STRINGS OF CAPTIVES.

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the inhabitants of three districts only, or great divisions of country, are represented. These, by an arrangement but ill comporting with modern notions of order and perspicuity, are impersonated in the three first captives of the uppermost string. They are the uоone shepherds, or rather, cattle-feeders, the T, and Naharaim or Mesopotamia. As we

find the name of the Canaanites (or shepherds) in the two first strings, we conclude that they are both intended to be one, and are only so placed because the artist had not room to delineate them on the same plane. The other two which form the base of the whole picture, are distinguished by the strings at the point where the two meet, and by the captives facing in opposite directions. Of these, the eleven that face the left probably represent the cities or

00

tribes of the land of T, and the ten that look to the right, those of Naharaim. As the names here recorded are by no means necessarily those of great or considerable places, there is but little hope that any thing very important can be made of these two last; but with the land of Canaan (or of the shepherds) the case is very different. Very extended lists of the ancient names, both of places, and of tribes inhabiting the country, are preserved in the earlier portions of the inspired narrative; and therefore the hope of identifying these hieroglyphic names may be very reasonably entertained. The whole of them will be found in the Onomasticon at the conclusion of this part of our subject.

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CAVE OF BEIT EL WALLY.

CHAPTER III.

WARS OF RAMSES II., SESOSTRIS, AND RAMSES IV., WITH THE CANAANITES.

THE Commencement of the wars with the Canaanites recorded on the walls of the temples of Egypt took place, as we have seen, in the reign of Sethos I., and probably in the first year of his reign, 1610 B.C. His son and successor was named after his grandfather, Ramses. He came to the throne 1577 B.C. The reliefs in the cave of Beit el Wally, in Nubia (casts from which are now in the British Museum), are a record of the wars he undertook during his short reign against the enemies of Egypt, both on her northern and southern borders. This interesting series of reliefs commences with the usual frontispiece or epitome, representing the hero in the act of smiting a number of captives of various nations bound to a stake. His wars on the two borders are depicted on the opposite sides of the cave. That on the northern border, which alone requires our attention, is, unhappily, much mutilated.

Ramses II. is first represented routing the Jebusites.* He himself, dilated as usual to the dimensions of a giant, and wearing the red cap, achieves the victory alone.

* M. R. ubi supra, 63, 64.

11111

He is stooping from his chariot to slay a chief, while a host of his enemies fly before him. The single remaining phrase of the much mutilated inscription which contains a particle of historical information, records that he sailed [or passed over] to put to flight the Jebusites. In the next scene he takes a fortress from the Tyrians or Arvadites.* The dress and appearance of the enemy decide their nationality. The inscriptions are altogether much mutilated. As the rest of the wall is filled with the ceremonies of the triumph, we conclude that these were the principal actions of the war. The prisoners are shown by their dress to be Arvadites, Jebusites, and Hittites. The few remaining sentences of the inscriptions which once accompanied this much mutilated picture, convey some important historical facts. The design has been identical with those of the * M. R. plate 68.

78

of arvad, HETH, AND TYRE.

triumphs of Sethos already described. Ramses receives the congratulations of his army upon his victory, seated in the shrine, and decked with the symbols, of the god of the cave,, one of the forms Ptha or Vulcan.* His sons and officers, who are leading lines of captives, proclaim that "Egypt is red beneath his sandals," that "Tyre [the northern foe] and Cush [the southern] are in his grasp."+ In other parts of the pageant it is said of Ramses, that he is"The 1 good god.

"The

mighty stunner.

Jebusites, [and of] the

Hittites."

He is here represented in the act of smiting a Canaanite, assisted by the goddess of the cave, Anoukis, in the form of a dog. This would seem to refer to the battle with the Jebusites. In the final triumph which concludes the whole scene, Ramses is thus qualified:-"The avenger of Egypt, inflicting chastisement [upon] the nations [on] the borders; he bound the

Lower Arvadites."

mm

Je

The history conveyed by this scene would appear to be as follows. On the death of Sethos, the Canaanites (or shepherds) began once more to trouble the north-eastern frontier of Egypt, and compelled his successor to undertake another campaign against them in the course of which, he defeated the confederated armies of the Jebusites and Hittites, and

* M. R. plate 65.
M. R. plate 66.

† See above, p. 58.
§ M. R. plate 71.

SESOSTRIS IPSAMBUL.

79

took a fortress which was garrisoned by Tyrians or Arvadites. These transactions took place, probably, not far from the north-eastern frontier of Egypt, wherever that might be, where the Canaanites were once more collecting their troops for the purpose of invasion. The fort may have been one of those built by Sethos, of which the Tyrian army had taken pos

session.

We now proceed to the monuments of the far more celebrated brother and successor of Ramses (Sesostris), who ascended the throne immediately on his demise, B.C. 1571, and took both his names, with

the single exception of the last title

and in which the Greek name of this sovereign, Sesostris, has very probably originated. The many temples, palaces, and caves, which date from his long and prosperous reign of sixty-eight years, are covered with the records of his wars with the Canaanites.

It would seem that Sesostris was engaged in several campaigns against the Canaanites, who were the hereditary enemies of his dynasty. That which occurred in the fifth year of his reign, which is the first upon record, must have been accounted a very brilliant one, as there are no fewer than three repetitions of the vast designs by which it is represented still remaining. The most perfect of them is that of the stupendous cavern temple at Ipsambul. The pictorial epitome or frontispiece is here subjoined. The same subject covers the left propylon of the palace of Luxor at Thebes, and is repeated the third time on the walls of the Memnonium in the same