 | LETTER XV. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage |  |
15. LETTER XV.
Your last letter, assuring me of your health, and
that of the Princess Thamonda, I received by the chief
pilot, Onothis, who, in his new and handsome galley,
reached the head of the Delta two days ago. Thence
he came here in his boat, his ship being too large, in
the present depth of water, to come up to Memphis.
I will now continue the description of the funeral of
“the lord of the royal gardens.” When the procession
reached the steps leading down to the sacred lake,
the hearse was borne upon a gilded and carved baris,
the consecrated boat for the dead. This was secured to
a decorated galley with sails and oars and a spacious
cabin, richly painted with funeral emblems. The friends
and relatives of the deceased embarked in other barges
in waiting, and to the strains of wailing music, the procession,
reverently joined by the boats of several gentlemen,
in gay apparel, who were fishing on the lake,
crossed to the other side. Reaching the opposite shore,
it formed again, as before, and moved down “the Street
of the Tombs,” crossed a narrow plain, and entered the
gate of the great burial-place of Memphis. We slowly
I saw them take the mummy from the sarcophagus on
the car, and place it upright in a chamber of the tomb.
An assistant priest then sprinkled all who were present
with sacred water, and the chief-priest burnt incense
before an altar of the tomb, and poured libations upon
it, with other ceremonies. To close the scene, the
mummy was embraced by weeping friends, and a funeral
dirge played by the musicians without, which was wildly
answered by the mourning wail of woe from within.
Driving around the Acherusis Lake, under the shade
of its solemn groves, the priest directed his charioteer to
take me in again at the gate of the tombs. Reseating
myself by his side—for the chariots of the priests, as well
as those of ladies, are provided with a movable curved
chair which holds two persons—we proceeded in a
direct line towards the greatest of the three pyramids
that stand near Memphis. We were upon what is called
“The Sacred Way.” It commenced at the gate of a
temple to the god of the winds, beneath the pylon of
which we passed, and extended nearly a league in length
over a vast plain crowded with funeral temples, monuments,
mausolean porticos, statues, and fountains. All
the architectural magnificence which is found in other
avenues, seemed to be combined here to form a royal
road which has no parallel on earth; not even the long
column-lined approach to the Temple of the Sun, at the
end of the straight street in Damascus, can be compared
with it.
This noble thoroughfare, as we drove slowly along
that I might admire its grandeur and beauty, was
thronged with people going to and coming from the
deposited their dead in one of the many tombs which
covered the vast plain; processions of the humbler
orders, with but few signs of display and wealth, proceeding,
with real mourners, to the tomb. There were
groups of children, their hands filled with garlands,
going to place them upon the sarcophagus of a departed
parent; for the custom of decorating the resting-places
of the dead with wreaths often renewed, belongs to
Egypt as well as to Syria.
We overtook a rich lady in a gilded palanquin, borne
on the shoulders of four slaves. She was opulently and
handsomely attired, and carried a blue and green fan,
while an attendant walked behind and held over her
head a large parasol.
Two chariots, containing young Egyptian lords, dashed
by us at full speed in the excitement of a race, each
driving his own ornamented car, the charioteers standing
a little in the rear.
People selling little images of gods, or of eminent deceased
persons, or fruit, or flowers, or scarabæi, and amulets,
were seated all along the highway, upon pedestals,
or in the shade of statues and tombs; while along
the road walked sellers of vegetables, and fowls, and
bread. Indeed, the way was crowded with life and activity.
With no other people would the avenue to its
tombs be the most thronged of any, and the favorite of
all in the city; for Memphis, which extends from and
includes Jizeh, past the pyramids south for six miles,
has noble streets, but none like this leading to the pyramids.
The Egyptians say that the house is but the temporary
abode of man, but in the tombs his embalmed
our tombs with paintings and art, and fill them with
flowers, and adorn the homes which are to be permanent.”
Hence the “dead-life” of the sepulchres is not less a
reality to the Egyptian than his life in the city. The
poor, however, do not find tombs. They are buried in
graves or pits, like the Hebrew people. On the other
side of the river lies the most ancient burial-place of
Memphis; but since the construction of the Lake of
the Dead, it is no longer necessary to cross the Nile (for
the dead must be ferried across water) for interment.
