The reconquest of Dongola and the Sudan provinces during the three years from March 1896 to December 1898, considering the enormous extent and difficulties of the country, was achieved at an unprecedentedly small cost, while the main item of expenditure—the railway—remains a permanent benefit to the country. The figures are:—Railways£E.1,181,372Telegraphs21,825Gunboats154,934Military996,223——————Total£E.2,354,354Towards this expense the British government gave a grant-in-aid of £800,000, and the balance was borne by the Egyptian treasury. The railway, delayed by the construction of the big bridge over the Atbara, was opened to the Blue Nile opposite Khartum, 187 m. from the Atbara, at the end of 1899.
The reconquest of Dongola and the Sudan provinces during the three years from March 1896 to December 1898, considering the enormous extent and difficulties of the country, was achieved at an unprecedentedly small cost, while the main item of expenditure—the railway—remains a permanent benefit to the country. The figures are:—
Towards this expense the British government gave a grant-in-aid of £800,000, and the balance was borne by the Egyptian treasury. The railway, delayed by the construction of the big bridge over the Atbara, was opened to the Blue Nile opposite Khartum, 187 m. from the Atbara, at the end of 1899.
(R. H. V.)
1By the Greek and Roman geographers Egypt was usually assigned to Libya (Africa), but by some early writers the Nile was thought to mark the division between Libya and Asia. The name occurs in Homer asΑἴγυπτος, but is of doubtful origin.2A vivid description of Cairo during the prevalence of plague in 1835 will be found in A. W. Kinglake’sEothen.3Akantarequals 99 ℔.4To the ministry of public instruction was added in 1906 a department of agriculture and technical instruction.5The place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.6The figures of the debt are always given in £ sterling. The budget figures are in £E. (pounds Egyptian), equal to £1, 0s. 6d.7Egypt, No. 1 (1905), p. 20.8Similar mortality, though on a smaller scale, recurred in 1889, when Sudanese battalions coming from Suakin were detained temporarily in Cairo.9Formerly transcribedhauor “heap”-problems.10Clepsydras inscribed in hieroglyphic are found soon after the Macedonian conquest.11Annual reports of the progress of the work are printed in theSitzungsberichteof the Berlin Academy of Sciences; see also Erman,Zur ägyptischen Sprachforschung, ib. for 1907, p. 400, showing the general trend of the results.12In the temple of Philae, where the worship of Isis was permitted to continue till the reign of Justinian, Brugsch found demotic inscriptions with dates to the end of the 5th century.13The Arabic dialects, which gradually displaced Coptic as Mahommedanism supplanted Christianity, adopted but few words of the old native stock.14In the articles referring to matters of Egyptology in this edition, Graecized forms of Old Egyptian names, where they exist, are commonly employed; in other cases names are rendered by their actual equivalents in Coptic or by analogous forms. Failing all such means, recourse is had to the usual conventional renderings of hieroglyphic spelling, a more precise transcription of the consonants in the latter being sometimes added.15It seems that “acrophony” (giving to a sign the value of the first letter of its name) was indulged in only by priests of the latest age, inventing fantastic modes of writing their “vain repetitions” on the temple walls.16In the prehistoric age when absolute dating is out of reach a “sequence dating” by means of the sequence of types in pottery, tools, &c., has been proposed in Petrie’sDiospolis Parva, pp. 4 et sqq. The earliest prehistoric graves yet known are placed at S.D. 30, and shortly before S.D. 80 the period of the first historic dynasty is entered.17Ten-day periods as subdivisions of the month can be traced as far back as the Middle Kingdom. The day consisted of twenty-four hours, twelve of day (counted from sunrise to sunset) and twelve of night; it began at sunrise.18For the “sequence” dating (S.D.) used by archaeologists for the prehistoric period see above (§ Art and Archaeology, ad init. note).19Reisner (Early Dynastic Cemeteries, p. 126), from his work in the prehistoric cemeteries, believes that Egypt was too uncivilized at that early date to have performed this scientific feat.20The history of Hatshepsut has been very obscure, and the mutilations of her cartouches have been variously accounted for. Recent discoveries by M. Legrain at Karnak and Prof. Petrie at Sinai have limited the field of conjecture. The writer has followed M. Naville’s guidance in his biography of the queen (in T. M. Davis,The Tomb of Hatshopsîtû, London, 1906, pp. 1 et seq.), made with very full knowledge of the complicated data.21This, it may be remarked, is the time vaguely represented by the Dodecarchy of Herodotus.22Khosrev Pasha afterwards filled several of the highest offices at Constantinople. He died on the 1st of February 1855. He was a bigot of the old school, strongly opposed to the influences of Western civilization, and consequently to the assistance of France and Great Britain in the Crimean War.23The work was carried out under the supervision of the Frenchman, Colonel Sève, who had turned Mahommedan and was known in Islam as Suleiman Pasha. The effectiveness of the new force was first tried in the suppression of a revolt of the Albanians in Cairo (1823) by six disciplined Sudanese regiments; after which Mehemet Ali was no more troubled with militaryémeutes.24The Dynasty of Mehemet Ali.25Part of this money was devoted to an expedition sent against Abyssinia in 1876 to avenge losses sustained in the previous year. The new campaign was, however, equally unsuccessful.26Lord Cromer, writing in 1905, declared that the movement “was, in its essence, a genuine revolt against misgovernment,” and “was not essentially anti-European” (videEgypt No. 1, 1905, p. 2).27Except in so far as it was necessary to call out men to guard the banks of the Nile in the season of high flood.28The Egyptians keep large numbers of pigeons, which are allowed to be shot only by permission of the village omdeh (head-man). After the occurrence here related, officers were prohibited from shooting pigeons in any circumstances.29On the 8th of January 1908, the anniversary of the khedive’s accession, the whole of the Denshawai prisoners were pardoned and released. For the Denshawai incident see the British parliamentary papers,Egypt No. 3andEgypt No. 4of 1906.]30SeeEgypt No. 2(1906), Correspondence respecting the Turco-Egyptian Frontier in the Sinai Peninsula (with a map).]
