EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.
by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER XIII

Fall of the Old Kingdom

Nobles become Little Pharaohs–The Growth of Culture–Temple
Building–Maxims of Ptah–hotep–Homely Superstitions–Charms to protect Children–Fear
of the Evil Eye–Set and Red–haired Babes–Gruesome Ghosts–Feudal Lords assert
Themselves–A Strong Monarch–Military Expeditions–The Promotion of Uni–Coming
of the Deng–A Queen’s Vengeance–Revolt of Feudal Lords–Pyramids raided.

DURING the Fifth Dynasty the power of the nobles gradually increased until
they became little Pharaohs in their own provinces. Even at the Court they could
make their influence felt, and when they set out on expeditions their successes
received personal acknowledgment and were not recorded to the credit of an overshadowing
monarch. They recognized the official religion, but fostered the local religious
cult, and in their tombs related the stories of their own lives, boasting of their
achievements and asserting the ethical principles which justified them before
Osiris. The age thus became articulate. Education was spreading, and the accumulation
of wealth promoted culture. The historic spirit had birth, and the scribes began
to record the events of the past and compile lists of kings. Among the tomb pictures
of everyday life were inscribed fragments of folksong, and it is evident that
music was cultivated, for we find groups of harpers and flautists and singers.

The religious energies of the Pharaohs were devoted more to the building of
temples than to the erection of tombs. Ra worship introduced elaborate ceremonials,
and large numbers of priests were engaged at Heliopolis. At a later period we
learn that over 12,000 persons were directly connected with the temples there.
The Pharaohs continued to reside in the vicinity of Memphis, and the Court was
maintained with great splendour; their tombs were erected at Abusir, farther south
than those of the Khufu line of kings.

No wars of any consequence occurred during the Fifth Dynasty, but exploring
expeditions were fitted out, and in the time of Sahura, the second monarch, the
coast of Somaliland, which was called Punt, was visited, and there were large
imports of gum and resins for incense in the temples, and of wood and precious
metals.

The quarries in Sinai continued to be worked, and the name of Isi, the eighth
monarch, is associated with the working of black granite at Wadi Hammamat. We
know little or nothing regarding the personalities of the kings. They appear to
have reigned with discretion and ability, for the age was one of political progress
and extending culture.

In the reign of King Dedka Ra Isi–to give him his full name–that famous
collection of maxims, “The Instruction of Ptah-hotep”, was compiled. This production
survives in the Prisse Papyrus, which was called after the French archlogist
who purchased it from a native in 1847. The author was Isi’s grand vizier, and
he was evidently of Memphite birth and a Ptah worshipper, for his name signifies
“Ptah is well pleased”. He lived over a thousand years before Hammurabi, the wise
king of Babylon, and long ages ere Solomon collected his Proverbs at Jerusalem.

The maxims of Ptah-hotep were for centuries copied by boys in the schools of
ancient Egypt. In their papyrus “copybooks” they were wont to inscribe the following
phrases:–

It is excellent for a son to obey his father.
He that obeys shall become one who is obeyed.
Carelessness to-day becomes disobedience to-morrow.
He that is greedy for pleasure will have an empty stomach.
A loose tongue causes strife.
He that rouses strife will inherit sorrow.
Good deeds are remembered after death.

The maxims afford us interesting glimpses of the life and culture of the times.
Old Ptah-hotep is full of worldly wisdom, and his motto is: “Do your duty and
you will be happy”. He advises his son to acquire knowledge and to practise the
virtues of right conduct and right living. His precepts are such as we would expect
to find among a people who conceived of an Osirian Judgment Hall in the next world.

The “Instruction” is dedicated to King Isi. The vizier feels the burden of
years, and laments his fate. He opens in this manner:

O King, my lord, I draw nigh to life’s end,
To me the frailties of life have come
And second childhood. . . . Ah! the old lie down
Each day in suffering; the vision fails,
Ears become deaf and strength declines apace,
The mind is ill at case. . . . An old man’s tongue
Has naught to say because his thoughts have fled,
And he forgets the day that has gone past. . . .
Meanwhile his body aches in every bone;
The sweet seems bitter, for all taste is lost–
Ah! such are the afflictions of old age,
Which work for evil. . . . Fitful and weak
His breath becomes, standing or lying down.

