Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/487

 EGYPT (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) plete relics: u The Tale of the Two Brothers," contained in the document known as the D'Or- biney papyrus of the British museum, and first described by De Roug6, and " The Romance of Setna," recently discovered in the tomb of a Coptic monk by Brugsch, who furnished a translation of it in the Revue arcMologique for 1867. The former was written by the scribe Enna, and evidently intended for the amuse- ment or instruction of one of the royal princes, whose name is mentioned in the last chap- ter. One of the most striking features of this romance is the low moral tone of the women introduced, and the blunt realism exhibited in their life and language. Other documents of the same period show that the Egyptian ladies held a far higher position than is here implied. Our demotic copy of the " Romance of Setna " was written in the 2d or 3d century B. 0. The story turns upon the danger of acquiring possession of the sacred books without a clear right and great precaution ; but the opening of the story and its date and superscription are missing. The epics and biographical sketches, excluding here the sepulchral monu- ments, which are of greater value to history than to literature, consist of a number of nar- rations of personal adventure in war or travel, and are distinguished by special efforts at the graces of style. Prominent among them is the epic of Pentaur, on the achievements of Rame- sea II. in his war against the Kheta. This poem, which has been called the Egyptian Iliad, was very popular and widely known, and several copies of it are in existence. Con- sidering that it is several centuries older than the Greek Iliad, it deserves admiration for the rapid narration of the antecedents and conse- quents of the great scene in order to preserve it as the most prominent and central picture of the poem. Translations of it are given by Prof. Goodwin in the " Cambridge Essays," and by De Roug6 in the Recueil de travaux relatifs d la philologie egyptienne. The biographical sketch of Mohar has been called the Odyssey, by way of contrast with the preceding. The author gives an account of the journey of Mo- har, evidently a high official, through Syria and Palestine, gathered from the correspon- dence or diary which the latter had sent to him. This papyrus, in the Anastasi collection of the British museum, has been translated by Ohabas, under the title of Voyage d'un figyp- tien (Berlin, 1866), by Goodwin, and by Lauth in the appendix of his book Moses der Ebraer ; and the last named author endeavors to estab- lish that the person spoken of in the document was Moses himself, while Brugsch and De Rouge believe that the journey is not real, but only intended to furnish an entertaining de- scription of the lands spoken of. The satirical writings and beast fables of the Egyptians caricature the foibles of all classes, and do not even spare the sacred person of the king. They are often illustrated with satirical pic- tures in mimicry of the Pharaohs and their 287 VOL. vi. 31 EHRENBERG 479 courts. One such, known as the satirical pa- pyrus of Turin, has been published with the caricatures in Lepsius's AuswaU. Besides these numerous specimens of a strictly literary nature, a large amount of judicial documents, as petitions, processes at law, judgments, de- crees, and treaties, has also been recovered. In the chronological documents, history is computed after the manner of early nations by a list of kings and priests ; and without dwell- ing upon their historical value, we owe to them the whole of our knowledge of the Egyp- tian language, as the decipherment of some proper names mentioned in them furnished the first clue to the reading of hieroglyphics. EHNINGER, John Whetton, an American artist, born in New York, July 22, 1827. He gradu- ated at Columbia college in 1847, and in 1848 -'9 he was a pupil of Couture in Paris. His first oil painting, "Peter Stuyvesant" (1850), the subject of which was taken from "Knick- erbocker's History of New York," was en- graved by the American art union. Among his best works are " Love me, love my Horse," "The Sword," "The Foray," the landscape of which is by Mignot, "Lady Jane Grey," and Ars Gelare Artem. He has also produced a series of etchings illustrating Hood's " Bridge of Sighs," published in 1849, another on sub- jects from Irving's story of "Dolph Heyli- ger " (1850), eight illustrations of Longfellow's "Miles Standish" (1858), and various other works of the kind. EHRENBERG, Christian Gottfried, a German naturalist, born at Delitzsch, April 19, 1795. He was educated at Leipsic and Berlin. In 1818 he published Sylva Mycologicm Beroli- nenses, in which he described 62 new species of cryptogamous plants. In 1820 he visited Egypt, Nubia, and Arabia, at the expense of the Berlin academy of sciences, and continued his scientific explorations in those countries for six years. On his return to Berlin he was appointed extraordinary professor of medicine. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt to the Ural mountains and central Asia. In 1842 he was elected permanent secretary of the academy, and in 1847 was appointed to a regular pro- fessorship. The scientific results of his obser- vations in Africa are contained in Symbolce physica Mammalium, Avium, Insectorum et Animalium Evertebratorum (Berlin, 1828-'33) ; Die KorallentMere des Rothen Meeres (1834) ; and Die Akalephen des Rothen Meeres (1836). He engaged in the investigation of infusoria, and arrived at results of the greatest value, which were presented in various publications, the most complete of which is Die Infusions- thierchen als vollkommene Organismen (with 64 plates, Leipsic, 1838). He discovered fossil infusoria, showed the similarity of their phe- nomena in different parts of the world, and published on this subject Die fossilen Infuso- rien und die lebendige Dammerde (1837) ; Die Bildung des europaischen, libyschen und ura- lischen Kreidefelsens und Ereidemergels aus