548 ITS INTRODUCTION INTO EGYPT. more especially those calculated to inflame the passions, to foster voluptuousness, to communicate a new sting to sensuality, under the semblance of religion. Cheops, therefore, becoming a proselyte to the new religion, determined, in spite of the priests, to introduce it into Egypt. He proceeded even farther than this; for, not content with obtaining toleration for his own novel divinity, whose adoration was connected with wanton rites, secret processions, exciting orgies, and obscene symbols, — all eminently agreeable to his people,- he opposed the worship of the popular fetish gods;-rams, goats, fishes, and serpents; and thus excited the wrath of their ministers, who, in narrating his actions to Herodotus, were incapable of restraining the hatred they still bore his memory. "I was informed by the same priests," says the historian, "that, till the reign of Rhampsinitus, Egypt was not only remarkable for its abundance, but for its excellent laws. Cheops, who succeeded this prince, degenerated into the extremest profligacy of conduct. He barred the avenues to every temple, and forbad the Egyptians to offer sacrifices; he next proceeded to make them labour servilely for himself."* the purpose of the pyramids is clearly indicated. Here with the mythus. "At Theodoretus naturæ muliebris imaginem arcanis orgiis celari prodidit. Idque magis convenit fabulæ quam Clemens refert, et, ex eo, Arnobius." Both these fathers relate the story of Ceres and Baubo at great length, and subjoin certain Orphic verses, graphically descriptive of the circumstance which gave rise to the mysteries. Conf. Castellanus, de Festis Græcorum, p. 143, 144. • Herodot., 1. ii. c. 124. INNOVATIONS OF CHEOPS. 549 Had the intention of Cheops been merely to build himself a tomb, where would have been the necessity of closing the temples, and prohibiting the offering of the ordinary sacrifices? Between the construction of a sepulchre, and the abolishing of the popular worship, the connection is not very apparent. And wherefore should the priests have dwelt upon the profligacy of his conduct? The building of the Labyrinth, and the vast palaces and temples of Memphis and Thebes, required an almost equal prodigality of labour and expense; yet no profligacy was imputed to their founders. DCCLXI. But the religion attempted to be introduced by Cheops was distinguished, in various countries, by extreme moral turpitude; though, among a people like the Egyptians, whose superstition countenanced the Mendesian enormities, such a circumstance would rather have been regarded as a recommendation. 66 Every woman," observes Herodotus, in speaking of Babylon, "who is a native of the country, is obliged once in her life to attend at See Stanley, Hist. of Philosophy, p. 23.—“ Plusieurs nations ont eu l'idée bizarre d'obliger les jeunes filles à immoler, en honneur d'une divinité, et par une sorte de prostitution sacrée, ce tresor qui, aux yeux des Européens, et de la plupart des peuples, constitue la dot la plus précieuse." "Les Phéniciens paraissent avoir eu des fêtes religieuses, desquelles la prostitution des femmes de tout rang faisait partie." Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, ii. 173.- Extrait d'une Dissertation de Heyne. Ann. des Voy.; xi. 361. The same practice prevailed in Armenia, where the sacrifice took place in the temple of Anaïtis, Similar rites still subsist in the Philippine Islands, on the Gold Coast, in Brazil, in Tahiti, and in Tibet. Conf. Marco Polo, 1. i. c. 37. ii. 38. 550 HIS FLAGITIOUS CONDUCT. the temple of Venus, and prostitute herself to a stranger. A similar custom prevailed in Syria, Phoeniciat, Cyprus, and Africa; and is still found in various parts of Tartary. Cheops, evidently desirous of leading his subjects into the practices of their neighbours, and prepared, like a thorough enthusiast, to act up to his creed, began by setting them an example. Having exhausted his wealth," says Herodotus," he was so flagitious that he prostituted his daughter, commanding her to make the most of her person. She complied with her father's injunctions, but I was not told what sum she thus procured; at the same time she took care to perpetuate the memory of herself; with which view she solicited every one of her lovers to present her with a stone. With these it is reported the middle of the three pyramids, fronting the larger one, was constructed."+ * Lib. i. c. 199. — " The women also, with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume. But if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproacheth her fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken.—Baruch. xi. 42. It is said to have been abolished by Constantine at Heliopolis and Aphaka. Euseb. Vit. Constantini, lib. iii. c. 58. — Socrat. Hist. Eccles., 1. i. c. 18. But the worship still prevails in Mount Lebanon." The Ansarians are divided into several tribes or sects, among which we distinguish the Shamsia, or adorers of the sun; the Kelbia, or worshippers of the dog; and the Kadmousia, who, as I am assured, pay a particular homage to that part in women which corresponds to the Priapus.- Volney, Travels in Syria and Egypt, vol. ii. p. 5. - On the Shamsia sect, see Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Persar., p. 523. - Lib. ii. c. 126.- Valerius Maximus, after praising the Hindoo women who performed sati (burned themselves), adds,-" Cui gloriæ Pœnicarum fœminarum, ut ex comparatione turpius appareat, dedecus subnectam. Siccæ enim fanum est Veneris, in quod se matronæ con LABOURS OF CEPHRENES. 551 If these stones were designed to erect a temple to Venus, there was something rational in the request; but nothing more preposterous can be conceived than a courtesan demanding, as the price of her favours, a stone for her tomb. Having described the labours of Cephrenes, in the same pious work, the historian adds:-"Thus for the space of one hundred and six years the Egyptians were exposed to every species of oppression and calamity, not having, in all this period, permission to worship in their temples." DCCLXII. Though Herodotus mentions a tradition, according to which the body of Cheops was interred in the Great Pyramid, he could not have regarded the work of Cephrenes as a tomb; since he observes that it has no subterraneous chambers."+ When Diodorus visited Egypt, the priests had manufactured a different tradition, more consonant, perhaps, with historical truth, though still associated with the erroneous idea of a sepulchre. "The kings," he observes, "designed these pyramids for their sepulchres, yet it happened that their remains were not here deposited. The people were so exasperated against them, by the severe labours they had been compelled to endure; and were so enraged ferebant; atque inde procedentes ad quæstum, dotes, corporis injuria contrahebant, honesta nimirum tam inhonesto vinculo conjugia juncturæ.”— Lib. II. c. vi. § 15. *Herodotus, l. ii. c. 127. In this he was mistaken, or, rather, misinformed by the priests, as the labours of Belzoni have demonstrated. 552 TAMENESS OF THE EGYPTIANS. at the oppressive cruelty of their princes, that they threatened to take their bodies from their tombs, and cast them to the dogs. Both of them, therefore, when dying, ordered their relatives to bury them in some secret place." Upon this passage it may be remarked, that it is absurd to suppose a people who tamely submitted to despotism during fifty years, -for so long did Cheops reign, should have ventured, a little before his death, to utter so insulting a menace. But, admitting this to be possible, what should induce them, immediately on the accession of Cephrenes, to return to their servile mood, and submit, during other fifty-six years, to the same oppressive cruelty? Little, I imagine, was to be apprehended from a nation who had been deprived for more than a century of the exercise of their ancient superstitions by the fanatical founders of a new sect, without making a single effort, which history has thought worth recording, in behalf of their temples and household gods. DCCLXIII. We, however, discover, from the relation of Diodorus, that, whatever was the original design of the pyramids, the bodies of the founders were never deposited in them; for the testimony of the Arabian writer, cited by Greaves, who pretends that a human mummy was found in the sarcophagus, is conceived in too marvellous a style to be worthy of the slightest credit. But, since there is a sarcophagus still existing in what is commonly termed the King's Chamber, is it not probable that it was |