"COPYRIGHT BY THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY, CHICAGO"

Reproduced for our Members through the courtesy of
The Newberry Library, Chicago

This illuminated manuscript represents the work done by French monks in the early part of the fourteenth century. The border, containing as it does many grotesque figures scattered through its foliage, indicates this, as also the style of the faces in the miniature work. This is taken from one of the many "Book of Hours" and was the page used for the "Sext Hour," a full description of illuminated manuscript will be found Part IX, page 101.

THE WORLD'S
PROGRESS

WITH
ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS
FROM MASTERPIECES OF
EGYPTIAN, HEBREW, GREEK,
LATIN, MODERN EUROPEAN
AND AMERICAN
LITERATURE
FULLY ILLUSTRATED

EDITORIAL STAFF

VOL. I

THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY

Copyright 1913
by
THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY
Chicago

COMPOSITION, ELECTROTYPING, PRINTING
AND BINDING BY THE
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
Hammond, Indiana

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.

[Click here for a larger size of the map]

FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I.

THE DELPHIAN COURSE
OF READING

wo thousand years before the sight of a new world burst upon the view of the Genoese mariner, there existed in north-central Greece a sanctuary famous in three continents. Located in mountainous Phocis, in a natural amphitheater, overhung by frowning rocks and reached only through mysterious caves, was the Oracle of Delphi. Here in remote times Apollo was believed to reveal his wishes to men through the medium of a priestess, speaking under the influence of vaporous breath which rose from a yawning fissure. Her utterances were not always coherent and were interpreted to those seeking guidance by Apollo's priests.

As its fame spread, the number of visitors to Delphi increased. More priests were needed to counsel and advise. Although the first blind faith in earlier deities lessened, the prestige of Delphi was nevertheless preserved. Apollo's priests became better versed in the affairs of Greece and the surrounding countries; their assistants became familiar with all vital issues, and thus intelligent replies were given to unceasing inquiries. In time the Greek divinities were almost forgotten and Christianity became the state religion, yet the Oracle of Delphi continued to draw men unto it until the fifth Christian century.

Ancient writers have left us abundant accounts of journeyings made thither by potentates and kings, and have described at length the rich offerings left by them in gratitude. The humble were seldom mentioned by early writers and it remained for the last few years to bring to light little leaden tablets—valueless from the standpoint of plunderers, earth-covered and revealed only by the excavator's spade—silent testimonials of appeals made to the oracle by the common people.

It is difficult for us today to understand the powerful influence which the Delphian Oracle exercised for a thousand years in Greece. This might fittingly be compared to that wielded by the Church in the Middle Ages. Here questions of international importance were brought, policies determined, and the balance delicately turned for peace or war. Nor were questions of the humblest slighted. Any interference on the part of one state designed to deny citizens of another free access to Delphi precipitated serious trouble.

There is no doubt but that implicit faith directed the first visitors to Delphi and beyond question this faith to some extent survived. The peasant accepted literally the presence of deity as many a worshipper today regards the statue, not as a symbol, but as the very Christ. However, there have been in all ages the discerning who have distinguished between the symbol and that symbolized, and certainly the keen, alert Greeks did not remain blind adherents of antiquated conceptions. The wisdom of the Delphian priests was revered and their judgments accepted much in the same way as were those of the seers who taught the children of Israel at the city gates. The Oracle of Delphi became potent—a name with which to conjure.

We know full well today that no priestess upon a tripod can reveal to us the secrets of the future. A thorough understanding of the past must be the safest guide for coming years. No vapor can inspire sudden revelations—the result only of faithful effort and earnest thought. Yet the story of the ancient oracle charms us still and when a name was sought for a national organization, that had for its avowed purpose the promotion of educational interests in a continent, none was deemed more suitable than that which for so many years cast its gracious spell from one sea to another.

Each new decade brings new needs, and the conditions of fifty years ago were wholly different from those confronting us today. Ours is an age characterized by intensity, strenuous effort and tireless exertion. Leisure seems to have disappeared from our national life and to be remembered only when reviewing pleasant stories of other times. Educators complain that we are neglecting the wisdom of the past—that the enduring thoughts of men as preserved to us in their writings have ceased to be familiar. The thoughtful deplore the loss of culture, courtesy and old-time chivalry. Frequently the critics fail to look beneath the surface for reasons leading to the very evident result. The truth is that in no previous age have the hearts of people been more sensitive to injustice, more united for fair dealing between man and man, more eager for the best the world can offer. But we are living in a transition period; social and industrial conditions have not yet crystallized in their new forms sufficiently to permit the wider opportunity for cultivation and reflection which must necessarily overtake us in time.

At present people accumulate fine libraries and rarely read them; for their shelves they seek the best—for their diversion the lightest and most transient literature. Few are there who do not dream of a happy time when it shall be their delight to browse among their books and find companionship in them. Still the years fly by relentlessly and many who are not mere theorists are sounding a warning: This time so fondly anticipated will never come to many of the present generation; seize today; snatch a brief moment for the consideration of enduring thoughts; do not merely provide for the temporal wants and leave the soul famishing. Dr. Eliot, late president of Harvard, in repeated lectures and addresses has voiced this crying need.

"From the total training during childhood there should result in the child a taste for interesting and improving reading, which should direct and inspire its subsequent intellectual life. That schooling which results in this taste for good reading, however unsystematic or eccentric the schooling may have been, has achieved a main end of elementary education; and that schooling which does not result in implanting this permanent taste has failed. Guided and animated by this impulse to acquire knowledge, and exercise his imagination through reading, the individual will continue to educate himself all through life. Without that deep-rooted impulsion he will soon cease to draw on the accumulated wisdom of the past and the new resources of the present, and, as he grows older, he will live in a mental atmosphere which is always growing thinner and emptier. Do we not all know many people who seem to live in a mental vacuum—to whom, indeed, we have great difficulty in attributing immortality, because they apparently have so little life except that of the body? Fifteen minutes a day of good reading would have given any one of this multitude a really human life."[1]

To meet this condition, which prevails throughout the length and breadth of our land, to stimulate a deeper interest, quicken a latent appreciation and facilitate the use of brief periods of freedom for self-improvement, the Delphian Society was organized and the Delphian Course of Reading made possible.

Believing that only a comprehensive course could meet the requirements of the day and prove acceptable to a large number of people, the Delphian Society has included those subjects which are now offered in the curriculums of our leading colleges and universities—history, literature, philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, art, ethics, music. Mathematics, being in its higher forms essential to few, has been omitted; languages, requiring the aid of a teacher, and such sciences as make laboratories necessary, are not included. None of these subjects possess purely cultural qualities. Technical information has no place whatever in such a scheme. The branches of human interest which remain are those of vital importance to everyone.

Not only is the list of subjects widely inclusive, but the method of treatment has been carefully considered. Finding the beginnings of most modern activities in antiquity, the Delphian Course presents the gradual unfoldment of each subject from earliest times to our own. The distance between an imitation of the hunt, as found among the diversions of primitive people, and a modern play is great, and yet no complete idea of the latter can be acquired without some conception of dramatic origins. The crude picture drawn upon the sooty hide which formed a hut in early times and the crowning masterpiece of a Raphael present extremes, and yet he who would follow the gradual growth of painting realizes that each has its place in the progress of art. Only in comparatively recent times has the value of each link which form the long chain of development been understood. No amount of heterogenous reading can compare with the systematic tracing of one subject from its early manifestations to its present forms.

Correlation of topics presents wonderful possibilities. If we become interested, for example, in society as portrayed in the earliest English novels, how much more shall we then appreciate the canvases of Hogarth, which depict the same social conditions. If the age of idealism in literature be under consideration, the productions of contemporaneous artists grow to have for us a new significance.

It is a mistake to imagine that relaxation and diversion are obtainable only from reading matter of the day. Oscar Kuhms calls attention to the fact that "to spend hours over illustrated magazines, Sunday newspapers, and the majority of popular novels, has very little to do with the art of reading in its larger sense." To a far greater extent than is generally imagined, the inordinate reading of magazines accounts for the host of superficial readers of our generation. To see how temporary is their interest one needs only to examine journals three or four years old.

The pleasures of travel may be greatly enhanced by definite knowledge of countries visited—their recorded past, the manner of life of those who dwelt within them and those now populating them; ruins, old temples, surviving art, make slight appeal to those wholly unfamiliar with the ages that produced them. The enjoyment of a play is more poignant for the one who has in mind the changes which plays and playhouses have witnessed. There is something impressive in the thought that for ages audiences have been thus held spellbound. Four centuries before the Christian era imposing dramas and keenly satirical comedies were given before larger assemblies than modern theatres could accommodate. Only in modern times has a curtain separated the players and spectators. Formerly the favored sat upon the stage itself; in the Elizabethan playhouse the majority stood throughout an entire performance. Sentences in Shakespeare's plays are meaningless without taking these facts into account. Some extended acquaintance with pictures would put an end to comments made not infrequently by critics that the spectacle of groups of people today in attendance upon an art exhibit supplies an astonishing sight. The majority—so it has been stated—find a number in their catalogues, search frantically about for a picture so designated, and when they discover it, sigh with satisfaction and begin the search for another—"for all the world as though they were indulging in a simple hunting game!" Why Raphael painted so many Madonnas, why Watteau seems to have known only the gay and carefree—these are simple questions which many might find perplexing to adequately explain.

The traveler whose time in a foreign land is limited does not seek the commonplace and unattractive; he does not try to compass all a city might have to show in the brief period he can spend there; rather, he obtains the guidance of those more familiar with the locality, and gives his attention to the best it has to offer. So if our time for reading and self-improvement must be brief, we shall find small satisfaction in wasting it blindly searching for what may satisfy. Educators are usually less pressed by insidious cares and more free to give their devotion to favorite subjects.

It is a mistake to suppose one reads chiefly for information. We read to develop our insight into the mystery of life; to gain an individual viewpoint; to establish our standards of conduct and modify our standard of judgment. Reading which is mere diversion can never bestow this power.

If those adopting the Delphian Course as the basis of their reading find that with its aid they are enabled to accomplish more satisfying results; if they finally discover that with its guidance one can make more intelligent use of his own library; if a love for things worth while—the lasting and enduring thoughts and sentiments of men—increases, and the desire for wider knowledge is aroused—the hopes and ambitions of the Delphian Society shall have been largely realized.

[1] Eliot: Educational Reform.

PRIMITIVE DRAWING OF MAN.

PREHISTORIC MAN

he word prehistoric means, literally, before history begins, and by prehistoric man we mean those human beings who lived upon the earth before records were kept. History, properly so called, does not begin until civilization is reached. The roaming of savage people over land in search of food has little or no importance for the student of history, although knowledge of a people in its savage state may throw some light upon its future development. While prehistoric ages are the concern of the archaeologist rather than the historian, we shall find that historic ages owe a great debt to prehistoric ages, and with this aspect of the matter the historian has deep interest.

The science of geology teaches us that the earth has not always possessed its present familiar appearance. On the contrary, countless years were consumed in molding it to its present shape, and even yet it is undergoing constant change. It is supposed that in the beginning all was a chaotic heap of Matter. In the words of a familiar story: "The earth was not solid, the sea was not liquid, nor the air transparent. All lay in confusion."

In some mysterious way,—that nobody understands—Motion was started in this chaotic whole. Gradually the mass became more and more compact; at the same time it became very hot. Revolving on an imaginary axis, the mass grew rounder and rounder, flattening slightly at the poles, or the ends of the axis. Gradually the surface of the mass cooled, and cooling, formed the earth's crust. Because it did not cool evenly, but shrunk to fit the still molten mass, this surface or crust was left with deep crevasses and high ridges. This marked irregularity was further increased by mighty upheavals caused by pressure of heat from within. Thus were many of the mountains formed.

This process, so slightly indicated here, extended over a vast period of time. It is supposed that later, for a protracted period, rain fell. When the age of rain had passed, the deep depressions in the earth's surface were left filled with water—our present oceans and some of the seas. It would be impossible for us to review rapidly all the stages through which the earth passed in its making. Suffice it to say that conditions upon it were not always favorable to life as we know it. In course of long geological ages—perhaps millions and millions of years—forests of trees, plants, shrubs and flowers sprang up and covered the bare earth. Last of all, probably, man appeared. How all these things came about no one understands, but it is generally accepted that they occurred in an order similar to that just given. It would be useless for us to inquire into all the reasons that have led to these conclusions, but the most important one has been evidences within the earth itself.

Men who work deep down in mines know that as they descend lower and lower, the temperature rises, until there is a noticeable difference between the temperature at the entrance of a mine and at its lowest point. Moreover, not infrequently volcanoes pour forth streaming lava, smoke and fire accompanying the eruption. While such evidences lead to the conclusion that the temperature of its interior is very high, still there are many reasons for believing that the earth is a solid mass. From the examination of the various earth strata, their composition and the evidences each bears of the conditions under which it was formed, we learn of periods of rain, heat and cold prevailing. All these facts belong to the realm of geology however, and concern us here only as they have concerned the progress of mankind. These same earth layers or strata which preserve eloquent testimony regarding the earth's development, contain also remains of prehistoric men—men who lived in the far away time before records were made and of which the rocks alone give testimony.

