OSBURN'S MONITMENTAL HISTORY OF EGYPT. * WHATEVER opinion may be formed
of Mr. Osburn's critical judg- ment and his theories or speculations respecting the history of ancient Egypt, there are some points on which his treatment of i the subject s more satisfactory than that of most Egyptologists. He presents his reader with a very clear exposition of the way in which Champollion was led to begin the interpretation of the Egyptian inscriptions ; he exhibits, with a less degree of distinct- ness, but still with sufficient clearness for those who -wish to pursue the study, an account of the whole system of reading those ancient Egyptian 'writings, with certain modifications of his own ; he gives an equally clear and detailed-description of the celebrated Rosetta stone ; so that the reader who knows nothing of the sub- ject on which he is about to enter may form an idea of the funda- mental principles on which the whole superstructure is reared. Mr. Osburn has a mind of some vigour and imaginative power; he has also a living acquaintance with the antiquities and na- tural features of Egypt, acquired by actual residence. Whenever, in his preliminary exposition or in his subsequent discussions, he has to recur to the appearance of the country or the monuments, or to such natural characteristics as may possibly be little changed by lapse of years,lis descriptions have a force and vividness which are generally wanting in archteolos°ical discussion. His sketch or Egypt as a country, from the sea to Ethiopia—his picture of the Nile in its various aspects—his account of the ball-working beetle, and of some of the monuments—are all very lifelike if a little en- thusiastic. Here is Egypt in its beauty, its dreariness, and its first sign of change.
"The European traveller arriving in Egypt about the winter solstice, would find the Nile, even in the Bolbatine branch and at the head of the Delta, a magnificent expanse of tolerably clear water, with the blue tinge which also distinguishes the waters of the Rhone as they issue from the Lake of Geneva. The river has just subsided within its banks, and the effects of the inundation exhibit themselves in a scene of fertility and beauty such as will scarcely be found in another country at any season of the year. The vivid green of the springing corn ; the groves of pomegranate trees' ablaze with the rich scarlet of their blossoms; the fresh breeze laden with the per- fumes of gardens of roses and orange thickets ; every tree and every shrub covered with sweet-scented flowers,—these are a few of the natural beauties that welcome the stranger to the land of-Ham. There is considerable same- ness in them, it is true ; for he would observe little variety in the trees and plants, whether he first entered Egypt by the gardens of Alexandria or the plain of Assouan. Yet is it the same everywhere, only because it would be impossible to make any addition to the sweetness of the odours, the bril- liancy of the colours, or the exquisite beauty of the many forms of vegetable
i life, in the midst of which he wanders. It s monotonous, but it is the mo- notony of Paradise.
"The most perfect contrast to the scene we have described, which the na- tural laws that govern the earth are capable of producing, is presented to the traveller who arrives in Egypt about the time of the summer solstice. The Nile has shrunk within its banks until its stream is contracted to half its or- dinary dimensions, and its turbid, slimy, stagnant waters, are scarcely seen to flow in any direction. Broad flats or steep banks of black, sun-baked, cracked Nile mud, form both the shores of the river. All beyond them is sand and sterility • for the Hamseen, or sand-wind of fifty days' duration, has scarcely yet ceased to blow. The trunks and branches of trees may be seen here and there through the dusty, hazy, burning atmosphere; but so entirely are their leaves coated with dust, that at a distance they are not distinguishable from the desert-sand that surrounds them. It is only by the most painful and la- borious operation of watering that any tint approximating to greenness can be preserved at this season even in the pleasure-gardens of the Pasha. The first symptom of the termination of this most terrible season, is the rising of the North wind, (the Etesien wind of the Greeks) blowing briskly, often fiercely, during the whole of the day. The foliage of the groves that cover Lower Egypt is soon disencumbered by it of the dust, and resumes its ver- dure. The fierce fervours of the sun, then at his highest ascension, are also most seasonably mitigated by the same powerful agency, which prevails for this and the three following months throughout the entire land of Egypt.
"A change is soon perceptible in the waters of the Nile. The rise of an inch or two is reported from the Nilometer at Cairo, and the waters them- selves have lost the little of clearness and freshness which just before had still recommended them as a delicious draught. They have acquired the green, slimy, lustreless hue of brackish water between the Tropics; and no filter that has yet been discovered can separate them from the nauseous un- wholesome admixture which occasions this change."
