rus counts an interval of 1400 years between Menes and Busiris, eight kings of the name of Busiris, and makes the eighth successor of the last of these, by name Uchoreus, the founder of Memphis. From Uchoreus to Moris he reckons twelve generations.

Manetho, on the other hand, reckons between Menes and the time at which, as we shall presently see, we may consider his history as becoming authentic, sixteen dynasties, which include nearly three thousand years. The truth is, that all the time anterior to the Seventeenth Dynasty of Manetho, may be considered as the fabulous period of Egyptian history, for which no authentic materials whatever existed in the time of any of the historians we have quoted. The statues exhibited to Herodotus must have been the fabrications of some intermediate age.

In the time of a king called by Manetho, Timaos, but who does not appear among the names in his list of dynasties, a race of strangers entered from the east into Egypt. They overran it with the greatest ease, and having seized upon the persons of the princes of the country, destroyed the cities, reduced the inhabitants to slavery, and overthrew the temples of the gods. The destruction committed by these barbarians was most extensive, for not confined to Lower Egypt, they penetrated even to Thebes, where the marks of their violence are even at the present day to be traced. They appear at the time of their inroad to have been a collection of hordes without a regular head; but once in possession of Egypt, they chose themselves a king, who fixed his residence at Memphis. And here their dynasty was established for his reign and that of five successors. In the mean time the native race appear to have risen in the remote parts of the country, and speedily to have recovered Thebes, in which a line of warlike princes reigned cotemporaneously with the Shepherd kings at Memphis, and was engaged in constant war against them. We now see how it happens that the early ages of Egyptian history are so vague and uncertain; for the whole country, without exception, had become the prey of a horde of barbarians, who waged war not only with the people, but with the monuments of art, and the shrines of religion.

Still however the tradition of so vast a number of kings and dynasties may not have been an absolute fable. The falsehood probably consists in their affiliation, and placing them in continuous succession. The early history of all countries shows us every petty town and small district governed by its own king, sometimes independent, sometimes the confederate or feudatory of his neighbours. Such was the state of Palestine in the time of Joshua; such that of Greece during the heroic ages. That

See extract from Manetho in Josephus.

the people of Egypt could have possessed no general government, nor even well-ordered confederation, is evident from the ease with which it was overrun. It is more than probable then, that each successive swarm, as it departed from the parent hive of This to form new settlements on the banks of the main stream of the Nile, or to occupy the islands successively formed at its mouth by the alluvion of the river, remained under the separate government of its leader. No very powerful kingdom could have existed among them, or the traces of the works of its kings, must, if similar in character to those of the Pharaohs, have in part survived the ravages of the Shepherds, as the works of Maris and Sesostris have the violence of Cambyses. So far from this, but one edifice, and that of small dimensions, has been found, which can be referred to a date prior to the invasion of the Shepherds. It is carefully adapted as a constituent part to an after construction of the kings of the 18th dynasty, and bears the name of Mandouei. A statue of the same king is in the collection at Turin, and another in the British Museum. We are not surprised that Champollion should have been extremely anxious to identify this prince with the Osymandyas of Diodorus, and in this anxiety, that he should have been insensible to the parts of the evidence which opposed this view of the subject. We have already stated our objections to this hypothesis, on the ground that Diodorus expressly attributes the plundering of this celebrated tomb to Cambyses; it could not then have existed at the time of the invasion of the Shepherds. The authority of Herodotus, too, is express, that no king before Sesostris, carried his arms beyond the frontiers of Egypt.

The conquest of Egypt by the Shepherds dates in the year 2082, B. C. Their dynasty continued to rule at Memphis 260 years, and the names of the six kings were Salatis, Bæon, Apachnas, Apophis, Janias, and Asseth. The last of the six who reigned at Thebes cotemporaneously with these kings, was Amosis, who drove Asseth from Lower Egypt, and shut the Shepherds up in Aouaris. Hence they departed by virtue of a capitulation entered into with his son, to whom was left the glory of completely re-establishing the independence of Egypt.

Various monuments, but all of small size, bear the dates of the reigns of these six Theban kings. But restrained in their territory, and engaged in perpetual warfare, they are far from exhibiting the magnificence reached by the succeeding dynasty.

Innumerable inscriptions celebrate the glory of AMENOPHTEPH, the successor of the last of this 17th Dynasty, as equal to a god,

By an error in copying our authority in a former paper, it is called 2182, B. C. Am. Quar No. 4. † Bulletin Universel, Juin 1827. p. 475 and 476.

for having delivered his country from the yoke of its oppressors. Although the son of Amosis, he is made the chief of a new Dynasty, the 18th of Manetho.

The other monarchs of this dynasty are:

2. THOUTMOSIS I., of whom there is a colossal statue in the museum at Turin.

3. THOUTMOSIS II., Amon-mai, whose name appears on the most ancient parts of the palace of Karnac.

4. His daughter AMENSI, who governed Egypt for the space of twenty-one years, and erected the greatest of the obelisks of Karnac. This vast monolith is erected in her name to the god Ammon, and the memory of her father.

5. THOUTMOSIS III., surnamed Meri, the Maris of the Greeks. The remaining monuments of his reign are the pilasters and granite halls of Karnac, several temples in Nubia, the great Sphinx of the pyramids, and the colossal obelisk now in front of the Church of St. John Lateran, at Rome.

6. His successor was AMENOPH I., who was succeeded by 7. THOUTMOSIS IV. This king finished the temples of the Wady-Alfa and Amada, in Nubia, which Amenoph had begun.

8. AMENOPHIS II., whose vocal statue, of colossal size, attracted the notice of the Greeks and Romans, and still stands towering over the ruins of Thebes. The most ancient parts of the palace of Luxor, the temple of Cnouphis at Elephantine, the Memnonium, and a palace at Sohled, in Nubia, are monuments of the splendour and piety of this monarch.

