Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/752

728 EGYPT [CHRONOLOGY, This brief account of the modern Egyptians would be incomplete without a few words concerning the rites attendant on death. The corpse is immediately turned towards Mecca, and the females of the household, assisted by hired mourners, commence their peculiar wailing, while fikees recite portions of the Koran. The funeral takes place on the day of the death, if that happen in the morn ing ; otherwise on the next day. The corpse, having been washed and shrouded, is placed in an open bier, covered with a cashmere shawl, in the case of a man ; or in a closed bier, having a post in front, on which are placed female ornaments, in that of a woman or child. The funeral procession is headed by men called &quot; Yemeneeyeh,&quot; chanting the profession of the faith, followed by male friends of the deceased, and a party of schoolboys, also chanting, generally from a poem descriptive of the latter state. Then follows the bier, borne on the shoulders of friends, who are relieved by the passers-by, such an act being deemed highly meritorious. On the way to the cemetery the corpse is generally, in Cairo, in the case of the northern quarters of the city, carried either to the Hasaneyn, or, if the deceased be one of the Ulema, to the Azhar; or, in the case of the southern quarters, to the seyyideh Zeyneb, or some other revered mosque. Here the funeral service is performed by the imam, or minister of the mosque, and the procession then proceeds to the tomb. In the burials of the rich, water and bread are dis tributed to the poor at the grave ; and sometimes a buffalo or several buffaloes are slaughtered there, and the flesh given away. The tomb is always a vault, surmounted by an oblong stone monument, with a stele at the head and feet; and a cupola, supported by four walls, covers the whole in the case of sheykhs tombs and those of the wealthy. During the night following the interment, called the Night of Desolation, or that of Solitude, the soul being believed to remain with the body that one night, fikees are engaged at the house of the deceased to recite various portions of the Koran, and, commonly, to repeat the first clause of the profession of the faith, &quot; There is no deity but God,&quot; three thousand times. The women alone put on mourning attire, by dyeing their veils, shirts, &c., dark blue, with indigo; and they stain their hands, and smear the walls, with the same colour. Everything in the house is also turned upside down. The latter customs are not, however, observed on the death of an old man. At certain periods after the burial, a khatmeh, or recitation of the whole of the Kordn, is performed, and the tomb is visited by the female relations and friends of the deceased. The women of the fellaheen (or peasants) of Upper Egypt observe some strange dances, &c., at funerals, which must be regarded as partly relics of ancient Egyptian customs. For further information see, in addition to Lane s Modern Egyptians, his translation of the Thousand and One Nights, and particularly the notes to it, and the Englishwoman in Egypt, by Mrs Poole. The native Christians of Egypt, or Copts, are chiefly descended from the ancient Egyptian race ; and, as they rarely marry with other races, they preserve in their coun tenances a great resemblance to the representations of the tombs and temples. Their dress and customs are very oimilar to those of the Muslim Egyptians, but their reserve towards persons of another persuasion renders a knowledge of their peculiar observances exceedingly difficult. The causes which produced the separation of their church, and the persecutions they suffered, will be noticed in the historical portion of this article. Under Meheinet Ali they were relieved of mi ch oppression, and the immunities then granted to them they still enjoy. The neglected appearance of their houses, and their want of personal cleanliness, are in strong contrast to the opposite habits of the Muslims, and European residents generally prefer the latter as domestic servants. The Jews, of whom there have always been great num bers in Egypt, appear to be even more degraded there than in other countries. They are held in the utmost abhorrence by the dominant race, and often are treated with much cruelty and oppression. Many are bankers and money changers, ic. The quarter of the Jews in Cairo is ex ceedingly filthy, and would give a stranger the notion that they labour under great poverty. But such is not the case ; the fear of the Muslims induces them to adopt this outward show of misery, while the interiors of many of their houses are very handsome and luxurious. (E. s. p. s. L. p.)] CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY. Before giving a sketch of the history of Egypt it is necessary to speak of Egyptian chronology. The difficulty of this subject has increased with the new information of the monuments. The statements of ancient writers were easily reconciled with half knowledge, but better information shows discrepancies which are in most instances beyond all present hope of solution. It may be said that we know something of the outlines of the technical part of Egyptian chronology ; but its historical part is in a great measure mere conjecture before the times when we can check the Egyptian lists by their synchronisms with Hebrew and Assyrian history. Dr Brugsch, in the second edition of his Ilistoire d Egypte, frankly admits the growing difficulty of Egyptian chronology in terms which account for his not having continued his Materiaux pour scrvir d, la reconstruction dit Calendrier, the opinions of which are modified in the later work. Baron Bunsen completed his Egypt s Place, but in the progress of the work made a great change in his theories. Professor Lepsius alone has maintained his views, as stated in the Chronologic and Konigsbuch, of which the general correctness has not been disproved, although in any new work it would be necessary greatly to modify the details. The words, already referred to, of Dr Brugsch, which close the introduction to his History (2d ed.), may be cited in justification of the differences between the present article and that of the last edition of the Encyclopaedia. &quot; En comparant cette edition avec la premiere, le lecteur impartial reconnaitra facilement que nous avons remanie completement le premier travail, et de plus, que nous nous sommes abstenu de fournir des hypotheses auxquelles seulernent le temps et des decouvertes futures pourront substituer les faits &quot; (p. 3). The Egyptians divided the civil day into 24 hours, 12 of the natural day and 12 of the night, counted from 1 to 12 during each period. Ordinarily the civil day began during the night, which was indifferently reckoned as belonging to the preceding or following day. Probably the beginning was at midnight. In the astro nomical tables of the Tombs of the Kings the civil day probably begins with the night, and the reckoning is from the first hour, or six hours before midnight. The indication is, however, not con clusive, as the tables are of nights only, but one term used makes it highly probable (Brugsch, Materiaux, 103). We also find the so. called heliacal rising of Sothis indicated as marking the beginning of the New Year, but this may merely denote that the phenomenon characterized New Year s day of the original Egyptian year, or of the fixed year, not that tl&amp;gt;e civil day began with the llth hour of night (cf. Id., 99 scqq.; Ideler, Ilandbuch der Chronologic, i. 100-102). The Egyptian month was of thirty days. The months are usually known by Greek names occurring in Greek documents, which were taken from the cultus connected with the months, and are thus the Egyptian sacred names. They are 1. Thoth, 2. Phaophi, 3. Athyr, 4. Choiak, 5. Tybi, 6. Mechir, 7. Phamenoth, 8. Pharmuthi, 9. Pachon, 10. Payni, 11. Epiphi, 12. Mesori, after which came the five Epagomenae. The names were applied to the Vague and Alexandrian years. The ancient Egyptians had a different system of names. With them the months were allotted to three great seasons of four months each, of which the months were called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. These seasons are called &quot;sha,&quot; inundation, &quot;per,&quot; winter, and &quot;shema summer. The second and third