A BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS

NOTES TO SECTION 1

[1] [Ancient History from the Monuments, by Dr. Samuel Birch. Egypt of the Pharaohs, Zincke. Mummies and Moslems. Warner. P. 92 Martyrdom of Man. Reade. Ch. 1. Life and Work at the Great Pyramid. Smyth, Ch. 1. p. 29.]

[2] [Stobaeus, Ecl. Eth, p. 992, Ed. Heeren.]

[3] [Piazzi Smyth, ibid.]

[4] [17.]

[5] [Diodorus 1:19.]

[6] [Wilkinson, 2nd ser. 2. p. 48.]

[7] [ibid., p.?]

[8] [Egyptian room, British Mus. 9, 900.]

[9] [Source.]

[10] ['Among the Egyptians there is a certain tablet called the Old Chronicle, containing thirty dynasties in 113 descents, during the long period of 36,525 years. The first series of princes was that of the Auritae; the second was that of the Mestraeans; the third of the Egyptians.' In Cory, Ancient Fragments, p.136—see BB 1:28.]

[11] [Source.]

[12] ['Another of his sons was Khum, (i.e., Ham), who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, the father of the Ethiopians, and the brother of Mestraim, the father of the Egyptians. The Greeks say, moreover, that Atlas was the discoverer of astrology.' Extracted from Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, bk. 9, Cory's Ancient Fragments, p.82.]

[13] [Gen. 10:14.]

[14] [Gen. 26:2.]

[15] [Pettigrew, Hist. Mum. p. 220.]

[16] [Horapollo, bk. 1:10. 'To denote an only begotten, or generation, or a father, or the world, or a man, they delineate a SCARABÆUS. And they symbolise by this an only begotten, because the scarabæus is a creature self-produced, being unconceived by a female; for the propagation of it is unique after this manner:—when the male is desirous of procreating, he takes dung of an ox, and shapes it into a spherical form like the world; he then rolls it from the hinder parts from east to west, looking himself towards the east, that he may impart to it the figure of the world, (for that is borne from east to west, while the course of the stars is from west to east): then, having dug a hole, the scarabæus deposits this ball in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days, (for in so many days the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac). By thus remaining under the moon, the race of scarabæi is endued with life; and upon the nine and twentieth day after having opened the ball, it casts it into water, for it is aware that upon that day the conjunction of the moon and sun takes place, as well as the generation of the world. From the ball thus opened in the water, the animals, that is the scarabæi, issue forth. The scarabæus also symbolizes generation, for the reason before mentioned—and a father, because the scarabæus is engendered by a father only—and the world, because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of the world—and a man, because there is no female race among them. Moreover there are three species of scarabæi, the first like a cat, and irradiated, which species they have consecrated to the sun from this similarity: for they say that the male cat changes the shape of the pupils of his eyes according to the course of the sun: for in the morning at the rising of the god, they are dilated, and in the middle of the day become round, and about sunset appear less brilliant: whence, also, the statue of the god in the city of the sun is of the form of a cat. Every scarabæus also has thirty toes, corresponding with the thirty days duration of the month, during which the rising sun [moon?] performs his course. The second species is the two horned and bull formed, which is consecrated to the moon; whence the children of the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the exaltation of this goddess. The third species is the one horned and Ibis formed, which they regard as consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], in like manner as the bird Ibis.' See also BB 2:317, 635, NG 1:37, 119, NG 2:59-60, 194, 303, AE 1:235, AE 2:732.]

[17] [Source.]

[18] [Brugsch. Hist. Eg. 1. p. 58.]

[19] [Source.]

[20] [ch. 42.]

[21] [Source.]

[22] [Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt., 5. 352.]

[23] [De Rouge, Les Mons. p. 46-7. Bunsen, Eg. Place, 5. 719.]

[24] [Source.]

[25] [Lepsius, Konig.]

[26] [Simplen Pass.]

[27] [RP, 8, 148]

[28] ['Proverbs of Ptah-hetep', RP, 8, 148.]

[29] [Eg Place. 4. p. 71.]

[30] [Ib., p.?]

[31] [Ib. 1. 10, pref.]

[32] [West]

[33] [Hist. Eg. 1. 2.]

[34] [Ib. 1. 3.]

[35] [Source.]

[36] [I.12.]

[37] [See Lepsius, Konig. taf. 3.]

[38] [2. 426.]

[39] [Of I amd O.]

[40] [Group in Musee du Louvre, Salle des Dieux.]

[41] [Hist. Eg. 1. 479.]

[42] [Sarc. in Soane Mus.]

[43] [Ritual 147. Birch. 'I know the time the day I came like the Sun through the Gate of the Lords of Kal.']

[44] [RP, 6?]

[45] [Pierret, Voc. 'Ab, the Left.']