9. The Greek colonnade of the palace at Luxor, was the work of HORUS.

10. An inscription in the museum at Turin, commemorates Queen ACHENCHERES, or TMAU-MOT.

11. RAMSES I. built the hypostyle hall at Karnac, and excavated a sepulchre for himself at Beban-el-Moulouk.

12 and 13. Two brothers, MANDOUEI and OUSIREI. They have left monuments of their existence, the last in the grand obelisk now in the Piazza del Popolo, at Rome, the first in the beautiful palace at Kourna, and the splendid tomb discovered by Belzoni.

14. Their successor caused the two great obelisks at Luxor to be erected. His name was RAMSES II.

15. RAMSES III. Of this king, dedicatory inscriptions are found in the second court of the Palace of Karnac, and his tomb still exists at Thebes.

16. RAMSES IV., surnamed Mei-Amoun, built the great palace of Medinet-Abou, and a temple near the southern gate of Karnac. The magnificent sarcophagus which formerly enclosed the body of this king, has been removed from the catacombs of

Beban-el-Moulouk, and is now in the Museum of the Louvre. He was succeeded by his son,

17. RAMSES V., surnamed AMENOPHIS, who is considered as the last of this dynasty, and who was the father of Sesostris.

The acts of none of the kings of this dynasty are commemorated by the Greek Historians, with the exception of Moris. He is celebrated by them for a variety of useful labours, and appears to have done much to promote the prosperity of Egypt, particularly by forming a lake to receive the surplus waters of the Nile, during the inundation, and to distribute them for agricultural purposes during its fall.

The connexion with sacred history is more obvious. In the eighth year of the reign of Amenoph I., Joseph came into Egypt; the oppression of the Israelites is commemorated in the tomb of Ousirei, and the last year of the reign of Ramses Amenophis is the era of the Exodus.

Thus, the application of the hieroglyphic alphabet, shows that this 18th Egyptian Dynasty, seated at Thebes, were the authors of many and vast public works and monuments. Indeed to them is to be ascribed the foundation of the greater part of the more ancient edifices, existing in all parts of Egypt. It also shows, that at a time when the rest of the ancient world was occupied by barbarous tribes, the valley of the Nile was the seat of a powerful and rich nation, that had made great progress in the arts. The memorials of the splendour and power of this great family are still extant in greater number than those of all their successors united. They consist in temples, palaces, tombs, and obelisks, colossal statues, and graven inscriptions; nay more, some of their public acts are still found, although written originally on no more durable material than Papyrus.

Vast, however, as was the glory of this line of kings, it was eclipsed by the greater reputation of the chief of the next, or 19th Dynasty, RAMSES VI., the famed Sesostris. He added to the renown of his progenitors, acquired by the exclusion of a race

oppressors, and by the encouragement of the useful and liberal arts, the more striking, if less solid reputation of a conqueror. In his long reign the arts of peace were not, however, neglected; and besides the structures at Thebes, which still bear his impress, he is stated to have embellished the new capital Memphiswith many superb buildings. Throughout the whole of Egypt and Nubia, there are hardly any edifices worthy of note, that do not, in some part of their decorations, assist in commemorating the reign of this monarch.*

This Nineteenth Dynasty consisted of six kings, all of whom

• Bulletin Universel, Juin. p. 473.

bear, upon monuments, the name of RAMSES, with various distinguishing epithets. The last of these was cotemporary with the Trojan war, and is called Polybus, by Homer.

The Twentieth Dynasty of Manetho, also took its title from Thebes. Their names may still be read upon the temples of Egypt; but the extracts from Manetho do not give their epithets. In the failure of his testimony, Champollion Figeac has had recourse to the last given by Syncellus. The chief of this dynasty is celebrated, under the name of Remphis, or Rempsinitis, for his great riches. Herodotus gives him for successor, Cheops, the builder of the largest of the pyramids. The same authority places Cephrenes, the builder of the second pyramid, next in order; and, after him, Mycerinus, for whom is claimed the erection of the third pyramid. The researches of the two Champollions, have not yet discovered any confirmation of this statement of the father of profane history. But it is exactly in this part of Egyptian history, that we are the most in want of materials. It is more than probable, that the latter kings of the eighteenth, and all those of the nineteenth and twentieth, made Memphis their chief seat, although they did not entirely abandon the cradle of their race, the hundred-gated Thebes. But Memphis has undergone a much greater share of violence, than the other successive capitals of Egypt, or its monuments have been more easily destroyed. The pyramids almost alone remain in a state of preservation; and, if they were ever inscribed, as there is strong reason to believe, it must have been on a perishable casing, which has long since mouldered away.

The next dynasty, the twenty-first of Manetho, derived its name from Tanis, a city of Lower Egypt. It was composed of seven kings, the first of whom was the Mendes of the Greek historians, the Smendis of Manetho, whose name Champollion reads, upon the monuments of his reign, MANDOUOTHEPH. He was the builder of the fabric known in antiquity by the name of the labyrinth. The other kings of this family are also commemorated.

The account which has reached us, of the building of the labyrinth, throws great light upon the state of the government of Egypt, during the reign of Mendes and his successors. It was divided into as many separate compartments, as there were Nomes in Egypt; and in them, at fixed periods, assembled deputations from each of these provinces, to decide upon the most important questions. Hence we may infer, that, in the change of dynasty, the Egyptians had succeeded in the establishment of a limited monarchy, controlled like the constitutional governments of Europe; if not by the immediate representatives of the people, at least by the expression of the opinion of the notables.

The ruins of Bubastis, in turn, present memorials of the reigns