Of the beginnings of the human race we know nothing. Many scientists, notably Darwin and his followers, have sought to show that man evolved from some lower animal life, in a way similar to that in which we find some plant or flower perfected from inferior origin. Whether the theory of man's evolution from some lower animal will ever be shown to be true the future alone can tell. Nevertheless the scholarly world today has generally accepted the evolutionary view of life and the world.

Buried within the earth along river-beds, around cliffs, in mounds and many other places, have been found remains of primitive man. While the beginnings of the human race, as has been said, are utterly unknown, the earliest stage of which we have knowledge has been called the Paleolithic Age,—the age of the River-drift Man.

Whether we accept the theory of man's evolution from the lower animal kingdom or not, we must admit that the earliest Paleolithic people of whom we have knowledge differed but little from the wild beasts. They lived in caves along rivers,—natural retreats where wild animals might have taken refuge. They lived on berries, roots, fish and such small game as they could kill by blows. They did not cook their food, but devoured raw meat much as did the wild beasts. They did not even bury their dead. From the stones accessible to them they selected their weapons, chipping them roughly. The crude weapons of this period have given it the name of the Rough Stone Age.

The Paleolithic man, or man of the Rough Stone age, did not try to tame the beasts he encountered. He stood in great fear of those with whose strength he was not able to combat. He feared especially strange beings like himself, and with his family dwelt apart from others so far as possible. He did not plant nor gather stores for the future; thus when food failed in his vicinity, he was obliged to roam on until he came upon a fresh supply of acorns, berries, roots and small animals. Any cave served for his dwelling. He protected himself from cold by a covering made from the skin of the beast he had slain. He had few belongings and these were scarcely valued, being easily replaced.

It is not difficult to see why the man of the Rough Stone Age preferred to live by the side of some river. In early times, before paths were worn through the forests, travel was easiest along the river bed. Food was more abundant here, for fish inhabited the streams and thither also animals came to drink, and in the reeds by the river's side, birds and wild fowl breeded. Moreover, man was a timid creature and feared to venture far inland.

From all this we see that man in his primitive state gave little promise of his future development. For how long a time he continued in this stage, we cannot estimate. Yet we find a decided improvement in the latter part of this Paleolithic Age, for fire and its uses became known. This brought about a wonderful change.

The man of the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age was followed by the man of the Neolithic Age—the cliff dweller. He exchanged a home by the river for one higher up; secure in some elevated cliff, the Neolithic man lived, away from molesting beasts. Again, the stone weapons were greatly improved. No longer were they rough; on the contrary, they were now polished smooth. Ingenious from the beginning, man found that sharp edges of stone were more useful than blunt ones, that smooth handles were more convenient than irregular stones with no handles at all. For this reason, this period has been called the Smooth Stone Age. Other improvements no less momentous had been wrought. Food was now cooked, and as a result, man grew a little less ferocious. He had less fear of the wild beasts than before, and domesticated some of them. No longer was he wholly dependent upon such food as nature provided, for he had learned how to sow grain and gather it. He had learned how to fashion bowls and other receptacles of clay. He now buried his dead with weapons and other useful articles, proving that he believed that the dead still had need of such things. We must not, however, suppose that he believed in immortality, for the evidence shows that his conception of a hereafter was very vague. In most cases the care for and fear of the dead ceased a few years after their burial. Before the close of this period men had journeyed far from abject savagery.

Finally we come to the Metal—sometimes called the Bronze—Age. The discovery of metal proved the greatest boon, for now it was possible to make sharp tools and weapons. Hitherto the mere cutting down of a tree had taken a prodigious time. With a bronze ax, it could be quickly accomplished. Progress made rapid strides after this invaluable discovery. Nor this alone. Having learned to domesticate the beasts, men passed from a purely hunting into a pastoral stage. Having learned to reap and sow, it became convenient to have a fixed habitation. Instead of dwelling apart, it proved safest to settle in hamlets or villages. In other words, man had become civilized, and with the dawn of civilization we find the dawn of history.

From this cursory view of the three important stages in prehistoric times, it is possible to derive mistaken notions. For example, there was never a time when stone was the only material available to man. Wood, ivory and shell were probably always known and frequently procurable. Neither is it to be supposed that each of these periods broke off abruptly or that they extended over all lands simultaneously. Quite on the contrary, stages in human development are never abrupt, and changes come about unnoticed. In nature results are slowly attained and there are no sharp distinctions between them. The three divisions of Rough and Smooth Stone and Metal Ages refer to conditions of progress—not to periods of time. The Egyptians had passed through all three stages before the dawn of history; the American Indians were in the Smooth Stone Age when Columbus discovered America; and in Central Australia there are tribes today just emerging from the Smooth Stone period. The rapidity with which a tribe passes from one to another of these stages depends upon the natural conditions of the country, contact with outside peoples and many other factors.

When written records enable us to weigh the true and the false, to sift out fact from fiction and legend from verified event, several nations had come into possession of a very fair degree of civilization. They had settled homes in towns and villages, recognized some form of government, understood the uses of fire, planted crops and garnered them, spun, wove and made pottery; they had attained considerable skill in the working of metals, had domestic animals and cultivated plants; they possessed a spoken, and sometimes a written, language and had attained no little skill in decorative art. A rich legacy was this for historic ages. Surely there is interest for the historian in this remote time that lies clouded still by much uncertainty. Let us consider some of these more important attainments and try to see how naturally men grew to master them and how in obscure ages the human race travelled so far on the high road to progress.

Discovery of Fire.

We have already noted that there was a time when fire was unknown. How then could the Paleolithic man, thrown wholly upon his own observation and resources, come upon this discovery, which was to work such changes for the future? Only from his observance of natural phenomena. When storms swept over desert and plain, vivid lightning flashed, and occasionally some tree was struck by the bolt and flamed up, greatly to the astonishment and alarm of the unknowing mind. At other times, volcanic eruptions occurred, and dry leaves and forests caught on fire from flying cinders. In the natural course of events, men soon found that the warmth of burning wood was agreeable, that fire at night allowed them to keep watch over possible invaders—whether man or wild beasts—and that the interior of a tree's trunk could be more easily removed by burning than by laborious scraping out with stone implements. Having once tasted roasted flesh, a desire for cooked food was probably developed. Such a valued possession as fire proved, needed to be carefully tended, and when it was exhausted, human ingenuity set to work to create it anew. It is not unlikely that sparks occasionally struck out from flint when it was being chipped into shape for a weapon or implement. Necessity and desire have always worked wonders, and primitive man learned shortly to produce the vital spark, both by friction and by drilling.

Having mastered the art of fire-making, many innovations were consequent upon it. Some fixed habitation was necessary if the coals were to be kept covered from day to day, and from meal to meal. Cooked foods gradually took the place of raw ones; in cold weather the family grew to gather around the fire, where meals were prepared and warmth was to be found. When the family, clan or tribe removed to a new home, coals were carried to kindle the fire upon the new hearth. When men journeyed abroad in the night, they carried torches to guide them; when they labored at home, fire grew indispensable for baking their clay pottery, smelting their ore, and manifold purposes.

While fire became one of man's aids, it wrought a decided change in the position of woman. Before its discovery, man and woman had probably gone side by side, sharing alike dangers and hardships. With its acquisition, some one was required to stay to watch lest it go out, and thus was developed the fireside and the home. "The fire has made the home. We have heard much in these later days about woman's position. We are assured that she has not all her rights. Now, there can be little doubt that the primitive woman had all her rights. It is probable that she was as free as her husband to kill the wild beasts, catch fish, fight her savage neighbors, eat the raw meat which she tore by main strength from the carcass of the lately slain beast. The beginning of woman's slavery was the discovery of the fire. The value of fire known and the need of feeding it recognized, it became necessary that someone should stay by it to tend it. Notwithstanding the fact that woman had all her rights and was free to come and go as she would, it was still true that, on account of children and certain physical peculiarities, the woman was more naturally the one who would remain behind to care for the feeding of the flame. Before that, men and women wandered from place to place, thoughtless of the night. After that, a place was fixed to which man returned after the day's hunt. It was the beginning of the home."[1]

The House.

The man of the Paleolithic Age crept into any cave that offered shelter from the storm and molesting beasts. Such caves were plentiful along the river's bank. Here today, elsewhere tomorrow, little heed was given to the particular shelter in which he took refuge. With the possession of fire, a fixed home became desirable. Even so, caves still remain the homes of men for a long period of time.

The Neolithic man sought an abode farther away from the main highway—the river. In cliffs towering above the river bed—sometimes away from streams altogether, he scooped out a cave similar to the ones occupied by his ancestors. Thus in many countries remains are found of a race of cliff-dwellers. In ancient Greece, for example, have been found evidences of people living thus, and Indians in Mexico and Arizona three thousand years later were discovered in similar dwellings.

With a settled life, and cultivation of the soil, man frequently was forced to provide a home for himself. The material from which he made it depended upon the resources of the locality. In Egypt and Babylonia, sun-baked mud huts afforded the simplest, least expensive structures, both in point of time and labor. Among pastoral tribes, tents formed of animal skins sewed together were easiest to provide. This was the usual shelter also of the American Indians and other hunting tribes. The Laplander found cakes of ice suited for his home, while man in the tropics quickly constructed a shelter from the huge palm leaves, available on every hand.

"Of all places for studying construction of huts, Africa is the very best. There one may see samples of everything that can be thought of in the way of circular houses; built of straw, sticks, leaves, matting; of one room or of many; large or small; crude or wonderfully artistic and carefully made. They may be permanent constructions to be occupied for years or temporary shelter for a single night; they may consist of frameworks made of light poles over which are thrown mats or sheets of various materials and which after using can be taken apart, packed away, and transported."[2]

From lightly built, temporary dwellings, it was but a short step to the more substantial, more enduring ones. Stone houses, dwellings made of timber and of brick, as the country afforded, replaced the earlier homes, and when written records bring the full light of knowledge upon the life of nations, in the matters of constructing dwelling places, several peoples had become proficient.

Food.

It would be difficult to discover any plant or animal life which had not served at some period for food. Primitive man knew nothing about harmful plants, and only by long experience did he learn to avoid such as worked him woe. No insect or animal is so repulsive but that it has been appropriated by the food-hunter in some age and country, and things today which we would refuse in time of distress were used as a matter of course by earlier people.

Nature supplied acorns, berries, roots, fruits, fish and plenty of game. All these articles were at first eaten in their native state. When fire became well known, cooked foods grew in favor. It is supposed that these were at first roasted. To suspend meat over a fire or make a large opening in the ground, cover the floor with stones, heat these very hot, then remove the fire and bake the food, these are the most primitive—as well, perhaps, as the most satisfactory—ways known to us. Boiling was probably a later method, and this was not done as we boil food today. Rather, stones were heated very hot and tossed into kettles of water. In this way the water was brought to a boiling point and the food cooked.

Cultivated Plants.

Before men learned to cultivate plants and to domesticate animals, subsistence was always an uncertain matter. They roamed about in one vicinity until nature could no longer supply their needs, then left the exhausted land to recover itself while new territory afforded means for satisfying hunger. After fire became such a potent factor, as we have seen, a fixed abode was desirable. It fell to the lot of women to stay and tend the hearth. Shut off from the long expeditions undertaken by men, they soon learned to make as much as possible of the space around about their homes. Sticks were sometimes placed around plants or bushes to protect them from the careless step until their fruits matured. Occasionally plants were dug up and replanted nearer the hut. The garden and grain field were but natural results of this spirit of husbanding the stores provided by mother earth.

While women were the first to domesticate plants in the simple way just indicated, not much came of it until men adopted the idea and carried it further. With sharp sticks they scratched the soil and with the help of animals they trod in the seeds. Irrigation was sometimes needed—as in Egypt—to insure good crops. Thus from slight beginnings developed the agriculture of the world. With reasonable labor and painstaking, the tiller of the soil could be sure of a living for himself and his family, and before historic records illumine the life of several nations, farming was well understood. Indeed it is safe to say that until very recent times methods followed by tillers of the soil in quite a number of countries advanced very little upon those of the prehistoric man.

It is interesting to trace the history of present day foods, grains, vegetables and fruits, with the attempt to ascertain where each was native. All have been greatly improved by cultivation and not alone our varieties, but even distinct fruits and plants have resulted from man's propagation. Often the original species have been vastly improved. For example, the potato was a native of Chili. Found there in the sixteenth century of our era, it was described as "watery, insipid, but with no bad taste when cooked." It is supposed that it was taken from some Spanish ship to Virginia, and in the latter part of the same century carried to Europe. Its cultivation has spread over many countries, and from a small, watery tuber it has been brought to large size, mealiness and taste agreeable to the palate. Even today it flourishes in its wild state in Chili and Peru.

