sedmo-f_) was a more emphatic form (_esdomef_),
  at any rate in the weak verbs.

  The above, with the relative forms mentioned below, are supposed by
  Erman to be derived from the participle, which is placed first for
  emphasis: thus, _sdm·w stn_, "hearing is the king"; _sdm-f_, for
  _sdm-fy_, "hearing he is." This Egyptian paraphrase of Semitic is
  just like the Irish paraphrase of English, "It is hearing he is."

  The _imperative_ shows no ending in the singular; in the plural it has
  _y_, and later _w_; cf. Semitic imperative.

  The _infinitive_ is of special importance on account of its being
  preserved very fully in Coptic. It is generally of masculine form, but
  feminine in III. inf. (as in Semitic), and in causatives of
  biliterals.

  There are relative forms of _sdm-f_ and _sdm-n-f_, respectively
  _sdm·w-f_ (masc.), _sdm·t-n-f_ (fem.), &c. They are used when the
  relative is the object of the relative sentence, or has any other
  position than the subject. Thus _sdm·t-f_ may mean "she whom he
  hears," "she who[se praises] he hears," "she [to] whom he hears
  [someone speaking]," &c. There are close analogies between the
  function of the relative particles in Egyptian and Semitic; and the
  Berber languages possess a relative form of the verb.

  _Participles_.--These are active and passive, perfect and imperfect,
  in the old language, but all are replaced by periphrases in Coptic.

  _Verbal Adjectives_.--There is a peculiar formation, _sdm·ty-fy_, "he
  who shall hear," probably meaning originally "he is a hearer,"
  _sdm·ty_ being an adjective in _y_ formed from a feminine (_t_) form
  of the infinitive, which is occasionally found even in triliteral
  verbs; the endings are: sing., masc. _ty-fy_, fem. _ty-sy_; pl., masc.
  _ty-sn_, fem. _ty-st_. It is found only in Old Egyptian.

  _Particles_.--There seems to be no special formation for adverbs, and
  little use is made of adverbial expressions. Prepositions, simple and
  compound, are numerous. Some of the commonest simple prepositions are
  _n_ "for," _r_ "to," _m_ "in, from," _hr_ "upon." A few enclitic
  conjunctions exist, but they are indefinite in meaning--_swt_ a vague
  "but," _grt_ a vague "moreover," &c.

  Coptic presents a remarkable contrast to Egyptian in the precision of
  its periphrastic conjugation. There are two present tenses, an
  imperfect, two perfects, a pluperfect, a present and a past
  frequentative, and three futures besides future perfect; there are
  also conjunctive and optative forms. The negatives of some of these
  are expressed by special prefixes. The gradual growth of these new
  forms can be traced through all the stages of Egyptian. Throughout the
  history of the language we note an increasing tendency to periphrasis;
  but there was no great advance towards _precision_ before demotic. In
  demotic there are distinguishable a present tense, imperfect, perfect,
  frequentative, future, future perfect, conjunctive and optative; also
  present, past and future negatives, &c. The passive was extinct before
  demotic; demotic and Coptic express it, clumsily it must be confessed,
  by an impersonal "they," e.g. "they bore him" stands for "he was
  born."

  It is worth noting how, in other departments besides the verb, the
  Egyptian language was far better adapted to practical ends during and
  after the period of the Deltaic dynasties (XXII.-XXX.) than ever it
  was before. It was both simplified and enriched. The inflexions
  rapidly disappeared and little was left of the distinctions between
  masculine and feminine, singular, dual and plural--except in the
  pronouns. The dual number had been given up entirely at an earlier
  date. The pronouns, both personal and demonstrative, retained their
  forms very fully. As prefixes, suffixes and articles, they, together
  with some auxiliary verbs, provided the principal mechanism of the
  renovated language. An abundant supply of useful adverbs was gradually
  accumulated, as well as conjunctions, so far as the functions of the
  latter were not already performed by the verbal prefixes. These great
  improvements in the language correspond to great changes in the
  economic condition of the country; they were the result of active
  trade and constant intercourse of all classes of Egyptians with
  foreigners from Europe and Asia. Probably the best stage of Egyptian
  speech was that which immediately preceded Coptic. Though Coptic is
  here and there more exactly expressive than the best demotic, it was
  spoilt by too much Greek, duplicating and too often expelling native
  expressions that were already adequate for its very simple
  requirements. Above all, it is clumsily pleonastic.


