Khufu

“ The great work of the early pyramid kings, Senoferu and Khufu, was the massive organizing of the civil service of the country, the establishment of a social organism which resisted all the invasions and disasters of the land, and survived in parts to our own times. These new ideals were naturally reflected in the art. ”

“ We can imagine the queen from time to time going in state to view the progress of the work and helping it on with her suggestions. Some traditions tell that Khufu was specially tyrannical and cruel, and even stopped praying to the gods to press on his great enterprise. The rock testimony styles him brave and a conqueror.
“Egypt is the monumental land of the earth, as the Egyptians are the monumental people,” says Bunsen. The history of Egypt goes, as it were, against the stream; the earliest monuments are between Cairo and Siout, in Lower Egypt, the latest temples in Nubia, Upper Egypt. ”

“ The worship of Khufu continued to a late period of Egyptian history, and this signet belonged to a Ra-nefer-ab, priest or keeper of the pyramid under the XXVI Dynasty, 664–525 B.C. [195] The ring is of fine gold, and weighs nearly 3⁄4 ounce; it was found at Ghizeh by Colonel Vyse, in a tomb known as Campbell’s Tomb, and was acquired in Egypt by Dr. Abbott, who gathered together a choice collection of Egyptian antiquities during a residence of twenty years in Egypt. In 1860, this collection was given to the New York Historical Society through the liberality of citizens of New York. ”

“ His Majesty Khufu said, "Who is it, Herutataf?" And Prince Herutataf replied, "He is a certain peasant who is called Teta, and he lives in Tet-Seneferu. He is one hundred and ten years old, and up to this very day he eats five hundred bread-cakes (sic) , and a leg of beef, and drinks one hundred pots of beer. He knows how to reunite to its body a head which has been cut off, he knows how to make a lion follow him whilst the rope with which he is tied drags behind him on the ground, and he knows the numbers of the Apet chambers (?) of the shrine (?) of Thoth." ”

“ It seems that representations of deities, and indeed any representations at all, were rare upon the polished walls of the great monuments of the fourth dynasty, and Petrie thinks that he can trace a violent religious revolution with confiscation of endowments at this time in the temple remains at Abydos; but none the less the wants of the deities were then attended to by priests selected from the royal family and the highest in the land. Khufu’s work in the temple of Bubastis is proved by a surviving fragment, and he is figured slaying his enemy at Sinai before the god Thoth. ”

“ As soon as the ornament was restored to the maiden, the magician recited further spells, and the water lowered itself, and spread over the ground of the lake, and so regained its normal level. His Majesty, King Seneferu, assembled his nobles, and having discussed the matter with them, made a handsome gift to his clever magician. When King Khufu had heard the story he ordered a large supply of funerary offerings to be sent to the tomb of Seneferu, and bread, beer, flesh, and incense to the tomb of Tchatchamānkh. ”

“ To him, Khufu, Rameses and the Ptolemies are one. As for the monuments, they are all ancient Egyptian, and one is just as odd and unintelligible as another. He cannot quite understand why travelers come so far and spend so much money to look at them; but he sets it down to a habit of harmless curiosity—by which he profits.
The truth is, however, that the mere sight-seeing of the Nile demands some little reading and organizing, if only to be enjoyed. We cannot all be profoundly learned ”

“ The fashion of burying in pyramids continued to the close of Manetho's sixth dynasty, but no later monarchs rivalled the great works of Khufu and Shafra. The tombs of their successors were monuments of a moderate size, involving no oppression of the people, but perhaps rather improving their condition by causing a rise in the rate of wages. Certainly, the native remains of the period give a cheerful representation of the condition of all classes. The nation for the most part enjoys peace, and applies itself to production. ”

“ The desert however is full of wild animals and equally wild robbers and they broke into the graves and disturbed the mummy or stole the jewelry that had been buried with the body. To prevent such unholy desecration the Egyptians used to build small mounds of stones on top of the graves. These little mounds gradually grew in size, because the rich people built higher mounds than the poor and there was a good deal of competition to see who could make the highest hill of stones. The [26] record was made by King Khufu, whom the Greeks called Cheops and who lived thirty centuries before our era. ”