At the qualities enumerated praise must stop. A man like Mr. Osburn cannot go over the entire length of Egypt, surveying in the gross its monuments and its natural features, considering those monuments in detail to interpret their inscriptions, and critically examining ancient and modern authorities to press them into his service, or to confute them, without being of use to an inquirer. But his theory is too conjectural,—too unsupported by cogent evi- dence, to be received. Neither does he exhibit those qualities which lead to confidence in conclusions, when the reader does not feel able thoroughly to grasp the premises for himself. He ad- vances what he wishes rather than what is reasonable ; he differs
• The Monumental History of Egypt, as recorded in the Ruins of her Temples, Palaces, and Tombs. By William Osborn, R.S.L.; Author of" The Antiquities of Egypt," "Ancient Egypt, her Testimony to the Truth," &a. Published by Milliner and Co.
with everybody, and even with himself. For instance, take chro- nology. He admits the great merits of Lepsius as an Egyptolo- gist; but he disagrees with the German's estimate of time by more than a thousand years. Ile admires Bunsen ; but the difference between him and the author of Egypt's Place in History would be two thousand years at the least. He throws aside the chro- nology of Manetho and of Eratosthenes. Though professedly writ- ing to uphold the Bible narrative against modern scepticism and rationalism, he disposes of each of the Scripture chronologies in the same summary way.
"The entries of these numbers, however, in all the three versions, have either been dishonestly tampered with, or vitiated through careless tran- scriptions. The Greek version was made by the Jews of Alexandria at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus. They altered these numbers for the dishonest purpose of making the ancestors of their nation as old as the founders of Egypt, Babylon, and other ancient kingdoms, appeared to be by their temple records. The same numbers were altered in the Hebrew Bible by the Jewish Rabbins of Tiberias, about a century after the destruction of Jerusalem, for the equally dishonest. purpose of making the year of the con- secration of Solomon's Temple coincide with A. M. 3000, i. e. with the first year of the fourth millennium from the creation of the world. The Samari- tan version is of the three the best entitled to confidence. It is, however, generally far too slovenly and careless a text to rely on or quote as authority. Nevertheless, its summation varies fifty years only from our balance of errors."
In like manner, be follows Herodotus when it suits his purpose; when it does not, the father of history is painted as a silly credu- lous Greek, knowing nothing of the Egyptian language himself, and in the hands of a Phrygian "dragoman" who imperfectly un- derstood either Greek or Egyptian, and who was moreover bare- boozled by the priests.
"So that the position of Herodotus in Egypt somewhat resembled that of an Englishman of the present day, who, ignorant of Arabic, should attempt to collect from their own traditions the history of the Arab triba of the deserts adjacent to the valley of the Nile, with the assistance of a Maltese dragoman only. The English of the interpreter is scarcely intelligible to the traveller= The vile patois of his island is the utter scorn of the Arab chiefs with whom he has to hold communication ; who, therefore, find amusement in puzzling and misleading him. Herodotus's history of Egypt has about the amount of value, as history, which would be possessed by the published notes of an English traveller so circumstanced. It is a chaotic mass of notices, compiled from the bad, perhaps scarcely intelligible jargon of his dragoman; wherein the man attempted to translate into Greek, of which be knew little, the narratives of the priests in Egyptian, of which he knew still less."
The object of Mr. Osburn, as already intimated, is to uphold the received system of chronology and history in connexion with the Mosaic narrative ; the Deluge, in his opinion, having occurred about 2500 before Christ. His theory is, that Egypt was founded by a colony from Babel. The colonists brought with them their arts, including the art of writing as the Egyptians possessed it ; their first seat of occupation was at the head of the delta in the district of modern Cairo. He agrees with all authorities an- cient and moaern that Manes was the first King, becoming such not long after the arrival of the Babelites on the Nile. By the exertions of this great man, not only was the government settled, but the most flourishing part of Egypt was really created ; the delta having till that time been a marsh caused by the Nile overflowing its channels, the great river having been a mischief, or losing its waters in the Western desert. The time between the Deluge and Abraham is according to the usual account less than five hundred years. According to most Egyptologists, it must be nearly two thousand or more. Mr. Osburn's conclusion, in the 406th page of the first volume, reaches to 470 years, leaving a trifle of five kings in Manetho's list unaccounted for. The first volume concludes with the advent of Abraham ; and is really, though not formally, devoted to the establishment of the chronological conclusion above stated, by an examination of the lists of kings from Manetho and Eratosthenes with themselves and with the monuments, with ancient classical story and modern opin- ions. Amid much that is sheer conjecture, forced conclusion, or improbable not to say ludicrous opinion, are some views which though very far from being proved, and not altogether new, de- serve consideration from an inquirer. It is a conclusion of our author that the oldest monuments of Egypt are artistically the best in every point of view ; that these old monuments are found in the greatest number and the greatest