The cabbage was once a weed, growing on rocks by the seashore. By man's care it has been developed to the vegetable widely used today; moreover, its blossom has been exaggerated until a wholly new vegetable in the form of the cauliflower is the result.

"When we visit a vegetable garden or see fresh, attractive fruits offered in market or inspect the wonders shown upon the tables of county fairs and agricultural shows, we seldom realize how truly they are all the work of man....

"One of the most wonderful illustrations of what man can do in changing nature is seen in the case of the peach. Some time, long ago, perhaps in Western Asia, grew a wild tree which bore fruits, at the center of which were the hardest of hard pits, containing the bitterest of kernels; over this hard stone was a thin layer of flesh—bitter, stringy, with almost no juice, and which, as it ripened, separated, exposing to view the contained seed; such was nature's gift. Man taking it found that it contained two parts which might by proper treatment be made of use for food—the thin external pulp and the bitter inner pit. He has improved both. Today we eat the luscious peaches with their thick, soft, richly-flavored juicy flesh—they are one product of man's patient ingenuity. Or we take the soft shelled almond with its sweet kernel; it is the old pit improved and changed by man: in the almond, as it is raised at present, we care nothing for the pulp and it has almost vanished. The peach and almond are the same in nature; the differences they now betray are due to man."[3]

Many of the grains were known and grown by prehistoric man. Millet, wheat and barley were known in earliest recorded times in Egypt; these grains were also cultivated before historic times. Oats and rye were early plant products. Corn was native to America and unknown to the antiquity of the Old World. Several of our vegetables, such as the radish, carrot, turnip, beet and onion, were early grown for food. The lemon, orange, fig and olive were all native to Asia. Many flowers are mentioned by early writers and they too were unquestionably carefully tended in remote times. It is a subject for pleasant investigation to find out where flowers, cultivated in some countries, grow wild in others.

Domestication of Animals.

Desiring to provide food for time of want, primitive man learned to keep a wounded animal instead of at once killing it. Quite naturally it might come about that such a creature would grow less wild and become a pet. Realizing the advantage of confining animals, enclosures were probably thrown around herds of goats, deer or sheep. Ingenious man soon seized upon these half tamed beasts to help him in his work. Their use being proven, he would not rest until he had tamed them to his hand. The dog was the first dumb friend of men, accompanying them upon the hunt and aiding in bringing game to bay. The oldest friend, the dog, has also proven the most faithful of the animal kingdom. When history dawned, the dog, cow, sheep, goat, donkey, and pig were already domesticated. The horse was less commonly known in remote times. All these animals were originally small and not to be compared with their present day descendants.

Dress in Prehistoric Times.

Among primitive people dress is invariably a simple matter. In warm countries little clothing is needed, and even in colder lands, ornaments are valued above mere protection from the elements. It has been well established that love of decoration has been a powerful factor with primitive tribes, and that to this passion the habit of wearing clothing can largely be traced. Skins of wild beasts were often used by early men as protection from the cold, but it will be remembered that the Indians found by early discoverers in America were very scantily clad, although furs were available on every hand. Yet the Indian, who braved the winter's blast unclad, was eager to barter his all for glass beads, scarlet cloth, or little trinkets with which he could ornament himself. The habits of different tribes and peoples have differed considerably; some have adopted clothing earlier than others; some still go unclad. Generally speaking, we may note that during the hunting stage, if men have worn clothing except for ornamentation, it has been the skins of animals; as spinning and weaving have become known, coarse, home-made stuffs have come into use. In Egypt, linens were early woven; in northern countries, woolen stuffs were made. Feathers, furs, fabrics woven of grasses or reeds, leaves, shells, teeth, tusks and metal ornaments have held varying favor for decorative purposes.

Art.

At first thought it seems surprising that art can be ultimately traced back to the self-ornamentation of the savage; yet this is probably true. The earliest people of whom we know loved to paint their bodies; the American Indians made ready for feast or war by painting their bodies in startling colors, and the tribes lowest today in the social scale—tribes of Central Australia—have a similar practice. Dark skinned tribes have frequently painted themselves with white; fair skinned tribes with dark colors. The use of colors among primitive peoples is an interesting study, and it is significant to note that red has always been a favorite.

"Red—and particularly yellowish red—is the favorite color of the primitive as it is the favorite color of nearly all peoples. We need only observe our children to satisfy ourselves how little taste on this point has changed. In every box of water colors the saucer that contains the cinnabar red is the first one emptied; and 'if a child expresses a particular liking for a color, it is nearly always a bright dazzling red. Even adults, notwithstanding the modern impoverishment and blunting of the color sense, still, as a rule, feel the charm of red.'... It may be questioned whether the strong effect of red is called out by the direct impression of the color, or by certain associations. Many animals have a feeling for red similar to that of man. Every child knows that the sight of a red cloth drives oxen and turkeys into the most passionate excitement.... As to the primitive peoples, one circumstance is here significant above all others. Red is the color of blood, and men see it, as a rule, precisely when their emotional excitement is greatest—in the heat of the chase and of the battle. In the second place, all the ideas that are associated with the use of the red color come strongly into play—recollections of the excitement of the dance and combat. Notwithstanding all these considerations, painting with red would hardly have been so generally diffused in the lowest stages of civilization if the red coloring material had not been everywhere so easily and so abundantly procurable. Probably the first red with which the primitive man painted himself was nothing else than the blood of the wild beast or the enemy he had slain. At present most of the decoration is done with a red ochre, which is very abundant nearly everywhere, and is commonly obtained through exchange by those tribes in whose territory it is wanting."[4]

The difficulty found in this means of decoration is that it is not lasting. However skillfully the savage covers himself with solid coloring or design, a short time only and his labor is effaced. To overcome this trouble, tattooing was devised. By this means the color was placed beneath the skin and thus not subject to change. Very elaborate patterns were sometimes worked out and the man so ornamented was far more attractive in the eyes of his fellowmen.

Next to the personal adornment of primitive peoples comes the decoration of their weapons and implements and the patterns in their handicrafts, such as basketry and mattings. Generally speaking those are in imitation of nature, and more, imitation of human and animal forms. Heretofore it has not been unusual to dismiss these as merely geometrical designs. Surely they were never such in the mind of the ancient worker. He copied things that he saw around him—copied them awkwardly no doubt, but nevertheless certainly. Some of these patterns we can recognize; others defy us. For example, the waving line has been interpreted to represent the course of the serpent; the herring bone pattern originated as a copy of the feather. Sometimes the patterns copy the skin markings of some animal or serpent; sometimes they imitate the scales of a fish. Very seldom have these early artists attempted to copy plants or flowers. Sometimes the bone knife bears an excellent drawing of a bird or fish; occasionally the whole object has been given the form of some living creature, as, for example, bone needle cases have come to us which have the form of fish or birds. Shields, knives, bows and arrows, and weapons of whatever sort often bore some picture, more or less decorative. Such a picture upon an arrow enabled the savage to identify as his game some animal that died some distance from where it was wounded. Clubs and throw-sticks remain whereupon is scratched the picture of some familiar animal—a kangaroo, a snake, or a fish. But the pictures painted by primeval man were not limited to those which adorned their weapons and implements. The hide pictures, or pictures painted or scratched upon hides are very interesting. Generally the hide used for this purpose was a portion of the hut. During times when inclement weather forced the early tribesman to remain inside for shelter, it may be, merely for diversion he occupied himself by scratching some picture upon the soot-covered skin that formed his hut. A tooth or bit of flint furnished him with a tool. Or again, a piece of charcoal, snatched from the hearth, furnished him means of picturing some scene upon a fresh skin. Figures of men and animals, drawn in outline, make up the picture. Now a battle, now a hunting scene may be delineated. The Eskimo brings into his picture some of the round snow huts, with the animals which he hunts—bears, walruses, and the like. In detail and accuracy of outline the tribes still in the hunting stage greatly excel those which have developed into a settled farming people. Nor is this difficult to understand. The success of the hunter depends in no small degree upon his ability to follow the faint foot-prints of the game. He must be susceptible to many indications wholly unseen by the casual eye. The keen vision of the uncivilized hunter is well recognized. When he no longer needs this wonderful sight to accomplish his daily tasks, it disappears. For this reason we find a fidelity to nature in the pictures of the early hunting peoples which is missed in the productions of more highly developed peoples.

Finally we may gather these conclusions from the facts known of primitive art—or of art among primitive peoples. While no great masterpieces remain as models for future generations, it is among prehistoric men that art had its beginnings. Nor is it possible to sweep aside the art of this remote period, relegating it to the realm of the curious alone. Recent scholarly investigators in this field have reached far different conclusions, finding here the indications of man's artistic possibilities and the promise for the future.

"The agreement between the artistic works of the rudest and of the most cultivated peoples is not only in breadth but also in depth. Strange and inartistic as the primitive forms of art sometimes appear at the first sight, as soon as we examine them more closely, we find that they are formed according to the same laws as govern the highest creations of art.... The emotions represented in primitive art are narrow and rude, its materials are scanty, its forms are poor and coarse, but in its essential motives, means, and aims, the art of the earliest times is at one with the art of all times."[5]

Religion of Prehistoric Men.

We have found that men of earliest times had no belief in a future life. They did not even bury their dead. The man of the Smooth Stone Age had advanced greatly in this respect. He buried his dead with weapons and implements which he imagined would be as useful in the next world as they had proven during the earthly life. The question arises consequently, how did the idea of a future existence, of a soul apart from the body, have its origin among men? The answer is, through dreams and visions. We understand today that dreams frequently result from physical derangement. In early times, under the unwholesome conditions that prevailed, men dreamed more constantly and vividly than they do now. Having feasted immoderately, the man lay down to sleep. While he slept, he dreamed—dreamed perchance of a hunt that seemed very real to him. When he awakened, he related his experiences, but his companions insisted that he had not been absent. He had to explain the matter in some way, so he fancied that he was not one, but two, and that it was his other self that had been fortunate in the chase. Again, he would dream of one of his dead relatives. Not understanding the stuff that dreams are made of, or that dreams were less real than life, he inferred that his dead relative had returned to him for the time being, and that he still lived in some way. We can understand his condition the better if we think of the child who has dreamed and has been either pleased or terrified with his dream. The idea of another existence awakened, ancestor worship was a natural result.

The early man who had developed a religious sense, worshipped two different kinds of forces; the forces of nature, and his ancestors. The savage bowed down to the stick that tripped him in the forest. He could not understand how such a small object could possess power to throw him and since it apparently did possess it, he worshipped it. The sun brought light and warmth. By its presence man was benefited. Therefore, primeval man worshipped the sun.

Ancestor worship was inspired by quite different motives. If it were true that the dead lived on, then it must be possible for them to work one's weal or woe. If the dead were cared for and ministered unto, they would be appeased and would have no desire to bring trouble or misfortune upon the survivor.

The taboo held an important place in early religious beliefs and practices. A taboo is a prohibition laid upon some object or some performance, with the superstitious idea that injury will follow if the object be used or the performance done. Some of the tribes of Central Australia, today in the Smooth Stone stage of development, hold the idea that the meat of the emu may be eaten only by the elders of the tribe. For women, therefore, there is a taboo on this meat, and its use by them would be regarded as a great sacrilege. The early Hebrews had a similar taboo, recorded in the earliest set of commandments preserved by them. It was "Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk." This does not mean one of many foolish meanings worked into it, but rather that the early Hebrews for some reason had placed this taboo on kid cooked in milk. The use of beans was similarly tabooed by Pythagoras and forbidden to his followers. A study of the taboo is interesting indeed.

The totem was important to the primitive man. A totem is an animal or species of animal from which a social circle derives its origin. One clan owed its being to a black hawk, another to an eagle, and so on. No one of a clan would kill its totem, or in other words, there was a taboo placed upon the totem. Of course this taboo affected only the one clan.

Early religion consisted for the most part in certain observances—not so much in formulated beliefs. To be sure, the primeval man believed that harm would overtake him if he failed to perform certain ceremonies, but it was the performance or the refraining from the performance that was important.

Among the earliest people associated into tribes there were distinct moral requirements. There were some people who were not to be killed, except upon due provocation, while to kill those of other tribes brought great glory. Again, it was not right to lie to those of one's own tribe, but to others one might lie at all times. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," was the primitive way of viewing injury, and yet when history sheds its light upon certain nations of antiquity, some of them had already come into the transition state, where damages might be given if satisfactory to the injured. The Babylonians afford an excellent example of this condition.

Conclusion.