  THE WRITING

  The ancient Egyptian system of writing, so far as we know, originated,
  developed and finally expired strictly within the limits of the Nile
  Valley. The germ of its existence may have come from without, but, as
  we know it, it is essentially Egyptian and intended for the expression
  of the Egyptian language. About the 1st century B.C., however, the
  semi-barbarous rulers of the Ethiopian kingdoms of Meroe and Napata
  contrived the "Meroitic" alphabet, founded on Egyptian writing, and
  comprising both a hieroglyphic and a cursive form (see ETHIOPIA). As
  yet both of these kinds of Nubian writing are undeciphered. Egyptian
  hieroglyphic was carried by conquest into Syria, certainly under the
  XVIIIth Dynasty, and again under the XXVIth for the engraving of
  Egyptian inscriptions; but in the earlier period the cuneiform
  syllabary, and in the later the "Phoenician" alphabet, had obtained a
  firm hold there, and we may be sure that no attempt was made to
  substitute the Egyptian system for the latter. Cuneiform tablets in
  Syria, however, seem almost confined to the period of the XVIIIth
  Dynasty. Although it cannot be proved it seems quite possible that the
  traders of Phoenicia and the Aegean adopted the papyrus and Egyptian
  hieratic writing together, before the end of the New Kingdom, and
  developed their "Phoenician" alphabet from the latter about 1000 B.C.
  In very early times a number of systems of writing already reigned in
  different countries forming a compact and not very large area--perhaps
  from South Arabia to Asia Minor, and from Persia to Crete and Egypt.
  Whether they all sprang from one common stock of picture-writing we
  shall perhaps never know, nor can we as yet trace the influence which
  one great system may have had on another, owing to the poverty of
  documents from most of the countries concerned.

  It is certain that in Egypt from the IVth Dynasty onwards the mode of
  writing was essentially the same as that which was extinguished by the
  fall of paganism in the 4th century A.D. Its elements in the
  hieroglyphic form are pictorial, but each hieroglyph had one or more
  well-defined functions, fixed by convention in such a manner that the
  Egyptian language was expressed in writing word by word. Although a
  picture sign may at times have embarrassed the skilled native reader
  by offering a choice of fixed values or functions, it was never
  intended to convey merely an idea, so as to leave to him the task of
  putting the idea into his own words. How far this holds good for the
  period before the IVth Dynasty it is difficult to say. The known
  inscriptions of the earlier times are so brief and so limited in range
  that the system on which they were written cannot yet be fully
  investigated. As far back as the Ist Dynasty, phonograms (see below)
  were in full use. But the spelling then was very concise: it is
  possible that some of the slighter words, such as prepositions, were
  omitted in the writing, and were intended to be supplied from the
  context. As a whole, we gain the impression that a really distinct and
  more primitive stage of hieroglyphic writing by a substantially vaguer
  notation of words lay not far behind the time of the Ist Dynasty.

  The employment of the signs are of three kinds: any given sign
  represents either (1) a whole word or root; or (2) a sound as part of
  a word; or (3) pictorially defines the meaning of a word the sound of
  which has already been given by a sign or group of signs preceding.
  The number of phonograms is very restricted, but some signs have all
  these powers. For instance, [HRG: mn] is the conventional picture of a
  draughtboard (shown in plan) with the draughtsmen (shown in elevation)
  on its edge:--this sign (1) signifies the root _mn_, "set," "firm"; or
  (2) in the group [HRG: mn:x], represents the same sound as part of the
  root _mnh_, "good"; or (3) added to the group _snt_ (thus: [HRG:
  z:n:t-mn]), shows that the meaning intended is "draught-board," or
  "draughts," and not any of the other meanings of _snt_. Thus signs,
  according to their employment, are said to be (1) "word-signs," (2)
  "phonograms," or (3) "determinatives."