As we drove on, we came to a stately sepulchre, before
which was gathered a large multitude. The coffin
had just been removed from a gorgeous hearse and set
down upon the step of the tomb. It was the funeral of
a lady. I never saw any painting so rich as that which
adorned the mummy-case. It was an Osirian coffin, and
covered in every part with columns of hieroglyphics
or emblematical figures, among which were represented
the winged serpent, the ibis, the cynocephalus or the
genii of Amenthe, and the scarabæus.
“The hieroglyphics,” said my companion, “contain
the name and qualities of the deceased.”
At this moment an official, partly in a priestly dress,
advanced in an imposing manner, touched the coffin
with a wand, and said aloud:
“Approved! Let the good be entombed, and may
their souls dwell in Amenthe with Osiris. Judgment is
passed in her favor! Let her be buried!”
Upon hearing this address, I asked the high-priest
what it signified. He replied, with that courtesy which
questions:
“This act has reference to the judgment of Osiris.
We did not witness a similar ceremony at the lake, because
the deceased was brought from On, and had already
been judged at the crossing of the Nile. If we
had sooner seen this funeral procession, which came
only from the city to the lake, we should have beheld
forty-two just persons, chosen as judges, seated upon a
semicircular stone bench along the shore.”
“I noticed the stone seats,” I answered, “and intended
to have inquired their use.”
“Seated upon them, the forty-two judges await the procession.
The baris, or gilded galley, which is to receive
the body, is then drawn alongside of the steps. Before
it the bearers stop, and turning to the judges, rest their
burden on the ground before them. Then, while all the
friends stand anxiously around, and hundreds of spectators
line the shores, one of the judges rises and asks if
any one present can lawfully accuse the deceased of
having done wrong to any man. If the dead has done
injustice or evil, his enemy, or the one wronged, or their
relatives, advance and make the charge. The judges
weigh the accusation, and if it be sustained, the rites of
sepulchre are commanded not to proceed.”
Such a judgment, dear mother, I afterwards witnessed
on our return from the pyramids. It was the funeral of
a woman of respectability.
The accuser said, advancing into the space before the
judges—
“I accuse the deceased of suffering her father to perish
in want.”
“This is a great crime by our laws,” said the judge
sternly; “for, though sons are not bound to provide for
poor parents, daughters are. This she knew, and was
able to do it. Where are the proofs?”
Three persons came forward and bore testimony to
the fact.
“The deceased is not worthy to pass the Lake of the
Dead. The burial is prohibited.”
Hereupon there was a great cry of woe on the part of
the mortified relations; and the mummy, without being
permitted to enter the sacred baris, was retaken to the
city, where in a shrine in the house it will remain aboveground
for years; until finally, after certain ceremonies,
it is permitted to be ignominiously entombed in “the
sepulchre of the evil.”
This accusation and judgment, dear mother, is a striking
illustration of the veneration and respect children
are expected to pay to their parents in Egypt.
If, on the other hand, the accusation is not sustained,
the accusers are stoned away by the friends, who then with
great joy unite in a eulogy of the dead, and joined by all
the people present pray the gods below to receive him to
dwell among the pious dead. In the eulogy, they speak
only of virtues—praising his learning, his integrity, his
justice, his piety, his temperance, and truthfulness; but no
mention is made of rank, since all Egyptians are deemed
equally noble. Such an ordeal has no doubt a great influence
upon the living Egyptian; for he is certain that
at his death every act of injustice he has committed will
be brought up before the forty-two judges, and if found
guilty, he will be denied sepulture, while infamy will be
attached to his memory.
“What,” I asked of my companion, the high-priest,
“is the state of the deceased soul after death?”
“That, O prince,” said he, “is one of the mysteries.
But as you have been initiated into the knowledge of
the mystic books in your own land, I will explain to you
what our books of the dead teach. We priests of Apis
do not believe with those of Osiris at On.”
“What is their faith?” I asked.
“That the soul of man is immortal (which we all believe”),
he added positively; “that when the body decays,
the soul enters into and is born in the form of a
lower animal; and when it has gone the round of the
bodies of all terrestrial and marine animals, and of all
flying creatures, it enters again into the body of an infant
at its birth.”
“Possibly in this belief,” I remarked, “is found the
reason for preserving the human body as long as possible
by embalming it, thus keeping off the transmigration
of its soul into a brute as long as possible.”
“Without doubt,” he replied, “embalming the dead
grew out of the doctrine of transmigration of souls. The
circuit performed by a soul in this series of inhabitations
of the forms of animals, is three thousand years in duration.