Ptah-hotep then proceeds to petition the king to be released of his duties,
so that his son may succeed him. He desires to address to the young man the words
of wisdom uttered by sages of old who listened when the gods spake to them.

His Majesty at once gives his consent, and expresses the hope that Ptah-hotep’s
son will hearken with understanding and become an example to princes. “Speak to
him”, adds the king, “without making him feel weary.”

The “Instruction” is fairly long–over 4000 words–so that it was necessary
to have it copied out. We select a few of the most representative maxims.

Do not be vain although you are well educated; speak to an illiterate man as
you would to a wise one. After all, there is a limit to cleverness; no worker
is perfect. Courteous speech is more uncommon than the emeralds which girl slaves
find among the stones.

If you speak with an argumentative man who really knows more than you do yourself,
listen respectfully to him, and do not lose your temper if he differs from you.

If, however, an argumentative man knows less than you do, correct him and show
him that you are the wiser of the two; others will approve of you and give you
an excellent reputation.

If a man of low rank argues without knowledge, be silent. Do not speak angrily
to him. It is not very creditable to put such an one to shame.

When you become a leader, be courteous and see that your conduct is exemplary.
. . . Do not tyrannize over men. . . . It is he who gives to those who are in
need that prospers; not the man who makes others afraid. . . . Listen graciously
to one who appeals to you. Let him speak frankly, and be ever ready to put an
end to a grievance. If a man is not inclined to tell everything he knows, it is
because he to whom he speaks has the reputation of not dealing fairly. A mind
that is well controlled is always ready to consider. . . . See that your employees
are adequately rewarded, as is proper on the part of one to whom the god has given
much. It is well known that it is no easy thing to satisfy employees. One says
to-day: “He is generous; I may get much”, and to-morrow: “He is a mean, exacting
man”. There is never peace in a town where workers arc in miserable circumstances.

That man is never happy who is always engaged reckoning his accounts, but the
man whose chief concern is to amuse himself does not provide for his household.
. . . If you become rich after having been poor, do not bind your heart with your
wealth; because you are the administrator of what the god has given you. Remember
that you are not the last, and that others will become as great as you. . . .
Enjoy your life, and do not occupy the entire day at your work. Wealth is no use
to a worn-out man.

Love your wife; feed her and clothe her well; make her happy; do not deal sternly
with her; kindness makes her more obedient than harshness; if she yearns for something
which pleasures her eye, see that she gets it. . . . Do not be jealous, or despondent,
or cross if you have no children. Remember that a father has his own sorrows,
and that a mother has more troubles than a childless woman. . . . How beautiful
is the obedience of a faithful son. The god loves obedience; he hates disobedience.
A father rejoices in a son’s obedience and honours him. A son who hearkens to
counsel guards his tongue and conducts himself well. A disobedient son is foolish
and never prospers. He blunders continually. . . . In the end he is avoided because
he is a failure. . . . A father should teach wisdom to his sons and daughters,
so that they may be of good repute. When others find them faithful and just, they
will say: “That father has trained them well”. . . . A good son is a treasure
given by the god.

Ptah-hotep reminds his son that when he goes to dine with a great man he should
take what is given to him. A nobleman gives the daintiest portions to those he
likes best. He must not keep staring at his host, or speak until he is spoken
to; then he should answer readily. . . . When he is sent with a message from one
nobleman to another he should take care not to say anything which will cause strife
between them. He should not repeat what a nobleman said when in a temper

“Let your heart be more generous than your speech,” advises Ptah-hotep as he
draws his “Instruction” to a close. He hopes that his son will prosper as well
as he himself has prospered, and that he will satisfy the king by his actions.
“I have lived”, he adds, “for a hundred and ten years, and have received more
honours from His Majesty than did any of my ancestors, because I have been just
and honourable all through life.”

