or "seven in one,"(102) which was obviously an appropriate designation for the empire as a whole, consisting as it did of seven tribal districts, a.s.sociated with the seven directions in s.p.a.ce to each of which was a.s.signed a G.o.d, a mountain house, a color, an animal, a celestial body, a day and a symbol.
An extremely suggestive juxtaposition of the numeral seven and a circle containing a group of five circles, resembling a flower with four petals, occurs on the Bavian tablet already cited, on which are also carved two emblems: the moon and winged disk; one compact detached group consisting of four altars (three surrounded by horns and one surmounted by a ram"s head) and a second detached group consisting of a base into which four staffs or sceptres are inserted. These recur on the fine Sendschirli stela of Esarhaddon about which a few words remain to be said. It exhibits the numeral seven=the "seven in one" sign before the king, accompanied by four divinities mounted on animals, the first two being the G.o.d riding a double monster, and the seated G.o.ddess, both wearing the cone on the high royal cap. Carved close to the king"s hand is the group of four staffs or sceptres, inserted in a horizontal base, which appear to be the emblems of his lordship over the four regions. Three of these are the same as on the Bavian relief: the first surmounted by a cone-shaped object(103) beneath which are two hanging ends of ribbons; the second consisting of a plain single staff, split so as to form two; the third surmounted by two animal heads, each with a single horn. The fourth sceptre on Esarhaddon"s stela is like that represented as inserted into one of the altars on the Bavian stela, and terminates in a recurved ram"s head. The fourth in the Bavian group of sceptres somewhat resembles the trident tripart.i.te emblem which occurs on the Sargon stela and the Esarhaddon stela of Nahr-el-Kelb (_figured_ by Dr. Luschan, _op. cit._ p. 20).
A fresh examination of the bas-relief of Maltaya, described by Layard and already alluded to, reveals a suggestive differentiation in the representations of the seven divinities in a row, at each end of which, facing the procession, stands a king. Considering that in a.s.syria there were governors, the _limmi_, who held offices of limited duration and gave their names to their years of office, the query naturally suggests itself whether the two "kings" may not also have ruled for fixed periods of seven years, each one of which bore the name of one of the seven divisions.
It being an accepted fact that the inst.i.tution of the Sabbath was of Chaldean and Babylonian origin, it is permissible to a.s.sign to the same source the inst.i.tution of the seven-year period described in Leviticus XXV: "But the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land....
And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the s.p.a.ce of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years.... And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year"....
Addressing to a.s.syriologists an appeal for fuller knowledge concerning the ancient calendar periods of Babylonia-a.s.syria, I now revert to the Maltaya bas-relief and point out that, of the seven divinities, the two princ.i.p.al ones, a G.o.d and G.o.ddess, wear a form of cap encircled by horns and surmounted by a cone. One of these two deities is distinguished from all others by his larger size and by the fact that he stands on a double animal and heads the procession holding a recurved sceptre in his hand.
Behind him follows the G.o.ddess Ishtar, holding a large ring in her right hand. Her throne, as on the Sendschirli stela, exhibits a ring surmounting its high back, to the side of which a group of four circles or disks are attached. As several centres of Ishtar cult, already mentioned, have been designated as fourfold cities it seems possible that the four disks alluded to this fact, while the ring crowning the top of the throne, and that she holds, const.i.tutes one of her emblems.... However this may be, both monuments exhibit kings a.s.sociated with the number seven and Ishtar, the seated G.o.ddess, a.s.sociated with the number four; facts which claim further investigation and may lead to interesting verifications of the numerical systems of the a.s.syrians. It should be mentioned here that the heads of the five remaining divinities, on the Maltaya bas-relief, are surmounted by a wheel with spokes and that one holds a recurved sceptre, like that of the first, another bears the lightning bolt of Ramman, while three carry the same peculiar double symbol also held by Shamash on the Sippara tablet. It consists of a large ring like that held by Ishtar and a short staff possibly a fire-stick. In each case the fingers of the right hand of the deity clasp the middle of the staff and the ring and the appearance of the combined rod and circle closely resembles the upper portion of the Egyptian crux ansata. Professor von Luschan has, indeed, expressed the opinion that the ring or circle (of Ishtar) the rod and circle (of Shamash) and the crux ansata must have a.n.a.logous meanings, a view I fully share and shall further support in dealing with the Egyptian symbol.