  _Word-signs._--The word-sign value of a sign is, in the first place,
  the name of the object it represents, or of some material, or quality,
  or action, or idea suggested by it. Thus [HRG] is _hr_, "face"; [HRG],
  a vase of ointment, is _mrh.t_, "ointment"; [HRG] is _wdb_, "turn."
  Much investigation is still required to establish the origins of the
  values of the signs; in some cases the connexion between the pictures
  and the _primary_ values seems to be curiously remote. Probably all
  the signs in the hieroglyphic signary can be employed in their primary
  sense. The _secondary_ value expresses the consonantal root of the
  name or other primary value, and any, or almost any, derivative from
  that root: as when [HRG], a mat with a cake upon it, is not only
  _htp_, an "offering-mat," but also _htp_ in the sense of
  "conciliation," "peace," "rest," "setting" (of the sun), with many
  derivatives. In the third place, some signs may be _transferred_ to
  express another root having the same consonants as the first: thus
  [HRG], the ear, by a play upon words can express not only _sdm_,
  "hear," but also _sdm_, "paint the eyes."

  _Phonograms._--Only a limited number of signs are found with this use,
  but they are of the greatest importance. By searching throughout the
  whole mass of normal inscriptions, earlier than the periods of Greek
  and Roman rule when great liberties were taken with the writing,
  probably no more than one hundred different phonograms can be found.
  The number of those commonly employed in good writing is between
  seventy and eighty. The most important phonograms are the _uniliteral_
  or _alphabetic_ signs, twenty-four in number in the Old Kingdom and
  without any homophones: later these were increased by homophones to
  thirty. Of _biliteral_ phonograms--each expressing a combination of
  two consonants--there were about fifty commonly used: some fifteen or
  twenty were rarely used. As Egyptian roots seldom exceeded three
  letters, there was no need for _triliteral_ phonograms to spell them.
  There is, however, one triliteral phonogram, the eagle, [HRG], _tyw_,
  or _tiu_ (?), used for the plural ending of adjectives in _y_ formed
  from words ending in _t_ (whether radical or the feminine ending).

  The phonetic values of the signs are derived from their word-sign
  values and consist usually of the bare root, though there are rare
  examples of the retention of a flexional ending; they often ignore
  also the weaker consonants of the root, and on the same principle
  reduce a repeated consonant to a single one, as when the hoe [HRG],
  _hnn_, has the phonetic value _hn_. The history of some of the
  alphabetic signs is still very obscure, but a sufficient number of
  them have been explained to make it nearly certain that the values of
  all were obtained on the same principles.[15] Some of the ancient
  words from which the phonetic values were derived probably fell very
  early into disuse, and may never be discoverable in the texts that
  have come down to us. The following are among those most easily
  explained:--

    [HRG: i], reed flower, value _y_ and [Hebrew: alef]; from [HRGs:
    i-A-Hn], _y'_, "reed."

  (It seems as if the two values _y_ and [Hebrew: alef] were obtained
  by choosing first one and then the other of the two semi-consonants
  composing the name. They are much confused, and a conventional symbol
  _l_ has to be adopted for rendering [HRG: i].)

    [HRG: a], forearm,    value '([Hebrew: ayin]); from [HRGs: a:Z1],
        '([Hebrew: ayin]), "hand."

    [HRG: r], mouth,      value _r_; from [HRGs: r:Z1], _r_, "mouth."

    [HRG: X], belly and teats,      value _h_; from [HRGs: X:t*Z1],
        _h.t_, "belly." (The feminine ending is here, as usual,
        neglected.)

    [HRG: S], tank,       value _s_; from [HRGs: S:Z1], _s_,
        "tank."

    [HRG: q], slope of earth   value _q_; ''[HRGs: q-A-A-q], _q_'',
        "slope," or brickwork, "height." (The doubled weak consonant is
        here neglected.)