Such was the ethical. but there was also a superstitious element in Egyptian
domestic life. The people believed that the world swarmed with spirits which were
continually desiring to inflict injuries upon living beings, and were abroad by
day as well as by night. An amulet on which was depicted a human hand was considered
to be efficacious, and the Egyptian mother suspended it from a cord which was
put round the baby’s neck. She tied a knot in the morning and another in the evening
until there were seven knots in all. On each occasion she repeated a formula over
a knot, which was to the following effect: “Isis has twisted the cord; Nepthys
has smoothed it; and it will guard you, my bonnie bairn, and you will become strong
and prosper. The gods and the goddesses will be good to you, and the evil ones
will be thwarted, the mouths of those who utter spells against you will be closed.
. . . I know all their names, and may those, whose names I know not, suffer also,
and that quickly.” 1

Erman, the German Egyptologist, has translated an interesting papyrus by an
unknown scribe, which contains the formulused to protect children. Some children
were more liable to be attacked by evil spirits than others. In Europe pretty
children require special protection against the evil eye. Red-haired youngsters
were disliked because the wicked god Set was red-haired) and was likely to carry
them away. Their mothers, therefore, had to exercise special care with them, and
there was a particular charm for their use. In Russia red-haired people are believed
to have more knowledge of magic than others, and are disliked on that account.

The Egyptian ghosts, the enemies of the living, like the archaic deities, were
of repulsive aspect. They came from tombs in mummy bandages with cheeks of decaying
flesh, flat noses, and eyes of horror, and entered a room with averted faces,
2 which were suddenly turned on children, who at once died of
fright. They killed sleeping babies by sucking their breath 3
when they kissed, or rather smelled, them, and if children were found crying they
rocked them to sleep–the sleep of death.

When an infant was being hushed to sleep the Egyptian mother sang a ditty to
scare away the ghosts of dead men, and then made a protecting charm with lettuce,
garlic, tow, bones, and honey. The following is a rendering of one of the old
“sleepy songs”:–

Oh, avaunt! ye ghosts of night,
Nor do my baby harm;
Ye may come with steps so light,
But I’ll thwart you with my charm.

For my babe you must not kiss,
Nor rock if she should cry–
Oh! if you did aught amiss,
My own, my dear, would die.

O ye dead men, come not near–
Now I have made the charm–
There’s lettuce to prick you here,
Garlic with smell to harm;

There ‘s tow to bind like a spell,
The magic bones are spread;
There’s honey the living love well–
‘T is poison to the dead.

According to tradition, the Sixth-Dynasty kings were not descendants of Mena.
Teta, the first king, may have come to the throne as a result of a harem conspiracy.
He was a Ra worshipper, and probably a powerful nobleman, supported by a well-organized
military force, which held the balance of power. The kingdom was in a state of
political unrest. In every nome the hereditary chieftains clamoured for concessions
from the royal house, and occasionally their requests were couched in the form
of demands. Pepi 1, the third king of the line, who was a strong monarch, appears
to have secured the stability of the throne by promoting a policy of military
aggression which kept the ambitious nobles fully engaged on the northern and southern
frontiers. Nubia was invaded with success, and expeditions visited the land of
Punt.

The Egyptians had imagined that the edge of the world was somewhere a little
beyond the first cataract, and that the intervening space was peopled by demigods,
called “Manes”. Now the horizon was considerably widened. The heavenly Nile was
believed to descend in a cascade much farther south than had hitherto been supposed,
and the region of mystery was located beyond the area occupied by the too-human
and ever-aggressive Nubians.

Pepi selected capable officials of proved loyalty to hold the noblemen in check
and secure the equitable distribution of water throughout the kingdom. These were
liberally rewarded, and were privileged to erect elaborate tombs, like the nome
governors, and in these they had their biographies inscribed.

