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by those model' claimants,' the Greeks. Their simple process was to cut out the ground, to hammer in gold and silver, and, finally, to file and polish the surface.'

The metallurgic proficiency of Old Egypt would lead to the development of arms and armour, and enable the soldier to win easier victories over the 'vile, impure, and miserable Gentiles'-i.e. all men except themselves. The god Anhar, or Shu, is 'Lord of the Scymitar.' Horus, as a hawk-headed mummied deity, is seated holding two Swords. Amen-Ra, Lord of Hab, is a 'great god Ramenma, "Lord of the Sword." The wearer of the Pshent or double crown' (the Pharaoh), the image of Monthu, god of war, was ex-officio 'His Holiness' (high-priest) and Commander-in-Chief, who personally led his warriors to 'wash their hearts' (cool their valours) as the Zulus wash their spears. Like Horus, he is 'valiant with the Sword.' When going to war he was presented with the 'Falchion of Victory,' and thus addressed: 'Take this weapon, and smite with it the heads of the unclean.' In paintings and sculptures he is a large and heroic figure: he draws the bow, he spears or cuts down the foe, and he drives his war-car over the bodies of the slain. His soldiers are divided into Calasiri (Krashr3 or bowmen) and Hermotybians, the latter unsatisfactorily derived from μтúßiov, a strong linen (waist- ?) cloth. The two divisions represent the second of the five castes, ranking below the priestly and above the agricultural: they held one of the three portions into which the land was divided. Recruits were taught in the military schools that originated the Pentathlon and the Pancratium, the Palæstra and the Gymnasium. They were carefully trained to gymnastics, as the monumental pictures in the Beni Hasan tombs show; they used Mogdars or Indian clubs, and they excelled in wrestling, though not in boxing. The royal statues are those of athletes, with their broad shoulders, thin flanks and well-developed muscles. The soldier practised single-stick, the right hand being apparently protected by a basket-guard, and the left fore-arm shielded by a splint or splints of wood, strapped on, and serving for a shield (fig. 152).

The standing army consisted of foot and horse," the latter being mostly in chariots; and they were divided into corps, regiments, battalions, and companies. The men were officered by Chiliarchs (colonels), Hekatontarchs (captains), and Dekarchs (sergeants), as the Greeks called them. The 'heavies' were armed with a long strong

facture but from a fancied resemblance between the markings in question and the damask patterns on textile fabrics.'

This process resembles our niello (nigellum) inlaying. The oldest composition contained most silver and no lead. Percy (Metallurgy, p. 23) gives us its history: the first treatise by Theophilus, alias Rugerus, a monk of the early eleventh century, was translated by Robert Hendrick (London, 1847).

2 Plutarch relates (De Isid. 2) of Ochus (Thirtyfirst Dynasty), who, amongst other acts of tyranny, caused the sacred bull Apis to be made roast beef, that he was represented in the Catalogue of Kings by a Sword.

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is a squatting archer with bow and arrows. Marvellous to say, Brugsch (i. 51) mentions clubs, axes, bows and arrows,' utterly neglecting the Sword.

Egyptian national names give derivation to, but do not derive from, Greek. According to Pollux (vii. 71), however, Hemitybion is Egyptian, evidently corrupted.

The horse, apparently unknown to the First Dynasty of Memphis, was familiar to the Second. Mr. Gladstone (Primer of Homer, p. 97: Macmillan, 1878) supposes that the animal came from Libya or Upper Egypt; but the African horse probably originates from Asia. The first illustrations of horses and chariots are found at Eileithyias, temp. Aah-mes, Amos, Amosis, B.C. 1500.

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spear and an immense shield provided with a sight-hole. Some carried the 'Lisán'club, the battle-axe, and the mace; and almost all had for side arms pole-axes,' Swords, falchions, and daggers. The 'light bobs' were chiefly archers and slingers, also weaponed with 'Lisáns,' axes, warflails, and Swords. The chariot-corps or cavalry, besides bows and arrows, had clubs and short Swords for close quarters. The battle-axes show clear derivation from the stone celt, which supplied the hieroglyphs with the word Natr or Netr (Neter, &c.), meaning god, gods, or goddess (1). In the Demotic alphabet the axe was K (Kelebia).

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The action began, at the sound of the trumpet, with an advance of light-infantry, bowmen, slingers, and javelineers. Then came the charge by the ponderous phalanx of ten thousand men, one hundred in front by one hundred deep, and flanked by chariots and cavalry. Thus the close combat was not the disorderly system of duels that prevailed in the barbarous Middle Ages of Europe. In storming fortified places they used the pavoise and testudo, the ram, the scaling-ladder, the bulwark or movable tower, and the portable bridge. They were also skilful military miners.

The pole-axe was three feet long, the handle being two; the blade varied from ten to fourteen inches, and below it was a heavy meta ball, some four inches in diameter, requiring a powerful arm. The club in the British Museum, armed with wooden teeth, is not represented on the monuments, and probably belonged to some barbarous tribe.