    [HRG: d], hand,       value _d_; from [HRGs: d:t*Z1], _d.t_, "hand."

    [HRG: D], cobra,      value _z_; from [HRGs: D:t*Z1], _z.t_, "cobra."

  For some alphabetic signs more than one likely origin might be found,
  while for others, again, no clear evidence of origin is yet
  forthcoming.

  It has already been explained that the writing expresses only
  consonants. In the Graeco-Roman period various imperfect attempts were
  made to render the vowels in foreign names and words by the
  semi-vowels as also by [HRGs: a], the consonant [Hebrew: ayin] which
  [HRGs: a] originally represented having been reduced in speech by that
  time to the power of [Hebrew: alef], only. Thus, [Greek: Ptolemaios]
  is spelt _Ptwrmys_, Antoninus, _'Nt'nynws_ or _Intnyns_, &c. &c. Much
  earlier, throughout the New Kingdom, a special "syllabic" orthography,
  in which the alphabetic signs for the consonants are generally
  replaced by groups or single signs having the value of a consonant
  followed by a semi-vowel, was used for foreign names and words, e.g.

    [Hebrew: merkevet], "chariot," was written [HRGs:
      m:a-r:Z1-k:A-b-W-ti-i-t:xt], in Coptic [Coptic: berechojt].

    [Hebrew: migdal], "tower," was written [HRGs: m:a-k-ti-i-r:Z1],
      [HRGs: m:a-g-A-d:y-r:Z1-niwt], [Coptic: mechtod].

    [Hebrew: kinor], "harp," was written [HRGs: k-n:Z2-i-n-i-w-l:Z1-xt].

    [Hebrew: hamath], "Hamath," was written [HRGs:
      HA-A-mA-A-ti-i-qmA:xAst ].

  According to W. Max Müller (_Asien und Europa_, 1893, chap, v.), this
  represents an endeavour to express the vocalization; but, if so, it
  was carried out with very little system. In practice, the semi-vowels
  are generally negligible. This method of writing can be traced back
  into the Middle Kingdom, if not beyond, and it greatly affected the
  spelling of native words in New Egyptian and demotic.

  _Determinatives._--Most signs can on occasion be used as
  determinatives, but those that are very commonly employed as
  phonograms or as secondary word-signs are seldom employed as
  determinatives; and when they are so used they are often somewhat
  differentiated. Certain generic determinatives are very common,
  e.g.:--

    [HRG: D54]; of motion.

    [HRG: A24], [HRG: D40]; of acts involving force.

    [HRG: A40]; of divinity.

    [HRG: A1]; of a person or a man's name.

    [HRG: pr]; of buildings.

    [HRG: niwt]; of inhabited places.

    [HRG: xAst]; of foreign countries.

    [HRG: qmA]; club; of foreigners.

    [HRG: A2]; of all actions of the mouth--eating and speaking,
        likewise silence and hunger.

    [HRG: N35B]; ripple-lines; of liquid.

    [HRG: F27]; hide; of animals, also leather, &c.

    [HRG: Hn]; of plants and fibres.

    [HRG: N33:Z5]; of flesh.

    [HRG: mDAt]; a sealed papyrus-roll; of books, teaching, law, and of
        abstract ideas generally.

  In the earliest inscriptions the use of determinatives is restricted
  to the [HRG: A1], [HRG: B1], &c., after proper names, but it developed
  immensely later, so that few words beyond the particles were written
  without them in the normal style after the Old Kingdom.

  Some few signs ideographic of a group of ideas are made to express
  particular words belonging to that group by the aid of phonograms
  which point out the special meaning. In such cases the ideogram is not
  merely a determinative nor yet quite a word-sign. Thus [HRG: qmA-m] =
  [HRG: a-A-m-qmA] "Semite," [HRG: qmA-nw] = [HRG: T-H-n:nw-qmA]
  "Libyan," &c., but [HRG: qmA] cannot stand by itself for the name of
  any particular foreign people. So also in monogram [HRG: Sm] is
  _sm_ "go," [HRG: zb] is "conduct."

