are called there, and in all other copies,
|
ⲛⲁⲙⲟⲟⲩ, which means, “the great water.” It seems probable, that this is a reminiscence of the original settlement of the inhabitants of Egypt on the banks of the Euphrates, from which they were expelled by the confusion of tongues. The epithet of the Euphrates, “the great river,” [1] which is universal to all ancient languages, appears to have been applied by them to those of the human race whom they left upon its banks, to distinguish them from the tribes who had set out in quest of new countries before the Egyptians.
These names point very intelligibly to the original and natural division of the human race into the descendants of the three sons of Noah. The Shemites retain the name of their progenitor; the Hamathites represented the Japhetians; while in the tribes already darkened by the burning sun of the tropics, who had first braved the terrors of the deserts to the south and west of Egypt, they recognised the sons of Ham. The vanity of the Egyptians, however, allowed to none of these races the slightest affinity with themselves. They were altogether of another and superior stock, which they erected into a fourth patriarchate at the head of the other three. [2] It is pretty evident that the original genealogies of the several families of mankind had been forgotten in Egypt at the period of the monuments we are now considering. A vague
- ↑ See Gen. xv. 18: “Unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
- ↑ Herodotus mentions this quadruple division of the human race which was made by the Egyptians:—“οἵ φᾶσι τρία μόρια εἶναι γῆν πᾶσαν, Εὐρῶπην τε καὶ Ἀσίαν καὶ Λιβύην. τέταρτον γαρ δἠ σφέας δεῖ προλογίζεσθαι Αἰγύπτου τό Δέλτα.” Eut. c. xvi.
