might be established in its full splendour, as was the case formerly. Then the king gave command to drive out all foreigners, who had taken up their quarters in the temple of Neith, and to pull down all their huts and all their chattels in this temple, and they themselves were forced to remove out of the precincts of this temple. The king gave command to purify this temple of Neith, and to restore to it all its inhabitants, and to acknowledge the people as servants of the temple. He gave command to replace the sacred property of Neith, the great mother, and of all the gods in Saïs, as it had been formerly. He gave command to re-establish the order of all their festivals and of all their processions, as they were formerly. All this did the king, because I had made him acquainted with the high consequence of Saïs, for it is the city of all the gods. May they remain on their thrones in her for ever! III. 'When king Kambathet came to Saïs, he entered the temple of Neith in person. He testified in every good way his reverence for the great exalted holy goddess, Neith, the great mother, and for the great gods in Saïs, as all the pious kings had done. He did this, because I had made him acquainted with the high importance of the holy goddess, for she is the mother of the Sun-god Ra himself. IV. The king bestowed all that was good upon the temple of Neith. He caused the libations to be offered to the Everlasting One in the house of Neith, as all the kings of former times had done. He did this because I had informed him of all the good that should be done for this temple. 6 V. I established the property of Neith, the great mother, as the king had ordered, for the duration of eternity. I caused the monuments of Neith, the lady of Saïs, to be set up in every proper way, as an able servant of his master ought to do. I was a good man before his face. I protected the people under the very heavy misfortune which had befallen the whole land, such as this country had never experienced before. I was a shield to the weak against the powerful; I protected him who honoured me, and he found it best for him. I did all good for them, when the time had come to do it. I VI. I entrusted to them the prophetic offices; I gave them the best land, as the king had commanded, to endure for ever. made a present of proper burial to such as (died) without a coffin; I nourished all their children and built up again all their houses; I did for them all that is good, as a father does for his son, then when the calamity fell upon this nome, at the time when the grievous calamity befel the whole land. VII. 'Now king Ntariuth (Darius)-may he live for ever!commanded me to go to Egypt, while he was in the land of Elam, -for he also was the great lord of all lands and a great king of Egypt,-in order that I might reinstate the number of the sacred scribes of the temples, and revive whatever had fallen into ruin. The foreigners escorted me from land to land, and brought me safe to Egypt, according to the command of the lord of the land. I did according to what he had commanded. I chose them from all their (schools?) of the sons of the inhabitants-to the great sorrow of those who were childless--and I placed them under expert masters, the skilful in all kinds of learning, that they might perform all their works. And the king ordered that all favour should be shown them, because of the pleasure with which they performed all their works. I supplied all those who distinguished themselves with whatever they needed for the scribe's profession, according to their progress. The king did all this because he knew that such a work was the best means of awakening to new life all that was falling into ruin, in order to uphold the name of all the gods, their temples, their revenues, and the ordinance of their feasts for ever. VIII. 'I was honoured by each of my masters, so long as I sojourned on the earth. Therefore they gave me decorations of gold, and showed me all favour. IX. O ye gods who are in Saïs! Remember all the good that has been done by the president of the physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris. In all that ye are willing to requite him for all his benefits, establish for him a great name in this land for ever. X. O Osiris thou Eternal one! The president of the physicians Uza-hor-en-pi-ris throws his arms around thee, to guard thy image. Do for him all good according to what he has done, (as) the protector of thy shrine for ever.' 1 The last words, addressed to Osiris, the Eternal, have relation to the particular form of the statue. The chief physician of Saïs is represented as standing upright, with his hands embracing a shrine, in the interior of which is seen the mummy of Osiris. It should not be forgotten that the Persian kings were glad to employ the Egyptian physicians, whose skill gained them high renown in the ancient world. We refrain from any further comment on the foregoing text, the historical value of which ought not, I think, to be undervalued as the contemporary record of an eye-witness and in part the author of the events which he relates. In this account, King Cambyses appears in a totally different light from that in which school-learning places him. He takes care for the gods and their temples, and has himself crowned in Saïs after the old Egyptian manner. Darius I., whom the Egyptian Uza-hor-en-pi-ris had accompanied to Elam (Elymaïs), took particular pleasure in rescuing the Egyptian temple-learning from its threatened extinction. He provided for the training of the energetic and gifted youth in the schools of the priests, to be the future maintainers and teachers of the lost wisdom of the Egyptians.' The best proof of the lively interest, which Darius himself took in the foundation of new sanctuaries, is furnished by the temple built in the Great Oasis of El-Khargeh, at the place called by the ancients Hibis (the Hib or Hibe of the hieroglyphs). This sanctuary, which I had the opportunity of visiting in the February of 1875, in company with the hereditary Grand-duke Augustus of Oldenburg, is in a pretty good state of preservation. The names of king Darius, in the Egyptian form of Nthariush, cover the sides of the various halls and chambers, as well as the outer walls of the temple. But the difference of the official coronation names leads to the inference, that Darius II. (with the name Mi-amun-ra), took part, as well as his ancestor Darius I. (with the shield Settu-ra, i.e. Sesostris), in the building of the temple, and in its internal and external ornamentation.1 The temple of Hibis was dedicated to the Theban Amon, under his special surname of Us-khopesh (the strong-armed'). The record of the works executed by Darius II., on the northern outer wall, runs as follows: 'He did this in remembrance of his father, the great god Amon-ra, the lord of Hibe, with the Strong Arm, and his associated gods, inasmuch as he built this new house of good white stone in the form of a Mesket.2 Its doors were formed of the Libyan acacia wood, which is called Pir-shennu, and covered with Asiatic bronze in well-wrought lasting work. His (the god's) monument was renewed according to its original plan. May the gods preserve him among living men for hundreds of thousands of thirty years' jubilee-feasts on the throne [of Horus], to-day and for ever and eternally!' As we have already shown, the building and decoration of the temple was continued to the times of king Nakht-hor-hib (378-360 B.C.) No later names of kings appear there.3 1 The inscription of Darius at the temple of El-Khargeh has been translated by Dr. S. Birch in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, vol. v. pp. 293, foll. (with the original text), and in the Records of the Past, vol. viii. pp. 135, foll.-Ed. 2 See above, p. 98. 6 3 For further information about the temple and its inscriptions, I would refer to my work on the Oasis of El-Khargeh and its Temple-ruins, which is now in the press. [The work referred to has now been published, under the title of Reise nach dem grossen Oase el Khargeh in der Libyschen Wüste. Von Heinrich Brugsch-Bey.' Besides a full archæological account of the Great Oasis, down to Roman and Christian times, and translations of two very interesting inscriptions, containing hymns of the time of Darius II., the work abounds in new information on the secret writing, the mysteries of Osiris, and other matters concerning the geography, language, and mythology of ancient Egypt.-ED.] |