Each individual passes through many of the stages through which the race has come. A child may pass in a week or a month through a stage covering centuries in the development of the race, but nevertheless he experiences it clearly for the time being. The savage personified everything around him. If he struck himself against a tree, he was angry with the tree that had hurt him, and he tried to hurt the tree in revenge. The child today falls against a chair and hits the chair that hurt him. Now just as the child by such experiences, scarcely noted by others, realized far less by himself, comes into the clear vision of manhood, so by similar experiences the whole race has come to its present development. We are too prone to smile at the conceptions of the primitive world, and, grown wise with the flight of centuries, cast aside the beliefs of early ages when men adjusted themselves to life. Let us reflect then upon the attainments of prehistoric man and attempt to fathom how great a debt historic peoples owe him. In view of his achievements, we must grant that by his efforts civilization was greatly aided. The stepping stones on which he rose from abject savagery to higher things stand out sharply in spite of absence of records and scant remains. The rough pioneering had been done, in a great measure, and not alone the rudiments of civilization but evidences of culture were plainly visible at the dawn of history, properly so-called.

ABORIGINAL ROCK-CARVINGS.

[1] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 28.

[2] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 151.

[3] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 80.

[4] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 61.

[5] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 307.

EGYPTIAN AFTERGLOW.

"'Tis sunset hour on Egypt's arid plains.
Each mighty pyramid, with purpling crest,
Looms dark against the glory in the west.
Swiftly the heaven's beauty dies and wanes,
Till sudden darkness its rich splendor stains.
Then slowly, dawn-like, on the shadows rest
Faint crimsons, violets, tint to tint soft pressed;
They brighten, glow, then fade and darkness reigns."

P. F. Camp.

EGYPT

PREFATORY CHAPTER

here never was a time when men were so intensely interested in origins and development as they are today. Our biologists are studying life in all its forms, from the single cell to the highest mammal. Our psychologists are studying mind—what consciousness is; how attention, habit, memory are formed. Our physicists, not content with studying gravitation, heat, light, electricity, etc., are inquiring into the very nature of matter itself, and, together with the astronomers and geologists, are telling us not only how the earth, but also how the universe came to be. Our anthropologists, ethnologists and sociologists are just as actively and patiently inquiring into the origins of customs, institutions, law, religion, society. The historian is no longer content to rehearse a story because it is interesting; he insists upon getting at the original documents, at the facts in the case, not at theories. The savage, when asked why he observes a certain custom or performs some ceremony whose meaning he does not know, replies that his ancestors did the same. To inquire beyond this seems to him more than useless. Until the beginning of our modern scientific age the answer to similar questions among ourselves—as it still is among the Chinese, would have been, "it is written," "thus saith the Lord," "Aristotle, Plato or St. Augustine thought so and so about the matter." But today all is different. We are no longer content to know what is written, or what somebody thinks about a subject, we insist upon demonstrating or having some one demonstrate for us, the proposition put forward. We want the "facts." Our whole system of education encourages pupils to perform experiments and thus verify the statements they may find in their text-books on chemistry, physics and other subjects. It is the inductive method which gives the pupil the facts and encourages him to draw his own conclusions.

But what has Egypt to offer the modern man? Does it interest any but specialists and archaeologists? Apparently it does, for every year sees an increase of tourists in the Nile valley. It is true many go there because of the ideal climate or because it has become the fashion to do so. But if we look at the matter more closely, do we not see other, deeper reasons? Is it not true that many go because in their youth they had read about the pyramids and the wonderful temples of Egypt, and because now when they have the opportunity they desire to see these for themselves? The architect, the engineer, the contractor, all are interested in these masses of masonry. Again, when we are beginning to reclaim the desert areas in our western states, Egypt with its system of irrigation, older than history, arouses a new interest. The fact is that in spite of our practical nature, as some would put it, or rather, as we prefer to have it, because of our intensely practical nature, we are beginning to feel the necessity of inquiring into the activities of other peoples, be they past or present, not only because such inquiry will satisfy our curiosity or enliven our dull moments, but because of the lasting benefit we derive from it. We insist upon knowing the people who have achieved, who have accomplished things, and surely the pyramids alone would demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians belonged to this class.

Man attained to civilization for the first time in the Nile valley. We study the natives of Australia and Africa for social origins. It is here we can gather most information about the primitive forms of marriage and the growth of the family; about the beginnings of dress and ornament; about primitive warfare, magic, religion and early forms of tribal government. Just as we pay special attention to the development of the mind of the child in the study of psychology, so we feel that the best way to study the complex features of our civilization is to observe the simpler life of the savage. But the child becomes a man while the savage has not yet developed a civilization before our eyes. The growth of the race is slow. It is only when we are able to observe a race through a period of thousands of years that it is possible to see it grow from infancy to manhood. We can follow our own ancestors from the time they had advanced little beyond the stage of savagery, but it is to be observed that they did not develop but borrowed their civilization. Of the beginnings of the Greeks and Romans, whose civilization our ancestors took over, we know but little, but in the case of the Egyptians matters are different. We are able, by means of archaeological, monumental and inscriptional remains to follow them as they developed in the Nile valley, unassisted by any outside civilization—for none existed, the world's first great civilized state.

"It may appear paradoxical to affirm that it is in arid districts, where agriculture is most arduous, that agriculture began; yet the affirmation is not to be gainsaid but rather supported by history, and is established beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of desert organisms and organizations."[1] This lesson drawn from the life of the Papago Indians might just as well have been drawn from Egyptian life. Egypt is practically rainless, but the soil of the Nile valley, ever renewed by the silt deposited by the yearly inundation, yields enormous returns provided only man uses his energy and ingenuity. Long before our written records begin the Egyptians had developed an extensive system of irrigation. Thus by arduous toil, organized and watched over by the growing state, Egypt developed an enormous agricultural wealth—the foundation upon which her civilization was built. With Egypt it was not a question of the "conservation" but of the development of her natural resources. The Egyptian was forced to keep up a continuous struggle with nature and as a result he was always practical. Egypt has been called the mother of the mechanical arts. It is not surprising that the imaginative Greeks, when they became acquainted with the material civilization of Egypt, her pyramids and temples, her system of irrigation, her craftsmanship, conceived an exaggerated opinion of the wisdom of the Egyptians. Even today we hear surmises of "lost arts" which were used in the construction of the pyramids. But we know better. The pyramids were built by the brawn of tens of thousands of serfs, without the use, it would seem, of even a pulley; not even the roller seems to have been known. On the other hand, we have only to visit the museums here and abroad—especially the one in Cairo, to realize the marvellous skill the Egyptian workman acquired in the carving of wood, ivory and stone, and in the working of metals. Our architects are studying the products of the greatest geniuses Egyptian culture produced, and our students of design may learn many a lesson from the workmanship of her artisans.

Not long since it was not unusual to see ridicule heaped upon the theories of the "high-brows" by our farmers, manufacturers and other "practical" men. Probably our system of education was at fault. Nevertheless, these same farmers, manufacturers and other practical men are beginning to realize the importance of the researches and investigations of the specialists. We cannot hope to compete with the industries of the Germans which rest upon a scientific basis, as long as ours are conducted by "rule-of-thumb" methods. There is no better opportunity offered anywhere for observing the limitations of an exclusively practical system of education than the study of Egyptian learning.

The Egyptian regarded learning as a means to an end, and that end was never the increase of the sum of human knowledge or the advancement of humankind, but always freedom from manual labor. Next to a few folk songs, preserved in the decorations of Fifth Dynasty tombs—by mere accident, for a scribe would never have thought of preserving them, the oldest literature of the Egyptians which has come down to us consists of the precepts of Kagemni and Ptah-hotep.[2] This wisdom of the viziers of the Pharaohs of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, is similar to that of the books of instruction from all periods of Egyptian history, and consists largely of rules of conduct. The sole object of an education was to obtain a position as scribe or secretary of higher or lower rank in the government service, and this could only be done by gaining and keeping the favor of the Pharaoh or of one of his officials. These scribes never weary of telling of the superiority of their calling over that of the man who must labor with his hands, who is like a heavily laden ass driven by the scribes. Of course we too recognize the gulf fixed between the educated and the unlettered, but we try to bridge it. It is not probable that many of the laboring classes knew more than the barest elements of reading and writing. The Egyptian script was exceedingly cumbrous, and probably few would have seen any use in mastering it, even if they had had the time, unless they intended to enter upon a scribal career. Of course many such careers were open, for the elaborate bureaucratic system of administration demanded the services of a host of secretaries and overseers. In time these constituted a distinct middle class, largely recruited, we may be sure, from the laboring class below. The Egyptian was always ready to recognize and reward ability, no matter where it was found. Now a word about the limitations of such a view of education. As already indicated, the object of an education was to gain a government position. In Egypt, as elsewhere, the chief end of government, in the eyes of the officials at least, was the collection of revenues. Taxes were in kind and as a result the work of the scribe consisted in finding out the amount of the harvest and deducting the king's share. The extensive mining and building operations conducted by the Pharaohs required the services of hundreds of scribes and overseers to superintend the work and distribute the rations of the armies of workmen employed in these projects. In this work the scribe developed a remarkable facility with figures. But he never advanced beyond concrete examples. Multiplication and division in our sense of the terms were unknown to him, their places were taken by addition and subtraction. For example: to multiply seven by nine, the Egyptian scribe would proceed, 1·7=7, 2·7=14, 2·14=28, 2·28=56, etc. That is he always doubled the last figure. It was nothing but addition. He wrote his results as follows:

and then found which of the numbers of the first column added together would give the sum 9. These were 8 and 1. He then added the corresponding numbers in the second column and got the result, 56+7=63. So 50÷7 would have looked like this: 50-28=22; 22-14=8; 8-7=1. The result was (4+2+1) sevens with 1 as remainder. The Egyptian scribe could not handle fractions other than those with one as numerator. Two-thirds was the only exception. The Egyptian knew that the area of a rectangle was to be found by multiplying the two adjacent sides together, and that the area of a right angled triangle was equal to half the area of a rectangle whose base and altitude were equal respectively to the sides adjacent to the right angle. When his problem was to find the area of an isosceles triangle he applied the same rule, that is, multiplied the base by one of the sides and divided by two. Here theory might have helped him, had he been able to develop it. He never reached the conception of base and altitude. His rule for finding the area of a circle is worth mentioning. He took the diameter, subtracted one-ninth of it therefrom, and squared the result. In a word, he had not come far from the correct value of π. But the Egyptian always dealt with concrete examples, he never was able to generalize and carry his mathematics into the theoretical. As a result he never attained scientific accuracy. Not that he did not set himself difficult problems. Indeed many of them are so complicated that they required an immense amount of reckoning, by his methods, to solve. Without giving his solution, let me add one more of his problems: "A man owns 7 cats; each cat eats 7 mice daily; each mouse eats 7 ears of grain; each ear contains 7 grains; each grain gives a sevenfold return in the harvest. What is the sum of the cats, mice, ears and grains?"

The Egyptians observed the stars. They had names for all of the principal constellations; knew the circumpolar stars from those which at times disappeared below the horizon, but they never seem to have noticed the difference between fixed stars and planets. They invented a calendar with a year of 365 days as early as 4241 B.C. This was based upon the heliacal rising of Sirius (Sothis) coincident with the beginning of the inundation. But they never discovered, or if they did, never bothered about the fact that their year was one-fourth of a day too short. They were deeply interested in medicine, and their recipes prescribe everything that can be swallowed. Many of these were borrowed by the Greeks and from them have come down into the folk-medicine of modern Europe. No doubt many of their remedies were helpful, but magic always played the most important rôle in their medicine, as it does among all primitive peoples and as it did in our own until the beginning of our modern scientific age.

The progress made by the Egyptians in the development of a purer conception of religion will be discussed at length in the body of this volume, especially on pages 131 and following. The Egyptians were not far from monotheism.

But the Egyptian culture must be studied as a whole. Time was when the study of the civilization of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, together with that of the Hebrews, was regarded as a sort of introduction to the study of history, which began with the Greeks and Romans. Much was said of the immovable East. It was supposed that progress was exceedingly slow there as compared with that in the West. But our wider knowledge of the history and life of these peoples shows how false this conception was. We can trace Egyptian civilization from its beginnings in the palaeolithic and neolithic ages; see it develop from many petty states into an absolute monarchy; follow it as it emerges after a period of anarchy into a Feudal Age, and as it rises after two centuries of foreign oppression into a mighty empire pushing its southern frontier away into Nubia and its northern one to the Euphrates. Meanwhile we are not neglecting to study the economic and intellectual forces at work. Society has been developing steadily. A monotheistic religion has been growing up. But Egypt has reached her zenith and the age of decline sets in. In time she falls before foreign invasion, because she has used up her vitality. Her civilization is not to be studied as a preliminary to anything else, but as the achievement of a gifted race. Of course we are to compare her progress with that of other peoples, to see the faults of, but also to appreciate the good in, her culture.

[1] W. J. McGee, "The Beginning of Agriculture," American Anthropologist, 8, 375.

[2] See page 164.

THE SPIRAL DECORATION OF SCARABS.

EGYPT.

CHAPTER I.

