Volume 1

A history of the pharaohs ... / by Arthur Weigall.

  • Arthur Weigall
Date:
[1925-]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of the pharaohs ... / by Arthur Weigall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    112/392 page 84
    read Des-iow, meaning “ A sword is his inheritance/’ or something similar, the first sign being probably a flint knife, and the second the hieroglyph for the word ‘ inherit¬ ance.’ The name of the third king is probably to be read Athuthi, which has reference to Thoth, the god of Wisdom. The fourth name is The-she, or something similar, perhaps having the meaning “ Capturer of the Lake District.” The fifth name is probably to be read Heb, meaning “ The Plough,” and not Ne-heb, as it is sometimes given, the first sign being an ideogram used at this period as supplementary to the second. (See Hieraconftolis, II, lxx, 14, 15.) The sixth royal name is perhaps Utho-eneth, the first syllable being the name of the goddess of Lower Egypt, and the second being an archaic word for “ Chieftain.” The seventh name, the last remaining on the Palermo fragment, seems to read Heseq-Khet: the first sign, that of an owl, being sometimes used as the ideogram of the verb heseq, “ to rend asunder,” and the second sign meaning womb,” the name thus probably having the meaning “ The render of the womb,” in reference, I suppose, to the manner of his birth. There are no contemporary records of these far-off kings, and for us, therefore, they must remain but a list of names ; yet we are not justified in thinking of them as the barbaric chieftains of a primitive people. They were probably the rulers of a highly-organized kingdom, which included many great cities, countless villages, all the rich fields of the Delta with their teeming agricultural population, the seven branches of the Nile with their busy river-traffic, the sea- coast with its maritime trade with Asia, and the marshes and lakes where perhaps a race of aboriginal fenmen reluct¬ antly acknowledged their sway. Arts and crafts flourished, no doubt; a system of pictorial writing was being devel¬ oped before the time of Menes; and life had its comforts and its luxuries. One may suppose that these kings did not all belong to one dynasty or family. Lower Egypt is known to have had two capitals in primitive times: the city of Sae or Sais and the city of Peutho or Buto; and there is some reason to suppose that the latter was the earlier and abori-
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image