[46] [Source.]

[47] [Source.]

[48] [A or B]

[49] [Art. in journal?]

[50] [JES, 1871.]

[51] [See Section 21.]

[52] [Owen, JAS. 1874.]

[53] [JAS, 1874, p. 247.]

[54] [Montfaucon, pl. 47. Ant. Expl.]

[55] [State of Cape, 1. 50, 51.]

[56] [Cited by Spencer, Cer. Inst. 116, 121-4.]

[57] [Afr. Reis. 143.]

[58] [Caves, p. 216.]

[59] [Africa, 2. 289.]

[60] [Source.]

[61] ['At present, it must be confessed, they obtain the fruits of the field with less trouble than any other people in the world, the rest of the Egyptians included, since they have no need to break up the ground with the plough, nor to use the hoe, nor to do any of the work which the rest of mankind find necessary if they are to get a crop; but the husbandman waits till the river has of its own accord spread itself over the fields and withdrawn again to its bed, and then sows his plot of ground, and after sowing turns his swine into it—the swine tread in the corn—after which he has only to await the harvest.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'It is certain however that now they gather in fruit from the earth with less labour than any other men and also with less than the other Egyptians; for they have no labour in breaking up furrows with a plough nor in hoeing nor in any other of those labours which other men have about a crop; but when the river has come up of itself and watered their fields and after watering has left them again, then each man sows his own field and turns into it swine, and when he has trodden the seed into the ground by means of the swine, after that he waits for the harvest.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:14.]

[62] [EBR 8, 8, 421.]

[63] [Bk. 1. 28, 29, 81.]

[64] [Bk. 1:44.]

[65] [Lines 5, 6, 7. RP, 2. 3.]

[66] [Source.]

[67] [Source.]

[68] [Source.]

[69] [Langs. Ind. Arch.]

[70] [Last Trav. 2. 259.]

[71] [Bas. p.10.]

[72] [Trav. 2. 224.]

[73] [JAI, Feb. 1879. Author?]

[74] [Oed. Jud.?]

[75] [Muller, Ac. 1874. p. 548.]

[76] [Massey's own words.]

[77] [Gen. 10.]

[78] [RP, 10, 109-110. Lefebure, 'Bk. Hades']

[79] ['Among the Egyptians there is a certain tablet called the Old Chronicle, containing thirty dynasties in 113 descents, during the long period of 36,525 years. The first series of princes was that of the Auritae; the second was that of the Mestraeans; the third of the Egyptians.' In Cory, Ancient Fragments, p.136. See note 10 above.]

[80] [Syncellus, Chronicon, 51; and Eusebius, Chronology, 6. In Cory. See above note.]

[81] [Wilkinson, pl. 32, figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.]

[82] [Source.]

[83] [See pp. 5, 28 of the above source—and notes 79 & 80 above.]

[84] [Mons. of U. Eg. 255-6.]

[85] ['My judgment as to the extent of Egypt is confirmed by an oracle delivered at the shrine of Ammon, of which I had no knowledge at all until after I had formed my opinion. It happened that the people of the cities Marea 1 and Apis, who live in the part of Egypt that borders on Libya, took a dislike to the religious usages of the country concerning sacrificial animals, and wished no longer to be restricted from eating the flesh of cows. So, as they believed themselves to be Libyans and not Egyptians, they sent to the shrine to say that, having nothing in common with the Egyptians, neither inhabiting the Delta nor using the Egyptian tongue, they claimed to be allowed to eat whatever they pleased. Their request, however, was refused by the god, who declared in reply that Egypt was the entire tract of country which the Nile overspreads and irrigates, and the Egyptians were the people who lived below Elephantiné, and drank the waters of that river.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'Moreover also the answer given by the Oracle of Ammon bears witness in support of my opinion that Egypt is of the extent which I declare it to be in my account; and of this answer I heard after I had formed my own opinion about Egypt. For those of the city of Marea and of Apis, dwelling in the parts of Egypt which border on Libya, being of opinion themselves that they were Libyans and not Egyptians, and also being burdened by the rules of religious service, because they desired not to be debarred from the use of cows' flesh, sent to Ammon saying that they had nought in common with the Egyptians, for they dwelt outside the Delta and agreed with them in nothing; and they said they desired that it might be lawful for them to eat everything without distinction. The god however did not permit them to do so, but said that that land which was Egypt which the Nile came over and watered, and that those were Egyptians who dwelling below the city of Elephantine drank of that river.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:18.]