The following data will be found to substantiate further the evidence produced concerning the seven-fold organization of Babylonia-a.s.syria. One of the finest bas-relief tablets at the British Museum excavated by Layard from the ruins of Asurnasirpal"s palace at Nimroud represents in its centre the sacred conventionalized ashera=tree, above which is the winged circle, from the centre of which issues the half figure of the G.o.d a.s.sur (_cf._ fig. 71, 1). To its right stand two winged figures wearing the conical crown with four horns, and necklaces from which hang its reproduction in miniature, also the cross, the symbol of Ishtar and the moon. To the left of the tree stand two personages, wearing the high cap with a flat top, central cone and hanging ends, such as are frequently represented as worn by the kings. The natural inference would be that the winged figures wearing the cap with horns represent high-priests and that a double hierarchy corresponding to the dual monarchy probably existed at one time, the result being "four lords," two celestial and two terrestrial, corresponding to the "four regions," two of which pertained to the Above or the heaven and two to the Below or earth. A curious indication that at one time there were four separate rulers of the four regions is furnished by the cap with four horns and the altar whose four corners terminated in horns, when they are connected with the pa.s.sage in Revelations XVII, which refers to Babylonian symbolism and states: "And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings." Professor Jastrow states that "similar horns existed on the Hebrew and Phnician altars," and that "if we may believe Herodotus, the great altars at Babylon were made of gold" (p. 652).
Doubtlessly, a.s.syrian texts contain a fund of information yet inaccessible to students, concerning the const.i.tution of the state and the modifications it may have undergone in course of time. An exhaustive study of the symbols connected with a.s.syrian kings at different dates, in connection with the text relating his conquests and foundations of temples, may yet reveal the occasional a.s.sumption or usurpation by a single individual of different degrees of power and, possibly, the ultimate separation and antagonism of hierarchy and monarchy.
The employment in a.s.syria and Babylonia of the tree, as a sacred symbol, should next be considered, first, in relation to the other symbols to which great religious importance was attached. The significance of the zikkurat, or seven-staged tower, has already been discussed. Another feature was "the great basin known as "Apsu," the name, it will be recalled, for "the deep" [_i. e._ the lower firmament]. The name indicates that it was a symbolical representation of the domain of Ea. The zikkurat itself being an attempt to reproduce the shape of the earth, the representation of the "apsu" would suggest itself as a natural accessory to the temple. The zikkurat and the basin together would thus become the living symbols of the current cosmological conceptions. The comparison with the great "sea" that stood in the court of Solomon"s temple, naturally suggests itself, and there can be little doubt that the latter is an imitation of a Babylonian model" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ 653). It is evident from the above that the adoption of the sacred basin as the symbol of Ea would naturally be simultaneous with that of miniature "basins" and water bowls and jars, employed for holding the sacred water used in the cult of the Below. Reflection shows that, in the zikkurat, the seat of Bel=the image of the earth, and in the "Apsu" the watery deep and lower firmament of Ea, we have the sacred emblems of two deities of the Babylonian triad only. The emblem of Anu, the Heaven or upper firmament, is missing and it is naturally in the cult of Anshar=Ashur that it must be sought for. The following data will sufficiently show that it was the tree or pole and, in all probability, the fire-stick that were connected with the cult of An-shar="all that is above," or "on high." The resemblance of the name Ashur to the word for tree or pole, the "Ashera" of the Phnicians and Hebrews, suggests, moreover, the probability of their common origin.
An interesting question on which I have not, as yet, been able to obtain information, relates to the mode of producing fire, resorted to by the Babylonian-a.s.syrians. The element was, of course, a.s.sociated with heaven, and the fire-G.o.d under the name of Gibil or Nusku was termed the "son of Anu." Shamash himself also figures as a personification of fire and it seems probable that, in the Babylonian temples in the centre of the square altar, a fire was originally kept perpetually burning as an image of Polaris. As great stress is laid upon the purifying effect of fire as on that of water in Babylonian literature, it is easy to trace the origin of the offering of burnt sacrifices to the idea that, cast into the sacred fire, they became purified and absorbed into its essence, _i. e._ accepted by the sacred living image of the central star-G.o.d. It seems extremely probable that the primitive employment of a fire-stick by the priesthood, for the production of "celestial fire," may have played an important role in causing the stick, and thence the pole and tree, to have become the adopted symbol of Anu. So little is known even about the origin of "tree-worship" itself in ancient Babylonia-a.s.syria that Professor Jastrow advances the following statement (p. 689).
