Egypt was first peopled from Ethiopia Proper; that is, from the countries to the south of it: the circumstance that the land of Cush to the east of it was also named Ethiopia, and that the confusion of the two is not uncommon in the Greek writers, being entirely disregarded. It is, however, still more extraordinary, that these authors should also disregard the monumental facts which have been brought to light by their own researches, and which flatly contradict their strange assumption. If the testimony of the monuments is to be admitted, Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia, cannot have been the cradle of Thebes; and the powerful nation of Ethiopians, living under a civil and religious system identical with that of Egypt long before this latter country was inhabited, and afterwards colonizing it, must be a fable for no very early monuments exist in Ethiopia; the most ancient of them having been erected by monarchs, of the 18th dynasty of the kings of Egypt, who reigned long after it had become a settled kingdom. The inscriptions on them also plainly intimate that Ethiopia was then a province or dependency of Egypt; and that it continued to be so apparently until the reign of Psammetichus, about 500 B. C. This is all the support that the monuments of Ethiopia afford to this assumption. If we consider those of Egypt, also, with a view to the same subject, the first fact that occurs to us is equally opposed to it. The pyramids which, by the unanimous tradition of the Egyptian priests, as recorded by all the Greek authors, were the oldest of their monuments, are not in the neighbourhood of Thebes, but of Memphis, just on the crown of the Delta, on the east bank of the Nile; that is, on the first spot of habitable ground at which travellers migrating

across the isthmus of Suez would arrive when the Delta was a marsh.

The history of Egypt is by no means exempt from the chronological difficulties that beset the early records of all other nations. As this subject is still under investigation, and as new facts are continually produced respecting it, we content ourselves with a general indication of the various sources, both in the ancient authors, and on the existing monuments, whence the materials for a more accurate arrangement have been derived, and the very satisfactory results which have already been obtained from the examination of them.

Two ancient authorities have given lists of the dynasties or races of the kings of Egypt. One list is preserved by George Syncellus, a chronological writer of the eighth century, under the name of the Old Chronicle: the other is the work of Manetho, a priest of Sebennytus, a city of Egypt, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 180 B. C. By the command of that monarch, he translated into Greek the annals of the ancient kings his predecessors as they then existed on the walls of temples and other monumental records of their actions. His work was divided into three volumes, or parts. It is now lost; but extracts from it have been preserved in the writings of Josephus and Eusebius.

Several extracts from the history of Egypt are also preserved by Herodotus and Diodorus: but as they have merely noted the circumstances which they conceived to be interesting, not even following the chronological order of the succession, the facts they have recorded can only be made available as history by the help of the lists of Manetho. Many extraordinary and unexpected confirmations of the

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correctness, both of the lists of Manetho, and of the records preserved by the Greek authors, have been discovered by the recent researches among the monuments of Egyptian antiquity.

1. The tablet of Abydos. This is a series of royal rings, inclosing the inaugural titles of the names of many of the ancient kings of Egypt, in the order of their succession. It was engraved on the wall of one of the vestibules of the temple, which has been excavated in the mountain to the north of the city of Abydos. Three rows of these rings still remain; the lowest consists of nine repetitions of the two rings which contain the name and titles of the Pharaoh who executed this work, Ramses, the great Sesostris. The middle row contains the name of his brother, whom he succeeded; and the inaugural titles of sixteen of his predecessors on the throne of Egypt. The complete names of all of them occur on other monuments, and by arranging them together in the order of the table of Abydos, they agree admirably with those of the predecessors of Sesostris, given in the lists of Manetho. The upper line contains the names of still earlier monarchs, as to whom also some important facts have recently been discovered.

It gives us sincere pleasure to be able to state that this valuable historical document has been removed from the ruinous wall on which it was first discovered, and is now in the British Museum: from thence the engraving on p. 179 has been copied.*

2. Similar lists, though not so extensive, have also been

In its present state, it is more mutilated than when first discovered, so that the carly copies contain rings which are now wanting.

found in various parts of the ruins of Thebes, representing generally the monarch by whom the building was erected, paying religious honours to his predecessors, or ancestors. These lists entirely confirm the order of succession that occurs in the tablet of Abydos, and make some additions to it.

3. Many fragments of hieratic papyri have also been found in the tombs, containing the names of kings, and the dates of their several reigns in which the transactions they record occurred. One of these, in the museum at Turin, contains a list of more than fifty-four kings in the order of their succession, of a very similar character to the lists of Manetho. 4. The inscribed tablets, which are so frequent in collections of Egyptian antiquities, also occasionally record the names and dates of the monarchs of Egypt. These dates are always important, as fixing a term of years during which such monarchs must have reigned. From this assemblage of incontrovertible facts much has already been ascertained, and restored to authentic history, which had before been regarded as fabulous, or at best doubtful; and many important events, the memory of which had altogether perished, are added to the records of mankind.

The lists preserved by the Greek authors, commence with a long catalogue of gods and demi-gods, who are said to have reigned over Egypt for a fabulous period of at least 35,000 years. The monuments also testify that such was an article of the popular belief. The names and titles of certain of their divinities are enclosed in the ring or frame, which invariably implies the exercise of sovereignty. The universality of this doctrine among all ancient nations, that their gods in their capacity of gods, were once also