Its Antiquity.

mong Old Testament stories familiar throughout the Christian World, a general favorite with boys and girls from their earliest years is the story of Joseph—a seventeen year old lad, the son of his father's later life, and most loved of all his children. In Genesis we may read how his brothers became jealous of Joseph because of Jacob's care for him, and their anger increased when the boy related a dream wherein he had seen himself exalted to high position while his family and all the world did honor to him.

His people led a pastoral life, and when the dry season came, the older brothers went away with the flocks in search of fresh pastures. Soon the father grew anxious to hear from them, and sent Joseph to locate them and then return to tell him how they fared. After some searching, Joseph drew near the flocks and was seen afar by his brothers. They were now many miles from home, and what they might do was not likely to reach the ears of those who knew them. So they plotted to kill Joseph and ascribe the deed to some wild beast. Reuben, more compassionate, urged that they should not have this awful crime upon their hands, but suggested instead that they cast him into a pit, from which plight, we are told, Reuben intended to deliver him. The others yielded to his plea, and Joseph was cast into the pit. Shortly after, a caravan came in sight, passing on its way to Egypt. At once a surer way of disposing of Joseph suggested itself—they would sell him as a slave and free themselves from further responsibility in the matter. The company of merchantmen drew nearer, journeying with their spices and their wares. To them Joseph was sold, and with them he "went down into Egypt."

His varying fortune for the next few years is briefly told. Now we see him a trusted servant, given responsibility and acquitting himself with credit; then upon false accusation, he is cast into prison, but even here he wins the confidence of his jailer. Here too, he establishes a fame for the interpretation of dreams, which ability is soon noised abroad. So widely did it become known that when the king's counsellors were unable to explain his repeated vision, from prison walls Joseph was summoned to reveal its hidden meaning. He thereupon foretold the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine through which the land of Egypt would soon pass. The king, impressed with his wisdom and sincerity, chose him steward of the realm.

All know the outcome of the tale—how Joseph soon became second in importance to the king himself, trusted, depended upon and loved; how he bought up the heavy yield of grain throughout the realm for seven years and hoarded it in "store cities," until he ceased to chronicle the amount, so vast it was. Then when the years of famine came, he sold again to those who would buy, and when their money was exhausted, he took their flocks, their lands and their slaves as security—yes, even the service of citizens was pledged to the king in exchange for food.

It was during these tedious years of want that Joseph learned of his family, when the same brothers who had done him so much injury came into Egypt to buy grain, and through his generosity they were united once more, and at his invitation brought their families to dwell near him. The king commanded that they be well provided for and they prospered and increased in number.

Years passed and Jacob died, and at last Joseph himself. Then we are told there came to the throne a king "who knew not Joseph." He looked with dismay upon a foreign people growing up within his country, whose traditions, customs, and religious beliefs were wholly unlike those of his own nation. Then followed the years of oppression when he sought to exterminate the race with relentless work and cruel persecution. Within recent years, one of the "store cities," supposed by some scholars to have been built by the Hebrews during this period of their life in Egypt, has been unearthed—verifying the account of their bondage as preserved to us in the book of Genesis.

It is difficult for us to realize the vast antiquity of Egypt. When Joseph as a seventeen year old boy came with that band of merchantmen into its borders more years had passed over its civilization than have passed since Homer told his stories of gods and heroes to the Hellenes who gathered around to hear him. The three great pyramids had stood in their majestic calm under more moons than have risen and set since Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea; and the Sphinx had watched, for how many years men cannot tell. When we come to the land of Egypt, we are appalled by its age. America was discovered about five hundred years ago; England has been inhabited for more than twenty hundred years, but Egypt counts its history back for thousands of years and loses itself in tradition and legendary periods preceding these. The story of Joseph, told in Genesis, the book of earliest Biblical tradition, records an incident early in the history of the Hebrews, but the Egyptians had already been governed by many ruling dynasties and had known the oppression of invading kings whom they had at last driven from the throne. They had built colossal structures which were to perpetuate the memories of their mighty kings as well as to provide their everlasting tombs, and these stand today the marvel of all who gaze upon their vast proportions. They had developed a complex religious system, and had reached some perfection in decorative art. Egypt had long been the granary of the civilized world and consequently of great importance from an economic standpoint. The Nile, that wonderful river which caused Herodotus to exclaim: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile!"—a sentiment quoted ever since by all who have written about the country or the river—had cut down its river bed and had already built up a rich soil in the valley by its deposits, left by the overflow of countless seasons.

We look today upon the cathedrals of Europe, standing as they have since the Norman conquest, even, in some instances antedating it, and we exclaim that the builders of these impressive edifices built for ages to come. Yet in Egypt the pyramids have stood for almost five thousand years, and it is safe to say that they will proclaim to many millenniums more, the wealth and power of the Pharaohs who raised them for their everlasting abodes. Hundreds of years dwindle in the contemplation of thousands, and these are ever before the student of Egyptian history.

Physical Geography of Egypt.

Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa. To the east lies the Isthmus of Suez—the pathway to Asia, and the Red Sea—separated by a range of mountains from the Valley of the Nile. To the south lies Nubia, and to the west stretches away for hundreds of weary miles the Sahara, the old bed of an extinct ocean.

Egypt is by no means the country it is sometimes represented to be on geographical maps. That Egypt someone has called a "geographical fiction." On the contrary, it has always consisted simply of the Nile valley and delta. It is about one-half as large again as the state of Massachusetts, containing approximately 12,000 square miles.

The Nile is unlike any river of our land. It takes its rise in a chain of lakes near the Equator. These lakes lie in a heavy rain belt and at a certain season the rainfall is so constant that the river is greatly swollen. It is joined by tributaries which in turn are overflowing with the melting snows of mountains wherein they take their rise, and altogether the main river continues so to increase that it overflows its channel and spreads out into the valley on either side.

In America we know how disastrous spring floods frequently become, but here the overflow is violent, tearing down bridges and embankments, bringing injury rather than benefit to the land. In Egypt the rise of the Nile is gradual; dwellings are built on elevations of land or on the outskirts of the valley.

Without the yearly inundation there would be no food to maintain the dense population of the country.

During the period of high water the Nile is heavily loaded with mud. When the river recedes, this fertile silt is left upon the surface of the land. This, and this alone, has made the land of Egypt different from the deserts on either side of it. And now we see how truly Herodotus spoke when he exclaimed that Egypt is the gift of the Nile. Containing about the same number of miles as our state of Maryland, for numberless years this little country has been the granary for surrounding lands. Thus may we judge of its remarkable fertility.

Much of the loam which the river has brought down has been spread over the valley, but a considerable amount has been emptied each year at the mouth of the stream, forming in course of time a delta,—so called by the Greeks from its resemblance to their letter delta. Because of its long threading valley and this delta, Egypt has sometimes been likened to a lily; the delta representing the flower and the valley the stem.

After flowing four thousand miles, the waters of the Nile find their way at last to the Mediterranean Sea, and towards this sea the land gradually slopes. Passing southward through Egypt from the Mediterranean, one journeys more than a hundred miles through the delta. This great plain has been formed entirely of the mud washed down by the mighty river. Each year for countless ages it has been extended at least eight feet farther into the sea, and thus its area continues to increase. This portion of the country, or this delta, is frequently referred to as Lower Egypt.

Continuing south, one enters the valley. This narrow strip of fertile land measures about six hundred miles from the apex, or southern extremity of the delta, to the first cataract. The bed of the Nile is very irregular in its upper course and falls over ten cataracts in its downward flow before the southern boundary of Upper Egypt is reached. In width the valley varies from one to ten miles. This portion of the country is known as Upper Egypt.

Imagine, if you can, a river flowing through a valley skirted on either side by deserts whose boundaries are so abruptly marked that one may stand with one foot in the fertile, life-producing valley, and with the other in the shifting sands of desert waste. On the east lies the Arabian desert, while the many colored peaks of a lofty mountain range form a well nigh impassable barrier between it and the Red Sea, save where famous mountain passes lead to the waters beyond.

Nubian mountains, to the south, supplied most of the gold and precious ore used by the ancient Egyptians, and were held in greatest dread by those taken in captivity, for the work within them was relentless and none ever returned when once sent to join the hopeless, heartsick throng of laborers employed by the king to develop the mines.

The Sahara west of the valley is not a flat region, but is made up of shifting sands, hills and rocks of limestone. It is plain that the Valley of the Nile was once a part of this desert, but the river, with its tremendous volume, set to work to cut down its bed. The channel, so worn down, is the present valley. "Egypt is the temporarily uncovered bed of the Nile, which it reclaims and recovers during a portion of each year, when Egypt disappears from view, save where human labor has by mounds and embankments formed artificial islands that raise their heads above the waste of waters, for the most part crowned with buildings."[1]

It is plain, as we note the nature of the land through which the great river flows, that no rich soil would be accumulated from the banks it washes in its downward course. We must look to the high tablelands where the two large tributaries, the Blue Nile and the Atbara, have their beginnings, to find the mountain loam that has given the valley a fertile soil, thirty feet in depth, and has built up the grain-producing delta, one hundred miles in length and more in breadth. Again and again we are forced to remember that Egypt is indeed the gift of the Nile.

Yearly Rise of the Nile.

This brings us back once more to the subject of the inundations. Early in June the Nile begins to rise below the first cataract. In July it has become swollen throughout its course.

The highest water mark is reached about September fifteenth. By the first of November the river begins to recede and is at low water again by the last of January, although it continues to diminish until the following June.

Nilometers are used to register the river's rise. These are wells in which the water can fluctuate freely, with a stone column in the center marked as a scale. The ell is the unit of measure, being equal to about twenty-one and one-third inches. At low water the river registers about seven ells. If during the inundation sixteen ells are reached, all Egypt is supplied with water and fine crops are assured throughout the land.

Nilometers.

From earliest times the rise of the Nile was closely watched, and nilometers, which were under the special protection of the State, constructed. Today these water gauges are under the inspection of government officials. Taxes have always been apportioned according to the amount of the inundation, and it has been to the interest of the government, naturally, that these be as heavy as possible. For this reason it has often been claimed, both in ancient and modern times, that the official report of the high water mark greatly exceeded the actual rise.

There is no rainfall in the valley and little in the delta, so whatever moisture Egypt receives must come from the Nile. The entire valley is not of equal elevation but becomes higher as it spreads out on either side, and so a vast system of irrigation must be maintained to make good crops possible. Large sums have been expended in the construction of dams, embankments and canals to contain the water after the river recedes, allowing the amount thus retained to be drawn off as it is needed. From canals it is drawn off into trenches for still higher land, and artificial means of various kinds have always been employed to lift the water from one level to another. It is estimated that tens of thousands of men and boys are constantly engaged in this elevation of water from one level to another, in order that farms throughout the valley may receive the necessary moisture and fertility. As rapidly as one crop is harvested, the soil is made ready for another, so that as many as five crops are frequently harvested in a year on a given acreage.

Influence of Topography.

With a sea on the north, mountains on the east, cataracts to the south and a desert on the west, what would be the natural effect upon the inhabitants of physical conditions such as these prevailing in the land of Egypt? They determined that the Egyptians would be left to develop their civilization unmolested for the most part by outside influences. Such physical features account for the fact that for hundreds of years that was a land, not of war, but of peace. Think for a moment what natural boundaries have meant to nations of Europe. England's isolation has been largely due to her stormy channel, while the independence of the Swiss is accounted for by their inaccessible mountain home. Austria, on the other hand, has known the disastrous effects of repeated invasions, while Poland has lost her identity and has been appropriated by her neighbors because of unfortunate situation and the lack of natural defenses.

Not only did the topography of the land surface determine the political fortunes of the ancient Egyptians in a large degree; it materially influenced the very temperament of the people. Many civilizations have developed in lands broken by hills and valleys, plains and plateaus, dotted with lakes, skirted by forests, bays, inlets and a thousand irregularities of nature. Few trees grow in Egypt and few wild flowers are found. Each spot that might have become a tangled thicket was early appropriated by the practical tiller of the soil. The valley has always supported too dense a population to permit of wilds and abandoned corners, and only that remains uncultivated which has proved too marshy for grain production. Possessing no timber suitable for ship-building, the Nile dwellers did not become sailors. Their communication from one part of the country to the other was established by means of small boats or donkey paths. Rain was scanty and mud huts sufficed to shelter the people. While constant attention was required to maintain an extensive system of irrigation, the soil was so fertile and the climate so favorable that two, three and even more crops per year were possible. Nature worked with—not against—man. "A serene temper, and a reliance in nature were fostered. A submissiveness was developed which allowed the king to turn all into a fighting people, or into a body of forced laborers." The absence of nearly all that inspires, that stimulates the energy and quickens the imagination may largely account for the placid temperament of the ancient Egyptians. Passing their lives in a land of slightly varying processes, they could imagine nothing more satisfactory for a hereafter than a shadowy land wherein they might till the soil as of yore, only water should always reach the needs of the remotest, and perplexities removed, each should complete his yearly circuit through eternity.

