revenue is about £10,000,000, and rarely suffices to cover the expen •diture, which includes an annual tribute of £700,000 to the Porte. The national debt is over £80,000,000; besides, the Khedive's personal debt amounted in 1878 to £8,815,000. In 1877, the total imports of E. had a value of £4,506,000, the exports (chiefly cot-ton) of £15,500,000. After the Russo-Turkish war, the army of E. was reduced to 15,000. The navy includes two frigates, two corvettes, yachts, and gunboats.
Ancient now remains to consider the old civilization of the Egyp tians, which had made such strides at an early period of their history. In the sciences, as early as the 4th dynasty, the notation of time,.the decimal system of numbers, weights, and measures adjusted to a pound of 1400 grains, the geographical division of the country, and the division of the year (of 365 days) into three periods (of four months of 30 days) and twelve months, were already known, while the form of the buildings implies a knowledge of geometry and its sister sciences. An empirical knowledge of astronomy was probably possessed; nor could the arts have reached such a high develop ment without some acquaintance with chemistry; and tradition assigns a knowledge of medicine and anatomy to a still earlier age. The art of literary composition also existed in the 11th dynasty, the fragments of the religious or so-called hermetic books of that age have reached us (see PAPYRUS); and Cheops himself was an author of renown. The language of the period, although concise and obscure, was nevertheless fixed; and a code of manners and morals, under the 6th dynasty, has been handed down. Architec ture had attained great refinement at an early period; not only were the chambers and temples, and other edifices, squared and directed to face the cardinal points, but the use of a kind of false arch, or stones disposed so as to form an angle overhead to relieve superincumbent pressure, en decharge, was practiced as early as the 4th, and the vault or arch was in existence in the 11th and 18th dynasties, eight centuries before that of the Cloaca Maxima of Rome. Columns were in use as early as the 4th dynasty; and in the 12th, the so-called proto-Doric ones of Benihassan, with their cornices and triglyphs, show that the Greeks derived this order of architecture from Egypt. The symmetric arrangement of the temples, consisting of rectangular court-yards and hypfethral halls of many columns, built before the original shrine, with their gateways, slightly con verging to the apex, and their bold and severe lines, and the obelisk (see OBELISK), and the pyramid (see PYRAMID), forms admirably adapted to resist the inroad of time, not to mention the remarkably fine masonry, prove the high development this art had acquired at the remotest age. Nor was sculpture less advanced, for long before Daedalus, the statues of the 4th dynasty, at least 2000 B.C., had been molded with great accuracy to a fixed canon; and although their architectural employment had rendered their action rectilinear—such as the arms pendant, the left foot advanced, and the feet not detached but when in stone, with the part between them reserved—and the ears were placed too high in the head, and a kind of pillar was fixed behind in standing figures, yet in por traiture they had attained to great perfection. Sculpture, indeed, in the human form was always restricted a few conventional attitudes; but some of the lions and sphinxes are executed wittiksifirit Suilpissing the power of Greek artists. A peculiar kind of bas-relief prevailed in E., the figures being sunk below the surface like the intaglio ures of a gem, but in slightly convex relief, not concave. This style, called cavo rilievo, or intaglio, has been most successful in preserving the hieroglyphs and ana glyphs of the monuments. Bronze statues cast from molds, and having a leaden or other core, were first made in E., and subsequently introduced into Greece by Rhcecus. This art flourished best under the earlier dynasties, and had much degenerated in the 19th and 20th, although subsequently revived by the 26th. Painting appeared at the same age chiefly in tempera, or whitewashed surfaces, although fresco was occasionally used, and encaustic appears only under the Greeks and Romans. This art, of course, was freer than sculpture, but yet had a rigid architectural character, and followed the same canon as sculpture, the colors used being generally the pure or primitive, and the back ground uniformly white. The architectural details of Egyptian temples and the hiero
glyphs appear to have been always colored, and added additional charm to the sculp tures. The religious papyri or rituals were also often embellished with elaborately colored vignettes, resembling the illuminations of modern .manuscripts. Nor had the Egyptians attained less eminence in the art of music, the harp and flute appearing in use as early as the 4th, and heptachord and pentachord lyres as early as the 12th dynasty; besides which, drums, tambourines, flutes, cymbals, trumpets, and guitars, are seen in the 18th, and the national instrument, the jingling sistrum, in the 4th. Many of the instruments are of great size, and must have produced considerable effect. Nor was the art of song wanting, and measured recitations or songs occur on monu ments of the 12th dynasty, while the lays of Maneros traditionally dated to a still earlier period. Poetry, indeed, was at all times in use, and the antithetic genius of the lan guage suggested the application of the strophe and antistrophe (see HrEitooLvpirtes), although it is not possible to define the meter. In the mechanical arts, many inven tions had been made: the blow-pipe, used as a bellows, appears in the 5th dynasty; bellows and siphons in the 18th. The saw, the adze, the chisel, press, balance, and lever appear in the 5th, the harpoon in the 12th, razors in the 12th, the plough and other agricultural implements in the 5th. Glass of an opaque kind is seen in the 4th, and dated specimens in the reign of Thothmes III. (1445 n.e.), give the priority to E. (see GLASS); the oldest transparent glass, the Assyrian, not dating older than Sargina (711 n.c.). A glazed pottery or porcelain (see POTTERY), the potter's wheel, and the kiln, appear in the 4th; and the art of metallurgy, with the use of tin, at the same period. In the military art, the Egyptians used at an early age defensive armor of shields, cuirasses of quilted leather, and helmets; while spears, clubs, maces, swords, daggers, bows, and hatchets formed their offensive weapons. For sieges, they employed the testudo, ladders, torches and lanterns, and mines. The army was composed of infantry till the beginning of the 18th dynasty, when war-chariots were introduced; for, prior to that period, the ass only was known and used for transport; and car riages not having been invented, persons and goods were transported, on the pan niers of asses, or on a kind of saddle slung between two of these useful animals. War-boats no doubt existed at an early period, and are mentioned as early as the 12th dynasty; but sea-going vessels not till the 18th, and no fleet till the 19th. The Nile, however, was constantly navigated by row-galleys with sails. An extensive com merce was carried on with neighboring nations, and their tribute enriched the country with slaves, cattle, gems, valuable metals, and objects of curiosity. Rare animals were collected for ostentation. Under the earlier dynasties, the chief occupation of the nation appears to have been rearing cattle, cultivating grain, indulging in banquets, fishing, fowling, and the chase, and the establishment of each noble contained in itself all the organization and artificers necessary for its maintenance. How trans actions were carried on without the use of money, is not very clear, unless gold circulated molded in the shape of rings adjusted to a given weight, but coin plate is mentioned by its pounds, mne, and its ounces, kat. The Persians first introduced money. See NIMISRATICS. The wealth of families was, however, spent on the tombs and furniture of the dead, and the preparations for embalming, which were on so vast a scale that filial piety did not disdain to mortgage not only the sepul chers, but the very mummies of its ancestors. See EMBALMENTG. Amusements were various, from the single-stick and juggling, the dance of almehs, the bull-fight, to draughts, dice, and morris. In fact, ancient Egypt had a material civilization, which exerted all the requirements of industry, and forgot none of idleness. Pleasure was the object of existence, not, however, untempered by the voice of reason or the appeals of conscience, the moral code of duties being as pure as that of contemporary nations.