with a piece of crooked iron, and partly by the infufion of drugs; they then with an Ethiopian ftone make an incifion in the fide, through which they extract the inteftines 158; thefe they cleanse thoroughly, washing them with palm-wine, and afterwards covering them with pounded aromatics: they then fill the body with powder of pure myrrh 159, cafia, and other perfumes, except frank incenfe. Having fown up the body, it is covered with nitre 160 for the space of seventy days 161, which time they may not exceed ; at the end of this period it is washed, clofely wrapped in bandages of cotton 162, dipped in a gum 163 which the Egyptians use as glue: it 158 Inteftines. 3-Porphyry informs us what afterwards becomes of thefe: they are put into a cheft, and one of the embalmers makes a prayer for the deceafed, addreffed to the fun, the purport of which is to fignify that if the conduct of the deceased has during his life been at all criminal, it must have been on account of thefe; the embalmer then points to the cheft, which is afterwards thrown into the river.-T." 159 Myrrh, &c.]-Inftead of myrrh and caffia, the Jews in embalming ufed myrrh and aloes.-T." 160 Nitre.]-Larcher fays, this was not of the nature of our nitre, but a fixed alkaline falt. "Literally, it is falted or pickled with nitre. In the less expenfive mode of embalming, Rouelle obferves that it was impoffible to inject at the fundament, as it were by clyfters, a fufficient quantity of cedar liquid ointment, to confume the whole infide, and that they must therefore have made fome additional openings. Herodotus exprefsly fays they made no incifions in the meaner subjects (fee. c. 87), but ftopping up the body a certain number of days, and pickling it, they afterwards let out the cedar fluid, which confumes the infide as the nitre does the outfide, leaving only a skeleton in the skin. The third clafs, or poor, were washed internally with a liquor called fyrmaie, and pickled in nitre the ufual time. The inteftines of the Teneriffe mummy were extracted by an incifion in the right fide of the abdomen, afterwards fewed up. The nitre here mentioned, is doubtlefs the natron which is found in fuch abundance in the Natra Lakes." " 161 Seventy days.]—" If the nitre or natrum had been fuffered," fays Larcher," to remain for a longer period, it would have attacked the folid or fibrous parts, and diffolved them; if it had been a neutral falt, like our nitre, this precaution would not have been neceffary." 162 Cotton.]-By the byffus cotton feems clearly to be meant," which," fays Larcher," was probably confecrated by their religion to the purpofe of embalming." Mr. Greaves afferts, that these bandages in which the mummies were involved were of it is then returned to the relations, who enclose the body in a cafe of wood, made to resemble an human figure, and place it against the wall in the repofitory of their dead. The above is the most coftly mode of embalming." Vol. I. p. 422. The Egyptian pyramids have attracted the attention of the curious and the learned in all ages, and will probably continue to attract it to the end of the world. According to Herodotus, the largest pyramid was built by a king called Cheops, remarkable for his tyranny, who barred the avenues to every temple, and forbade the Egyptians to offer facrifice. "He proceeded next to make them labour fervilely for himfelf. Some he compelled to hew ftones in the quarries of the Arabian mountains, and drag them to the banks of the Nile* others were appointed to receive them in veffels and transport ; linen; but he appears to be mistaken. There are two species of this plant, annual and perennial; it was the latter which was cultivated in Ægypt." 163 Gum.]-This was gum arabic. Pococke fays it is produced from the acacia, which is very common in Egypt, the fame as the acacia, called cyale in Arabia Petræa; in Ægypt it is called fount. "Egyptia tellus. "Claudit oderato poft funus ftantia bufto " Corpora." "Dr. Shaw does not believe that the ftones employed in the pyramids were brought from Arabia. Notwithstanding, fays he, the great extravagance and furprizing undertakings of the Egyptian kings, it doth not feem probable that they would have been at the vast labour and expence of bringing materials from fo great a distance, when they might have been fupplied from the very places where they were to employ them. Now the ftone, which makes the bulk and outfide of all these pyramids, is of the fame nature and contexture, hath the like accidents and appearances of fpars, foffil fhells, cerulean fubftances, &c. as are com mon to the mountains of Libya. In like manner Jofeph's Well, the quarries of Irouel near Cairo, the catacombs of Sakara, the Sphinx, and the chambers that are cut out of the natural rock on the Eaft and Weft fide of these pyramids, do all of them discover the specific marks and characteristics of the pyramidal stones, and, as far as I could perceive, were not to be distinguished from them. The pyramidal ftones, therefore, were in all probability taken from this neighbourhood; nay, perhaps they were thofe very ftones that had been dug away to give the Sphinx and the chambers their proper views and elevations. Shaw, p. 416." S “BRIT, CRIT, VOL, XXVIII, SEPT, 1806, them them to a mountain of Libya. For this service an hundred thou. fand men were employed, who were relieved every three months. Ten years were confumed in the hard labour of forming the road, through which these ftones were to be drawn; a work, in my eftimation, of no lefs fatigue and difficulty than the pyramid it. felf 214. This caufeway is is five ftadia in length, forty cubits wide, : "214 The pyramid itself.]