HISTORICAL INTEREST OF EGYPT. [CHAP. III.
shepherds. In fact, everything denoted the existence of a
well-regulated and extensive kingdom, which, in addition to its
various products at home, already enjoyed those of distant
regions by means of caravan commerce.
Probability At this period, the country was under the sway of the
ligio* existed Memphian Pharaoh; and that some knowledge of a purer
m Egypt. religion had been preserved by the people of Egypt, is evident,
from the impression made on the monarch by bis dream, as
well as from the conduct of one of his predecessors in restoring
Sarah to her husband,1
S°Egypt af I t appears that when Jacob came tbither, about 215 years
the coming of after Áhraham’s visit, the monarch was attended by courtiers,
and high officers of state, and that his court was regulated by
a strict ceremonial. There was a state prison under the charge
of a captain of life-guards; and no doubt there was then a
regular army: at a rather later period this numbered 600,000
men.
The early civilization and science of Egypt were such as to
render it improbable that the whole should be due to the
gradual improvements made on the creation of an infant colony,
and it may rather be ascribed to the progressive extension of
the attainments already possessed by the first persons who
migrated towards that part of the old world.
Egypt recalls to our minds a train of historical associations
which command a high degree of interest; and the monuments
of art with which the country abounds, appear to justify the
opinion that she originated the architecture which, in Greece,
was afterwards carried to such perfection.
With regard to one period of her early history, the establishment
of the shepherd race on the banks of the Nile is thus
described by an ancient historian
Coming of tbe “ It came to pass during the reign of Timaus, that God was
Hytsos, displeased with us, and there came up from the East, in a
strange manner, men of an ignoble race, who had the confidence
to invade our country, and easily subdued it by their power,
without a battle. Having demolished tbe temples of tbe gods,
1 Gen., chap. X I I ., v. 15-20.
CHAP. IH .] INVASION OF THE SHEPHERDS. 73
and inflicted every kind of barbarity upon the inhabitants, they
at length made one of their number king, whose name was
Salatis. The seat of his government was Memphis; and Lower
Egypt (called the Arabian nomef being now tributary, he
stationed garrisons in suitable places, and directed bis attention
chiefly to tbe eastern frontier as a protection against the Assyrians,
foreseeing that they would one day undertake an invasion a"^lhef'£,con"
of the kingdom.”2
From the term “ ignoble,” it may be inferred that tbe conquerors
were not, ;like Manetho himself, derived from a pure
Cushite stock, but had been part of the Shemitic people who,
at a later period, had followed the sons of Mizraim into Arabia,
and again into Africa; and the successive inroads into the latter
country, with other circumstances, make it probable that some
were Cushites, and others branches of the Himyarites. It is
stated that the latter and the Sabaei were one and the same
people, only divided by the Red Sea; and from the similarity of
the Ethiopian language to the Arabic in its most ancient state,
as well as the practice of circumcision, it would appear that
they had come from thence at a very early period.3 Accord-A Cushite
ing to tradition, preserved from time immemorial among AbyssinS!6™
the Abyssinians, another Cushite colony came into that country
soon after the flood, and settled in a ridge of mountains on
the confines of Atbara. Here they excavated dwellings, and
spread industry and arts eastward and westward from thence;
Axum and Meroe being the earliest cities which they founded.4
Another section, called Shepherds or Berbers, occupied the
tract extending along the African coast, southward and northward
of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. These were considered
the ordinary class, who, being partly nomadic, moved with their
numerous flocks from place to place; having their principal
seat in the country now called Beja. The former branch,
1 Jos., Cont. Apion., lib. I ., s. 14.
2 Prom Manetho.—See Ancient Fragments, pp. 169, 170, by Isaac
Preston Cory, Esq. W. Pickering, 1832.
8 Ludolphus, Hist. ASthiop. I ., and Comment, ad suam Hist. Aithiop.,
lib. X V L , p. 60, compared with Hudson, Geog. Min., tome I ., p. 46.
4 Bruce’s Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, vol. I I ., pp. 12, 13,
14, 18, Dublin, 1791 ; Jos., Ant., lib. I I ., cap. x.