AFRICA. routes. CHAP. I. Herodotus's general of the African continent. Considered it to be a great acte spreading out from Asia at the Suez. Extreme heat of the climate. Communications with the interior were sufficiently opened by the caravans from Carthage; and no merchandise of any description could be obtained from Southern Africa which would at all repay the most adventurous and enterprising voyager, for any attempt to prove whether the story of the Phoenician expedition was true or mythical. Thus, after the lapse of ages, the narrative was either forgotten or doubted, and the great geographical problem still remained as though it had never been solved. 3 The next subject to be considered is, the character knowledge and extent of Herodotus's knowledge of the continent at large. According to his map of Asia,' he considered the Libyan continent as forming the second great acte which ran westward from Asia. At Aegypt the country was narrow, for between the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf the neck Isthmus of of land (now called the Isthmus of Suez) was only 100,000 orgyae across; but from this narrow neck the tract which was called Libya became very wide. The western extremity was formed by the promontory of Soloeis. The soil was reddish and sandy, but watered by numerous rivers. The region above, or to the south of Aegypt, was exceedingly hot; the winds were very heating; and there was neither rain nor snow. The inhabitants also became black from the excessive heat; kites and swallows remained there the entire year, and the cranes, to avoid the cold of Scythia, repaired to these countries for their winter quarters. The air was always clear, the soil always hot, and the winds never cool;' whilst the peculiar course of the sun rendered the climate of Libya one eternal summer. Thus the Libyans, and next to them the Aegyptians, were the healthiest of all men, because they had nothing to suffer from the change of seasons.10 6 Herodotus's line be It is difficult to decide where Herodotus would AFRICA. draw the boundary line between Libya and Asia. CHAP. I. We have already seen that the eastern tract between Difficulty in the Nile valley and the Red Sea was assigned to discovering Arabia, and our author himself seems doubtful boundary whether Aegypt belonged to Libya or to Asia. tween Asia Objecting, as he did, to the arbitrary continental and Africa. divisions of the other Greek geographers, he seems more inclined to divide the world into tracts, or countries. He therefore says that the only line of division he knows between Asia and Libya is the frontier of Aegypt,' but whether that frontier was on the east or the west, he nowhere specifies. Again, he certainly does say that Libya commenced from Aegypt, but then immediately afterwards he says, that from the narrow neck which joins the acte to the main-land, the tract which was called Libya was very wide: thus in the same chapter implying, first, that Libya commenced from Aegypt; and, secondly, that it commenced from the Isthmus of Suez. We are therefore led to conclude that the Probably continent of Libya and the country of Libya were a confusion two totally different things. The continent cer- country of tainly included Aethiopia; whilst Libya Proper; the conti which was inhabited by the Libyans, comprised nent of Lionly the northern territory between Aegypt and Cape Soloeis. That Aegypt was not included in the Libyan continent may be distinctly proved by the following passage. Thus much I know," says Herodotus," four nations occupy Libya, and no more; two of these nations are aboriginal, and two not. The Libyans and Aethiopians are aboriginal, the former lying northward and the latter southward in Libya; the foreign settlers are Phoenicians and Greeks." This passage we shall ignore in obedience to modern geography, and consider the Aegyptians as included within the present quarter of the globe. arose from between the Libya and bya. The continent of Libya must be thus divided into Division of 1 ii. 17. 2 iv. 41. 3 ii. 17; vii. 70. 4 iv. 197. the Libyan continent AFRICA. three distinct tracts, viz. Aegypt, Aethiopia, and CHAP. I. Libya Proper; Aegypt and Aethiopia including the countries watered by the Nile, and Libya Proper into three embracing the region of Mount Atlas and desert of Aegypt, Ae- Sahara; and this division we shall implicitly follow Libya Pro- in the succeeding chapters. tracts, viz. thiopia, and per. CHAPTER II. AEGYPT. CHAP. II. General description of Aegypt-a fertile valley, bounded on the east AFRICA. by the Arabian chain, and on the west by the Libyan.-Herodotus's account. Situation and boundaries of the country. Supposed to be a gift of the Nile, as in the reign of Menes, B. C. 2200, all Middle Aegypt was a morass, and all Lower Aegypt was under water; but in the time of Herodotus, B. c. 450, the whole had been filled up by alluvial soil brought down by the Nile.-Lower Aegypt said by the priests to have been anciently a bay, corresponding to the Arabian Gulf.