On an Abydos tomb wall we have recorded the achievements of Uni, who rose from
humble official rank to be Pharaoh’s intimate confidant and counsellor. He was,
he says, Pepi’s “guardian of heart”, and he “knew everything that happened and
every secret affair”. Although he was only “superintendent of irrigated lands”,
he exercised more influence over the kingdom than any other dignitary. Royal journeys
were arranged by him and at Court ceremonies he marshalled the nobles, which was,
no doubt, a delicate task. The perils which continually beset the throne are indicated
in his reference to a harem conspiracy. “When one visited the palace to give secret
information against the great royal wife Ametsi, His Majesty selected me to enter
the harem to listen to business. No scribe was called, nor any other except me
alone. I was selected because of my probity and discretion. I recorded everything.”

He was only, he repeats, “superintendent of irrigated lands”. It was the first
occasion on which a man of his rank had listened to harem secrets. Uni tells us
no more. We do not even know what fate befell the plotting queen.

When military campaigns were carried out, Uni was placed in command of the
army. He tells that there were generals in it, mamelouks from Lower Egypt, friends
of the king, and princes from the north and south, besides a host of officials
of high rank. But they had all to obey the man who was only the superintendent
of irrigated lands. Evidently the commissariat arrangements were of a simple character.
Each man carried his own supply of bread. The inhabitants of the towns they passed
through had to supply the soldiers with beer and “small animals”.

Several campaigns were successfully conducted by Uni, and on each occasion
large numbers of the enemy were slain, while “fig trees were cut down and houses
burned”. So firmly was peace established in the south that Merenra, the next monarch,
was able to visit the first cataract, where he received the homage of the nobles.

After Uni’s death, the chief of a warlike tribe at Elephantine, who was a veritable
Rob Roy, came into royal favour. He made several raids into Nubia, and brought
back ivory and ebony and gold. On one occasion he returned with a pygmy or “Deng”.
It was a great triumph, for “Dengs” belonged to the land of the “Manes” (demigods),
and were able to charm even the sulky ferryman who transported the dead over the
river of Hades. King Merenra had just died, and his successor, Pepi II, a young
man, was greatly excited over the coming of the “Deng”. Orders were sent to guard
the pygmy carefully; and those who slept beside him in the boat were changed ten
times each night. The little fellow was welcomed like royalty at Memphis, and
he delighted the Pharaoh with his strange antics, boisterous manners, and war
dances. It was the desire of everyone who watched him to be transformed into a
“Deng” after death, so that the ferryman of Hades might come to the bank at once
to transport the waiting soul to the other side.

These military expeditions taught the Nubians to respect the power of Egypt,
and they subsequently became subjects of the Pharaohs.

The Sixth Dynasty, however, was doomed. Conspiring nobles regarded one another
with suspicion, and cast ambitious eyes upon the throne. Local religious cults
also gathered strength, and the political influence exercised by the priests of
Heliopolis suffered decline. For about three centuries Ra had remained supreme;
now his power was being suppressed. Serious revolts occurred. Merenra II–the
successor of Pepi II, who is credited with a reign of over ninety years–was deposed
twelve months after he ascended the throne. According to Herodotus, who is supported
in this connection by Manetho, his queen immediately seized the reins of power.
The Egyptian priests informed the Greek historian that Merenra was murdered, and
that the queen Nitocris avenged his death in the following manner. She caused
a large subterranean hall to be made for the purpose of celebrating festivals,
as she pretended, and invited a number of noblemen to visit it. As the conspirators
sat feasting, the waters of the Nile flooded the artificial cave through a secretly
constructed canal, and the guests were all drowned. Great indignation was aroused
throughout the kingdom, and the queen committed suicide by suffocation in an apartment
filled with the fumes of burning wood. The story appears to be more mythical than
historical.

At the close of the Sixth Dynasty the kingdom was plunged in anarchy. The nobles
attempted to establish a government in which they were to hold power in rotation.
It was impossible for such an arrangement to succeed, because the interests of
each feudal lord were centred in his own particular nome. The Seventh Dynasty
was brief. According to tradition there were “seventy kings in seventy days”.
Egypt was then divided into a number of small separated states, which were administrated
by the hereditary owners of the soil, and we find one of them declaring, significantly
enough, in his tomb inscription that he had “freed his city in a time of war from
the oppression of the king”.

