Greeks,* and a well-known passage in the Iliad Seems locally
to connect thedlistoryof tfeeGrecian gods with that region of
Africa.-f But such a connexion with Ethiopia is, t as we
might expect, much more manifest in .the »mythology of
Egypt. The Egyptians and Ethiopians had similar religious
institutions: they had not merely observances which bore a
striking analogy, but had even common festivals and cere-,
monies; The Ethiopians are said first to have established the
pomps or processions termed “ TravriyvpsiQ.” The gods of the
Egyptians were worshipped, as we are assured, by Herodotus
from the earliest times in Ethiopia. £ The processions in
which the sacred images were, according to that writer, conveyed
up the .Nile to visit their Ethiopian temples,, appear to
have been connected with an annual festival celebrated at
Meroe in Ethiopia, where the gods were supposed to descend
from heaven and feast at the table of the Sun. This Ethio*
pian fable and the corresponding Egyptian and Ethiopian
festival, are supposed fey Diodorus and Eustathius to have
been alluded to by Homer, in the passage often cited from
the Iliad.§
History connects,-almost as far as it reaches-back, the
Egyptian and Ethiopian nations. “ Notices of Ethiopian wars
and of intercourse with Ethiopia occur frequently,” says
Heeren, et in the earliest annals of the Egyptian priests.” The
earliest seats of royalty in Egypt were in the Thebaid, at
Diospolis, and Thinis; even one of the first of Manethokdynas-
ties is a series of princes of Elephantine. Here, on the borders
of Ethiopia, said to be the part of Egypt that first became
peopled, were the earliest foundations of the empire of the
Pharaohs, destined in after ages to shine with so much splendour
in countries which were perhaps not yet habitable. •*§
• Heeren’s Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr und der Handel der vornehmsten
Völker der alten Wet, Theil ii. Ritter, Erdkunde, Th. i. 3. Abschnitt,
§ lift %
•f- Iliad, v.
i Herod, lib. fi. Diodor Biblioth. 3.
§ Herod, lib. iii. Strabo declares that the people of Meroe worshipped Hercules,
Pan and Isis, besides other barbarous gods, Geog. lib. xvii.
Thé Ethiopians possessed in the time of Diodorus many of
the arts of Egypt. They practised writing in hieroglyphics,
and their characters were those of the Egyptians; they even
claimed the discovery of the a rt: both nations embalmed
their bodies.; the Ethiopians prepared mummies similar to
those of the Egyptians. They had the same castes and political
divisions, and Ethiopia was governed by a hierarchy
which appears to have been even more predominant and. exclusive
in its sway than that of the Egyptians. That the
Egyptians and Ethiopians were people of the same race, and
in earlier times almost nationally identified, there can be little
room for. doubt. In the Toldoth Beni-Noach, Cush and
Mizraim are brothers, which in the, style of'ancient genealogy
indicated the consanguinity of the races so itermed. • Gush is
always rendered by the Septuagint AiOiotte^ and Mizraim
AvyviTTioi. The historical traditions of the two nations, when
compared, lead to the Same result. | The Ethiopians, accord-
sngtto Diodorus, pretended that the Egyptians were a' colony
of, Ethiopians; on the other hand, the Egyptians claimed the
honour of having first colonised Ethiopia, both nations, as it
•would appear, agreeing in the admission1 of a common original.
t Thus far we proceed upon tolerably clear* grounds. The
indications are sufficient, which identify these nations. But
if we attempt to penetrate further into the obscure subject of
Ethiopian history, and to form any estimate of* the antiquity
of this people in comparison with the Egyptians, there is only
one resource of which we can avail ourselves. I allude to re^
searches into the topography of the countriesvon the upper
Nile, and the remains of architecture and sculpture which
have been discovered by late travellers in that region.
Mr. Bruce related, that on his return from Abyssinia
through Nubia, he found remains of sculpture, resembling
those of the Egyptian style, in countries far above Egypt,
and particularly near the confluence of the Nile and the Asta-
boras, but little regard was paid to his statement. Burckhardt
however left no room for doubt of the fact, that the country
now called Nubia, and anciently Ethiopia,, contains in various
places extensive ruins, the remains of a people' who once.pos-
VOL. II. R