perfection about the head of the delta or in the vicinity of modern Cairo ; and that the monuments as we ascend the Nile decline in value and antiquity ; ergo, that Egyptian civilization did not come from Ethiopia or India on the South, but from an Eastern direction, an d reached Egypt luau advan- ced stage. He considers that there were two distinct monarchies in the earlier periods of Egyptian history, one on the Eastern, one on the Western bank of the Nile; that the Eastern conquered the Western, possibly with assistance from Arabia; and that the conquerors were really the Shepherd Kings. Mr. Osburn arrives at the same conclusion as that on which Bunsen founded his formation of Egyptian history—that the lists of Manetho contained co-monarchs or co.regents; though our author goes more slashingly to work than the Prussian diplomatist. He considers that the ne- cessity of recurring to ancient traditions or the imperfect records of the priests terminates with the end of the second dynasty or the accession of the first monarch of the third. After that time, he affirms, we can read the succession of kings upon the monuments ; we have thenceforth, in the words of his titlepage, the "Monu- mental History of Egypt." Whether this idea is well founded—whether the chamber of Kings at Karnak is so complete and comprehensive as Mr. Osburn
conceives, and whether he has succeeded in his readings—must be left to the scrutiny of rival Egyptologists. For ourselves, we doubt the accuracy, and therefore the value, of any of those in- terpretations which are unsupported by other evidence. The man- ner in which Champollion detected certain signs contained in the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, and inferred a few more, is a remarkable instance of learned ingenuity. The extension of this discovery beyond true analogy seems to us to pass from inference to conjecture. Even if the signs were properly resolved, it must be borne in mind that their use rests upon the force or sound ascribed to the signs, and when these sounds are formed into words, upon the true interpretation of those words. This altogether depends upon the Coptic. It is the basis of the whole that the signs have the force of Coptic pronunciation, and the combined sound the meaning of Coptic words. It seems that two if not three assump- tions are lurking here. We do not know that the ancient Egyptian and the Coptic are cognate, much less identical tongues, though it is very likely. If this be granted, it must still be assumed that the meaning underwent no changes from before Abraham till the conversion to Christianity of the Egyptian Greeks, or Copts, and that the pronunciation remains unaltered to the present day. If it be held that an isolated race of barbarians could endure for four thousand years and upwards, it is possible that such permanence of language and pronunciation might be. It is not at all probable that such should be the case in Egypt. Independently of the new ideas and images introduced by travellers and traders, as well as the foreign wars of the native kings, the language has been ex- posed to the influence of-1. The conquest by the Shepherd Kings, whomsoever they may have been, but whom all tra- dition designates as foreigners. 2. The Persian conquest by Cam- byses. 3. The Greco-Macedonian subjugation by Alexander and Ptolemy, with a foreign dynasty and the extensive changes it involved. 4. The Roman conquest under Augustus, with its further civil, military, and administrative changes. 5. The Greek immigration for many centuries, of mercenaries, traders, adventurers, and scholars, subsequently increased by that of Jews, Romans, Syrians, and indeed of the whole known world. In the second or third century after Christ, the meaning of the Coptic was fixed by the translation of the Bible, in which, says Mr. Sharpe, "about one word in five is Greek." (History of Egypt, page 451, ed. 1846.) 6. The Mahometan conquest, with its twelve hundred years of change, perhaps further affected the pro- nunciation though not the meaning. Of the profound learning and disinterested labour that has been employed upon this subject no one can entertain a doubt ; but if the mere resolution of the hieroglyphics were much more certain than it is, (for in this as in other cases doctors differ,) it must still be questioned whether an interpretation which really depends (1) upon the sound of modern Coptic, and (2) upon the meaning of Grseco-Christian Coptic, can by itself go much further than ingenious inference or lucky con- jecture. When the signs, the sounds, and the signification of a language, are once lost, we do not believe that it can be revived. The words of Stillingfieet may now be exaggerated, but they still have much truth—" Certainly, this kind of learning deserves the highest form among the difficiles nugm '; and all these hiero- glyphics put together will make but one good one, and should be for—labour lost."
These remarks do not of course extend to deductions drawn from pictorial representations or existing vessels cir implements of any kind. A comb or a scent-bottle plainly indicates attention to the toilet; pictures may present to us the occupations and amuse- ments of life; they may prove gradations of ranks, and intimate the nature of the orders, as royal, hierarchal, noble, military. Great weight may fairly be attached to hieroglyphics or symbols indicating things not sounds, as " the likeness of a kingly crown" for a king. To pass much beyond this, we opine, is to enter the region of conjecture.
To return to Mr. Osburn : the period he embraces is from Babel to the Exodus. The volumes are brought out with great richness of typography and illustration : wood-cuts stud the pages, maps and plans are frequently interspersed, and numerous plates tinted or coloured illustrate the expositions or disquisitions of the text.
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