The birthdays of the kings were celebrated with great pomp. They were looked upon as holy; no business was done upon them; and all classes indulged in the festivities † suitable to the occasion. Every Egyptian attached much importance to the day, and even to the hour of his birth; and it is probable that, as in Persia‡, each individual kept his birthday with great rejoicings, welcoming his friends with all the amusements of society, and a more than usual profusion of the delicacies of the table. They had many other public holydays, when the court of the king and all public offices were closed. This was sometimes owing to a superstitious belief of their being unlucky; and such was the prejudice against the "third day of the Epact§, the birthday of Typho, that the sovereign neither transacted any business upon it, nor even suffered himself to take any refreshment till the evening."|| Other fasts were also observed by the king and the priesthood, out of respect to certain solemn purifications they deemed it their duty to undergo for the service of religion. Among the ordinary rites the most noted, because the most frequent, were the daily sacrifices offered in the temple by the sovereign pontiff. It was customary for him to attend there early every morning, after he had examined and settled his epistolary correspondence relative to the affairs of Rosetta Stone. Vide Herodot. i. 133. + Gen. xl. 20. The five days added at the end of Mesoré. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 310 and 373. Plut. de Is. s. 11. * state. The service began by the high priest reading a prayer for the welfare of the monarch, in the presence of the people. He extolled his virtues, his piety towards the Gods, and his clemency and affable demeanour towards men; and he then proceeded to pass in review the general conduct of kings, and to point out those virtues which most adorn, as well as the vices which most degrade, the character of a monarch. But I need not enter into the details of this ceremony, having already noticed it in treating of the duties of the Egyptian Pharaohs.t Of the anniversary festivals one of the most remarkable was the Niloa, or invocation of the blessings of the inundation, offered to the tutelary Deity of the Nile. According to Heliodorus‡, it was one of the principal festivals of the Egyptians. It took place about the summer solstice, when the river began to rise; and the anxiety with which they looked forward to a plentiful inundation induced them to celebrate it with more than usual honour. Libanius asserts that these rites were deemed of so much importance by the Egyptians, that unless they were performed at the proper season, and in a becoming manner, by the persons appointed to this duty, they felt persuaded that the Nile would refuse to rise and inundate the land. Their full belief in the efficacy of the ceremony, secured its annual performance on a grand scale. Men and women assembled from all parts of * Like the prayer for the Sultan in the mosques. Heliodor. Æthiopic. lib. ix. the country in the towns of their respective nomes, grand festivities were proclaimed, and all the enjoyments of the table were united with the solemnity of a holy festival. Music, the dance, and appropriate hymns, marked the respect they felt for the Deity; and a wooden statue of the River God was carried by the priests through the villages in solemn procession, that all might appear to be honoured by his presence and aid, while invoking the blessings he was about to confer. Another festival, particularly welcomed by the Egyptian peasants, and looked upon as a day of great rejoicing, was (if it may so be called) the harvest home, or the close of the labours of the year, and the preparation of the land for its future crops by the inundation; when, as Diodorus tells us, the husbandmen indulged in recreation of every kind, and showed their gratitude for the benefits the Deity had conferred upon them by the blessings of the inundation. This, and other festivals of the peasantry, I have already noticed in treating of the agriculture of Egypt.* دو Games were celebrated in honour of certain Gods, in which wrestling and other gymnastic exercises were practised. "But of all their games,' says Herodotust, "the most distinguished are those held at Chemmis in honour of Perseus; in which the rewards for the conquerors are cattle, cloaks, and skins." The form and attributes of + Herodot. ii. 91. * Suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 122. Conf. Hom. Il. xxii. 159. : this Perseus I have been unable to discover; and unfortunately the imperfect remains at Chemmis afford no accurate information respecting the Deities of the place. It is, however, probable that he was not the only God in whose honour gymnastic exercises were performed; and the fondness of the Egyptians for such amusements is fully proved by the monuments they have left us, on which wrestling, and other games, are portrayed with great minuteness. Wrestling, indeed, was a very favourite amusement in Egypt. Hercules was there reported to have overcome Antæus by wrestling; and it is highly probable that games similar to those mentioned by Herodotus were celebrated in the nome of Heracleopolis, as well as in honour of other Egyptian Gods. The investiture of a chief was a ceremony of considerable importance, when the post conferred was connected with any high dignity about the person of the monarch, in the army, or the priesthood. It took place in the presence of the sovereign seated on his throne; and two priests, having arrayed the candidate in a long loose vesture, placed necklaces round the neck of the person thus honoured by the royal favour. One of these ceremonies frequently occurs in the monuments, which was sometimes performed immediately after a victory ; in which case we may conclude that the honour was granted in return for distinguished services in the field: and as the individual, on all occasions, holds the flabella, crook, and other insignia of the office of fan-bearer, it appears to have been either the appointment to that post, or to some high command in the army.* On receiving this honourable distinction, he held forth his hands in token of respect; and raising the emblems of his newly-acquired office above his head, he expressed his fidelity to his king, and his desire to prove himself worthy of the favour he had received. A similar mode of investiture appears to have been adopted in all appointments to the high offices of state, both of a civil and military kind. In this, as in many customs detailed in the sculptures, we find an interesting illustration of a ceremony mentioned in the Bible, which describes Pharaoh taking a ring from his hand and putting it on Joseph's hand, arraying him in vestures of fine linen, and putting a gold chain about his neck.† In a tomb, opened at Thebes by Mr. Hoskins, another instance occurs of this investiture to the post of fan-bearer; in which the two attendants or inferior priests are engaged in clothing him with the robes of his new office. One puts on the necklace, the other arranges his dress, a fillet being already bound round his head; and he appears to wear gloves upon his uplifted hands. + his uplifted hands. In the next part of the same picture (for, as is often the case, it presents two actions and two periods of time) the individual holding the insignia of fan-bearer, and followed by the two priests, presents himself before the king, who holds forth his hand to him to * Vide Plate 80. Vide Vol. I. p. 377. + Gen, xli. 42. |