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diff --git a/22799.txt b/22799.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2569d24 --- /dev/null +++ b/22799.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2987 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt, by James Baikie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt + +Author: James Baikie + +Illustrator: Constance Baikie + +Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22799] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEEPS AT MANY LANDS: ANCIENT EGYPT *** + + + + +Produced by Geetu Melwani, Bruce Albrecht and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + PEEPS AT + MANY LANDS + + ANCIENT EGYPT + + + [Illustration: PLATE 1. + AN EGYPTIAN GALLEY.] + + + + + PEEPS AT MANY LANDS + + ANCIENT + EGYPT + + BY + REV. JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S. + + AUTHOR OF "PEEPS AT THE HEAVENS," "THE STORY OF + THE PHARAOHS," "THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE," ETC. + + WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, + THOSE IN COLOUR BEING BY + CONSTANCE N. BAIKIE + + A. & C. BLACK, LTD. + 4, 5 & 6, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. + 1916 + + + * * * * * + + + _First published October 1912_ + _Reprinted January and April 1916_ + + + AGENTS + + AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE + + CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. + ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO + + INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. + Macmillan Building, BOMBAY + 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA + + _Printed in Great Britain._ + + + * * * * * + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. A LAND OF OLD RENOWN 1 + II. A DAY IN THEBES 6 + III. A DAY IN THEBES (_continued_) 11 + IV. PHARAOH AT HOME 17 + V. THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER 24 + VI. CHILD-LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT 33 + VII. SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO 41 + VIII. SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO + (_continued_) 47 + IX. EXPLORING THE SOUDAN 54 + X. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 59 + XI. EGYPTIAN BOOKS 66 + XII. TEMPLES AND TOMBS 72 + XIII. AN EGYPTIAN'S HEAVEN 82 + + + * * * * * + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PLATE + + *1. AN EGYPTIAN GALLEY, 1500 B.C. _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + 2. THE GODDESS ISIS DANDLING THE KING 9 + + 3. THE GREAT GATE OF THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR, WITH OBELISK 16 + + *4. RAMSES II. IN HIS WAR-CHARIOT--SARDINIAN GUARDSMEN ON FOOT 25 + + *5. ZAZAMANKH AND THE LOST CORONET 32 + + 6. GRANITE STATUE OF RAMSES II. 35 + + 7. NAVE OF THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK 38 + + *8. "AND THE GOOSE STOOD UP AND CACKLED" 41 + + *9. AN EGYPTIAN COUNTRY HOUSE 48 + + 10. STATUES OF KING AMENHOTEP III. 51 + + 11. THE SPHINX AND THE SECOND PYRAMID 54 + + *12. A DESERT POSTMAN 57 + + *13. THE BARK OF THE MOON, GUARDED BY THE DIVINE EYES 64 + + 14. GATEWAY OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFU 73 + + 15. WALL-PICTURES IN A THEBAN TOMB 80 + + *16. PHARAOH ON HIS THRONE 20 + + _Sketch-Map of Ancient Egypt on page viii_ + + * These eight illustrations are in colour; the others are in black + and white. + + + * * * * * + + + + +[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT.] + + +ANCIENT EGYPT + +CHAPTER I + +"A LAND OF OLD RENOWN" + + +If we were asked to name the most interesting country in the world, I +suppose that most people would say Palestine--not because there is +anything so very wonderful in the land itself, but because of all the +great things that have happened there, and above all because of its +having been the home of our Lord. But after Palestine, I think that +Egypt would come next. For one thing, it is linked very closely to +Palestine by all those beautiful stories of the Old Testament, which +tell us of Joseph, the slave-boy who became Viceroy of Egypt; of Moses, +the Hebrew child who became a Prince of Pharaoh's household; and of the +wonderful exodus of the Children of Israel. + +But besides that, it is a land which has a most strange and wonderful +story of its own. No other country has so long a history of great Kings, +and wise men, and brave soldiers; and in no other country can you see +anything to compare with the great buildings, some of them most +beautiful, all of them most wonderful, of which Egypt has so many. We +have some old and interesting buildings in this country, and people go +far to see cathedrals and castles that are perhaps five or six hundred +years old, or even more; but in Egypt, buildings of that age are looked +upon as almost new, and nobody pays very much attention to them. For the +great temples and tombs of Egypt were, many of them, hundreds of years +old before the story of our Bible, properly speaking, begins. + +The Pyramids, for instance, those huge piles that are still the wonder +of the world, were far older than any building now standing in Europe, +before Joseph was sold to be a slave in Potiphar's house. Hundreds upon +hundreds of years before anyone had ever heard of the Greeks and the +Romans, there were great Kings reigning in Egypt, sending out their +armies to conquer Syria and the Soudan, and their ships to explore the +unknown