"On the seal cylinders there is frequently represented a pole or a conventionalized form of a tree, generally in connection with a design ill.u.s.trating the worship of a deity. This symbol is clearly a survival of some tree worship that was once popular. The comparison with the _ashera_ and pole worship among Phnicians and Hebrews is fully justified and is a proof of the great antiquity of the symbols which, without becoming a formal part of the later cult, retained in some measure a hold upon the popular mind.
" "Ashur" became the G.o.d of a.s.syria as the rulers of the city of Ashur grew in power ... in the various changes of official residences that took place in the course of a.s.syrian history ... the G.o.d took part and his central seat of worship depended upon the place that the kings chose for their official residence ... there was always one place-the official residence-which formed the central spot of worship. There the G.o.d was supposed to dwell for the time being. One factor, perhaps, that ought to be taken into consideration, in accounting for this movable disposition of the G.o.d was that he was not symbolized exclusively by a statue.... His chief symbol was a standard that could be carried from place to place....
The standard consisted of _a pole_ surrounded by a disk enclosed within two wings, while above the disk stood the figure of a warrior in the act of shooting an arrow (_cf._ fig. 65, 5).... The standard ... which was so made that it could be carried into the thick of the fray in order to a.s.sure the army of the G.o.d"s presence(104) ... followed the camp everywhere and when the kings chose to fix upon a new place for their military encampment ... the standard would repose in the place selected"
(Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 194). To one who like myself has devoted years to the study of the symbolism of primitive people and is familiar with the ancient Mexican image of the "lord of the North" standing in the centre of a horizontally-placed cross-figure, and with the Chichimecan custom, on taking possession of new territory, to shoot arrows towards the cardinal points, the Ashur standard suggests a single explanation, namely, that it was the symbol of celestial, central rulership and that the G.o.d, standing on a staff which could be turned and aiming his arrow towards the four directions in succession, was an expressive image of Polaris and Septentriones.
Further ideas a.s.sociated with the tree by the Babylonian-a.s.syrians are clear since Professor E. B. Tylor has so conclusively shown that certain bas-reliefs represent the act of artificially fertilizing the palm tree by scattering the male blossom from its cone-shaped bunch, over the female palm. In each case this rite is being performed by figures with human bodies and large wings, _i. e._ high priests of heaven, and it seems evident that it symbolized the mystic life-producing union of heaven and earth or of the male and female principles of nature which marked the Babylonian-a.s.syrian New Year"s Day. Given these a.s.sociations of thought, it is easy to see how the New Year became the festival of New Life and how the fertilized tree became the "tree of life," and its sculptured image a memorial of a new year, possibly recording some record of the actual marriages which took place in the state on that day. The decipherment and comparison of the inscriptions on such tablets, by skilled a.s.syriologists, can alone enlighten us on this point, but enough appears apparent to explain how the tree could have become a.s.sociated in a.s.syria not only with life, but with the life and growth of the state. Moreover the tree or pole itself, named ashera, may well have appeared to some Euphratean people, to express the name Ashur sufficiently clear to become its symbol and "canting arms."
The adoption of the shaft or pole, as a symbol of the Celestial Centre, may easily be explained by the fact that, stuck into the ground and watched from a certain position, its upper end would seem to touch Polaris and it thus supplied wandering star-observers with a point of fixity in s.p.a.ce which, being transportable, facilitated the registration of circ.u.mpolar rotation. During many centuries the image of the "crooked serpent," Nakkasch, the constellation which could be seen each night winding its way around the pole, must have deeply impressed itself upon the minds of the primitive star gazers of the Euphratean valley, and conveyed suggestions of imagery, one of which may have created the Phnician caduceus. At a later period when Ursa Major became circ.u.mpolar, the "seven lights of heaven" became in turn a.s.sociated with the stable centre and suggested, in time, the seven-branched candlestick of the Hebrews which is to this day constructed with a central or princ.i.p.al holder, a.s.sociated with stability. It is remarkable to note the same ancient fundamental a.s.sociation in the elevated and beautiful imagery employed by the descendant of ancient Euphratean star-worshippers, in Revelation IV, in describing his vision: "... And, behold, a throne _was set_ in heaven, and _one_ sat on the throne.... And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne.... And before the throne there was a sea of gla.s.s like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts...."