Such is the belief of the priests of the Sun. This
transmigration is not connected either with reward or
punishment, but it is a necessity of its creation that the
soul should accomplish the whole circuit of the kingdom
of animated nature ere it again enters a human
body. Our doctrine of metempsychosis only so far embodies
this, as to make Osiris send back the transgressing
soul from Amenthe to earth, to dwell in the body
of swine as a punishment; and when its probation is
“What is this tribunal of Osiris?” I asked.
“The dead carry with them to the tomb a papyrus,
on which is written their address to the gods, and the
deeds which entitle them to admission into Heaven.
When the soul leaves the grave, it is received by Horus,
son of Osiris, and conducted to the gates of Amenthe, or
the regions of the gods. At the entrance, a dog with
four heads—of the wolf, lion, serpent, and bear—keeps
guard. Near the gate, which is called the Gate of
Truth, sits the goddess of Justice, with her gigantic
scales of gold between her and the Gate of Truth.
Hard by sits the god Thoth, with a tablet and stylus.
The scales are superintended by the deity Anubis.
Through the open gate the throne of Osiris is visible
with the deity upon it.
“As Horus advances with the soul to the Gate of
Truth, as if to enter, the goddess of Justice commands
him to stop, that the sum of its deeds, both good and
evil, may be weighed and recorded.
“Anubis then places a vase containing all the human
virtues in one scale, and the heart of the deceased, or
sometimes the soul itself, in the other. Horus repeats
the result, which the god Thoth inscribes upon his iron
tablet. The dog watches the issue of the weighing with
eyes red with furious longing to devour the soul. If the
sum of its good deeds predominates, Horus, taking it by
one hand, and the tablet of Thoth in the other, advances
into the hall, where his father, Osiris, is seated upon
the throne, holding his crook and flagellum, and awaiting
the report from the hand of his son. They approach
come before three deities who sit in front of the throne.
These ask if he has been weighed, and Horus exhibits
to each the tablet of Thoth. They then permit him to
pass. Horus now stands before Osiris, with the soul by
his side, and presents the tablet, which the deity takes
from his son's hand. If satisfied by an inspection of the
tablet, which records not only the virtues but every
error of the soul's life on earth, Osiris presents him with
an ostrich feather, the emblem of truth. One of the
three deities then gives him a vase containing all the
virtues, his few sins being pardoned; a second offers
him a jewelled band for the forehead, on which is inscribed
in diamonds the word `justified;' and the third
presents him with the emblem of life. He is now received
by Isis, and conducted through gates of gold that
open with divine music, and enters into scenes of celestial
beauty and splendor; palaces of the gods become his
abode, he reposes by heavenly rivers of crystal beauty,
wanders through fields of delight, and dwells with the
Lord of the Sun, and all the immortal gods, in glory ineffable
and endless.”
The hierarch said all this with great animation, and
like a man who believes what he utters. I was deeply
interested.
“And what, my lord priest, becomes of the soul
which cannot meet the scales of justice with confidence,
whose evil deeds outweigh his good ones?”
“Such a soul does not see Osiris, nor the farther
heavens where he dwells illumined by the glory of the
divine disk of the Lord of the Sun. The reprobate
spirit does not behold the Eye of Osiris, nor repose in its
the inner heavens, nor does he hear the voice of the
great god, saying, `Thou art justified, O soul! Enter
thou the Gate of Truth.'
“If the soul is all wicked, with no virtues, then Horus
releases its hand with horror, and the dog devours the
wretched being in a moment. But if he has one or two
virtues—such as honoring his parents, having saved a
human life, or fed the hungry—then he is not given
over to the monster; but Horus, with a sad aspect, leads
him to the throne of Osiris, who, reading the dark tablet
of Thoth, sternly inclines his sceptre in token of condemnation,
and pronounces judgment upon him according
to his sin, when, Horus leaving him, two evil gods
from the realms of Typhon appear and lead him forth.”
“What is the punishment ordained?”
“To be led back to the gate of Truth and delivered
to Justice, who, without a head, sits thereat. The goddess
seals the sentence of Osiris upon the forehead of
the unclean soul, and instantly it assumes the form of a
pig, or some other base animal. The god Thoth then
calls up two monkeys, who take the condemned soul to
a boat and ferry it back to the world, while the bridge
by which it came from the earth is cut down by Anubis,
in the form of a man with an axe.”
“As every thing in Egyptian mythology is symbolical,
what is the signification of these monkeys?”