Prehistoric Egypt.

Long before northern Africa acquired its present land surface, made up so largely of deserts, it is believed that the portion which we call Egypt was a fertile country, visited by frequent rains. It is possible that the Nile did not exist; at least, it had not eroded its present channel, and the fertility of the soil was due to causes other than yearly inundations. This, we must remember, was many geological ages ago and cannot be computed in years at all. Remains of rude flint implements are scattered over the heights of the desert plateau to the west of the Nile valley. The people who used these lived in settlements, traces of many of which have been found; but of their relation to the later inhabitants of Egypt we know nothing. They belong to the field of archaeology rather than to history.

Climatic changes took place in Africa. Gradually the country assumed its present surface of desert and valley. It is supposed that Libyan tribes came from northwestern Africa and settled in Egypt; these were joined later by Asiatic hordes who crossed the Isthmus of Suez in search of better pastures for their flocks, or because of some shifting of the tribes in their rear. This inference, based upon the Semitic elements in the grammar and vocabulary of the language of the earliest Egyptian inscriptions, has been raised almost beyond doubt by the latest researches. From the mingling of these Asiatic tribes with others already established in western Africa, sprang, so it is believed, the early Egyptians. The Egyptians, however, like the ancient Greeks, regarded themselves as autochthonous.

Roughly speaking, prehistoric events in Egypt include all those preceding the year 4000 B.C., and our knowledge of them has been gathered from the disclosures of excavated tombs. While a discussion of the Egyptian religion will be taken up later on, some slight knowledge of it is necessary at the start.

The Egyptian of both early and later periods believed firmly in a future life, but he believed further that the future welfare of the soul depended wholly upon the preservation of the body. This belief led him to study how best to preserve the dead body, and to bring embalming to such an art that tombs opened today, after the flight of five thousand years, reveal bodies in complete states of preservation. Again, it was believed that the same needs would be felt in the future life as had been experienced during the earthly career. For this reason, foods, vessels of pottery, weapons, and even toilet preparations for personal adornment, were enclosed in the tomb. From a study of the contents of these ancient tombs most that is at present known of the ancient Egyptian has been ascertained.

When many implements furnished with ivory handles are found in these tombs, together with occasional pictures of elephants scratched on bone and bits of pottery, even those of us who are neither antiquarians nor historians might infer that the elephant was contemporaneous with the prehistoric Egyptian. Pictures of boats, of animals and men, decorating pieces of pottery, throw light upon this early civilization.

From all remains recovered in tombs antedating the year 4000 B.C. the following conclusions have been reached: these primitive people reached considerable skill in the making of pottery and stone receptacles. From copper they made knives and implements; they built very fair river boats, wove coarse fabrics, although skins of wild animals usually constituted their clothing: they hunted and fished and were to some extent an agricultural people. At this remote time Egypt was not the one united country it later became. It was composed of nomes, or districts, of which the late lists give 22 for Upper and 20 for Lower Egypt. Their number probably varied considerably during the course of Egyptian history. In early times each nome probably had been the home of an independent tribe, having its own chief and its own religious customs. Gradually, however, powerful chieftains conquered other nomes, until just before our written records begin, the two more or less compact kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were established. Throughout Egyptian history each locality held to its peculiar religious beliefs, and although there was always a state religion and a state god, dearer to the hearts of men were the deities of their own vicinity; and it is possible to trace several religions in the one composite system of later years.

By 4300 B.C. the men of the Delta had divided the year into 365 days, and again into twelve months of thirty days each, with five extra days for sacred festival. For six thousand years, then, the calendar which we use has experienced little change. Take it all in all, the Egyptians of this age had traveled far from the state of savagery.

[1] Rawlinson; Ancient Egypt, p. 6.

CLEOPATRA.

CHAPTER II.

Sources of Egyptian History.

The study of prehistoric man is largely a matter of conjecture and has little interest for any save the archaeologist and antiquarian. There is yet so much uncertainty regarding historic periods in Egypt that the general reader must leave prehistoric ages to others. Reaching authentic ages, in addition to the remains discovered within old tombs, we are aided by written records, and these fall into three classes: facts regarding Egypt as recounted in the Old Testament; writings of the Greeks; inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians themselves. The light thrown upon the subject by old Hebrew writers is slight. They chronicled the history of their own people and mentioned other nations only when in some way the Hebrews came into contact with them. Hebrew traditions, customs, and religion differing wholly from those of Egypt, at best there would have been but little understanding between them. Biblical comment upon Egyptian life is slight. In connection with the story of Joseph we find that some facts concerning the land unwittingly creep into the narrative. Modern discovery has verified such facts as are recounted, and buried and forgotten cities have been sought and located from mere mention of them in some Old Testament passage. Thus the Bible is rightly included with the sources of Egyptian history.

So far as treatment of Egypt by Greek writers is concerned, we can stop for only the most important. Best known are the works of Herodotus, who lived about five hundred years before the Christian era. He was the first to bring forward the historical style of writing and for this reason he has been called the Father of History.

Herodotus journeyed to Egypt and abode there some little time. He did not understand the language of the country and depended largely upon priests who spoke Greek for his information. He apparently believed all they told him, and likewise accepted the tales with which his guides entertained him, incorporating all their marvelous stories into his writings. Consequently much that is found in his works cannot be credited. Whatever he himself saw and understood he recounted with simplicity and truth, as recent discoveries have proved. It is easy today to point out the failings of Herodotus and to wonder that he was so ready to credit all he heard, but judged by the age in which he lived, his writings may be the better understood. We are told that portions of his works were read by him at the Olympian Games, and that those who listened received his stories with enthusiasm. To the imaginative Greeks no report was too fanciful to find credence. They delighted in the unusual and strange, and they made up the audiences for which Herodotus wrote. It is not surprising, then, that the Father of History brought back to his countrymen the unique stories he heard concerning the Egyptians—a people whose life and customs were thought by foreigners until long years after, to be deeply shrouded in mystery.

More valuable has proved the work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who wrote in Greek. He is said to have made a complete list of Egyptian kings from records preserved in the temples. This list has been lost and only portions quoted from time to time by later writers have come down to us. These fragments have been of much service to students of Egyptology. It was Manetho who divided the history of his country into three periods: the Old Empire, Middle Empire, and New Empire. He also treated the past by dynasties rather than years. These general divisions have been retained by all subsequent historians. Those who are not specialists in Egyptology are apt to be confused by the widely divergent systems of chronology found in the different histories of Egypt, or they reach the conclusion that all is uncertainty in this field. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of this difficult technical problem. Suffice it to say that in the opinion of the best scholars, Eduard Meyer, the great historian of the Ancient Orient, has said the last word on this subject. Contrary opinions notwithstanding, the accession of Menes and the beginning of the dynasties cannot be placed before 3400 B.C., nor can the beginning of the twelfth dynasty have been earlier than 2000 B.C.*

Coming lastly to monumental inscriptions, we approach the difficulties of the Egyptian language. Let us try to understand why it proved so difficult for scholars who read Hebrew, Greek and Latin, together with some older tongues, to comprehend the language of the Nile dwellers.

In prehistoric times the Egyptians understood one another but it was long before they had any means of expressing their thoughts in writing. It may have occurred to them finally that the pictures which they drew for decorative purposes might be used to convey messages, and thus they began to express simple meanings, using pictures rather than symbols. Sometimes to make doubly sure the meaning of several pictures, they added another which combined the meaning of all into one. These added pictures have been called determinitives, and the pictures used to convey meanings in this way are known as hieroglyphics. There was something very attractive and decorative about this method of writing by thus picturing out stories, and it was used extensively in tombs and temples. It became too elaborate, however, for daily use, and gradually only the main outlines of the original pictures were used to represent the idea or word. This system of writing was more practical for constant, everyday needs than the more ornamental hieroglyphics. It is known as the hieratic writing. Finally, late in the history of Egypt, these hieratics were very much abbreviated, mere dots and lines being substituted. This cursory system is known as demotic writing. It was adopted by the people generally, and might perhaps be compared to modern shorthand. To make the whole more complicated still, all three methods were used for different purposes contemporaneously.

Hundreds of years passed; the language of the ancient Egyptians was forgotten and so, indeed, were the people themselves. In modern times the learning of ancient peoples was revived and their writings eagerly read. Quite naturally students wished to know something of the earliest civilizations, particularly of the civilization of the Nile valley. Here they were confronted by what seemed baffling indeed. Three forms of writing used contemporaneously, even interchangeably, defied all effort to decipher them. Attempts were made to explain certain inscriptions, but these explanations were found later to have been far astray. In 1799, one of Napoleon's soldiers, while excavating in the mouth of the Rosetta, came upon a stone which bore a royal decree written in three ways: in hieroglyphics, in demotic and in Greek. This supplied a key at last, and scholars set themselves to the task of deciphering ancient Egyptian writings. Other inscriptions written in two or more languages were found and verified the conclusions reached earlier in the translation of the Rosetta Stone.

In recent years a large number of inscriptions from tombs and temples have been read and many rolls of papyrus have been translated. This has enabled historians to read back, step by step, into far away ages, and to carry the thread of Egyptian civilization to its beginnings. Maspero, Eduard Meyer, Breasted, Petrie and other painstaking students of Egyptology have given their lives to the task of unraveling the past, both by deciphering inscriptions and unearthing forgotten cities. From the tireless efforts of men like these, tombs hidden for centuries have been recovered, temples and colonnades laid bare of drifting sands, inscriptions transcribed and translated, and volumes of scholarly material written for the special student, while at the same time the general reader may find much of interest concerning the life of a remarkable people whose works have borne testimony through the ages.

Herodotus.

The following lines are taken from the pages of Herodotus wherein he relates what he saw and heard when he visited Egypt nearly twenty-five hundred years ago.

"There is no country in all the whole world that hath in it more marvelous things or greater works of buildings and the like than hath the land of Egypt. And as the heavens in this land are such as other men know not—for in the upper parts there falls not rain but once in a thousand years or more, and in the lower parts not often—and the river is different from all other rivers in the earth, seeing that it overflows in the summer and is at its least in the winter, so also do the manners of the Egyptians differ from the manners of all other men. For among them the women buy and sell in the market but the men sit at home and spin. And even in this matter of spinning they do not as others, for others push the shuttle in the loom from below upward, but these men push it from above downward. Also the men carry burdens on their heads, but the women carry them on their shoulders. And the women pray to none, neither god or goddess, but the men pray to all. And there is no duty laid on a son to succor father or mother, if it be not his pleasure to do it, but on a daughter there is laid, whether she will or no.

"In the matter of mourning for the dead, these folks have a strange custom, for they let grow the hair upon the head and chin when they mourn, but are shaven at other times. And whereas other men hold themselves better than the beasts, the Egyptians have these in great honor, keeping them in their houses, aye, and worshipping them. Nor do they eat the food of other men, holding it a shame to be fed on wheat and barley which others use, and eating the grain of millet only; and the dough that is made of it this they knead, trampling it with their feet; but mud and like things they are wont to take up with their hands....

"Now as to the beasts and the honor in which the Egyptians hold them, there are many strange things to be told. The crocodile some of the Egyptians hold to be sacred, but not all. And in every city where they hold it, as in Thebes and in the cities round the lake Moeris, they keep one crocodile to which they do special honor. This they train to be tame to the hand, and they put earrings of glass and gold into his ears, and bracelets on his forefeet, and give it a portion of food day by day, and make offerings to it, and when it dies they embalm it and bury it in the sacred sepulchres. But the people that dwell in the city of Elphantine count them not to be sacred at all, but slay and eat them....

"The cat the Egyptians hold in great honor. Of this beast there is a very marvelous thing to be told. When it chanceth that a house is burning a strange madness cometh upon the cats, for they are very desirous to leap into the fire. And the Egyptians set guards round the place if by any means they may keep the cats from their purpose; nor do they care to quench the fire, if so be that they may do this; but the cats nevertheless, making their way through them, or leaping over them, have their will and so perish. Over this the Egyptians make great lamentation. If a cat die in the course of nature, all that are in that house shave their eyebrows only, but all dwellers in a house where a dog dies shave their heads and whole bodies. The cats, when they are dead, they carry away for burial to the city of Bubastis, but the dogs they bury each in the city where he dies, only in the holy sepulchres....

"For food the Egyptians have bread made of millet as has been said before. They have wine made of barley, for the vine groweth not in their land. Of birds they eat doves and pigeons, and such small kinds as there are in the country.

"... Such of the Egyptians as dwell in the marshes of the river have also for food the seed of the water-lilies, which grow abundantly when the river overfloweth the plains. This seed is like to the seed of a poppy, and they make of it loaves which they bake with fire, having first dried it in the sun. Also the root of this water-lily (which they call the lotus) may be eaten, being round, and of the bigness of an apple. Other lilies there are growing in the river, like to roses, which have a fruit very like to a wasp's comb, and in it many seeds of the bigness of an olive, which the men eat both green and dry. Also these marsh folk gather the reeds, and use the upper part for other things, as for the making of paper and the like, but the lower part, as much as a cubit's length from the ground they eat.

