the different nations, who had shared the dangers of the field and the honour of victory. In the centre marched the body guards, the king's sons, the military scribes, the royal arm-bearers, and the staff corps, in the midst of whom was the monarch himself, mounted in a splendid car, attended by his fan-bearers on foot, bearing over him the state flabella. Next followed other regiments of infantry, with their respective banners, and the rear was closed by a body of chariots. The prisoners, tied together with ropes, were conducted by some of the king's sons, or by the chief officers of the staff, at the side of the royal car. The king himself frequently held the cord which bound them, as he drove slowly in the procession; and two or more chiefs were sometimes suspended beneath the axle of his chariot, contrary to the usual humane principles of the Egyptians, who seem to have refrained from unnecessary cruelty to their captives, extending this feeling so far as to rescue, even in the heat of battle, a defenceless enemy from a watery grave.† Having reached the precincts of the temple, the guards and royal attendants selected to be the representatives of the whole army entered the courts, the rest of the troops, too numerous for admission, being drawn up before the entrance; and the king, alighting from his car, prepared to lead his captives to the shrine of the God. Military bands played the favourite airs of the country; and the numerous standards of the different regiments, the banners * Vide Vol. I. (1st Series) p. 106. Plate 1. floating in the wind, the bright lustre of arms, the immense concourse of people, and the imposing majesty of the lofty towers of the propylæa, decked with their bright-coloured flags streaming above the cornice, presented a scene seldom, we may say, equalled on any occasion in any country. But the most striking feature of this pompous ceremony was the brilliant cortége of the monarch, who was either borne in his chair of state by the principal officers of state under a rich canopy, or walked on foot, overshadowed with rich flabella and fans of waving plumes. As he approached the inner pylon, a long procession of priests advanced to meet him, dressed in their robes of office; censers full of incense were burnt before him; and a hierogrammat read from a papyrus roll the glorious deeds of the victorious monarch, and the tokens he had received of the Divine favour. They then accompanied him into the presence of the presiding Deity of the place; and having performed sacrifice, and offered suitable thanksgivings, he dedicated the spoil of the conquered enemy, and expressed his gratitude for the privilege of laying before the feet of the God, the giver of victory, those prisoners he had brought to the vestibule of the Divine abode.* In the mean time, the troops without the sacred precincts were summoned, by sound of trumpet, to attend the sacrifice prepared by the priests, in the name of the whole army, for the benefits they had received from the Gods, the success of their arms, *The impure foreigners were not taken into the interior of the temple, to which the king and the priests were alone admitted. and their own preservation in the hour of danger. Each regiment marched up by turn to the altar temporarily raised for the occasion, to the sound of the drum *, the soldiers carrying in their hand a twig of olivet, with the arms of their respective corps; but the heavy-armed soldier laid aside his shield on this occasion, as if to show the security he enjoyed in the presence of the Deity. An ox was then killed; and wine, incense, and the customary offerings of cakes, fruit, vegetables, joints of meat, and birds, were presented to the God they invoked. Every soldier deposited the twig of olive he carried at the altar; and as the trumpet summoned them, so also it gave the signal for each regiment to withdraw and cede its place to another. The ceremony being over, the king went in state to his palace, accompanied by the troops; and having distributed rewards to them, and eulogised their conduct in the field, he gave his orders to the commanders of the different corps, and they withdrew to their cantonments, or to the duties to which they were appointed. Of the fixed festivals, one of the most remarkable was the celebration of the grand assemblies, or panegyries, held in the great halls of the principal temples, at which the king presided in person. Of their precise nature, and of the periods when they were held, we are still ignorant; but that * Conf. Clem. Pædag. ii. 4. Or of the bay tree. This may be an illustration of the remark of Clemens (Strom. v. p. 243.), that "twigs were given to those who came to worship." He mentions in the same place "the wheel turned in the sacred groves." ‡ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (1st Series) p.401. they were of the greatest importance is abundantly proved by the frequent mention of them in the sculptures. And that the post of president of the assemblies was the highest possible honour may be inferred, as well from its being enjoyed by the sovereign alone of all men, as from its being assigned to the Deity himself in these legends: "Phrah (Pharaoh), lord of the panegyries, like 1 2 Re," or "like his father Pthah," which so frequently occur on the monuments of Thebes and Memphis. From these assemblies being connected with the palm branch, the emblem of a year, and frequently attached to it when in the hands of the God Thoth*, we may conclude that their celebration was fixed to certain periods of the year; and the title "Lord of Triacontaeterides, like the great Pthah," applied to Ptolemy Epiphanes in the Rosetta Stone, is doubtless related to these meetings, which, from the Greek wordt, some suppose to have taken place every thirty years. But this period is evidently too long, since few sovereigns could have enjoyed the honour. more probably refers to the festivals of the new Moons §, or to those recorded in the great calendar, sculptured on the exterior of the S. W. wall of * Vide Plate 36. b., of the King in the Persea tree. + Τριακοντα ετηρίδων. ‡ Vide suprà, p. 52. It Conf. Isaiah, i. 13, 14." The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth." Medeenet Haboo, which took place during several successive days of each month, and were even repeated in honour of different Deities every day during some months, and attended by the king in person. Another important religious ceremony is often alluded to in the sculptures, which appears to be connected with the assemblies just mentioned. In this the king is represented running, with a vase or some emblem in one hand, and the flagellum of Osiris, a type of majesty, in the other, as if hastening to enter the hall where the panegyries were held; and two figures of him are frequently introduced, one crowned with the cap of the Upper, the other with that of the Lower country, as they stand beneath a canopy indicative of the hall of assembly. The same Deities, who usually preside on the anointing of the king, present him with the sign of Life, and bear before him the palm branch, on which the years of the assemblies are noted. Before him stands the Goddess Milt, bearing on her head the water plants, her emblem; and around are numerous emblems appropriated to this subject. The monarch sometimes runs into the presence of the God bearing two vases, which appears to be the commencement of, or connected with, this ceremony; and the whole may be the anniversary of the foundation of the temple, or of the sovereign's reign. An ox (or cow) is in some instances represented running with the king on the same occasion. * Vide Plate 79.; and Woodcut, No. 382., Vol. III. p. 282, |