The idea cited by Mr. Robert Brown, of the sacred pole-tree with golden apples guarded by the constellation Nakkasch, has already been mentioned and to this ancient image should be added the celestial tree of life set in the midst of the garden of Paradise, whence "went out a river to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became four heads."... It is as easy to see how the standard of a.s.sur, which always marked the central place of worship, should have been evolved, as it is to realize why the fire-stick, rod or sceptre should have been adopted by monarchs as an emblem of central rulership, and why, finally, each centre of government should have adopted some specific symbol which, mounted on the staff, became its tribal or national emblem. It does not appear hazardous to designate as such the ornamented staffs already described, which are represented on the bas-reliefs, in groups of four, a number agreeing with that of the "four regions." It has already been pointed out that a group of four sceptres, corresponding to the royal t.i.tle "lord of four regions,"
is carved close to the hand of Esarhaddon on the fine Sendschirli tablet at Berlin.
In Babylonia, the local deity of Girsu was ent.i.tled "the lord of the true sceptre," "the lord of the right-hand sceptre," a name which implies that, where dual rulership prevailed, a distinction was made between right-hand and left-hand sceptres, a point to which I shall revert later on in dealing with Egypt. In Northern a.s.syria when the cult of Nabu superseded that of Marduk, his temple was named "the house of the sceptre of the world" and Nebuchadnezzar declares that it is he "who gives the sceptre of sovereignty to kings to rule over the land" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ 129).
Simultaneously with the staff, the cross and wheel also became emblems of sovereignty. It has already been shown that the cross and four-spoked wheel of Shamash were synonymous signs. It remains to be shown how the wheel was employed in Babylonia and a.s.syria as an emblem of royalty. The representation of Shamash at Sippar exhibits his wheel resting, in a perpendicular position, on a table. Attached to the wheel are two cords which are held by a "G.o.d" and his consort, who appear to be directing the course of the wheel. We thus see that, whereas the disk or wheel of a.s.sur, the central G.o.d, revolved on its own axis, and was provided with wings, signifying aerial and celestial motion, the wheel of Shamash was a.s.sociated with a "lord and lady," and the symbolism appears to express that they were the directors of the "wheel of the law" of terrestrial government. It is well known that, beside the throne, the emblem of permanent repose, the a.s.syrian monarchs also used the chariot as a royal prerogative.
In the Gilgamesh epic the G.o.ddess Ishtar, on conferring sovereignty upon Gilgamesh, says: "I will place thee on a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold, with wheels of gold...." On studying the Nimroud bas-reliefs in the British Museum I noted the fact that the trappings of the horse driven by king Asurnasirpal, who is represented as standing in his two-wheeled chariot, are decorated with crosses. It is impossible not to recognize the affinity of the "wheel of the law" and the "lord of the wheel" of India with the a.s.syrian symbols of Polaris and of central rulership and to appreciate the nave ingenuity of the idea of making the driving of the chariot by the king represent his control of the rotating wheels of state and government of the four quarters from a stable centre.(105)
As another example of the a.s.syrian employment of the cross-symbol, the bas-relief at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, should be mentioned, as it displays a winged bird-headed human figure, whose garments are embroidered with crosses.
King Asurnasirpal, who is alternately figured on his throne or in his chariot, is frequently represented as wearing on his garments and bracelets another familiar and expressive emblem of centralization and unity in diversity, the composite flower or rosette.
The sacred ship or ark of the Babylonian temple remains to be discussed.