"All the Egyptians worship not the same gods, but Isis and Osiris they all worship and this Osiris is the same as he whom the Greeks call Bacchus or Dionysus, and his feast is in all things like to that which the Greeks keep to their God, only that there is no acting of plays. As for Isis the Greeks call her Demeter, that is to say, being interpreted, Mother Earth....

"Let so much then be said about the Egyptians and their customs and manner of life, and the gods whom they worship."

EGYPTIAN NUMERATION.

CHAPTER III.

The Pyramid Age.

Menes was the king who succeeded in accomplishing the unification of Egypt. We are told by Manetho that he was at first chief or governor of the eighth nome of Upper Egypt, whose capital city was Thinis, and being ambitious, subdued the surrounding nomes, until at last all Egypt was brought under his control. No doubt earlier chieftains had begun the work of conquest and left the completion to Menes, whose personality and executive strength were sufficient to efface the reigns of his predecessors.

Having brought the Delta under his control and crowned himself with the white crown of Upper and the red crown of Lower Egypt, Menes realized that a capital for such a straggling kingdom as his would best be centrally located. He therefore fixed upon a site just south of the apex of the delta and built the city of Memphis. Quite possibly there was a settlement here before this time.

It happened that the Nile flowed close to the western hills in this locality. The king knew well that his capital would be safer and the more easily protected were the river between it and possible Asiatic invaders on the east. So he undertook what has ever since been regarded as a bold feat of engineering; he built a high embankment across the Nile and compelled the stream to seek a new course farther east. Filling in the old channel, he built a wall around the new city, caused a temple to be at once erected to Ptah, the ancient deity of the locality, and shortly a town grew up around it. Thus we see the beginnings of the Old Empire, so called by Manetho and subsequent historians. For convenience scholars sometimes group Dynasties I. and II. and Dynasties III. to VI. together. The first period (3400-2980 B.C.) is called the Thinite age because the rulers of these two dynasties came from Thinis. The name Old Kingdom is then limited to Dynasties III. to VI. (2980-2475 B.C.)

It would be useless for us to attempt to become familiar with all these early kings—some fifty in number—with reigns varying from one to many years. Should we succeed in collecting the meager facts known of each we would have little to repay us for our trouble. It is more to the purpose that we know something about the period as a whole—its general characteristics and attainments.

During this period hieroglyphic writing became widely used, having been but rarely known before the age of Menes. A line of forts was built along the Isthmus of Suez to stay invaders from Asia. Tribes on the south were brought into subjection and pledged service to Egypt in time of war. Stone quarries and mines were developed and granite ranges sought and found. In the sixth dynasty one man-of-war sufficed to accompany the transports sent to bring granite for the kings' tombs from the southland—a fact recorded with pride by the pharaohs, since it gave proof of their far reaching might.

From earliest times the Egyptian kings were builders, particularly of tombs, which during the Old Empire took the form of pyramids. Of far greater importance than the earthly abode was thought to be the tomb—the dwelling place for eternal years, consequently tombs and temples received the attention of Egypt's kings in early as well as later times.

In 1897 the tomb of Menes was discovered. It was a brick-lined pit containing an inner chamber of wood. Around the mummy of the pharaoh had been placed the bodies of different members of his household. Similar to this were royal tombs until the Third dynasty, when stone was first used. To the kings of the Fourth dynasty belong the famous pyramids, unsurpassed by any subsequently built, and still today the wonder of the world.

The Egyptians always located their cemeteries toward the west. Into the west the sun sank at night, and by the same way the soul started upon its long journey to the realm of Osiris, god of the future world. The irregularity of the Nile usually made it possible for the city of the living to grow up on its eastern bank, while across the stream, on the west shore, lay the City of the Dead. To the west of Memphis lay its cemetery or Necropolis, and while this remained the capital of Egypt, the pyramid-shaped tomb remained in favor. Sometimes the pyramid tombs were small; sometimes they were large. More than sixty have been found, and large numbers have doubtless disappeared for all time. Three, however, were made so prodigious in size as to cast into obscurity all the rest, and these have come to be called the "three Pyramids of Gizeh," quite as though they were sole examples of their kind. Khufu was builder of the largest; this is generally called "the Great Pyramid." His son Khafre built the one next in size, known as the "Second Pyramid," while the third, much smaller than these, was built by Menkure. Were we indifferent to the political development of Egypt, we would still wish to learn about these mammoth structures which are scaled each season by wondering tourists, and have excited the admiration and awe of travelers since the time of Herodotus.

It is difficult to realize the vast size of these piles, and we can do so only by comparing them to things with which we are familiar. The base of the largest pyramid covers thirteen acres of ground, solid masonry; it was originally 482 feet high. Since it is almost one solid mass of stone, it is not difficult to credit the statement of Herodotus that it took 100,000 men twenty years to build it, an additional ten years being necessary to quarry the stone and bring it to the chosen site.

"The tradition recorded by Herodotus as to the labor employed, is so entirely reasonable for the execution of such work, that we cannot hesitate to accept it. It is said that a hundred thousand men were levied for three months at a time (i. e. during the three months of the inundation, when ordinary labor is at a standstill); and on this scale the pyramid-building lasted twenty years."

How complete must have been the organization of a government which could promote such an extensive project as this! How entirely were the resources of the empire at the disposal of the king when free citizens could be impressed to satisfy the vanity of the proud pharaoh! To have supported 100,000 non-producing men must of itself have taxed the treasury. The rulers who built these majestic tombs wished to make their names immortal, as well as to preserve their bodies from harm and decay. This first they certainly accomplished, but in light of modern investigation, when each stone lifted into place has been estimated to have cost at least one human life, these proud pharaohs elicit less admiration and commendation than they doubtless thought to win.

Three kinds of stone were used in the construction of these pyramids. The inner part, or core, was formed of material plentiful near the building site. This was a spongy limestone that was not durable if exposed to the elements, but adequate when covered with other stone. The successive layers, put on in the form of steps, were of stone brought from across the river, having been quarried in the mountains on the east. It has been conjectured that a causeway was laid from the mountains to the side of the pyramid, and that blocks of stone were dragged by men this distance. Finally, the beautiful granite used for outer casing was found near the southern border of Egypt, floated down the stream when the water was high, and having been polished like a mirror, was fitted over the rougher stone. 2,300,000 blocks, averaging two and one-half tons each, were used for the construction of the largest pyramid.

"If we had so much stone, what could one do with it?" is asked in The Boy Travelers in Egypt. And it is answered: "You could build a wall four feet high and two feet thick—a good wall for a farm or a garden—all the way from New York to Salt Lake City, and were New York in danger of an attack and desired to surround the whole of Manhattan Island—21 miles—with a wall forty feet high and twenty feet thick, here would be material to do it." Rawlinson tries to bring its size home to us by comparing it to structures with which we are familiar. He says: "In height it exceeds the capitol at Washington by nearly 200 feet, and its cubic contents would provide a city of 22,000 houses solidly built of stone having walls a foot thick, twenty feet frontage and thirty feet deep, thirty feet high, allowing one-third for dividing walls."

For several hundred years the Mohammedans have occupied Egypt and they have taken away quantities of stone from the lesser pyramids, from temples and other ancient structures of Memphis, to be used in their mosques and buildings in Cairo, near-by. The outer casing of the Great Pyramid, beautiful granite as hard as iron, was removed to build the large mosque of this comparatively modern city. The removal of this casing has left the under layers bare, and these, step-like in appearance, are annually scaled by tourists. With the help of Arab guides, one may ascend to the very top of the huge pile, gaining thence a splendid view of the surrounding country.

Even the pyramids left cased in granite are no longer smooth. The weathering of ages has roughened their sides and dulled their polish. They are of a tawny orange color and gleam by certain lights like gigantic piles of gold.

Within the pyramids were chambers for the remains of kings and their families and chambers for friends to gather for worship—for after his death, an Egyptian king was worshipped as a god. Even a spacious gallery was provided near the top of the Great Pyramid, in order that air might circulate freely and thus keep the tomb dry.

The ambitious, short-sighted Fourth dynasty kings exhausted the resources of their realm. During the Fifth and Sixth dynasties the pyramids became smaller. Even the long-suffering land of the Nile could no longer muster vast forces to provide huge abiding places for the pharaohs. Marvelous temples would still be erected, and wonderful feats of architecture accomplished, but the passion for tremendous tombs had in a measure spent itself.

"The essential feeling of all the earliest work is a rivalry with nature. In other times buildings have been placed either before a background of hills, so as to provide a natural setting to them, or crowning some natural height. But the Egyptian consented to no such tame co-operation with natural features. He selected a range of desert hills over a hundred feet high, and then subdued it entirely, making of it a mere pedestal for pyramids, which were more than thrice as high as the native hill on which they stood. There was no shrinking from a comparison with the work of nature; but, on the contrary, an artificial hill was formed which shrunk its natural basis by comparison, until it seemed a mere platform for the work of man.

"This same grandeur of idea is seen in the vast masses used in construction. Man did not then regard his work as a piling together of stones, but as the erection of masses that rivalled those of nature. If a cell or chamber was required, each side was formed of one single stone.... If a building was set up, it was an artificial hill in which chambers were carved out after it was piled together....

"The sculptor's work, and the painter's, show the same sentiment. They did not make a work of art to please the taste as such; but they rivalled nature as closely as possible. The form, the expression, the colouring, the glittering transparent eye, the grave smile, all are copied as if to make an artificial man. The painter mixed his half-tints and his delicate shades, and dappled over the animals, or figured the feathers of birds, in a manner never attempted in the later ages. The embalmer built up the semblance of the man in resins and cloth over his shrunken corpse, to make him as nearly as possible what he was when alive.

"In each direction man then set himself to supplement, to imitate, to rival or to exceed, the works of nature. Art, as the gratification of an artificial taste and standard, was scarcely in existence; but the simplicity, the vastness, the perfection, and the beauty of the earliest works place them on a different level to all the workers of art and man's device in later ages. They are unique in their splendid power, which no self-conscious civilization has ever rivalled, nor can hope to rival; and in their enduring greatness they may last till all the feebler works of man have perished."[1]

[1] Petrie; History of Egypt, Vol. I, p. 66.

CHAPTER IV.

The Age of Darkness.

With the close of the Sixth dynasty, records practically cease, and few indeed are the facts established regarding those kings whom Manetho included in his Seventh and Eighth dynasties.

From earliest times each nome had been the seat of some noble family—the descendants of chieftains, possibly, or perhaps the recipients of royal land grants. Certain it is that each nome had its noble family of wide estate, from whose number the governor was usually chosen, as was also the high priest of the local temple. By the end of the Sixth dynasty, the claimants to the throne were not strong enough to hold together the land they aspired to rule; they maintained their capital at Memphis, but neither the Delta or Upper Egypt recognized their sway. On the contrary, each prince in his own nome tried to increase his individual strength at the expense of the general government. Asiatic invaders seem to have strengthened themselves in the Delta, while to the south Theban princes came into prominence.

During the period which Manetho accorded to the Ninth and Tenth dynasties, a prince often bought the favor and assistance of as many nobles as he was able, and with his united forces established himself in his own vicinity.

The vast resources which had been so completely at the command of the Fourth dynasty kings were now divided among many petty nobles, each seeking to aggrandize himself. Naturally, no costly tombs could be constructed to perpetuate the memories of these who now aspired to Egypt's throne; the tombs which had to satisfy were less enduring, and this no doubt explains why so few remains of the period have come to light in recent years. The thread of history is almost lost during the age of darkness which included the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth dynasties. Shut off from the disclosures of tombs, Egyptologists have turned to the mines and quarries. All kings of importance have there left traces of their operations, but the mines contain no tablets, no decrees, no records of quarrying undertaken in these years, save here and there an inscription indicating that some noble carried on work within them on his own behalf.

Distant View of the Pyramids.

It is probable that the land passed through a most trying experience in the time intervening between the Old and the beginning of the Middle Empire, when neither property, possessions, nor life itself were safe throughout the land, but anarchy, strife and turmoil were everywhere rife. The kings maintained their capital at Heracleopolis, but they were in continual struggle with the princes of Thebes. How great had been the confusion we may judge when one of the Tenth dynasty rulers takes pride in recording the fact that order had characterized his reign. "Every official was at his post, there was no fighting, nor any shooting an arrow. The child was not smitten beside his mother, nor the citizen beside his wife. There was no evil-doer nor any one doing violence against his house. When night came, he who slept on the road gave me praise, for he was like a man in his house; the fear of my soldiers was his protection."[1]

The Middle Empire.[2]

Order and prosperity returned to Egypt after years of darkness and confusion. Thebes superseded Memphis as the center of political life. Great material development characterized the beginning of what Manetho designated as the Middle Empire. Before taking up the work of the early Theban kings, let us learn something of the locality wherein they dwelt.