-Three facts in favour of the hypothesis.-1. Shells found on the mountains and saline humour on the pyramids.-2. Contrast between the black soil of Aegypt and the rock and clay of Arabia and Syria on the east, and the red sand of Libya on the west.-3. Gradual rise of the land.-Ionian theory, that Aegypt Proper was included in the Delta, proved to be absurd, as the Aegyptians were an ancient people, but the soil of the Delta of recent formation.-Theory of Herodotus-that the Aegyptians had advanced northward as fast as fresh soil was formed, and that Aegypt properly included all the country inhabited by Aegyptians-supported by the oracle of Ammon.-Voyage of Herodotus up the Nile, by Heliopolis and Thebes, to Elephantine on the southern frontier of Aegypt.— Aegypt north of Heliopolis, (i. e. the Delta,) a broad flat.-Aegypt south of Heliopolis, a narrow valley between the Arabian and Libyan mountains.-Extent of the voyage.-Error in Herodotus's calculation of the number of stadia.-Herodotus's personal knowledge bounded on the south by Elephantine.-Could learn but little concerning the Nile.Three different causes assigned by the Greeks for its periodical overflow. 1st, That it was occasioned by the Etesian winds. 2nd, That it was caused by the river Ocean. 3rd, That it was produced by the snows of Aethiopia.-Theory of Herodotus, the Nile drained during the winter by the sun, which is driven southward by Boreas; but overflowing in summer, when the sun returns to the centre of the heavens.-Origin of the three previous theories.-That of the Etesian winds, taught by Thales. That of the river Ocean, by Hecataeus, though perhaps in part derived from the Aegyptian tradition of the revolution of the sun.That of the melted snow, taught by Anaxagoras, and followed by Euripides and Aeschylus.-Real cause of the inundation first discovered by Democritus and Callisthenes, viz. the very heavy rainy season in Aethiopia.-Period of the inundation.-Singular theory of the philosophers of Memphis as described by Diodorus.-Sources of the Nile: Herodotus unable to obtain any information concerning them.-Hoaxing story told by the bursar of the Athene temple at Sais.-Effects produced by the inundation.-Aegypt like a sea, and her cities like islands.-Navigation carried on across the plain of the Delta.-Cities protected by mounds. AFRICA. Aegypt a ley,bounded bian chain, west by the Libyan chain. Seven mouths of the Nile, viz. Pelusiac, Canopic, Sebennytic, Saitie, AEGYPT in primeval times consisted of a long CHAP. II. rocky valley terminating in a deep bay. The river General de- Nile, which flowed from the highlands of Aethiopia, scription of traversed the entire length of the valley, and empfertile val- tied its waters into the bay. In the time of Heroon the east dotus the Nile had covered the rocky valley with by the Ara- rich and teeming earth, and by its continual deand on the posits had filled up the bay, and transformed it into that extensive and fruitful territory known as the plain of the Delta.' Aegypt thus included, first, the long and narrow valley which follows the course of the Nile from Assouan, the ancient Syene, northwards to Cairo; and, secondly, the extensive plain of the Delta, which stretches from Cairo northwards to the Mediterranean. The two mountain ranges which enclose the Nile valley are called by an Arabian writer, "the wings of the Nile." That on the east may be named the Arabian chain; that on the west, the Libyan chain. In Upper and Central Aegypt they are each intersected by defiles, which on the eastern side lead to the shores of the Red Sea, and on the western side lead to the oases. As these two ranges approach the apex of the Delta This opinion is in accordance with Herodotus's own theory. (ii. 5. See also Savary's Letters on Egypt, Letter I.) It has however been stoutly opposed by Sir J. G. Wilkinson and the learned writer of the article on Egypt in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, who, though it is admitted on all hands that the land of Aegypt and the bed of the river are both slowly rising, yet contend that the limits of the Delta to the north are the same now as in the remotest antiquity. But, even admitting that the northern limits of the Delta are the same now as they were in the days of Herodotus, it does not invalidate his statement, which we shall quote and remark upon further on in the present chapter, that the cultivated portion of Aegypt is the gift of the river. The chain of sand-banks, which skirt the Delta on the north, may have existed long before the Delta attained its present form; but, at the same time, there is no reason to doubt that the cultivable land of which the Delta is composed really and wholly consists of deposits brought down by the Nile, and that the lakes or lagoons, which lie along the shore to the south of the chain of sand-banks, are the last remains of the sea by which the Delta was anciently covered. |