Thus came to an end the Old Kingdom, which had existed for about 1700 years
from the time of Mena. A great civilization had evolved during that period. It
had grown rich in art and architecture. Indeed, the artistic achievements of the
Old Kingdom were never afterwards surpassed either in technique or naturalism;
the grandeur of its architectural triumphs is emphasized by the enduring Pyramids,
and especially Khufu’s great tomb with its finely wrought stonework, which remains
unequalled to the present day.

The people, too, had prospered and made great progress. Refined and cultured
faces appear in the surviving statuary; indeed many of the men and women look
much like those of the present day. Agriculture flourished, the industries developed,
and commerce made the people prosperous. Education appears to have been thorough
within its limits, and had gradually become more widespread.

Although the power of the monarchy declined, the people as a whole did not
lapse back into a state of semi-savagery. The nomes were well governed by the
nobles, but a system of detached local administration was foredoomed to failure
on account of the physical conditions of the country. Egypt required then, as
now, a strong central government to promote the welfare of the entire country.
A noble might continue to cut canals, but there was no guarantee that he would
receive an equitable and regular supply of water. In an irrigated country water
laws must be strictly observed, otherwise the many will suffer because of the
heedlessness or selfishness of the few. When the power of the Pharaoh was shattered,
the natural resources of Egypt declined, and a great proportion of the people
were threatened with periodic famines.

The demands of the Court when at the height of its power may have seemed oppressive
to the feudal lords. Pharaoh required a proportion of their crops and of their
live stock, much free labour, and many fighting men, because he gave them water
and protected them against the inroads of invaders. He had also private ambitions,
and desired to erect a great tomb for himself. Yet he governed Egypt for the good
of the greater number, and the conflicts between the Court and the feudal lords
were really conflicts between national and local interests. The country as a whole
suffered from the effects of extreme governmental decentralization- a policy inaugurated
by priestly Pharaohs, who were, perhaps, too greatly concerned about promoting
a national religion based upon sun worship.

The ascendancy of the nobles was impossible so long as the Pharaohs were, in
a practical sense, the chief priests of each particular cult. Diplomatic rulers
honoured local gods and attended to the erection and endowment of temples. They
wedged themselves in between the hereditary chieftains and the priests who exercised
so powerful an influence over the people. When, however, the nobles became the
sole patrons of their nome cults, they were able to openly defy the Court.

So, when the throne tottered, a plague of anarchy fell upon Egypt, and the
forces of reaction were let loose. Nome warred against nome and the strong prevailed
over the weak. Temples were ruthlessly pillaged, and tombs were raided by robber
bands; the mummies of hated kings were torn from the Pyramids; statuary was shattered
and inscriptions were destroyed. Only in those provinces where good government
was maintained did the old order of things remain. But Egypt was so thoroughly
disorganized as a whole that several centuries had to elapse before the central
government could be once again firmly established in the interests of progress
and the welfare of the great mass of the people.

Occasionally a strong Pharaoh arose to compel the rival lords to make truce
one with another, but such successes were only temporary. The feudal system was
deeply rooted, and all a king could do was to organize a group of nobles to deal
with those who threatened to grow too powerful. He could not raise or maintain
a standing army, for each lord commanded all the fighting men in his own nome,
and they owed allegiance to him alone; nor could the Pharaoh employ mercenaries,
because the resources of the royal treasury were strictly limited.

Footnotes

1 The knotted cord was in general use throughout Europe.
It is not yet uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland, where red neck cords protect
children against the evil eye, while sprains. , are cured by knotted cords,
a charm being repeated as each knot is tied.
2 Like Turnface in the boat of the dead.
3 Cats are credited in Europe with taking away life
by sucking children’s breath as they lie asleep.