Memphis, as has been shown, was located conveniently to both Upper and Lower Egypt, while the Nile protected the city from sudden Asiatic attacks. What then were the points of advantage for Thebes, lying 400 miles farther south?

"Here the usually narrow valley of the Nile opens into a sort of plain or basin.

"The mountains on either side of the river recede, as though by common consent, and leave between themselves and the river's bank a broad amphitheater, which in each case is a rich green plain—a soil of the most productive character—dotted with doom and date palms, sometimes growing single, sometimes collected into clumps or groves. On the western side the Libyan range gathers itself up into a single considerable peak, which has an elevation of 1,200 feet On the east the desert-wall maintains its usual level character, but is pierced by valleys conducting to the coast of the Red Sea. The situation was one favorable for commerce. On the one side was the nearest route through the sandy desert to the Lesser Oasis, which commanded the trade of the African interior; on the other the way led through the valley of Hammamat, rich with ... valuable and rare stones, to a district abounding in mines of gold, silver and lead, and thence to the Red Sea coast, from which, even in very early times, there was communication with the opposite coast of Arabia, the region of gums and spices."[3]

Such being the location of Thebes, we shall see that it grew until in time it became the mightiest city of the ancient world.

With the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty (Ca. 2160-2000 B.C.), the work of reuniting and re-establishing a centralized government began. The Delta had to be reclaimed from invaders who had gained the upper hand while the land was divided against itself. Unity being at last secured, rulers were free to launch out upon other enterprises. One of the later kings had a deep well provided for those who served in the quarries; another sent an expedition of 3,000 men to bring back stone for his tomb. These men were also instructed to go beyond the quarries—to Punt, which must have lain on the Somali coast of East Africa, and bring back products of that region. The expedition set out under the leadership of a nobleman whose report has fortunately come down to us. It states that his men built stations and made wells along their route, to the lasting benefit of those who might journey thence. Part of the detachment was left to quarry stone, while the rest proceeded to Punt and procured spices, gums, precious woods, and rare animals. After noting their safe return, the prince adds: "Never was brought down the like thereof for the king's court; never was done the like of this by any king's confidant sent out since the time of the god. I did this for the majesty of my lord because he so much loved me."[4]

The Twelfth dynasty (2000-1788 B.C.) brought forth some of Egypt's ablest kings. Their creative ability was perhaps not excelled by subsequent pharaohs. Amenemhet I. (2000-1970 B.C.) proved himself strong enough to curb the power of the feudal princes. These hereditary nobles had probably received gifts of land from earlier kings in recognition of loyal service. The estates passed from father to son, and while the central government had been weak, the princes became more and more aggressive. They fortified themselves, each in his nome, retained large retinues of officials, servants, militia and realized vast incomes from extensive tracts of arable land. It was neither possible nor prudent to remodel the entire system, but Amenemhet I. undertook to modify it. Whenever one of these landed princes died, the king himself chose from the heirs the one who should succeed him. Naturally, he selected one whose loyalty to himself and to the government was unquestioned. Again, the boundaries of the nomes had never been officially determined, and during the years of confusion, strong nobles had infringed upon the possessions of weaker ones. The king made a tour through the country, heard all complaints of such encroachments, and decided the limits of all disputed boundaries. This did much to restrict the strength of ambitious princes.

His son, coming to the throne, subdued the Nubians on the south and extended the empire to the second cataract; but it was left for Sesostris III. to make this conquest sure, and then to post his decree along the river.

"This is the southern frontier; fixed in the eighth year of the reign of his majesty. Usurtasen [Sesostris], ever living. Let it not be permitted to any negro to pass this boundary northward, either on foot or by boat; nor any sort of cattle, oxen, goats, or sheep belonging to the negroes. Except when any negro comes to trade in the land of Aken, or on any business, let him be well treated. But without allowing boats of the negroes to pass Heh northward forever."[5]

In gratitude to the king for thus securing to them safety by repulsing the negroes, the Egyptians sang extravagant hymns to Sostostris. Some of these have been rendered into English, and are regarded as excellent specimens of Egyptian poetry. The following is one of these songs:

"Twice joyful are the gods,
Thou hast established their offerings.
Twice joyful are thy princes,
Thou hast formed their boundaries.
Twice joyful are thy ancestors before thee,
Thou hast increased their portions.
Twice joyful is Egypt at thy strong arm,
Thou hast guarded the ancient order.
Twice joyful are the aged with thy administration,
Thou hast widened their possessions.
Twice joyful are the two regions with thy valor,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy young men of support,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy veterans,
Thou hast caused them to be vigorous.
Twice joyful are the two lands in thy might,
Thou hast guarded their walls.
Twice joyful be thou, O Horus! widening thy boundary,
Mayest thou renew an eternity of life."[6]

Amenemhet III.

The greatest name of the Twelfth dynasty is that of Amenemhet III. (1849-1801 B.C.). He directed his attention to internal improvements. Realizing the dire effects upon Egypt when the Nile failed to supply sufficient water or when too much water was forthcoming, he studied various ways of controlling the river. Once or twice in a century the rainfall, always heavy in the Abyssinian highlands, is yet greater; the river rises rapidly to unexpected heights and works general havoc. Or sometimes the supply may be less than usual. Having watched the stream with anxious eyes for many a week, the people behold it recede, although only the adjacent plains have been refreshed and upper portions of the valley lie parched and lifeless, while famine stares Egypt in the face.

Amenemhet III. believed that a vast reservoir might regulate the supply, receiving the water when it was at high flood and giving it out once more when the stream was low. He looked about for a natural depression and found it to the west of Memphis, beyond a narrow range of hills. Canals were made leading into this basin and Lake Moeris was the result. Some hundreds of square miles were gained by this new means of irrigation and the tract thus made arable, became royal domain. The district is known as the Fayoum. Near its entrance Amenemhet III. built his pyramid. It differed from earlier tombs in that the chamber destined to receive his mummy was reached by passages even more secret and winding than ordinary. False doors were placed here and there to mislead any who might attempt to molest the body.

Under his direction, a wonderful building was constructed. It was called the Labyrinth. Being about 800 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, it contained 1,500 rooms above the ground and as many more below it. There were many courts with numerous doors leading from them and Strabo, a Greek geographer, who saw it long after Amenemhet had taken his journey to the realm of Osiris, said that the ceilings and sides of the rooms were made from single stones! It is believed that the king planned this structure to serve as a great capitol for his kingdom, and that there were suites of halls for every nome, with chapels for their gods. A vast number of chambers would naturally be required for this, and probably there was no thought of making the building baffling or bewildering, as the name labyrinth now signifies. This was counted among the wonders of the ancient world, but, like the city built around it, disappeared ages ago. Herodotus has left us a description of the huge building, written to inform his countrymen of a structure more remarkable than anything they could boast. When he saw it, almost five hundred years before the time of Christ, it was still in perfect condition.

"I visited the place," he says, "and found it to surpass description; for if all the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put together into one, they would not equal this Labyrinth. The pyramids likewise surpass description, and are severally equal to a number of the greatest works of the Greeks; but the Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids. It has twelve courts, all of them roofed, with gates exactly opposite one another, six looking to the north, and six to the south. A single wall surrounds the whole building. It contains two different sorts of chambers, half of them under ground, and half above ground, the latter built upon the former; the whole number is three thousand, of each kind fifteen hundred. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and what I say of them is from my own observation; of the underground chambers I can only speak from report, for the keepers of the building could not be induced to show them; since they contain, they said, the sepulchres of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also those of the sacred crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of them; but the upper chambers I saw with my own eyes, and found them to excel all other human productions; for the passages through the houses and the varied windings of the paths across the courts, excited in me infinite admiration, as I passed from these colonnades into fresh houses, and again from these into courts unseen before. The roof was, throughout, of stone, like the walls; and the walls were carved all over with figures; every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was built of white stone, exquisitely fitted together. At the corner of the Labyrinth stands a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large figures engraved upon it, which is entered by a subterranean passage."

In comparison with the Old Empire kings, those of the Middle Empire seem to us much more modern in spirit. Instead of merging the whole population into instruments to work out the pharaoh's fancy, instead of squandering the riches of the land and the lives of subjects to provide mammoth tombs which should eternalize the ruler's memory and flame forth his power and greatness unto succeeding generations, the farsighted Twelfth dynasty kings devoted their time and resources to the improvement of their kingdom. Wells were dug; roads constructed; public buildings erected; fortifications strengthened; frontiers extended. The attention of the monarch was directed to the commercial prosperity of the realm, to the agricultural conditions and their improvement—in short, the best years of the Middle Empire were years of material gain for the Nile dwellers, wherein men developed the arts of peace, and the valley testified to wise administration. Through a second period of depression a nation was to look back upon the age of its material progress with longing eyes, and still better, to retain even under adverse conditions standards of government and life which would later be recovered. After the death of the great king, called Amenemhet the Good by his grateful subjects, none appeared able to adequately fill his place, and his glorious reign was overshadowed by a second period of darkness.

[1] Trans. by Breasted, Hist. Egypt, 149. The approximate dates of this period are: Dynasties VII. and VIII. Ca. 2475-2445 B.C.; Dynasties XI. and X. Ca. 2475-2160 B.C.

[2] Dynasties XI. and XII. 2160-1788 B.C.

[3] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 95.

[4] Trans. by Breasted, Ancient Records, I, §483.

[5] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 181.

[6] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 182.

CHAPTER V.

The Shepherd Kings.[1]

The Thirteenth dynasty kings were not sufficiently strong to hold intact the kingdom which passed into their hands. Soon again the feudal princes of nome and city were contending with one another for additional power. The Fourteenth dynasty rulers had their capital in Xois, a Delta city. Both dynasties lasted but a brief time, filled with unrest and contention. We can imagine into what state Egypt fell when a negro of Nubia, of a race despised by the Egyptians, set himself up as their king. Several princes ruled at the same time in various portions of the realm. Sources of information for these chaotic years are scanty; no monuments have come down to us, the inference being that the resources and energies of the land were required for more immediate needs than the erection of costly tombs for rulers of disputed right.

The whole country must have suffered greatly. The system of irrigation set in order by Amenemhet III. required both national supervision and national funds for its maintenance. As neither could have been forthcoming, the food production must have been materially diminished. Engaged in civil war, Egypt soon fell a prey to foreign invaders.

For hundreds of years it had been not unusual for Syrian bands to ask permission to settle within Egyptian borders. In the tomb of a provincial governor of Upper Egypt has been found a painting which portrays a company of seventeen Bedouins bringing presents to the nobleman and asking that they be allowed to locate in his dominion. In Genesis we read concerning Abram: "And Abram journeyed, going still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land of Canaan; and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land." Since Abram was rich in cattle and in gold, he undoubtedly brought many of his family and followers to dwell with him in the land of plenty. Similar incidents were common. If the rainfall was short in Canaan, in the territory of the Hittites or even in Arabia, Egypt was ever regarded as a last resort. The Nile never failed to supply water for the flocks; here, too, it was customary to store grain in royal store-cities, in order that in time of need Egypt could sell advantageously to her neighbors. In a pastoral age, such favorable conditions as these were highly prized.

The Pharaohs diligently fortified their frontiers, and it must not be supposed that in times of peace foreigners were allowed to come at will into the land. There were, on the contrary, officers stationed along the boundaries to apprehend any who wished to enter, to receive their requests and forward them to the governor of the nome. Until he was heard from, strangers were detained on the border. It seems to have been usual, however, to admit such petitioners unless it was thought that they might become a menace to the state. It naturally came about, therefore, that the tribes on the east looked with envious eyes upon the rich valley of the Nile, and when Egypt was disrupted, her resources and soldiers no longer at the command of one ruler but divided among several contending nobles—each of whom valued his personal interests above those of his country—while anarchy and disorder infested the coveted land, an overwhelming host of Semitic hordes poured into the Delta, spreading thence into the valley. Before them Egypt was helpless.

Asia and Egypt as well were inhabited in early times by many wandering or nomadic tribes. A tribe dwelt in one locality while pasturage was good, and when it was exhausted, would move on to new fields. Sometimes the tribe in possession of one district would learn that other tribes were drawing near, and in an age when strangers were considered enemies, this would furnish sufficient pretext for starting out on the march again. Periods of unrest sometimes swept over vast areas; in such a time as this, perhaps, Asiatic tribes poured into Egypt. In her pitiable plight, the country lay an easy prey to such invaders, who Manetho tells us numbered a quarter of a million. It is said that they took possession without a battle. Just who they were or where they came from is not known. We now know that the Hittites invaded Babylonia during the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and that this was the indirect cause of the fall of this dynasty (about 1750 B.C.). Scholars are beginning to suspect that the invasion of Egypt at this time was either led by the Hittites or due to Hittite pressure back of the tribes in Syria-Palestine. Their kings were called Hyksos, and from a doubtful etymology of this name they are still styled the "Shepherd kings."