1By the Greek and Roman geographers Egypt was usually assigned to Libya (Africa), but by some early writers the Nile was thought to mark the division between Libya and Asia. The name occurs in Homer asΑἴγυπτος, but is of doubtful origin.
2A vivid description of Cairo during the prevalence of plague in 1835 will be found in A. W. Kinglake’sEothen.
3Akantarequals 99 ℔.
4To the ministry of public instruction was added in 1906 a department of agriculture and technical instruction.
5The place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.
6The figures of the debt are always given in £ sterling. The budget figures are in £E. (pounds Egyptian), equal to £1, 0s. 6d.
7Egypt, No. 1 (1905), p. 20.
8Similar mortality, though on a smaller scale, recurred in 1889, when Sudanese battalions coming from Suakin were detained temporarily in Cairo.
9Formerly transcribedhauor “heap”-problems.
10Clepsydras inscribed in hieroglyphic are found soon after the Macedonian conquest.
11Annual reports of the progress of the work are printed in theSitzungsberichteof the Berlin Academy of Sciences; see also Erman,Zur ägyptischen Sprachforschung, ib. for 1907, p. 400, showing the general trend of the results.
12In the temple of Philae, where the worship of Isis was permitted to continue till the reign of Justinian, Brugsch found demotic inscriptions with dates to the end of the 5th century.
13The Arabic dialects, which gradually displaced Coptic as Mahommedanism supplanted Christianity, adopted but few words of the old native stock.
14In the articles referring to matters of Egyptology in this edition, Graecized forms of Old Egyptian names, where they exist, are commonly employed; in other cases names are rendered by their actual equivalents in Coptic or by analogous forms. Failing all such means, recourse is had to the usual conventional renderings of hieroglyphic spelling, a more precise transcription of the consonants in the latter being sometimes added.
15It seems that “acrophony” (giving to a sign the value of the first letter of its name) was indulged in only by priests of the latest age, inventing fantastic modes of writing their “vain repetitions” on the temple walls.
16In the prehistoric age when absolute dating is out of reach a “sequence dating” by means of the sequence of types in pottery, tools, &c., has been proposed in Petrie’sDiospolis Parva, pp. 4 et sqq. The earliest prehistoric graves yet known are placed at S.D. 30, and shortly before S.D. 80 the period of the first historic dynasty is entered.
17Ten-day periods as subdivisions of the month can be traced as far back as the Middle Kingdom. The day consisted of twenty-four hours, twelve of day (counted from sunrise to sunset) and twelve of night; it began at sunrise.
18For the “sequence” dating (S.D.) used by archaeologists for the prehistoric period see above (§ Art and Archaeology, ad init. note).
19Reisner (Early Dynastic Cemeteries, p. 126), from his work in the prehistoric cemeteries, believes that Egypt was too uncivilized at that early date to have performed this scientific feat.
20The history of Hatshepsut has been very obscure, and the mutilations of her cartouches have been variously accounted for. Recent discoveries by M. Legrain at Karnak and Prof. Petrie at Sinai have limited the field of conjecture. The writer has followed M. Naville’s guidance in his biography of the queen (in T. M. Davis,The Tomb of Hatshopsîtû, London, 1906, pp. 1 et seq.), made with very full knowledge of the complicated data.
21This, it may be remarked, is the time vaguely represented by the Dodecarchy of Herodotus.
22Khosrev Pasha afterwards filled several of the highest offices at Constantinople. He died on the 1st of February 1855. He was a bigot of the old school, strongly opposed to the influences of Western civilization, and consequently to the assistance of France and Great Britain in the Crimean War.