southern seas, and wise men were writing books which we can +still read. When Britain was a wild, unknown island, inhabited only by +savages as fierce and untaught as the South Sea Islanders, Egypt was a +great and highly civilized country, full of great cities, with noble +palaces and temples, and its people were wise and learned. + +So in this little book I want to tell you something about this wonderful +and interesting old country, and about the kind of life that people +lived in it in those days of long ago, before most other lands had begun +to waken up, or to have any history at all. First of all, let us try to +get an idea of the land itself. It is a very remarkable thing that so +many of the countries which have played a great part in the history of +the world have been small countries. Our own Britain is not very big, +though it has had a great story. Palestine, which has done more than any +other country to make the world what it is to-day, was called "the least +of all lands." Greece, whose influence comes, perhaps, next after that +of Palestine, is only a little hilly corner of Southern Europe. And +Egypt, too, is comparatively a small land. + +It looks a fair size when you see it on the map; but you have to +remember that nearly all the land which is called Egypt on the map is +barren sandy desert, or wild rocky hill-country, where no one can live. +The real Egypt is just a narrow strip of land on either side of the +great River Nile, sometimes only a mile or two broad altogether, never +more than thirty miles broad, except near the mouth of the river, where +it widens out into the fan-shaped plain called the Delta. Someone has +compared Egypt to a lily with a crooked stem, and the comparison is very +true. The long winding valley of the Nile is the crooked stem of the +lily, and the Delta at the Nile mouth, with its wide stretch of fertile +soil, is the flower; while, just below the flower, there is a little +bud--a fertile valley called the Fayum. + +Long before even Egyptian history begins, there was no bloom on the +lily. The Nile, a far bigger river then than it is now, ran into the sea +near Cairo, the modern capital of Egypt; and the land was nothing but +the narrow valley of the river, bordered on either side by desert hills. +But gradually, century by century, the Nile cut its way deeper down into +the land, leaving banks of soil on either side between itself and the +hills, and the mud which it brought down in its waters piled up at its +mouth and pressed the sea back, till, at last, the Delta was formed, +much as we see it now. This was long before Egypt had any story of its +own; but even after history begins the Delta was still partly marshy +land, not long reclaimed from the sea, and the real Egyptians of the +valley despised the people who lived there as mere marsh-dwellers. Even +after the Delta was formed, the whole country was only about twice as +large as Wales, and, though there was a great number of people in it for +its size, the population was only, at the most, about twice as great as +that of London. + +An old Greek historian once said, "Egypt is the gift of the Nile," and +it is perfectly true. We have seen how the great river made the country +to begin with, cutting out the narrow valley through the hills, and +building up the flat plain of the Delta. But the Nile has not only made +the country; it keeps it alive. You know that Egypt has always been one +of the most fertile lands in the world. Almost anything will grow there, +and it produces wonderful crops of corn and vegetables, and, nowadays, +of cotton. It was the same in old days. When Rome was the capital of the +world, she used to get most of the corn to feed her hungry thousands +from Egypt by the famous Alexandrian corn-ships; and you remember how, +in the Bible story, Joseph's brethren came down from Palestine because, +though there was famine there, there was "corn in Egypt." And yet Egypt +is a land where rain is almost unknown. Sometimes there will come a +heavy thunder-shower; but for month after month, year in and year out, +there may be no rain at all. + +How can a rainless country grow anything? The secret is the Nile. Every +year, when the rains fall in the great lake-basin of Central Africa, +from which one branch of the great river comes, and on the Abyssinian +hills, where the other branch rises, the Nile comes down in flood. All +the lower lands are covered, and a fresh deposit of Nile mud is left +upon them; and, though the river does not rise to the higher grounds, +the water is led into big canals, and these, again, are divided up into +little ones, till it circulates through the whole land, as the blood +circulates through your arteries and veins. This keeps the land fertile, +and makes up for the lack of rain. + +Apart from its wonderful river, the country itself has no very striking +features. It is rather a monotonous land--a long ribbon of green running +through a great waste of yellow desert and barren hills. But the great +charm that draws people's minds to Egypt, and gives the old land a +never-failing interest, is its great story of the past, and all the +relics of that story which are still to be seen. + +In no other land can you see the real people and things of the days of +long ago as you can see them in Egypt. Think how we should prize an +actual building that had been connected with the story of King Arthur, +if such a