[86] ['Among the Egyptians there is a certain tablet called the Old Chronicle, containing thirty dynasties in 113 descents, during the long period of 36,525 years. The first series of princes was that of the Auritae; the second was that of the Mestraeans; the third of the Egyptians.' In Cory, Ancient Fragments, p.136. See also pp. 104-8 of that book. The editor uses Bunsen's book on Egypt as a reference point, citing pp. 142-4, whereas Massey cites the following ref. of same book: Egypt's Place, vol. 1, p. 215.]

[87] ['He has addressed and explained them to Philadelphus, the second king (of Egypt) who bore the name of Ptolemaeus, in the book which he has entitled Sothis (or the Dog-star).' Syncellus, Chronicon, 40, in Cory, Ancient Fragments, p.109.]

[88] [Source.]

[89] [Eg. Place.]

[90] [Chron. ibid.]

[91] [Ant. bk.1.2. 3. p.27.]

[92] [Source.]

[93] [in Ecl. See Cory.]

[94] [Ib. Sut =Seth.]

[95] [Source.]

[96] [Source.]

[97] [Source.]

[98] [Mariette, Mons, p. 259.]

[99] [Hieroglpyphica, bk. 1:21. 'To signify the rising of the Nile, which they call in the Egyptian language NOUN, and which, when interpreted, signifies New, they sometimes pourtray a LION, and sometimes THREE LARGE WATERPOTS, and at other times HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER. And they depict a LION, because when the sun is in Leo it augments the rising of the Nile, so that oftentimes while the sun remains in that sign of the zodiac, half of the new water [Noun, the entire inundation?] is supplied; and hence it is, that those who anciently presided over the sacred works, have made the spouts [?] and passages of the sacred fountains in the form of lions.' See also BB 1:103, 186, BB 2:586, NG 1:40, NG 2:194, 316, AE 1:286, 295.]

[100] [Source.]

[101] ['Apidanean Arcadians alone existed, Arcadians who lived even before the moon, it is said, eating acorns on the hills; nor at that time was the Pelasgian land ruled by the glorious sons of Deucalion, in the days when Egypt, mother of men of an older time, was called the fertile Morning-land, and the river fair-flowing Triton, by which all the Morning-land is watered; and never does the rain from Zeus moisten the earth; but from the flooding of the river abundant crops spring up.' Bk.4. v.259. Tr., R.C. Seaton, and p.154 of Penguin ed.]

[102] [Schol. to Apollonius, 4. 262.]

[103] ['But the Delta, as the Egyptians affirm, and as I myself am persuaded, is formed of the deposits of the river, and has only recently, if I may use the expression, come to light. If, then, they had formerly no territory at all, how came they to be so extravagant as to fancy themselves the most ancient race in the world? Surely there was no need of their making the experiment with the children to see what language they would first speak. But in truth I do not believe that the Egyptians came into being at the same time with the Delta, as the Ionians call it; I think they have always existed ever since the human race began; as the land went on increasing, part of the population came down into the new country, part remained in their old settlements. In ancient times the Thebais bore the name of Egypt, a district of which the entire circumference is but 6120 furlongs.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'If, I say, we should follow this account, we should thereby declare that in former times the Egyptians had no land to live in; for, as we have seen, their Delta at any rate is alluvial, and has appeared (so to speak) lately, as the Egyptians themselves say and as my opinion is. If then at the first there was no land for them to live in, why did they waste their labour to prove that they had come into being before all other men? They needed not to have made trial of the children to see what language they would first utter. However I am not of opinion that the Egyptians came into being at the same time as that which is called by the Ionians the Delta, but that they existed always ever since the human race came into being, and that as their land advanced forwards, many of them were left in their first abodes and many came down gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that in old times Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this the circumference measures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:15.]

[104] ['Now the Egyptians, before the reign of their king Psammetichus, believed themselves to be the most ancient of mankind. Since Psammetichus, however, made an attempt to discover who were actually the primitive race, they have been of opinion that while they surpass all other nations, the Phrygians surpass them in antiquity.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'Now the Egyptians, before the time when Psammetichos became king over them, were wont to suppose that they had come into being first of all men; but since the time when Psammetichos having become king desired to know what men had come into being first, they suppose that the Phrygians came into being before themselves, but they themselves before all other men.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:2.]

[105] ['And they told me that the first man who ruled over Egypt was Mên, and that in his time all Egypt, except the Thebaic canton, was a marsh, none of the land below lake Mæris then showing itself above the surface of the water. This is a distance of seven days' sail from the sea up the river.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'They said also that the first man who became king of Egypt was Min; and that in his time all Egypt except the district of Thebes was a swamp, and none of the regions were then above water which now lie below the lake of Moiris, to which lake it is a voyage of seven days up the river from the sea.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:4.]

[106] [Of I and O]

[107] [Bk. 3.]

[108] [Ezek. 29:14.]

[109] [Is. 43:3.]

[110] [45:14]

[111] [Ez. 23:42.]