2 I have already discussed the Stone Age in Egypt and in Africa (chap. iii.). We must not, however, determine it to be pre-metallic without further study. Herodotus first notices it when he tells us that the Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes used stone-tipped

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The Egyptian phalanx was armed with the large shield, lance, and Sword; the latter was generally called Seft,, or ; also inverted to

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it becomes Sifet in Ethiopia, and in Berber Siwuit. The weapon in the hieroglyphs is of four different shapes. The first is the boomerangSword, m or ma, meaning 'to destroy': this M is the root of the Hebrew and Arabic Maut and the Prakrit-Sanskrit, Mar. The second is the Knife-Sword, At or Kat, the determinative of cutting. These two are joined in the root ma (cut, mow). The third is the Khopsh, Khepsh, or Khepshi,, the sickle-Sword, still used in Abyssinia and throughout Africa: with a flattened curve it became the Hindu Kubja, the Greek' Kopis,' and the Gurkha ' Kukkri.' The second two are combined in the root Smam, 'to smite.' Other names of the Sword are Ta or

Nai,

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The falchion (ensis falcatus), called Shopsh, Khepsh, or Khopsh,' is represented as early as the Sixth Dynasty (after B.C. 3000). Hence, says Meyrick, the Koris of Argos-Argolis being a very mixed province, where the base was Pelasgian and

1 I cannot but suspect the word of being a congener of our 'chop.' Mr. Gerald Massey, author of A Book of the Beginnings, favoured me with his opinion upon the 'scymitar Khopsh.' He identifies it with the hinder thigh (

Shepsh, or, Khepsh), of the 'old Genitrix' of the Typhonian type, Kfa or Kefa (force, power, might); the Goddess of the Great Bear and the place of birth. Hence the (Ru) or 'mouth' of the Sword came to be synonymous with the edge' of the Sword (Genesis xxxiv. 36). In the Denderah zodiac, the central figure, the 'old Genitrix,' holds the Khopsh-chopper or falchion with the right hand. The thigh of Khepsh' is also the Egyptian rudder-oar. The Great Bear Khepsh is one of the earliest measures of the Seasons: the Chinese still say that at nightfall the handle of the northern bushel' (tail of Ursa Major) points east in spring, south in summer, west in autumn, and north in winter.

Mr. Gerald Massey's two fine volumes have secured him, and will secure him, much bitter and hostile criticism from the many-headed who are lynxeyed as to details while they overlook the general scheme. His object has been to show that religion and literature, science and art, originated in Egypt; and here he is undoubtedly right. Relying upon the self-evident fact that the language of the hieroglyphs contains Semitic' as well as 'Aryan' roots and derivative forms, he traces these throughout the languages of the world. Whether we judge his work conclusive or not, we cannot but admire and applaud

the vast reading and research which he has brought to bear upon the most interesting subject.

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And in another way Mr. Massey has done good. He has uttered a lively and emphatic protest against the Sanskritists and their over-weening pretensions. In vol. ii. (p. 56) he shows how shallow is the conclusion that Ophir was in India because the produce brought back by Solomon's fleets had, according to Professor Max Müller, Sanskrit or Dravidian names. Koph' the ape is Kapi in Sansk.; but it is pure Egyptian, Kapi, whence the Gr. Kπ-os or kŷ6-os. • Tukkiyim' (peacocks) resembles the Toki of Tamil and the Togei of Malabar; but the root is evidently the Egyptian Tekh or Tekai, a symbolical bird. Shen habim' (teeth of elephant = tusks) may derive from the Sansk. Ibau, an elephant, but the latter is origin. ally Ab in Egyptian. These erroneous views, coming from an authoritative source, are at once accepted, copied into popular books, and find their way round the world, to the confusion of true knowledge. make it our hapless fate to learn, unlearn, and relearn. See ape' in Smith's Dict. of the Bible, and, to quote one in dozens, the Trans. Anthrop. Soc. p. 435, May 1882, the name for ape in "Kings" and in Greek authors, both adopted from Sanskrit.'

They

Mr. Massey unfortunately has not studied Arabic, hence many views which will hardly find acceptance. In interpreting the hieroglyphics he has wisely preferred the ideographic symbolism and the determinatives which, countless ages ago, preceded the phonetic and alphabetic forms.

the superstructure was Egyptian; the latter introduced by Danaus, and followed by the Phoenicians, who founded the town Phoenicia. Quintus Curtius (lib. iii.) says: 'Copides vocant gladios leviter curvatos, falcibus similes, quibus appetebant belluarum manus.' Apuleius (Met.' lib. xi.) also speaks of 'copides et venabula.' '

Evidently the Egyptian Sf, Sefi, Seft, or 'Sword' generically,' gave rise to the Mesopotamian Sibir, Sibirru, and Sapara; to the Greek gip-os; to the Aramæan Saiph, Sipho, and to the Arabic (Sayf-un), the second syllables being merely terminative; while the Latin spatha and the German Schwerte, and our Swerde and Sword, are the latest echoes of Sef and Seft. The Germans say rightly, 'Nichts wandert so leicht als Waffen und Waffennamen.'

FIG. 160.-DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE EGYPTIAN KHOPSH (KOPIS), WITH EDGES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE.

Another Egyptian name for the sickle-shaped blade is Khrobi,3 which suggests the Hebrew Hereb (a weapon, a Sword). We are also sure that the words are primitive Egyptian: the proof is that the symbol of 'Má' ('destroy' &c.), the Khopsh or ensis falcatus, is the numeral nine; and the straight flesh-blade (Kt) is the pronoun thou, thee: the two together alluded to the oldest religious practice.1

The falchion, shaped in the pattern of Ursæ major (?), was thick-backed and weighted with bronze; the blade, in later days at least,5 was of iron or steel, as shown by the blue colour. Champollion notices blue Swords with golden hilts in

1 For further notice of the Kopis, see chap. xi. 2 Alsov. to decapitate: the Coptic form is Sebi or Sefi.

3 Bunsen, v. 758.

Bunsen's Egypt, v. 429. According to Castor, the two Swords pointed at the throat of a kneeling

man was the priest's stamp denoting pure beasts, fit for sacrifice. He has noted that this survival points distinctly to human sacrifice in older days.

5 Yet the tombs at Beni Hasan date 900 years before the popular era of the Trojan war.

6 Monum. 262 fol., plates 11, 15.

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