“ A symbolism closely connected with this is that of the globe and wings. This certainly dates to the beginning of the monumental age, as it is seen above the figure of Khufu seated on an amulet. In that instance it is on too small a scale to show the details; but in the next dynasty it appears above Unas at Elephantine, with the globe flanked by two uraei and two wings. What the symbolism of it was we have no direct information. ”

“ The punishment of burning alive is very
52 TALES OF THE MAGICIANS
rarely, if ever, mentioned in Egyptian history, though it occurs in modern Egyptian tales: and it looks as if it were brought in here rather as a dire horror for the climax than as a probable incident. The place of the penalty, in front of the harem, or the private portion of the palace, was evidently for the intimidation of other ladies. At the close of each tale, King Khufu, to whom it is told, orders funerary offerings by the usual formula, to be presented in honour of the king under whom the wonder took place. ”

“ On a monumental stone found in the Apis tombs—now in Cairo—we read, "The living Horus, the King of Egypt, Chufu, has built a temple to Isis near the temple of the Sphinx, north of the temple of Osiris, and has erected his pyramid beside the temple of Isis." [143] Chufu himself is not found in Egypt, but in the peninsula of Sinai he is pictured in relief on the rocks in the Wadi Maghara. He is represented as lifting his war-club against an [Pg 95] enemy whom he has forced upon his knee and seized by the head-dress with the left hand. ”

“ The Pyramid texts speak of “the four Khu of Horus,” “who live in Heliopolis,” and were at once male and female, and of the Khu who brandish their arms and form a sort of bodyguard around the god of the dead. They are identified with the fixed stars, and more especially with those of the Great Bear, and in the euhemeristic chronicles of Egyptian history they become the “Manes” of Manetho, the semi-divine dynasty which intervened between the dynasties of the gods and of men.28
The Khu thus forms a link between men and the gods, and participates in the divine nature. ”

“ The village of Kufu is walled, and only about two musket shots from the other walled village, which is to the south, and with whom they are at heavy war. The space between is generally occupied by the caravans bound to the eastward, who usually halt here for a week to complete their purchases at the market of Koolfu before they start. The country around has a rich and clay soil, planted with indigo, cotton, Indian corn, and yams. ”

“ The town of Kufu, at a short distance (not a mile) , has a quarrel with another little town about half a mile from it, called Lajo, the latter having taken the wife of a man, whom they thought they had killed and left for dead, and selling her; hence arose a regular system of retaliation; and they take and sell one another whenever they have an opportunity. Every other night almost the war-cry was raised about stealing asses, oxen, or murder; and sometimes the inhabitants of Koolfu would join in the fray, always siding with Kufu. ”

“ Al-Ḥusain ibn-al-Aswad from Shamir ibn-ʿAṭîyah:—ʿUmar said regarding the people of al-Kûfah, "They are the lance of Allah, the treasure of the faith, the cranium of the Arabs, who protect their own frontier forts and reinforce other Arabs."
Abu-Naṣr at-Tammâr from Salmân:—The latter said:—"Al-Kûfah is the dome of Islâm. There will be a time in which every believer will either be in it or will have his heart set upon it." ”

“ KUFA, a Moslem city, situated on the shore of the Hindieh canal, about 4 m. E. by N. of Nejef (32° 4′ N., 44° 20′ E.) , was founded by the Arabs after the battle of Kadesiya in A.D. 638 as one of the two capitals of the new territory of Irak, the whole country being divided into the sawads, or districts, of Basra and Kufa. The caliph ‛Ali made it his residence and the capital of his caliphate. After the removal of the capital to Bagdad, in the middle of the following century, Kufa lost its importance and began to fall into decay. ”

“ The sight of all prisoners taken in war is similarly destroyed; and a stone having been tied about the neck, they are thrown by hundreds into a river formerly styled Daama, but now denominated the Chuba, from a belief that its waters are composed solely of human blood. ”