thing could be found in our country, and what wonderful +romance would belong to the weapons, the actual shields and helmets, +swords and lances, of the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot and +Tristram and Galahad--if only we could find them. Out there in Egypt you +can see buildings compared with which King Arthur's Camelot would be +only a thing of yesterday; and you can look, not only on the weapons, +but on the actual faces and forms of great Kings and soldiers who lived, +and fought bravely for their country, hundreds of years before Saul and +Jonathan and David began to fight the battles of Israel. You can see the +pictures of how people lived in those far-away days, how their houses +were built, how they traded and toiled, how they amused themselves, how +they behaved in time of sorrow, how they worshipped God--all set down by +themselves at the very time when they were doing these things. You can +even see the games at which the children used to play, and the queer +old-fashioned toys and dolls that they played with, and you can read the +stories which their mothers and their nurses used to tell them. + +These are the things which make this old land of Egypt so interesting to +us all to-day; and I want to try to tell you about some of them, so that +you may be able to have in your mind's eye a real picture of the life of +those long past days. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A DAY IN THEBES + + +If any foreigner were wanting to get an idea of our country, and to see +how our people live, I suppose the first place that he would go to would +be London, because it is the capital of the whole country, and its +greatest city; and so, if we want to learn something about Egypt, and +how people lived there in those far-off days, we must try to get to the +capital of the country, and see what is to be seen there. + +Suppose, then, that we are no longer living in Britain in the twentieth +century, but that somehow or other we have got away back into the past, +far beyond the days of Jesus Christ, beyond even the times of Moses, +and are living about 1,300 years before Christ. We have come from Tyre +in a Phoenician galley, laden with costly bales of cloth dyed with +Tyrian purple, and beautiful vessels wrought in bronze and copper, to +sell in the markets of Thebes, the greatest city in Egypt. We have +coasted along past Carmel and Joppa, and, after narrowly escaping being +driven in a storm on the dangerous quicksand called the Syrtis, we have +entered one of the mouths of the Nile. We have taken up an Egyptian +pilot at the river mouth, and he stands on a little platform at the bow +of the galley, and shouts his directions to the steersmen, who work the +two big rudders, one on either side of the ship's stern. The north wind +is blowing strongly and driving us swiftly upstream, in spite of the +current of the great river; so our weary oarsmen have shipped their +oars, and we drive steadily southwards under our one big swelling sail. + +At first we sail along through a broad flat plain, partly cultivated, +and partly covered with marsh and marsh plants. By-and-by the green +plain begins to grow narrower; we are coming to the end of the Delta, +and entering upon the real valley of Egypt. Soon we pass a great city, +its temples standing out clear against the deep blue sky, with their +towering gateways, gay flags floating from tall flagstaves in front of +them, and great obelisks pointing to the sky; and our pilot says that +this is Memphis, one of the oldest towns in the country, and for long +its capital. Not far from Memphis, three great pyramid-shaped masses of +stone rise up on the river-bank, looking almost like mountains; and the +pilot tells us that these are the tombs of some of the great Kings of +long past days, and that all around them lie smaller pyramids and other +tombs of Kings and great men. + +But we are bound for a city greater even than Memphis, and so we never +stop, but hasten always southward. Several days of steady sailing carry +us past many towns that cluster near the river, past one ruined city, +falling into mere heaps of stone and brick, which our pilot tells us was +once the capital of a wicked King who tried to cast down all the old +gods of Egypt, and to set up a new god of his own; and at last we see, +far ahead of us, a huge cluster of buildings on both sides of the river, +which marks a city greater than we have ever seen. + +As we sweep up the river we see that there are really two cities. On the +east bank lies the city of the living, with its strong walls and towers, +its enormous temples, and an endless crowd of houses of all sorts and +sizes, from the gay palaces of the nobles to the mud huts of the poor +people. On the west bank lies the city of the dead. It has neither +streets nor palaces, and no hum of busy life goes up from it; but it is +almost more striking than its neighbour across the river. The hills and +cliffs are honeycombed with long rows of black openings, the doorways of +the tombs where the dead of Thebes for centuries back are sleeping. Out +on the plain, between the cliffs and the river, temple rises after +temple in seemingly endless succession. Some of these temples are small +and partly ruined, but some are very great and splendid; and, as the +sunlight strikes upon them, it sends back flashes of gold and crimson +and blue that dazzle the eyes. + +[Illustration: Plate 2 +THE GODDESS ISIS DANDLING THE KING. _Page 18_] + +But now our galley is drawing in towards the quay on the east side of +the river, and in a few minutes the great sail comes thundering down, +and, as the ship drifts slowly up to the quay, the mooring-ropes are +thrown and made fast, and our long voyage is at an end. The Egyptian +Custom-house officers come on board to examine the cargo, and collect +the dues that have to be paid on it; and we watch them with interest, +for they are quite different in appearance from our own hook-nosed, +bearded sailors, with their thick many-coloured cloaks. These Egyptians +are all clean shaven; some of them wear wigs, and some have their hair +cut straight across their brows, while it falls thickly behind upon +their necks in a multitude of little curls, which must have taken them +no small trouble to get into order. Most wear nothing but a kilt of +white linen; but the chief officer has a fine white cloak thrown over +his shoulders; his linen kilt is stiffly starched, so that it stands out +almost like a board where it folds over in front, and he wears a gilded +girdle with fringed ends which hang down nearly to his knees. In his +right hand he carries a long stick, which he is not slow to lay over the +shoulders of his men when they do not obey his orders fast enough. + +After a good deal of hot argument, the amount of the tax is settled and +paid, and we are free to go up into the great town. We have not gone far +before we find that life in Thebes can be quite exciting. A great noise +is heard from one of the narrow riverside streets, and a crowd of men +comes rushing up with shouts and oaths. Ahead of them runs a single +figure, whose writing-case, stuck in his girdle, marks him out as a +scribe. He is almost at his last gasp, for he is stout and not +accustomed to running; and he is evidently fleeing for his life, for the +men behind him--rough, half-naked, ill-fed creatures of the working +class--are chasing him with cries of anger, and a good deal of +stone-throwing. Bruised and bleeding, he darts up to the gate of a +handsome house whose garden-wall faces the street. He gasps out a word +to the porter, and is quickly passed into the garden. The gate is +slammed and bolted in the faces of his pursuers, who form a ring round +it, shouting and shaking their fists. + +In a little while the gate is cautiously unbarred, and a fine-looking +man, very richly dressed, and followed by half a dozen well-armed negro +guards, steps forward, and asks the workmen why they are here, making +such a noise, and why they have chased and beaten his secretary. He is +Prince Paser, who has charge of the Works Department of the Theban +Government, and the workmen are masons employed on a large job in the +cemetery of Thebes. They all shout at once in answer to the Prince's +question; but by-and-by they push forward a spokesman, and he begins, +rather sheepishly at first, but warming up as he goes along, to make +their complaint to the great man. + +He and his mates, he says, have been working for weeks. They have had no +wages; they have not even had the corn and oil which ought to be issued +as rations to Government workmen. So they have struck work, and now they +have come to their lord the Prince to entreat him either to give command +that the rations be issued, or, if his stores are exhausted, to appeal +to Pharaoh. "We have been driven here by hunger and thirst; we have no +clothes, we have no oil, we have no food. Write to our lord the Pharaoh, +that he may give us something for our sustenance." When the spokesman +has finished his complaint, the whole crowd volubly assents to what he +has said, and sways to and fro in a very threatening manner. + +Prince Paser, however, is an old hand at dealing with such complaints. +With a smiling face he promises that fifty sacks of corn shall be sent +to the cemetery immediately, with oil to correspond. Only the workmen +must go back to their work at once, and there must be no more chasing of +poor Secretary Amen-nachtu. Otherwise, he can do nothing. The workmen +grumble a little. They have been put off with promises before, and have +got little good of them. But they have no leader bold enough to start a +riot, and they have no weapons, and the spears and bows of the Prince's +Nubians look dangerous. Finally they turn, and disappear, grumbling, +down the street from which they came; and Prince Paser, with a shrug of +his shoulders, goes indoors again. Whether the fifty sacks of corn are +ever sent or not, is another matter. Strikes, you see, were not unknown, +even so long ago as this. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A DAY IN THEBES--_Continued_ + + +Having seen the settlement of the masons' strike, we wander up into the +heart of the town. The streets are generally narrow and winding, and +here and there the houses actually meet overhead, so that we pass out of +the blinding sunlight into a sort of dark tunnel. Some of the houses +are large and high; but even the largest make no display towards the +street. They will be fine enough inside, with bright courts surrounded +with trees, in the midst of which lies a cool pond of water, and with +fine rooms decorated with gay hangings; but their outer walls are almost +absolutely blank, with nothing but a heavy door breaking the dead line. +We pass by some quarters where there is nothing but a crowd of mud huts, +packed so closely together that there is only room for a single +foot-passenger to thread his way through the narrow alleys between them. +These are the workmen's quarters, and the heat and smell in them are so +overpowering that one wonders how people can live in such places. + +By-and-by we come out into a more open space--one of the bazaars of the +city--where business is in full swing. The shops are little shallow +booths quite open to the front; and all the goods are spread out round +the shopkeeper, who squats cross-legged in the middle of his property, +ready to serve his customers, and invites the attention of the +passers-by by loud explanations of the goodness and cheapness of his +wares. All sorts of people are coming and going, for a Theban crowd +holds representatives of nearly every nation known. Here are the +townsfolk, men and women, out to buy supplies for their houses, or to +exchange the news of the day; peasants from the villages round about, +bringing in vegetables and cattle to barter for the goods which can only +be got in the town; fine ladies and gentlemen, dressed elaborately in +the latest Court fashion, with carefully curled wigs, long pleated robes +of fine transparent linen, and dainty, brightly-coloured sandals turned +up at the toes. At one moment you rub shoulders with a Hittite from +Kadesh, a conspicuous figure, with his high-peaked cap, pale complexion, +and heavy, pointed boots. He looks round him curiously, as if thinking +that Thebes would be a splendid town to plunder. Then a priest of high +rank goes by, with shaven head, a panther skin slung across his shoulder +over his white robe, and a roll of papyrus in his hand. A Sardinian of +the bodyguard swaggers along behind him, the ball and horns on his +helmet flashing in the sunlight, his big sword swinging in its sheath as +he walks; and a Libyan bowman, with two bright feathers in his leather +skull-cap, looks disdainfully at him as he shoulders his way through the +crowd. + +All around us people are buying and selling. Money, as we know it, has +not yet been invented, and nearly all the trade is done by means of +exchange. When it comes to be a question of how many fish have to be +given for a bed, or whether a load of onions is good value for a chair, +you can imagine that there has to be a good deal of argument. Besides, +the Egyptian dearly loves bargaining for the mere excitement of the +thing, and so the clatter of tongues is deafening. Here and there one or +two traders have advanced a little beyond the old-fashioned way of +barter, and offer, instead of goods, so many rings of copper, silver, or +gold wire. A peasant who has brought in a bullock to sell is offered 90 +copper "uten" (as the rings are called) for it; but he loudly protests +that this is robbery, and after a long argument he screws the merchant +up to 111 "uten," with 8 more as a luck-penny, and the bargain is +clinched. Even then the rings have still to be weighed that he may be +sure he is not being cheated. So a big pair of balances is brought out; +the "uten" are heaped into one scale, and in the other are piled weights +in the shape of bulls' heads. Finally, he is satisfied, and picks up his +bag of rings; but the wily merchant is not done with him yet. He spreads +out various tempting bargains before the eyes of the countryman, and, +before the latter leaves the shop, most of the copper rings have found +their way back again to the merchant's sack. + +A little farther on, the Tyrian traders, to whom the cargo of our galley +is consigned, have their shop. Screens, made of woven grass, shelter it +from the sun, and under their shade all sorts of gorgeous stuffs are +displayed, glowing with the deep rich colours, of which the Tyrians +alone have the secret since the sack of Knossos destroyed the trade of +Crete. Beyond the Tyrian booth, a goldsmith is busily employed in his +shop. Necklets and bracelets of gold and silver, beautifully inlaid with +all kinds of rich colours, hang round him; and he is hard at work, with +his little furnace and blowpipe, putting the last touches to the welding +of a bracelet, for which a lady is patiently waiting. + +In one corner of the bazaar stands a house which makes no display of +wares, but, nevertheless, seems to secure a constant stream of +customers. Workmen slink in at the door, as though half ashamed of +themselves, and reappear, after a little, wiping their mouths, and not +quite steady in their gait. A young man, with pale and haggard face, +swaggers past and goes in, and, as he enters the door, one bystander +nudges another and remarks: "Pentuere is going to have a good day again; +he will come to a bad end, that young man." + +By-and-by the door opens again, and Pentuere comes out staggering. He +looks vacantly round, and tries to walk away; but his legs refuse to +carry him, and, after a stumble or two, he falls in a heap and lies in +the road, a pitiful sight. The passers-by jeer and laugh at him as he +lies helpless; but one decent-looking man points him out to his young +son, and says: "See this fellow, my son, and learn not to drink beer to +excess. Thou dost fall and break thy limbs, and bespatter thyself with +mud, like a crocodile, and no one reaches out a hand to thee. Thy +comrades go on drinking, and say, 'Away with this fellow, who is drunk.' +If anyone should seek thee on business, thou art found lying in the dust +like