[112] [Is. 18:27.]

[113] [Bk 1.]

[114] [Iliad, bk. 1. See Smith, Class. Dict., 'Ethiopia'.]

[115] [Source.]

[116] ['Another of his sons was Khum, (i.e., Ham), who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, the father of the Ethiopians, and the brother of Mestraim, the father of the Egyptians. The Greeks say, moreover, that Atlas was the discoverer of astrology.' Extracted from Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, bk. 9, Cory's Ancient Fragments, p.82. See note 12 above.]

[117] [Champollion, Gram. p. 90.]

[118] [Discuss.]

[119] [Birch, Hist. Eg. pp. 24, 25.]

[120] [Drummond, Oed. Jud. pl. 2.]

[121] [Diodorus Sic. bk. 2:113.]

[122] [Bk. 1, p. 81.]

[123] [Source.]

[124] [Legg. 2:657.—p. 91]

[125] [De Rouge, Six Prem. p. 163.]

[126] [Kritik, p. 484.]

[127] [Armenian version, 1:19.]

[128] [Source.]

[129] [De Myst. 8. 5, 9.7.]

[130] [Chron.]

[131] [Source.]

[132] ['Thus far I have spoken on the authority of the Egyptians and their priests. They declare that from their first king to this last-mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both of their kings, and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now three hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations filling up the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years. Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand, three hundred and forty; in which entire space, they said, no god had ever appeared in a human form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the former or under the later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this period of time, on four several occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no degree affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the river, remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in the diseases or the deaths.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who made the report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of Hephaistos who reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one generations of men, and that in them there had been the same number of chief-priests and of kings: but three hundred generations of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred years is three generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which remain, those I mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings who arose in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come to pass. In this time they said that the sun had moved four times from his accustomed place of rising, and where he now sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the place from whence he now rises he had twice had his setting; and in the meantime nothing in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which concerns diseases or deaths.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2.142.]

[133] ['The account which I received of this Hercules makes him one of the twelve gods. Of the other Hercules, with whom the Greeks are familiar, I could hear nothing in any part of Egypt. That the Greeks, however (those I mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that name), took the name 6 from the Egyptians, and not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is I think clearly proved, among other arguments, by the fact that both the parents of Hercules, Amphitryon as well as Alcmêna, were of Egyptian origin. Again, the Egyptians disclaim all knowledge of the names of Neptune and the Dioscûri, and do not include them in the number of their gods; but had they adopted the name of any god from the Greeks, these would have been the likeliest to obtain notice, since the Egyptians, as I am well convinced, practised navigation at that time, and the Greeks also were some of them mariners, so that they would have been more likely to know the names of these gods than that of Hercules. But the Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient gods. Seventeen thousand years before the reign of Amasis, the twelve gods were, they affirm, produced from the eight: and of these twelve, Hercules is one.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the number of the twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know I was not able to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove that the Egyptians did not take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, but rather the Hellenes from the Egyptians,--that is to say those of the Hellenes who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon,—of that, I say, besides many other evidences there is chiefly this, namely that the parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene, were both of Egypt by descent, and also that the Egyptians say that they do not know the names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these been accepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereas if they had received from the Hellenes the name of any divinity, they would naturally have preserved the memory of these most of all, assuming that in those times as now some of the Hellenes were wont to make voyages and were sea-faring folk, as I suppose and as my judgment compels me to think; so that the Egyptians would have learnt the names of these gods even more than that of Heracles. In fact however Heracles is a very ancient Egyptian god; and (as they say themselves) it is seventeen thousand years to the beginning of the reign of Amasis from the time when the twelve gods, of whom they count that Heracles is one, were begotten of the eight gods.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2.43.]

[134] [Bunsen, 3. 60.]

[135] [Source.]

[136] [Hist. Eg. 1. 33.]

[137] [Source below.]

[138] [Notice des Princ. p. 74.]

[139] [Plate 6, Fig. 109.]

[140] [Source.]

[141] [Source.]

[142] [Eg. Place, vol.2. scutcheons. Lepsius, Konig.]

[143] [Hist. Eg. 2, app. 1.]

[144] [Wilkinson, Mat. Hier. pl. 27, f. 2.]

[145] [Source.]

[146] [Drummond, Oed. Jud. pl. 4.]

[147] [RP, 2, 129. Goodwin, 'Hymn to Amen-Ra'.]

[148] [Mariette, Not. p. 298.]

[149] [Source.]

[150] [Source.]

[151] [Hist. Eg. 2, app.]

[152] [No. 231, Birch's department. See illust. in NG vols.]

[153] [See illustration and AE 1:343.]

[154] [Chabas, a.]

[155] [Gen. 10:5.]

[156] [Source.]

[157] [Oed. Jud.]