23The work was carried out under the supervision of the Frenchman, Colonel Sève, who had turned Mahommedan and was known in Islam as Suleiman Pasha. The effectiveness of the new force was first tried in the suppression of a revolt of the Albanians in Cairo (1823) by six disciplined Sudanese regiments; after which Mehemet Ali was no more troubled with militaryémeutes.
24
25Part of this money was devoted to an expedition sent against Abyssinia in 1876 to avenge losses sustained in the previous year. The new campaign was, however, equally unsuccessful.
26Lord Cromer, writing in 1905, declared that the movement “was, in its essence, a genuine revolt against misgovernment,” and “was not essentially anti-European” (videEgypt No. 1, 1905, p. 2).
27Except in so far as it was necessary to call out men to guard the banks of the Nile in the season of high flood.
28The Egyptians keep large numbers of pigeons, which are allowed to be shot only by permission of the village omdeh (head-man). After the occurrence here related, officers were prohibited from shooting pigeons in any circumstances.
29On the 8th of January 1908, the anniversary of the khedive’s accession, the whole of the Denshawai prisoners were pardoned and released. For the Denshawai incident see the British parliamentary papers,Egypt No. 3andEgypt No. 4of 1906.]
30SeeEgypt No. 2(1906), Correspondence respecting the Turco-Egyptian Frontier in the Sinai Peninsula (with a map).]
EHRENBERG, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED(1795-1876), German naturalist, was born at Delitzsch in Saxony on the 19th of April 1795. After studying at Leipzig and Berlin, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1818, he was appointed professor of medicine in the university of Berlin (1827). Meanwhile in 1820 he was engaged in a scientific exploration conducted by General von Minutoli in Egypt. They investigated parts of the Libyan desert, the Nile valley and the northern coasts of the Red Sea, where Ehrenberg made a special study of the corals. Subsequently parts of Syria, Arabia and Abyssinia were examined. Some results of these travels and of the important collections that had been made were reported on by Humboldt in 1826; and afterwards Ehrenberg was enabled to bring out two volumesSymbolae physicae(1828-1834), in which many particulars of the mammals, birds, insects, &c., were made public. Other observations were communicated to scientific societies. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt through eastern Russia to the Chinese frontier. On his return he gave his attention to microscopical researches. These had an important bearing on some of the infusorial earths used for polishing and other economic purposes; they added, moreover, largely to our knowledge of the microscopic organisms of certain geological formations, especially of the chalk, and of the modern marine and freshwater accumulations. Until Ehrenberg took up the study it was not known that considerable masses of rock were composed of minute forms of animals or plants. He demonstrated also that the phosphorescence of the sea was due to organisms. He continued until late in life to investigate the microscopic organisms of the deep sea and of various geological formations. He died in Berlin on the 27th of June 1876.
Publications.—Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen(2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1838);Mikrogeologie(2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1854); and “Fortsetzung der mikrogeologischen Studien,” inAbhandl. der k. Akad. der Wissenschaft(Berlin, 1875).
Publications.—Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen(2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1838);Mikrogeologie(2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1854); and “Fortsetzung der mikrogeologischen Studien,” inAbhandl. der k. Akad. der Wissenschaft(Berlin, 1875).
EHRENBREITSTEIN,a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine, facing Coblenz, with which it is connected by a railway bridge and a bridge of boats, on the main line of railway Frankfort-on-Main-Cologne. Pop. (including the garrison) 5300. It has an Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, a Capuchin monastery, tanneries, soap-works and a considerable trade in wine. Above the town, facing the mouth of the Mosel, on a rock 400 ft. high, lies the magnificent fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, considered practically impregnable. The sides towards the Rhine and the south and south-east are precipitous, and on the south side, on which is the winding approach, strongly defended. The central fort or citadel is flanked by a double line of works with three tiers of casemate batteries. The works towards the north and north-east end in a separate outlying fort. The whole forms a part of the system of fortifications which surround Coblenz.
The site of the castle is said to have been occupied by a Roman fort built in the time of the emperor Julian. In the rith century the castle was held by a noble named Erembert, from whom it is said to have derived its name. In the 12th century it came into the possession of Archbishop Hillin (de Fallemagne) of Trier, who strengthened the defences in 1153. These were again extended by Archbishop Henry II. (de Fénétrange) in 1286, and by Archbishop John II. of Baden in 1481. In 1631 it was surrendered by the archbishop elector Philip Christopher von Soetern to the French, but was recovered by the Imperialists in 1637 and given to the archbishop elector of Cologne. It was restored to the elector of Trier in 1650, but was not strongly fortified until 1672. In 1688 the French bombarded it in vain, but in 1759 they took it and held it till 1762. It was again blockaded in 1795, 1796 and 1797, in vain; but in 1799 they starved it into surrender, and at the peace of Lunéville in 1801 blew it up before evacuating it. At the second peace of Paris the French paid 15,000,000 francs to the Prussian government for its restoration, and from 1816 to 1826 the fortress was reconstructed by General E. L. Aster (1778-1855).