a little child." + +But in spite of much wise advice, the Egyptian, though generally +temperate, is only too fond of making "a good day," as he calls it, at +the beerhouse. Even fine ladies sometimes drink too much at their great +parties, and have to be carried away very sick and miserable. Worst of +all, the very judges of the High Court have been known to take a day off +during the hearing of a long case, in order to have a revel with the +criminals whom they were trying; and it is not so long since two of them +had their noses cut off, as a warning to the rest against such shameful +conduct. + +Sauntering onwards, we gradually get near to the sacred quarter of the +town, and can see the towering gateways and obelisks of the great +temples over the roofs of the houses. Soon a great crowd comes towards +us, and the sounds of trumpets and flutes are heard coming from the +midst of it. Inquiring what is the meaning of the bustle, we are told +that one of the images of Amen, the great god of Thebes, is being +carried in procession as a preliminary to an important service which is +to take place in the afternoon, and at which the King is going to +preside. Stepping back under the doorway of a house, we watch the +procession go past. After a group of musicians and singers, and a number +of women who are dancing as they go, and shaking curious metal rattles, +there comes a group of six men, who form the centre of the whole crowd, +and on whom the eyes of all are fixed. + +They are tall, spare, keen-looking men, their heads clean shaven, their +bodies wrapped in pure white robes of the beautiful Egyptian linen. On +their shoulders they carry, by means of two long poles, a model of a +Nile boat, in the midst of which rises a little shrine. The shrine is +carefully draped round with a veil, so as to hide the god from curious +eyes. But just in front of the doorway where we are standing a small +stone pillar rises from the roadway, and when the bearers come to this +point, the bark of the god is rested on the top of the pillar. Two +censer-bearers come forward, and swing their censers, wafting clouds of +incense round the shrine; a priest lifts up his voice, loudly intoning a +hymn of praise to the great god who creates and sustains all things; and +a few of the by-standers lay before the bark offerings of flowers, +fruit, and eatables of various kinds. Then comes the solemn moment. Amid +breathless silence, the veil of the shrine is slowly drawn aside, and +the faithful can see a little wooden image, about 18 inches high, +adorned with tall plumes, carefully dressed, and painted with green and +black. The revelation of this little doll, to a Theban crowd the most +sacred object in all the world, is hailed with shouts of wonder and +reverence. Then the veil is drawn again, the procession passes on, +and the streets are left quiet for awhile. + +[Illustration: Plate 3 +THE GREAT GATE OF THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR, WITH OBELISK. _Pages 74, 75_] + +We are reminded that, if we wish to get a meal before starting out to +see Pharaoh passing in procession to the temple, we had better lose no +time, and so we turn our faces riverwards again, and wander down through +the endless maze of streets to where our galley is moored at the quay. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PHARAOH AT HOME + + +The time is coming on now for the King to go in state to the great +temple at Karnak to offer sacrifice, and as we go up to the palace to +see him come forth in all his glory, let me tell you a little about him +and the kind of life he leads. Pharaoh, of course, is not his real name; +it is not even his official title; it is just a word which is used to +describe a person who is so great that people scarcely venture to call +him by his proper name. Just as the Turks nowadays speak of the "Sublime +Porte," when they mean the Sultan and his Government, so the Egyptians +speak of "Per-o," or Pharaoh, as we call it, which really signifies +"Great House," when they mean the King. + +For the King of Egypt is a very great man indeed; in fact, his people +look upon him, and he looks upon himself, as something more than a man. +There are many gods in Egypt; but the god whom the people know best, +and to whom they pay the most reverence, is their King. Ever since there +have been Kings in the country, and that is a very long time now, the +reigning monarch has been looked upon as a kind of god manifest in the +flesh. He calls himself "Son of the Sun"; in the temples you will see +pictures of his childhood, where great goddesses dandle the young god +upon their knees (Plate 2). Divine honours are paid, and sacrifices +offered to him; and when he dies, and goes to join his brother-gods in +heaven, a great temple rises to his memory, and hosts of priests are +employed in his worship. There is just one distinction made between him +and the other gods. Amen at Thebes, Ptah at Memphis, and all the rest of +the crowd of divinities, are called "the great gods." Pharaoh takes a +different title. He is called "the good god." + +At present "the good god" is Ramses II. Of course, that is only one part +of his name; for, like all the other Pharaohs, he has a list of titles +that would fill a page. His subjects in Thebes have not seen very much +of him for a long time, for there has been so much to do away in Syria, +that he has built another capital at