The Egyptians were familiar with the use of iron from a very remote period, and their skill in the manufacture of bronze was celebrated. They were acquainted also with the use of the forceps, the blow-pipe, the bellows, the syringe, and the siphon. Leather was sometimes used for writing purposes, but more frequently paper made from the papyrus, which grew in the marsh-lands of the Delta. The mode of making it was by cutting the pith into thin slices lengthwise, which being laid on a table were covered with similar layers at right angles, and the two sets being glued together and kept under pressure a proper time formed a sheet. The dried flower heads of the papyrus have been found in the tombs. As illustrating Scripture, it may be mentioned that the gods are sometimes represented in the tombs holding the Tare or sign of life which was adopted by some of the early Christians In lieu of the cross, and is mentioned by Ezek. ix. 4, 6, as the 'mark (Tau) set upon the foreheads of the men' who were to be preserved alive. Chris tian inscriptions at the great oasis are headed by this symbol; it has been found on Christian monu ments at Rome.
Egyptian edicts seem to have been issued in the form of a or written order ; and from the word used by Pharaoh in granting power to Joseph (' According to thy word shall all my people be ruled :' Hebrew kiss, Gen. xli. 40, alluding evi dently to the custom of kissing a firnfiz), we may infer that the people who received that order adopted the usual eastern mode of acknowledging their obedience to the Sovereign. And besides the custom of kissing the signature attached to these documents, the people were doubtless expected to bow the knee,' Gen. xli. in the presence of the monarch and chiefs of the nation, or even to prostrate themselves before them. The sculptures represent them thus bowing with the hand stretched out towards the knee.
The account of brick-making in Exod. v. 7-19 is illustrated in a remarkable degree by a painting in a tomb at Thebes, in which the hardness of the work, the tale of bricks, the straw, and the native taskmasters set over foreign workmen, are vividly portrayed. The making of bricks was a monopoly of the crown, which accounts for the Jews and other captives being employed in such numbers to make bricks for the Pharaohs.
Certain injunctions of the Mosaic law appear to be framed with particular reference to Egyptian practices, e.g., the fact of false witness being for bidden by a distinct and separate commandment be comes the more significant when we bear in mind the number of witnesses required by the Egyptian law for the execution of the most trifling contract. As many as sixteen names are appended to one for the sale of a part of certain properties, amounting only to 400 pieces of brass. It appears that bulls
only, and not heifers, were killed by the Egyptians in sacrifice. Cf. with this the law of the Israelites, Num. xix. 2, commanding them to 'bring a red heifer, without spot, wherein was no blemish.' It was on this account that Moses proposed to go `three days' journey into the desert,' lest the Egyptians should be enraged at seeing the Israelites sacrifice a heifer (Exod. viii. 26) ; and by this very opposite choice of a victim they were made unequi vocally to denounce and to separate themselves from the rites of Egypt. The Egyptian common name for Heliopolis was AN,± from which was de rived the Hebrew On or Aon, pointed in Ez. xxx. 17, Aven, and translated by Bethshemesh, Jer. 53. So also the Pi-beseth of the same place in Ezekiel, is from the Egyptian article Pi, pre fixed to Bast, the name of the goddess there wor shipped, and is equivalent to Bubastis, a city named after her, supposed to correspond to the Grecian Artemis. The Tahpanhes of Scripture, Jer. xliii. 8, Ezek. xxx. IS, was perhaps a place called Daphnm, sixteen miles from Pelusium. Enough has pro bably been said to shew how much light is thrown on the Bible history by the monuments of ancient Egypt. If it occasions surprise that the details of that history, such as the marvels connected with the Exodus, etc., are not corroborated by them, it must be borne in mind that they are in no way im pugned by them, and that it is not the object of any people to record their misfortunes on sculpture or painting ; witness, for example, the picture gallery at Versailles. It may also be observed that if the Israelitish sojourn fell during the Shepherd domination, it is precisely this period of which next to no monuments are found.
The writer is under great obligations to the article on Egypt in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th edit., of which the parts treating of the an cient history and the description of the country are by Mr. Stuart Poole, and those on the modern history and modem inhabitants by Mr. Stanley Poole. He is also greatly indebted to the valu able papers and notes on Egyptian antiquities, in the 2d vol. of Rawlinson's Herodotus. Sir G. Wil kinson, Ancient Egyptians ; Popular Account of Ditto ; The Egyptians in the time of the Pharaohs ; Modern Egypt and Thebes ; Handbook for Eupt ; Bunsen, ..,Esyptens Stelle ; Hengstenberg, Egypt, and the Books of Moses ; Kenrick's Ancient Egypt ; R. S. Pooie, Hone fEgoptiacte, etc., etc. See also an excellent little book by two ladies, Early Egyp tian History for the Young, London, i861.—S. L.