  _Orthography._--The most primitive form of spelling in the
  hieroglyphic system would be by one sign for each word, and the
  monuments of the Ist Dynasty show a decided tendency to this mode.
  Examples of it in later times are preserved in the royal cartouches,
  for here the monumental style demanded special consciseness. Thus, for
  instance, the name of Tethmosis III.--MN-HPR-R'--is spelled [HRG:
  hrw-mn-xpr] (as R' is the name of the sun-god, with customary
  deference to the deity it is written first though pronounced last). A
  number of common words--prepositions, &c.--with only one consonant are
  spelled by single alphabetic signs in ordinary writing. Word-signs
  used singly for the names of objects are generally marked with | in
  classical writing, as [HRG: Z91-ib:Z1], _ib_, "heart," [HRG: Hr:Z1],
  _hr_, "face," &c.

  But the use of bare word-signs is not common. Flexional consonants are
  almost always marked by phonograms, except in very early times; as
  when the feminine word [HRG: D] = _z.t_, "cobra," is spelled [HRG:
  D:t*Z1]. Also, if a sign had more than one value, a phonogram would be
  added to indicate which of its values was intended: thus [HRG: sw] in
  [HRG: sw-w] is _sw_, "he," but in [HRG: sw:t] it is _stn_, "king."
  Further, owing to the vast number of signs employed, to prevent
  confusion of one with another in rapid writing they were generally
  provided with "phonetic complements," a group being less easily
  misread than a single letter. E.g. [HRG: wD], _wz_, "command," is
  regularly written [HRG: wD-w], _wz_ (_w_); but [HRG: HD], _hz_,
  "white," is written [HRG: HD-D], _hz_(_z_). This practice had the
  advantage also of distinguishing determinatives from phonograms. Thus
  the root or syllable _hn_ is regularly written [HRG: H-Hn:n] to avoid
  confusion with the determinative [HRG: Hn]. Redundance in writing is
  the rule; for instance, _b_ is often spelled [HRG: b-G26A-A]
  (_b_)_b_'('). Biliteral phonograms are very rare as phonetic
  complements, nor are two biliteral phonograms employed together in
  writing the radicals of a word.

  Spelling of words purely in phonetic or even alphabetic characters is
  not uncommon, the determinative being generally added. Thus in the
  pyramidal texts we find _hpr_, "become," written [HRG: xpr] in one
  copy of a text, in another [HRG: x*p:r]. Such variant spellings are
  very important for fixing the readings of word-signs. It is noteworthy
  that though words were so freely spelled in alphabetic characters,
  especially in the time of the Old Kingdom, no advance was ever made
  towards excluding the cumbersome word-signs and biliteral phonograms,
  which, by a judicious use of determinatives, might well have been
  rendered quite superfluous.

  _Abbreviations._--We find [HRG: anx-DA-s], strictly _'nh z_' _s_
  standing for the ceremonial _viva! 'nh wz, snb_. "Life, Prosperity
  and Health," and in course of time [HRG: mDAt] was used in accounts
  instead of [HRG: dmD] _dmz_, "total."

  _Monograms_ are frequent and are found from the earliest times. Thus
  [HRG: Sm], [HRG: zb] mentioned above are monograms, the association of
  [HRG: S] and [HRG: D54] having no pictorial meaning. Another common
  monogram is [HRG: O10], i.e. [HRG: Hwt] and [HRG: G5] for _H·t-Hrw_
  "Hathor." A word-sign may be compounded with its phonetic complement,
  as [HRG: T5] _hz_ "white," or with its determinative, as [HRG: S14]
  _hz_ "silver."

  The table on the opposite page shows the uses of a few of the commoner
  signs.