Tanis, which the Hebrews call Zoan, +down between the Delta and the eastern frontier, and spends most of his +time there. People who have been down the river tell us great wonders +about the beauty of the new town, its great temple, and the huge statue +of the King, 90 feet high, which stands before the temple gate. But +Thebes is still the centre of the nation's life, and now, when it is +growing almost certain that there will be another war with those vile +Hittites in the North of Syria, he has come up to the great city to +take counsel with his brother-god, Amen, and to make arrangements for +gathering his army. The royal palace is in a constant bustle, with +envoys coming and going, and counsellors and generals continually +passing in and out with reports and orders. + +Outside, the palace is not so very imposing. The Egyptians built their +temples to last for ever; but the palaces of their Kings were meant to +serve only for a short time. The new King might not care for the old +King's home, and so each Pharaoh builds his house according to his own +taste, of light materials. It will serve his turn, and his successor may +build another for himself. A high wall, with battlements, towers, and +heavy gates, surrounds it; for, though Pharaoh is a god, his subjects +are sometimes rather difficult to keep in order. Plots against the King +have not been unknown in the past; and on at least one occasion, a great +Pharaoh of bygone days had to spring from his couch and fight +single-handed for his life against a crowd of conspirators who had +forced an entrance into the palace while he was enjoying his siesta. So +since then Pharaoh has found it better to trust in his strong walls, and +in the big broadswords of his faithful Sardinian guardsmen, than in any +divinity that may belong to himself. + +Within the great boundary wall lie pleasant gardens, gay with all sorts +of flowers, and an artificial lake shows its gleaming water here and +there through the trees and shrubs. The palace itself is all glittering +white stucco on the outside. A high central door leads into a great +audience hall, glowing with colour, its roof supported by painted +pillars in the form of lotus-stalks; and on either side of this lie two +smaller halls. Behind the audience chamber are two immense +dining-rooms, and behind these come the sleeping apartments of the +numerous household. Ramses has a multitude of wives, and a whole army of +sons and daughters, and it takes no small space to house them all. The +bedroom of the great King himself stands apart from the other rooms, and +is surrounded by banks of flowers in full bloom. + +The Son of the Sun has had a busy day already. He has had many letters +and despatches to read and consider. Some of the Syrian vassal-princes +have sent clay tablets, covered with their curious arrow-headed writing, +giving news of the advance of the Hittites, and imploring the help of +the Egyptian army; and now the King is about to give audience, and to +consider these with his great nobles and Generals. At one end of the +reception hall stands a low balcony, supported on gaily-painted wooden +pillars which end in capitals of lotus-flowers. The front of this +balcony is overlaid with gold, and richly decorated with turquoise and +lapis lazuli. Here the King will show himself to his subjects, +accompanied by his favourite wife, Queen Nefertari, and some of the +young Princes and Princesses. The folding doors of the audience chamber +are thrown open, and the barons, the provincial governors, and the high +officers of the army and the State throng in to do homage to their +master. + +[Illustration] + +In a few moments the glittering crowd is duly arranged, a door opens at +the back of the balcony, and the King of the Two Lands, Lord of the +Vulture and the Snake, steps forth with his Queen and family. In earlier +times, whenever the King appeared, the assembled nobles were expected to +fall on their faces and kiss the ground before him. Fashion has +changed, however, and now the great folks, at all events, are no longer +required to "smell the earth." As Pharaoh enters the balcony, the nobles +bow profoundly, and raise their arms as if in prayer to "the good god." +Then, in silent reverence, they wait until it shall please their lord to +speak. + +Ramses sweeps his glance over the crowd, singles out the General in +command of the Theban troops, and puts a question to him as to the +readiness of his division--the picked division of the army. The soldier +steps forward with a deep bow; but it is not Court manners for him to +answer his lord's question directly. Instead, he begins by reciting a +little psalm of praise, which tells of the King's greatness, his valour +and skill in war, and asserts that wherever his horses tread his enemies +flee before him and perish. This little piece of flattery over, the +General begins, "O King, my master," and in a few sensible words gives +the information required. So the audience goes on, counsellor after +counsellor coming forward at the royal command, reciting his little +hymn, and then giving his opinion on such matters as his master suggests +to him. At last the council is over, the King gives orders to his +equerry to prepare his chariot for the procession to the temple, and, as +he turns to leave the audience chamber, the assembled nobles once more +bow profoundly, and raise their arms in adoration. + +After a