is nominally a dependency of Turkey under a native government, but is in reality controlled by the British, who exercise a veto on its financial policy, and who, since 1882, have occupied the country with soldiers.  The noble monuments and relics of her ancient civilisation, chief amongst which are the Pyramids, as well as the philosophies and religions she inherited, together with the arts she practised, and her close connection with Jewish history, give her a peculiar claim on the interested regard of mankind.  Nothing, perhaps, has excited more wonder in connection with Egypt than the advanced state of her civilisation when she first comes to play a part in the history of the world.  There is evidence that 4000 years before the Christian era the arts of building, pottery, sculpture, literature, even music and painting, were highly developed, her social institutions well organised, and that considerable advance had been made in astronomy, chemistry, medicine, and anatomy.  Already the Egyptians had divided the year into 365 days and 12 months, and had invented an elaborate system of weights and measures, based on the decimal notation.

EGYPTIAN NIGHT, such as in Egypt when, by judgment of God, a thick darkness of three days settled down on the land.  See Exodus x. 22.

EGYPTIANS, THE, of antiquity were partly of Asiatic and partly of African origin, with a probable infusion of Semitic blood, and formed both positively and negatively a no inconsiderable link in the chain of world-history, positively by their sense of the divinity of nature-life as seen in their nature-worship, and negatively by the absence of all sense of the divinity of a higher life as it has come to light in the self-consciousness or moral sense and destiny of man.

EGYPTOLOGY, the science, in the interest of ancient history, of Egyptian antiquities, such as the monuments and their inscriptions, and one in which of late years great interest has been taken, and much progress made.

EGYPTUS, the brother of Danaues, whose 50 sons, all but one, were murdered by the daughters of the latter.  See DANAUeS.

EHKILI, a dialect of S. Arabia, interesting to philologists as one of the oldest of Semitic tongues.

EHRENBERG, a German naturalist, born in Delitsch; intended for the Church; devoted himself to medical studies, and graduated in medicine in 1818; acquired great skill in the use of the microscope, and by means of it made important discoveries, particularly in the department of infusory animals; contributed largely to the literature of science (1795-1878).

EHRENBREITSTEIN (5) (i. e. broad stone of honour), a strongly fortified town in Prussia, on the Rhine, opposite Coblentz, with which it has communication by a bridge of boats and a railway viaduct; the fortress occupies the summit of the rock, which is precipitous; is about 500 ft. high, and has large garrison accommodation.