  The decorative value of hieroglyphic was fully appreciated in Egypt.
  The aim of the artist-scribe was to arrange his variously shaped
  characters into square groups, and this could be done in great measure
  by taking advantage of the different ways in which many words could be
  spelt. Thus _hs_ could be written [HRG: H*Hz:z], _hsy_ [HRG: Hz-i-i],
  _hs-f_ [HRG: Hz-z:f], _hs-n-f_ [HRG: Hz-n:f]. But some words in the
  classical writing were intractable from this point of view. It is
  obvious that the alphabetic signs played a very important part in the
  formation of the groups, and many words could only be written in
  alphabetic signs. A great advance was therefore made when several
  homophones were introduced into the alphabet in the Middle and New
  Kingdoms, partly as the result of the wearing away of old phonetic
  distinctions, giving the choice between [HRG: z] and [HRG: s], [HRG:
  t-T] and [HRG: ti], [HRG: m] and [HRG: M], [HRG: n] and [HRG: N],
  [HRG: w] and [HRG: W]. In later times the number of homophones in use
  increased greatly throughout the different classes, the tendency being
  much helped by the habit of fanciful writing; but few of these
  homophones found their way into the cursive script. Occasionally a
  scribe of the old times indulged his fancy in "sportive" or
  "mysterious" writing, either inventing new signs or employing old ones
  in unusual meanings. Short sportive inscriptions are found in tombs of
  the XIIth Dynasty; some groups are so written cursively in early
  medical papyri, and certain religious inscriptions in the royal tombs
  of the XIXth and XXth Dynasties are in secret writing. Fanciful
  writing abounds on the temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.


  PALAEOGRAPHY

  _Hieroglyphic._--The main division is into monumental or epigraphic
  hieroglyphs and written hieroglyphs. The former may be rendered by the
  sculptor or the painter in stone, on wood, &c., with great delicacy of
  detail, or may be simply sunk or painted in outline. When finely
  rendered they are of great value to the student investigating the
  origins of their values. No other system of writing bears upon its
  face so clearly the history of its development as the Egyptian; yet
  even in this a vast amount of work is still required to detect and
  disentangle the details. Monumental hieroglyphic did not cease till
  the 3rd century A.D. (Temple of Esna). The written hieroglyphs, formed
  by the scribe with the reed pen on papyrus, leather, wooden tablets,
  &c., have their outlines more or less abbreviated, producing
  eventually the cursive scripts hieratic and demotic. The written
  hieroglyphs were employed at all periods, especially for religious
  texts.

  _Hieratic._--A kind of cursive hieroglyphic or hieratic writing is
  found even in the Ist Dynasty. In the Middle Kingdom it is well
  characterized, and in its most cursive form seems hardly to retain
  any definable trace of the original hieroglyphic pictures. The style
  varies much at different periods.