Diodorus Seculus says that, according to Babylonian notions, "the world is "a boat turned upside down" and resting on the waters. The appearance in outline of this image presented the three divisions of the universe: the heavens=Anu upheld by the serpent body of Tiamat; the earth, the dwelling of Bel-Marduk, the "chief of G.o.ds;" and the watery deep or "Apsu" beneath, the dwelling of Ea" (Jastrow). This imagery authorizes the inference that the sacred ship or ark was a.s.sociated with this conception of the earth as a boat resting on the line dividing the sky from the watery deep. It can readily be seen how a maritime people would be inclined to fancy that the celestial bodies floated in the sky on invisible boats and that a single one among them was apparently resting on a stable rock or mountain around which other stars circled perpetually. That an a.n.a.logous train of thought should have caused the ultimate consecration of a tabernacle in the form of a ship, to the central deity, ent.i.tled "the great mountain," appears as inevitable as the idea that all life proceeded from this source. Professor Jastrow tells us that the early significance of the custom of carrying the G.o.ds in consecrated ships became lost, but that it survived in Babylonia and Egypt and that the ark of the Hebrews appears, similarly, to have been originally a ship of some kind. I am indebted to Dr. Wallis Budge for the interesting information that each day, in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, an image of the G.o.d Seker was dragged around the altar by the priests.
Bringing the preceding tentative study of the ancient civilization of Babylonia-a.s.syria to a close, I venture to affirm that, imperfect as it is, it clearly establishes certain important points connected with the present investigation. It demonstrates that a primitive pole-star worship existed and still exists in the Euphratean valley, accompanied by the employment of the swastika or cross-symbol and by the identical fundamental set of ideas which form the basis not only of other Asiatic, but also of the American civilizations. The Middle is a.s.sociated with special sanct.i.ty, fixity and supremacy of power and rule, extending in rotation over the Above and Below and Four Quarters. This seven-fold division of the universe extended throughout the entire organization of the state and gave rise to certain logical developments of thought and symbolism, a.n.a.logous to those which have been traced elsewhere.
Postponing further comment, investigation will next be transferred to the valley of the Nile, whose inhabitants, at various periods of their history, came closely into contact with the people of Asia Minor.
EGYPT.
Pausing at the entrance to a much explored domain with a fitting realization of being a novice and an intruder therein, I find myself encouraged to advance by the frank admission recently made by one of the leading authorities in Egyptology. In his "Notes for travellers in Egypt,"
Dr. Wallis Budge, the a.s.sistant in the Department of Egyptian and a.s.syrian antiquities, of the British Museum, openly states that "the religion of the ancient Egyptians is one of the most difficult problems of Egyptology and though a great deal has been written about it during the last few years and many difficulties have been satisfactorily explained, there still remain unanswered a large number of questions connected with it. In all religious texts the reader is always a.s.sumed to have a knowledge of the subject treated of by the writer, and no definite statement is made on the subject concerning which very little, comparatively, is known by students of to-day" (The Nile, London, 1890, p. 71).
After having traced, as I have done, throughout ancient America, China, India and Babylonia-a.s.syria, one and the same fundamental, artificial scheme of state organization, it was with keenest interest and a new sense of comprehension of the ancient Egyptian civilization that I noted certain facts which I shall now proceed to present.
They will be found to show that ancient Egypt supplies us with the instance of a civilization in which the fundamental set of ideas, developed from primitive pole-star worship, prevailed during thousands of years and had reached a high stage of evolution at a period anterior to about B.C. 4000.
TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
According to Dr. Wallis Budge, the ancient Egyptians called their land Bak or Baket, Ta-Mera and Khem or Kamt, also Ta-Nehat, "the land of the sycamore" and the land of "the eye of Horus." It was divided into two parts: Upper Egypt, Ta-res or Ta-kema="the southern land," symbolized by the vulture; and Lower Egypt, Ta-Meh, Mah-Ti or Meh-Ta, literally, "North-land," symbolized by the serpent. Two great ancient cities or capitals were respectively known as Annu Meht, "Annu of the North," and Annu Qemat, "Annu of the South." The kings of Egypt styled themselves Suten-Net, "King of the North and South" and Nebtaui, "lord of the two earths." As such the king wore the double crown made up of the tesher or net, the red crown of Northern or Lower Egypt and the hetet or het, the white crown of Southern or Upper Egypt (The Nile, p. 27).
It will be shown further on that the high white and low red crowns were respectively worn by the king and the queen at a certain period of Egyptian history. It is well known that, in numerous pictorial representations, the Egyptian men are painted with red, but the women with white skins. The above facts show that there existed a curious a.s.sociation of red with the north and the male s.e.x, and of white with the south and the female s.e.x.(106)
It is a familiar fact that the Egyptian hieroglyph and determinative sign for town, city or village consisted of a circle with four divisions. The usual form of this sign, the phonetic value of which is nu or nut, is shown as fig. 60, 1, _a_. On a bas-relief preserved at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, I noted the variant 1, _b_. It is interesting to collate these signs with the cross-symbols (2) which express the sound of uu, un, and ur, and to note that the sign for a capital in Egypt contains a division into four=un or ur, and that the latter word is actually the familiar name of the famous centre in Babylonia where cities laid out in the form of a square and "four-G.o.d cities" existed, and the kings were termed "lords of the four regions" and "kings of Sumer and Akkad," the two ancient divisions of the Babylonian state.