—For the fatisfaction of the English reader, I shall in few words enumerate the different uses for which the learned have fuppofed the pyramids to have been erected. Some have imagined that, by the hieroglyphics infcribed on their external furface, the Egyptians wished to convey to the remoteft pofterity their national hiftory, as well as their improvements in fcience and the arts. This, however ingenious, feems but little probable for the ingenuity which was equal to contrive, and the induftry which perfevered to execute, fructures like the pyramids, - could not but foresee that, however the buildings themselves might from their folidity and form defy the effects of time, the outward furface, in fuch a fituation and climate, could not be proportionably permanent; add to this, that the hieroglyphics were a facred - language, and, obfcure in themfelves, and revealed but to a select number, might to pofterity afford opportunity of ingenious con jecture, but were a very inadequate vehicle of hiftorical facts. "Others have believed the pyramids intended merely as obfervatories to extend philofophic and aftronomical knowledge; but in defence of this opinion little can be faid: the adjacent country is a flat and even furface; buildings, therefore, of fuch a height, were both abfurd and unneceffary; befides that, for such a purpofe, it would have been very prepofterous to have constructed fuch a number of coftly and mafly piles, differing fo little in altitude. "To this may be added, that it does not appear, from an examination of the pyramids, that accefs to the fummit was ever practicable, during their perfect state. "By fome they have been confidered as repofitories for corn, erected by Jofeph, and called the granaries of Pharaoh. The ar. gument against this is very convincing, and is afforded us by Pliny. In the building of the largeft of the pyramids, 366,000 men," fays he, "were employed twenty years together." This, therefore, will be found but ill to correfpond with the Scriptural hiftory of Jofeph. The years of plenty he foretold were only feven; which fact is of itself a fufficient anfwer to the above. "It remains, therefore, to mention the more popular and the more probable opinion, which is, that they were intended for the fepulchres of the Egyptian monarchs. "Inftead wide, and its extreme height thirty-two cubits, the whole is of polished marble, adorned with the figures of animals. Ten years, 36 "Inftead of ufeful works, like nature, great, And round a tyrant's tomb, who none deferv'd, For one vile carcass perifh'd countless lives.-Thomson. "When we confider the religious prejudices of the Egyptians, their opinion concerning the foul, the pride, the defpotifm, and the magnificence of their ancient princes, together with the modern difcoveries with refpect to the interior of these enormous piles, there feems to remain but little occafion for argument, or reafon for doubt. "The following is from Mr. Wilford, Afiatic Ref. vol. iii. P. 439. "On my defcribing the great Ægyptian pyramid to feveral very learned Brahmins, they declared it at once to have been a temple; and one of them afked if it had not a communication under ground with the river Cali (Nile); when I answered that fuch a paffage was mentioned as having exifted, and that a well was at this day to be feen; they unanimoufly agreed that it was place appropriated to the worship of Padma Devi, and that the suppofed tomb was a trough which on certain feftivals her priests ufed to fill with the facred water and Lotos flowers. What Pliny fays of the labyrinths is applicable alfo to the pyramid; fome infifted that it was the palace of a certain king, fome that it had been the tomb of Maris, and others, that it was built for the purpose of holy rites; a diverfity of opinion among the Greeks, which shows how little we can rely on them; and, in truth, their pride made them in general very careless and fuperficial inquirers into the antiquities and literature of other nations. "Whatever attention the foregoing part of this obfervation may deferve, the conclufion is too hafty. With what truth can it be faid that Herodotus was a fuperficial obferver, who travelled to fo many places for the fake of information and knowledge ? Did not Plato and many others of the moft accomplished Greeks do the fame? Indeed the contrary of this affertion is the fact. The more ingenious of the Greeks were diftinguished by their ardour for fcience, and the indefatigable pains which they took to obtain it. " 215 Cauferay.]-The ftones might be conveyed by the canal that runs about two miles north of the pyramids, and from thence part of the way by this extraordinary causeway. For at this time there is a caufeway from that part, extending about a thoufand yards in length, and twenty feet wide, built of hewn ftone. The length of it agreeing so well with the account of He S 2 rodotus, as I remarked, were exhaufted in forming this caufeway, not to mention the time employed in the vaults 21% of the hill 217 upon which the pyramids are erected. Thefe he intended as a place of burial for himself, and were in anand which he formed by introducing the waters of the Nile *. The pyramid itself was a work of twenty years it is of a fquare form; every front is eight plethra 218 long, rodotus, is a ftrong confirmation that this causeway has been kept up ever fince, though fome of the materials of it may have been changed, all being now built with free-ftone. It is ftrengthened on each fide with femicircular buttreffes, about fourteen feet diameter, and thirty feet apart; there are fixty-one of thefe buttreffes, beginning from the north. Sixty feet farther it turns to the west for a little way, then there is a bridge of about twelve arches, twenty feet wide, built on piers that are ten feet wide. Above one hundred yards farther there is fuch another bridge, beyond which the causeway continues about one hundred yards to the fouth, ending about a mile from the pyramids, where the ground is higher. The country over which the caufeway is built, being low, and the water lying on it a great while, feems to be the reason for building this caufeway at first, and continuing to keep it in repair. Pococke. "The two bridges defcribed by Pococke are alfo mentioned particularly by Norden. The two travellers differ effentially in the dimenfions which they give of the bridges they feverally measured; which induces M. Larcher reasonably to fuppofe that Pococke defcribed one bridge, and Norden the other.-T." ❝ 216 Vaults.]—The fecond pyramid has a foffe cut in the rock to the north and weft of it, which is about ninety feet wide, and thirty feet deep. There are small apartments cut from it into the rock, &c." 217 The bill.]-The pyramids are not fituated in plains, but upon the rock that is at the foot of the high mountains which accompany the Nile in its courfe, and which make the feparation betwixt Egypt and Libya. It may have fourfcore feet of perpendicular elevation above the horizon of the ground, that is always overflowed by the Nile. It is a Danish league in circumference. Norden." "No writer or traveller has made any mention of this canal, which is again fpoken of in chapter 127; not even Diodorus Siculus. See Grobert, p. 25." 66218 Eight plethra.]-To this day the dimenfions of the great pyramid are problematical. Since the time of Herodotus, many travellers and men of learning have measured it; and the difference of their calculations, far from removing, have but augmented doubt. I will give you a table of their admeasurements, |