    +------------+-------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+
    |    Sign.   | Description.|      Name.      | Word-sign | Phonetic |  Determinative  |
    |            |             |                 |   Value.  |  Value.  |      Value.     |
    +------------+-------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+
    | [HRG: Xrd] | child       |   hrd (khrod)   |           |          | youth           |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: Hr]  | face        |     hr (hor)    |    hr     |   [hr]   |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: ir]  | eye         |  ir.t (yori.t)  |    ir     |    ir    | see, &c.        |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: r]   | mouth       |      r (ro)     |    r      |    r     |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: a]   | forearm     |      '('ei)     |    '      |    '     | [action of hand |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |    or arm]      |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: D40] | arm with    | nht "be strong" |    nht    |          | violent action  |
    |            |   stick     |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: A24] | man with    | nht "be strong" |    nht    |          | violent action  |
    |            |   stick     |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: zmA] | lungs and   |        sm;      |    sm;    |          |                 |
    |            |   windpipe  |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: ib]  | heart       |        ib       |           |          | heart           |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: nfr] | heart and   |        ?        |    nfr    |          |                 |
    |            |   windpipe  |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: wr]  | sparrow     |        ?        |    sr     |          | evil, worthless-|
    |            |             |                 |           |          |  ness, smallness|
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: zA]  | widgeon     |       s;.t      |    s;     |    s;    |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: in]  | bolti-fish  |       in.t      |    in     |    in    |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: Hw]  | tusk        | (1) ibh "tooth" |    bh     |    bh    | bite, &c.       |
    |            |             | (2) hw "taste"  |    hw     |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: xt]  | cut branch  |        ht       |    ht     |   [ht]   | wood, tree      |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: zp]  | threshing-  |       sp.t      |    sp     |          |                 |
    |            |   floor     |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: hrw] | sun         | (1) r' "sun"    |           |          | (1) sun         |
    |            |             | (2) hrw "day"   |           |          | (2) division of |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |     time        |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: pr]  | chamber,    |        pr       |    pr     |          |                 |
    |            |   house     |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: N17] | flat land   |         t'      |    t'     |    t'    | boundless hori- |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |  zon, eternity  |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: Hz]  | libation    |       hs.t      |    hs     |    hs    |                 |
    |            |   vase      |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: wD]  | cord on     |        wz       |    wz     |    wz    |                 |
    |            |   stick     |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: nb]  | basket      |       nb.t      |    nb     |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: k]   | looped      |        ?        |    k      |    k     |                 |
    |            |   basket    |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: mA]  | sickle      |        ?        |    m'     |    m'    |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: U7]  | composite   |      [mr?]      |    mr     |    mr    | tillage         |
    |            |   hoe       |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: U29] | fire-drill  |     z'.t(?)     |    z'     |    z'    |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: Sms] | attendant's | sms "follow"    |    sms    |          |                 |
    |            |   equipment |                 |           |          |                 |
    |            |             |                 |           |          |                 |
    | [HRG: T30] | knife       |        ds       |    ds     |          | cut, prick, cut-|
    |            |             |                 |           |          | ting instrument |
    +------------+-------------+-----------------+-----------+----------+-----------------+

  _Demotic._--Widely varying degrees of cursiveness are at all periods
  observable in hieratic; but, about the XXVIth Dynasty, which
  inaugurated a great commercial era, there was something like a
  definite parting between the uncial hieratic and the most cursive form
  afterwards known as demotic. The employment of hieratic was
  thenceforth almost confined to the copying of religious and other
  traditional texts on papyrus, while demotic was used not only for all
  business but also for writing literary and even religious texts in the
  popular language. By the time of the XXVth Dynasty the cursive of the
  conservative Thebais had become very obscure. A better form from Lower
  Egypt drove this out completely in the time of Amasis II. and is the
  true demotic. Before the Macedonian conquest the cursive ligatures of
  the old demotic gave birth to new symbols which were carefully and
  distinctly formed, and a little later an epigraphic variety was
  engraved on stone, as in the case of the Rosetta stone itself. One of
  the most characteristic distinctions of later demotic is the
  minuteness of the writing.

  Hieroglyphic is normally written from right to left, the signs facing
  to the commencement of the line; hieratic and demotic follow the same
  direction. But monumental hieroglyphic may also be written from left
  to right, and is constantly so arranged for purposes of symmetry, e.g.
  the inscriptions on the two jambs of a door are frequently turned in
  opposite directions; the same is frequently done with the short
  inscriptions scattered over a scene amongst the figures, in order to
  distinguish one label from another.

  In modern founts of type, the hieroglyphic signs are made to run from
  left to right, in order to facilitate the setting where European text
  is mixed with the Egyptian. The table on next page shows them in their
  more correct position, in order to display more clearly their relation
  to the hieratic and demotic equivalents.