It thus appears doubly significant that, in Egyptian, the word ur signifies "great, great one" and is also the name of a G.o.d, which is expressed in hieroglyphic writing by the cross, a mouth and a seated G.o.d, the determinative for divinity. What is more, ur-u=chiefs, ur-t=the name of a crown and ur-t=those who rest, all of which words show that the Egyptian ur was a.s.sociated with the idea of divinity, greatness, crowned chieftainship, repose and the cross-symbol which is incorporated in nut, the sign for capital or city.
The fact that the symbols for the two great divisions of ancient Egypt, the red crown of Northern or Lower Egypt, and the white crown of Southern or Upper Egypt, are found surmounting the sign nut (3), sufficiently shows that this symbol also stood for an extended capital, a state, and that both "lands" const.i.tuted at one time separate units or reproductions of the identical plan. Returning to the ancient capitals known as the "Annu of the North" and the "Annu of the South:" according to Dr. Wallis Budge the first occupied the site of Heliopolis and was identical with the city of On mentioned in Genesis (XLI: 45). The Annu Qemat was Hermonthis, the modern Menth, Armant or Erment, situated on the west bank of the Nile a little to the south of the ruins of Thebes. It is noteworthy that the name for Thebes, given in the cuneiform inscriptions and Hebrew scriptures, No (Ezek. x.x.x:4) and No-am-on (Nahum III:8), is in one case the simple inversion of On, the Hebrew name of Heliopolis, the Northern Annu, while in the second instance the name of Thebes incorporates both forms.
The allusion to the "square of the city of Edfu," and to buildings laid out on a square ground-plan, contained in inscriptions cited by Brugsch,(107) also furnishes an indication, which can doubtless be multiplied, that, as in Babylonia, Egyptian cities were sometimes built in the form of a square. In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the square (slightly elongated) is employed to express the consonant _p_. The sign appears to have been cryptic and to have const.i.tuted the symbol of the G.o.d Ptah, "The Opener," considered as the most ancient of Egyptian G.o.ds. According to Dr.
Wallis Budge, "the sign is the picture of a door made up of a number of boards fastened together by three cross-pieces at the back, and there can be no doubt that the word for door was connected with the verb pth=to open, and that it was p.r.o.nounced something like ptah (compare the Hebrew pethah). The sound of the first letter of ptah being _p_, the phonetic value of the door became _p_" (First steps in Egyptian, p. 5). To the above I add the observation that the plain square or outline of the door, without indications of boards and cross-pieces, is usually employed in the published texts. The a.s.sociation of the square, representing a door with three cross-beams, and expressing the sound ptah is particularly interesting when connected with the word for earth or land=ta, and the method of expressing the word universe=taui, by the threefold repet.i.tion of the sign ta, which resembles a cross-beam (fig. 60, 5). An interesting a.s.sociation of the square with earth or land is seen in one of the signs for province or nome=sept or hesp, which consists of a series of squares, evidently representing theoretical territorial divisions and possibly a system of ca.n.a.l-irrigation. Other suggestive signs for sep consist of a circle containing two strokes; a circle enclosing four dots and a double circle (fig. 60, 4). It is interesting to find an isosceles triangle employed, with a slight addition, to express the word ta=land, as well as sept=province (fig. 60, 4 and 5), and to find on a.n.a.lyzing the circular sign for nut=sky, which is likewise the determinative for city, that it contains four triangles. These converge towards the centre, as do the triangular sides of the square pyramid, and thus the sign nut and the pyramid clearly appear to express a whole divided into four parts, the square form being connected with earth and the circle with the sky.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 60.
