=Ægyptii=, the inhabitants of Egypt. _See:_ Ægyptus. =Ægyptium mare=, that part of the Mediterranean sea which is on the coast of Egypt. =Ægyptus=, son of Belus, and brother to Danaus, gave his 50 sons in marriage to the 50 daughters of his brother. Danaus, who had established himself at Argos, and was jealous of his brother, who, by following him from Egypt into Greece, seemed envious of his prosperity, obliged all his daughters to murder their husbands the first night of their nuptials. This was executed; but Hypermnestra alone spared her husband Lynceus. Even Ægyptus was killed by his niece Polyxena. _See:_ Danaus, Danaides, Lynceus. Ægyptus was king, after his father, of a part of Africa, which from him has been called Ægyptus. _Hyginus_, fables 168, 170.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 21.――――An extensive country of Africa, watered by the Nile, bounded on the east by Arabia, and on the west by Libya. Its name is derived from Ægyptus brother to Danaus. Its extent, according to modern calculation, is 180 leagues from north to south, and it measures 120 leagues on the shore of the Mediterranean; but at the distance of 50 leagues from the sea, it diminishes so much as scarce to measure seven or eight leagues between the mountains on the east and west. It is divided into lower, which lies near the Mediterranean, and upper, which is towards the south. Upper Egypt was famous for the town of Thebes, but Lower Egypt was the most peopled, and contained the Delta, a number of large islands, which, from their form, have been called after the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. This country has been the mother of arts and sciences. The greatest part of Lower Egypt has been formed by the mud and sand carried down by the Nile. The Egyptians reckoned themselves the most ancient nation in the universe [_See:_ Psammetichus], but some authors make them of Æthiopian origin. They were remarkable for their superstition; they paid as much honour to the cat, the crocodile, the bull, and even to onions, as to Isis. Rain never or seldom falls in this country; the fertility of the soil originates in the yearly inundations of the Nile, which rises about 25 feet above the surface of the earth, and exhibits a large plain of waters, in which are scattered here and there the towns and villages, as the Cyclades in the Ægean sea. The air is not wholesome, but the population is great, and the cattle very prolific. It is said that Egypt once contained 20,000 cities, the most remarkable of which were Thebes, Memphis, Alexandria, Pelusium, Coptos, Arsinoe, &c. It was governed by kings who have immortalized themselves by the pyramids they have raised and the canals they have opened. The priests traced the existence of the country for many thousand years, and fondly imagined that the gods were their first sovereigns, and