  Clement of Alexandria states that in the Egyptian schools the pupils
  were first taught the "epistolographic" style of writing (i.e.
  demotic), secondly the "hieratic" employed by the sacred scribes, and
  finally the "hieroglyphic" (_Strom._ v. 657). It is doubtful whether
  they classified the signs of the huge hieroglyphic syllabary with any
  strictness. The only native work on the writing that has come to light
  as yet is a fragmentary papyrus of Roman date which has a table in
  parallel columns of hieroglyphic signs, with their hieratic
  equivalents and words written in hieratic describing them or giving
  their values or meanings. The list appears to have comprised about 460
  signs, including most of those that occur commonly in hieratic. They
  are to some extent classified. The bee [HRGs: bit] heads the list as a
  royal sign, and is followed by figures of nobles and other human
  figures in various attitudes, more or less grouped among themselves,
  animals, reptiles and fishes, scorpion, animals again, twenty-four
  alphabetic characters, parts of the human body carefully arranged from
  [HRGs: tp] to [HRGs: D54], thirty-two in number, parts of animals,
  celestial signs, terrestrial signs, vases. The arrangement down to
  this point is far from strict, and beyond it is almost impossible to
  describe concisely, though there is still a rough grouping of
  characters according to resemblance of form, nature or meaning. It is
  a curious fact that not a single bird is visible on the fragments, and
  the trees and plants, which might easily have been collected in a
  compact and well-defined section, are widely scattered. Why the
  alphabetic characters are introduced where they are is a puzzle; the
  order of these is:--[HRG Z91] [HRGs: r-H-kA-W] (?) [HRGs: wA] (?)
  [HRGs: s] (?) [HRGs: z-Db] (?) [HRGs: Z91-b-Z91-S-SA] (?) [HRGs: k]
  (?) [HRGs: xA-X-U29-p-a-g-x-t] (?) [HRGs: i-q].

  Three others, [HRGs: XA-D] and [HRGs: f], had already occurred amongst
  the fish and reptiles. There seems to be no logical aim in this
  arrangement of the alphabetic characters and the series is incomplete.
  Very probably the Egyptians never constructed a really systematic list
  of hieroglyphs. In modern lists the signs are classified according to
  the nature of the objects they depict, as human figures, plants,
  vessels, instruments, &c. Horapollon's _Hieroglyphica_ may be cited as
  a native work, but its author, if really an Egyptian, had no knowledge
  of good writing. His production consists of two elaborate
  complementary lists: the one describing sign-pictures and giving their
  meanings, the other cataloguing ideas in order to show how they could
  be expressed in hieroglyphic. Each seems to us to be made up of
  curious but perverted reminiscences eked out by invention; but they
  might some day prove to represent more truly the usages of mystics and
  magicians in designing amulets, &c., at a time approaching the middle
  ages.

  [Illustration: PLATE I. EARLIEST EGYPTIAN ART

     1. TATOOED FEMALE, LIMESTONE SLAG.
     2. 3. HEADS ON IVORY TUSKS.
     4. 5. ANIMALS ON BONE COMBS.
     6. IVORY HAWK.
     7. LIMESTONE LION.
     8. IVORY DOG AND GAZELLE.
     9. IVORY HANDLE OF KNIFE.
    10. 11. WHITE ON RED VASES; MEN AND ANIMALS.
    12. SHIP ON A VASE.
    13. SHIP ON A WALL PAINTING.
    14. IVORY KING.
    15. 16. ARCHAIC KING'S HEAD, STUDY IN LIMESTONE.
    17. HEAD OF KHASEKHEM.]

  [Illustration: PLATE II. EARLY EGYPTIAN ART.

    18. LIMESTONE RELIEF.
    19. ANIMALS ON SLATE PALETTE._Photo, Mansell._
    20. CONQUEROR AS A BULL.
    21. GAZELLES AND PALM, SLATE.
    22. ANIMALS, SLATE.
    23. KING NARMER, SLATE PALETTE.
    24. IVORY TUSK, WITH ANIMALS.
    25. IVORY WAND, WITH ANIMALS.
    26. WOODEN PANELS OF HESI.
    27. RAHOTP AND NEFERT.
    28. WOODEN FIGURE.]

    +---------------------+----------+-----------+---------------+---------------------+
    |                     | Demotic. | Hieratic. | Hieroglyphic. |                     |                 |
    +---------------------+----------+-----------+---------------+---------------------+
    | _ent_, "who"        |  [SGN]   |   [SGN]   |     [HRG]     |       _nty_         |
    |                     |          |           |               |                     |
    | _Perso_ ("Pharaoh") |  [SGN]   |   [SGN]   |     [HRG]     | _Per