“Monkeys are emblems of Thoth, the god of time,”
he answered. “The books of our mysteries teach that
the human race began with the monkey, and progressively
advanced to man. Osiris, by his judgment, condemns
the unclean soul to the level of the monkey
the uncleanest of all beasts, and make its way through
the whole circle of animal creation, back to the monkey,
and up through the black, barbaric races of men,
who have arms like apes, to true man himself. Then,
practising virtue and rejecting his former vices, he
may after death finally attain to the mansions of the
blessed, in the presence of Osiris. But I should add,
the souls of bodies unburied can never enter the Gate
of Truth.”
Here we came in sight of the gigantic pylon that
opens to the Temple of the Pyramid of Cheops, and the
hierarch ceased speaking. He had, however, but little
to add, for his explanations covered all the ground of
my inquiries.
Thus, dear mother, have I presented to you the system
of worship in this wonderful land. I will now
proceed to a description of my visit to the pyramids,
which, in sublime majesty, occupied the whole horizon
as we advanced beyond the plain of the tombs. At the
extremity of the paved causeway of this stately “Avenue
of the Dead,” leading from the Nile to the pyramids,
we beheld the three great triangular mountains of
gigantic art obliquely, so that they were grasped by the
eye in one grand view. But the lofty mass of Cheops
immediately before us, at the end of the avenue, challenged
the eye and whole attention of the observer.
For a moment, as we dashed onward in our brilliantly
painted chariot, our steeds tossing their plumed heads
as if proud of their housings of gold and needle-work,
we lost sight of the pyramid by the interposition of the
gigantic wings of the Gate of the Pyramids. These
twenty feet in height, looking down from their twelfth
painted and sculptured story upon the tops of the loftiest
palms that grew on each side of the entrance. The
gate was guarded by priests, who wore a close silver
helmet, and held in their hands a short sword, the
sheath of which hung to a belt of leopard's skin. They
were young men, numbering in all three hundred and
sixty, corresponding to the days of the former Egyptian
year; while their five captains typify five days added
by the gods.
“These young men,” said the high-priest, “are all
sons of warlike fathers. They desire to become priests,
and are now in their novitiate; but after a year's service
as guards to the greatest of temples, they will be
advanced to a higher degree, and exchange the sword
for the shepherd's crook; and thence they rise to be
bearers of libation vases, and assistants in sacrifices.”
We passed under the lofty pylon, which was spanned
by a bronze winged sun, saluted by sixty of the guard
on duty; this being the number of each of the six bodies
into which they are divided. As soon as we entered
the court of the gate, a sight of inconceivable grandeur
burst upon me. Imagine a double colonnade of the
most magnificent pillars which art could create, extending
on each side of an open way a thousand cubits in
length. At the end of the grand vista, behold crouched
at full length, on the eastern edge of the elevated table
on which the pyramids stand, and in an attitude of eternal
repose, with an aspect of majesty and benignity inconceivable
in the human lineaments, an andro-sphinx
of colossal size, having the face of a warrior. Although
summit of the brow is seventy feet above the earth.
This sublime image is emblematical, like all Egyptian
sphinxes, and represents strength or power combined
with intellect. The face I at once recognized to be that
of Chephres, as seen upon his obelisk at Rhoda, aggrandized
by the vastness of its proportions to the aspect of
a god.
From my companion, the prince-hierarch, I learned
it was begun by an ancient Pharaoh of the same name,
one of the kings of the oldest dynasty, who conceived
the idea of chiselling into these grand proportions a mass
of rock, which, projecting from the Libyan hills, nearly
obstructed the view of the principal pyramid.
We were here forbidden to advance in our chariot,
and the footmen, who had never left the side of the
horses, however swiftly our charioteer might drive,
caught them by the head, and we alighted.
I had leisure now to contemplate the scene before
me. The personation of majesty, the sphinx, fills the
breadth of the approach between the massive pillars of
the colonnade. Between his fore-paws, which extend
fifty feet, while the body is nearly three times this measure,
stands a beautiful temple faced with oriental alabaster.
His head is crowned with a helmet slightly convex,
upon which, like a crest, is affixed the sacred uræus
or serpent, shining with gold. The cape or neck-band
of the helmet is of scales, colored blue, red, green, and
orange, intermingled with gilding. A great and full
beard descends over his breast, immediately under which,
and between his feet, is the summit of the temple where
sacrifices are daily offered to the god. Above his towering
colossus keeps guard.
“The majesty of this image, O prince,” said the high-priest,
as, leaning at every step upon his slender acacia
rod, he walked by my side, “impresses you.”