“ The whole country is flat and level, and without woods, except some orchards near the towns. The inhabitants live in tents, and use the dung of their cattle as fuel. It is bounded on the east by a desert towards Khorasmia; to the west is the great sea, or Euxine, and the sea of Tenue, Tanna, or Azof; to the north, is the empire of Kaffia or Kiow; and to the south it extends to the great river Etile or Wolga, which passes the capital. This river is frozen over every year, and men and beasts walk upon the ice as on dry land ”

“ We fed the fish with bread, which disappeared in a moment, torn from our hands by some thousands of them: they are molested by no one, since it is believed that a curse rests on the head of an intruder.
Ghuzni.
Before entering the valley of the river, we left the famous Ghuzni to the south: it is only sixty miles from Cabool. This ancient capital is now a dependency on that city, and a place of small note: it contains the tomb of the great Mahmood, its founder. ”

“ Thou didst not sleep, but Khaduin-Dziugê slew thee," said the maidens. Then Khovugu changed himself into a tiny man, and changed his steed into a scabby foal. Water ran from Khovugu's nose. In this wise he rode to the south-west country, whither Khaduin-Dziugê had withdrawn himself. He stands at the tent, round him is much cattle and a numerous nation — these were formerly his cattle and his nation. The old man who lived in the tent feasted him and slew a sheep for him. Khovugu asked the old man, "Where is the mother of Khovugu?" ”

“ I exchange speech with the god Seb, I make supplication for divine food from Neb-er-tcher; the gods of the underworld have fear of me, and they fight for me in their habitations when they see that thou hast provided me with [pg 061] food, both of the fowl of the air and of the fish of the sea. I am one of those Khus who dwell with the divine Khu, and I have made my form like unto his divine Form, when he cometh forth and maketh himself manifest in Tattu. [I am] a spiritual body (sāh) and possess my soul, and will speak unto thee the things which concern me. ”

“ North-west of the Chobi the plains are occupied by the Ma-Kwakwa people, where territory may be traversed in all directions without obtaining a sight of a single village, so completely are their settlements concealed in the brushwood. ”

“ Kūfa was to be only a military camp, as was Fostat in Egypt. The taxes with the booty from conquests were to be sent to Arabia for distribution among the Moslems. Omar tried to prevent the advance of conquests lest Arabia should suffer. “I would rather the safety of my people than thousands of spoil and further conquest.” But men could not be prevented from pouring out from their homes in search of new conquests and more booty. Many of those who went forth did not return. They acquired property and rank in the new lands. Kūfa attracted chiefly men of south Arabia, Basra those of the north. ”

“ Tûmû was a man crowned and clothed with the insignia of supreme power, a true king of gods, majestic and impassive as the Pharaohs who succeeded each other upon the throne of Egypt. The conception of Khopri as a disk enclosing a scarabæus, or a man with a scarabous upon his head, or a scarabus-headed mummy, was suggested by the accidental alliteration of his name and that of Khopirrû, the scarabæus. ”

“ I must also class amongst the bazaars the Kitchik Kervanserai, where the slaves brought by the Tekke and the Yomuts are exposed for sale. But for this article of business Khiva itself could not exist, as the culture of the land is entirely in the hands of the slaves. When we come to speak of Bokhara, we will treat this subject more at large.
Mosques.
There are few mosques in Khiva of much antiquity or artistic construction. Those that follow alone deserve notice. ”

“ Three thousand watchmen light fires every night, and continually cry Khoda Khob (all’s well.) Though it is a Persian town, yet its inhabitants are for the most part Sunnís and Hanefis from the time of the Ottomans.
Products.
The white bread of Tiflís, and the peaches are renowned; the vegetables exquisite; there is no silk, but most excellent grapes: all these productions prosper through the quantity of rain water which falls, and do not require water from the Kúr, this is the case with an hundred and fifty towns and villages, which it passes on its way. ”