A proof that the quadriform organization was extensively employed in ancient Egypt, is furnished by Dr. Wallis Budge"s statement that each nome or province was divided into four parts, and had its capital or "nut." The inference is that each nome const.i.tuted a miniature reproduction of the state and that the sign nut represented its theoretical plan. On the other hand, the fact that the triangle const.i.tutes one sign for the nome itself, indicates that, originally, the nome was identified as one of four divisions of the state only and that, like Babylon, Egypt must have been theoretically divided, not only into two main divisions, but also into four regions, corresponding to the
North=Meh-ta, literally North land.
West=Amen-ta, literally Hidden land.
South=Resu.
East=Aba.
In the extracts from the Pyramid texts published by Dr. Wallis Budge (Pyramid of Unas, Fifth dynasty), the following invocation occurs: "O G.o.ds of the west, O G.o.ds of the east, O G.o.ds of the south, O G.o.ds of the north, four these, who embrace _the four quarters of the earth holy_." These four quarters are represented in hieroglyphics by the sign for land=ta, repeated four times, which thus express, literally, "the four lands" or regions. Allusion is also made in the same inscription, to the "four fields of heaven."(108)
The four G.o.ds, termed by Egyptologists the "genii of the dead," were Amset or Mestha, Hapi, Tuaumutef and Kebhsenuf, and it was the custom to place the canopic vases representing them under the bier. The canopic vases were, however, also supposed to be under the protection of four sky G.o.ddesses, identified with the cardinal points, whose names are usually given as Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Serk-t(?). A particularly interesting instance of the employment of the cross-symbol in connection with the four "G.o.ds of the horizon," as they are termed, is to be found in the Book of the Dead, published by Lepsius and reproduced by Dr. Wallis Budge (Dwellers on the Nile, p. 158). The four G.o.ds in mummy form, stand in a line behind a table laden with offerings. A large crux decussata (St.
Andrew"s cross) is painted on the right shoulder of the foremost G.o.d, a fact to which I shall revert and discuss further in dealing with the cross-symbol and swastika in Egypt. Having traced quadruplicate territorial divisions and quaternions of G.o.ds, let us next present proofs of an organization of the population into four "races."
Dr. Wallis Budge, referring to Chabas and Naville, states that "the Egyptians of the later empire believed that Ra-Harmachis, attacked his foes, who fled in all directions from before him. Those who came to the south became the Cus.h.i.tes, those who came to the north became the Amu, those who came to the west the Libyans and those who came to the east the Shasu, and thus were the four races of mankind made" (The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 53).
The fact that the Sphinx has been designated as the image of Ra-Harmachis _i. e._ Heru-em-chut and of his human representative, and that the distribution of people to the cardinal points and the origin of four races of men is a.s.signed to him, are particularly interesting and suggestive, especially in connection with the familiar table of nations given by Moses, who says "and the sons of Ham, Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan" (Gen. X:6). Dr. Wallis Budge states that Ham or Kham is the same as Khem and is the name Kamt, _i. e._ black, by which the Egyptians generally called their land. I venture to point out that in the following pa.s.sages the name Ham seems to be more applicable to a deity such as Amen-Ra or to his human representative a king, than to Egypt itself: "And smote all the firstborn in Egypt and the chief of their strength _in the tabernacles of Ham_" and again "Wondrous works _in the land of Ham_."...
It is well known that Mizraim, the second name given above, was employed by the Hebrews as a designation for Egypt. The inhabitants of the region of Cush are represented on Egyptian monuments and we are told that "at the outset they appear to have had a religion and speech akin to that of the Egyptians. We find Phut most probably, in the Punt of the inscriptions, the land ... situated to the south of Egypt on both sides of the Red sea.
The fourth son [of Ham], Canaan, is represented by the original inhabitants of Canaan, who were probably near relations of the Egyptians"
(Wallis Budge, The Dwellers on the Nile, p. 52). While tradition and doc.u.mentary evidence thus a.s.sociates the four sons of Ham with certain regions and cardinal points, Egyptian monuments exhibit representations of people of four different colors, _i. e._ red, yellow, black and white.
"The ancient Egyptians ... recognized four races of men. They themselves belonged to the "Rot" or red men; the yellow men they called "Namu"-it included the Asiatic races; the black men were called "Nahsu," and the white men "Tam-hu." The following figures (fig. 61) are copied from Nott and Gliddon"s "Types of Mankind," p. 85, and were taken by them from the great works of Belzoni, Champollion and Lepsius" (Donelly, Atlantis, p.