“It is the most majestic of all the gods of Egypt,” I
answered.
“Yes. Its age is nearly coeval with the pyramid.”
“On the pyramidion base of the left obelisk in front of
the temple of Osiris, have I not seen reposing four small
sphinxes copied from this?”
“Thou hast seen them. That obelisk is many ages
old; yet long before it, was this sphinx-god, as silent, majestic,
and immovable in eternal repose as you behold
him now.”
At the termination of the avenue of direct approach,
we descended an inclined plane to a platform of marble,
on which is an image of Osiris in stone, and were brought
nearly opposite the lower part of its face. Then another
flight of steps, cased with polished porphyry, brought
us on a level with the top of the temple. In the centre
of this level platform stands a statue of Horus, cast in
bronze. Thence descending another flight of thirty
broad steps, we stood in the space between the enormous
feet of the sphinx, and directly before the beautiful
temple.
Our gradual approach in this descent, during which
the sphinx was kept constantly in view, rising above us
as we descended, heightened the impressions first made
upon me by its colossal size; and I beheld, with new
emotions of sublimity, its posture of repose and calm
majesty of aspect.
A priest, in the full costume of his sacred office, stood
at the door, and preceded by him we entered. As it
was the hour of oblation, he held a censer in his hand,
and approaching an altar before a granite tablet at the
end of the temple, he invoked the mysterious god. The
temple has no roof, but is exquisitely decorated and painted
with sacred symbols. On each side stands a tablet of
limestone. The tablet over the altar is inscribed with
the name of the designer of the sphinx, Menes, the first
mortal king after the general overflow of the mountains,
and also with the destruction of the gigantic gods by the
uprising of unknown oceans upon the globe. The tablet
holds his shield, and on it is pictured the escape of the
son of the ancient gods, in a ship, which is resting upon
a mountain peak. In this tradition, mother, we find
repeated our Phœnician history of the flood, before the
days of the first kings. Without doubt all nations retain
a similar tradition. Upon the same tablet is also a
representation of a later king offering incense and libations
to the god to whom the sphinx is consecrated.
The tablets on the side also represent kings offering
prayer to the god. The floor is beautifully tesselated
with variegated stones; and on all sides are ivory or
silver tables, covered with beautifully shaped vases,
containing offerings of worshippers. There are, besides,
ten shrines before the altar, upon each of which rests a
golden crown, gifts of kings of other lands. Without
question this temple of the sphinx is the richest in Egypt
in gifts, as well as most honored by its Pharaohs. Is it
not the vestibule to the grand pyramidal temple which
is the tomb of the first mortal king?
But, my dear mother, I must not linger at the feet of
two broad stair-cases, and mounting to a succession of terraces,
adorned with statues of gods, the vast bulk of the
sphinx being on our right, we reached a noble stone
platform behind the image, upon which stands an ancient
figure, in coarse marble, worn by age, of Chephres
the Great. He stamps a sea-dragon under his feet, and
upon his capped head is the beak of a galley, with the
head and wings of a dove. In this symbol, dear mother,
behold again the representation of the deluge, and the
dove that guided the ship which held Chephren, or
Chephres, and his father, the god Noachis, or Noah.
When we had gained this terrace, we beheld before
us both pyramids, and between them the pylon of a
vast temple, which, extending its great arms on each
side, embraced the twin pyramids in one god-like edifice,
of grandeur and dimensions immeasurable to the
eye, and overpowering to the imagination. To explain
more clearly what I beheld: Between, but in advance
of them, towered a colossal pylon, to which each pyramid
was a wing, united by a wall of brick, ninety feet
high, encased with marble. This central temple, or
pylon, was as massive and solemn in its aspect as the
pyramids which formed its propyla. For a few moments
I stood and gazed with awe. Until the spectator reaches
the terrace, the whole effect is not perceived; for,
though the central temple is visible, even from the Lake
of the Dead, it appears as if merely intervening; it is
only on the terrace before which the sphinx, the gigantic
watcher before the pyramids, reposes, that the
whole grand design is comprehended. Had I been all
at once brought in sight of the House of Osiris, in the
and impressed.
This temple, built of brick, with marble casing, has
in its outline the ruinous aspect of great age, and is not
in as good preservation as the pyramids, although subsequently
erected, not as an after-thought, but in keeping
with the great design.
But a visitor is announced as in the hall of reception;
therefore, at present, dear mother, farewell,
| LETTER XV. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage | |