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numerous monuments of human labour and design which stud the Valley of the Mississipi without acknowledging that, as yet, all theory is but fanciful, and only takes "a deepe plonze into archæologicall mudde." The flint arrowheads found in the Mississipi earth-works, are precisely similar to some which I gathered in considerable numbers out of the great tumulus at Marathon : "Rem vidi, causam non vidi."

Unable therefore to unravel the mystery, without supposing migrations somehow or other from Asia into America, we will return to the Hartwell Museum, and take a fresh departure from the hierogrammist who excited the reflections just enumerated. Near him is a sandstone fragment from the temple of Rabek, marked No. 1321, which is interesting because it shews Rameses bearing a cone upon his left hand; which cone appears to be similar to those in baked clay found in abundance at Thebes, and of which there are here several specimens. It should be observed, that some of these relics are of the nummulite limestone from the Lybian Desert, of which the mass of the great pyramid is formed; the white coating stone having been brought from the Arabian side of the Nile.

No. 1888 is a remarkable tablet of Theban limestone with a curved summit, sculptured in relievo; it is broken at the lower left-hand corner, but the inscription appears to be complete. This was accurately drawn and lithographed by Mr. Bonomi; according to whom it represents a personage whose name was Shemmo, seated on a high-backed chair holding a lotus, and receiving incense and libations from his daughter Tennon. Beneath are two lines of hieroglyphics, which may probably mean as follows:-in the first line, the royal offering to Osiris, the great god, that he may give an abode provided with flesh and fowl, for the sake of Shemmo, to his daughter. In the second line his name occurs again, and consequently is verified. The tablet is partly coloured with red pigment: and the hieroglyphics in the upper part, above the two figures, are the names of the persons represented, which names are repeated in the two lines below them as already mentioned.

No. 2151 is a singular soft-stone relic, brought from Thebes by R. Coster,

Esq. being the figure of no less a personage than the mighty King Thothmes the Third, in the attitude of a corn-grinder, or bread-maker; the potent monarch is on his knees, holding a roller on a rubbing-block, and wears the "shento" round his loins, with the leopard-skin which was appropriated to high priests. On the plinth upon which he is kneading there has been an inscription traced in black linear hieroglyphics, though it is unfortunately much mutilated; but there is sufficient to shew that the dedication was to the God Anoup (latrator Anubis), in the divine abode of Tanoor. This Thothmes the Third (Sesostris), is considered to have been the Pharaoh in whose reign the Exodus of the Israelites occurred. The Duke of Northumberland, however, in a critical discussion of the chronological authorities, places that momentous event in the reign of Pthamenoph, the last king of the eighteenth dynasty, or nearly two centuries earlier than Thothmes. This point is a grand datumstep in the records of the world, and it is to be hoped that further light will be thrown on it by the erudite researches of the Prussian Ambassador, Chevalier Bunsen, in a work which he tells me is nearly ready for publication.*

Near this relic is No. 3097 of this series. It is a large tablet-forty inches long by thirty-two broad-supposed to be the most ancient and rare in the collection. It has two lines of inscription in the upper division, in which the characters are three inches high, very sharp, and deeply cut: and there are some hieroglyphics, with two persons in the lower compartment sitting at a table, on which is an offering. On each side of this compartment

* The absence of absolute confidence in dates is a serious evil. While some chronologists assume the Christian era from the commencement, others take it from the termination, of the year of our Saviour's birth: and even that is clouded in uncertainty. The epoch called "verus annus," or the true year of the birth of our Lord, seems to be two full years earlier than the vulgar era: and from the uncertainty of the different epochs -the late date of the institution of the Christian era-the different computations of the reign of Herod and the thirty years before Christ commenced his ministry-such insuperable difficulties are presented, that Spanheim and Vossius are of opinion that it is impossible to determine the true year of our Saviour's birth. But after gazing over Egyptian relics, the difficulties of sacred chronology appear still greater, especially relative to that material epoch the Flood. By the Hebrew text, it took place 1656 years after the Creation, and by the Samaritan only 1307; yet the same interval, according to Eusebius and the Septuagint, is 2242 years; according to Josephus, 2256; and according to Petavius, 2262 years. (See page 171.)

are four canoes-navigia, cymba, or boats-placed exactly one over the other; they are not of the sacred order called bari, but were probably only intended to represent those vessels which were employed in the common navigation of the Nile. These simple embarcations seem to have been dedicated to Anubis and Haroeris by the deceased Hortihou and Hathorenonh, according to the rendering of the learned Dr. Leemans. This stela, in Mr. Bonomi's opinion, came from one of the tombs in the vicinity of the pyramids of Gheezah, and is made of stone from the opposite bank of the Nile. Be that as it may, it it is clear that the person from whose tomb it was taken was one of authority as well as lineage; for behind his chair is the staff of office, and the sceptre called paot, usually carried by men of rank and fortune. One reason for assuming that the paot symbolized affluence as well as station is, that the tombs in which this attribute is represented are always larger, and more costly in decoration, than those where the staff only appears. The wand or staff, however, is always a mark of authority; and it is worthy of note, that during their sojourn in the peninsula of Sinai, the heads of the Israelites were commanded to carry staves with their names inscribed upon them. Such wands, so written upon, have been found in Egypt and probably from this the paßday of the Greeks, and the hasta pura of the Romans, became typical of divinity.

The archæologist will recollect the similar origin of the paot, sacred javelin, crozier, pastoral rod, mace, truncheon, and staff of office; and that the sceptre itself, as an ensign of royalty and command, is of greater antiquity than the crown. The kings of Egypt were consecrated at Memphis, carrying the yoke of Apis and a sceptre in the shape of a Theban plough,-the which was originally little more than a crooked stick. The Greeks had a plain staff like a hunting-pole: Agamemnon's was afterwards worshipped at Cheronea; and that used by Ulysses to chastise the insolence of Thersites, was a formidable weapon

"He said, and cowering as the dastard bends,

The weighty sceptre on his back descends;

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