short delay, the great gates of the boundary wall of the palace +are opened; a company of spearmen, in quilted leather kilts and leather +skull-caps, marches out, and takes position a short distance from the +gateway. Behind them comes a company of the Sardinians of the guard, +heavily armed, with bright helmets, broad round shields, quilted +corselets, and long, heavy, two-edged swords. They range themselves on +either side of the roadway, and stand like statues, waiting for the +appearance of Pharaoh. There is a whir of chariot-wheels, and the royal +chariot sweeps through the gateway, and sets off at a good round pace +towards the temple. The spearmen in front start at the double, and the +guardsmen, in spite of their heavy equipment, keep pace with their royal +master on either side. + +The waiting crowd bows to the dust as the sovereign passes; but Pharaoh +looks neither to the right hand nor to the left. He stands erect and +impassive in the swaying chariot, holding the crook and whip which are +the Egyptian royal emblems. On his head he wears the royal war helmet, +in the front of which a golden cobra rears its crest from its coils, as +if to threaten the enemies of Egypt. His finely-shaped, swarthy features +are adorned, or disfigured, by an artificial beard, which is fastened on +by a strap passing up in front of the ears. His tall slender body is +covered, above his corselet, with a robe of fine white linen, a perfect +wonder of pleating; and round his waist passes a girdle of gold and +green enamel, whose ends cross and hang down almost to his knees, +terminating in two threatening cobra heads (Plate 4 and Cover Picture). +On either side of him run the fan-bearers, who manage, by a miracle of +skill and activity, to keep their great gaily-coloured fans of perfumed +ostrich feathers waving round the royal head even as they run. + +Behind the King comes a long train of other chariots, only less splendid +than that of Ramses. In the first stands Queen Nefertari, languidly +sniffing at a lotus-flower as she passes on. The others are filled by +some of the Princes of the blood, who are going to take part in the +ceremony at the temple, chief among them the wizard Prince Khaemuas, the +greatest magician in Egypt, who has spells that can bring the dead from +their graves. Some in the crowd shrink from his keen eye, and mutter +that the papyrus roll which he holds so close to his breast was taken +from the grave of another magician Prince of ancient days, and that +Khaemuas will know no peace till it is restored. In a few minutes the +whole brilliant train has passed, dazzling the eyes with a blaze of gold +and white and scarlet; and crowds of courtiers stream after their +master, as fast as their feet can carry them, towards Karnak. You have +seen, if only for a moment, the greatest man on earth--the Great +Oppressor of Hebrew story. Very mighty and very proud he is; and he does +not dream that the little Hebrew boy whom his daughter has adopted, and +who is being trained in the priestly college at Heliopolis, will one day +humble all the pride of Egypt, and that the very name of Ramses shall be +best remembered because it is linked with that of Moses. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER + + +When you read about the Egyptians in the Bible, it seems as though they +were nearly always fighting; and, indeed, they did a good deal of +fighting in their time, as nearly every nation did in those old days. +But in reality they were not a great soldier people, like their rivals +the Assyrians, or the Babylonians. We, who have had so much to do with +their descendants, the modern Egyptians, and have fought both against +them and with them, know that the "Gippy" is not fond of soldiering in +his heart. He makes a very good, patient, hardworking soldier when he +has good officers; but he is not like the Soudanese, who love fighting +for fighting's sake. He much prefers to live quietly in his own native +village, and cultivate his own bit of ground. And his forefathers, in +these long-past days, were very much of the same mind. Often, of course, +they had to fight, when Pharaoh ordered them out for a campaign in the +Soudan or in Syria, and then they fought wonderfully well; but all the +time their hearts were at home, and they were glad to get back to their +farm-work and their simple pleasures. They were a peaceful, kindly, +pleasant race, with little of the cruelty and fierceness that you find +continually among the Assyrians. + +[Illustration: PLATE 4. +RAMSES II. IN HIS WAR CHARIOT: SARDINIAN GUARDSMEN ON FOOT.] + +In fact, the old Egyptian rather despised soldiering as a profession. He +thought it was rather a miserable, muddled kind of a job, in which, +unless you were a great officer, you got all the hard knocks and none +of the honours; and I am not sure that he was far wrong. His great +idea of a happy life was to get employment as a scribe, or, as we should +say, a clerk, to some big man or to the Government, to keep accounts and +write reports. Of course the people could not all be scribes; but an +Egyptian who had sons was never so proud as when he could get one of +them into a scribe's position, even though the young man might look down +upon his old father and his brothers, toiling on the land or serving in +the army. + +A curious old book has come down to us from these ancient days, in which +the writer, who had been both a soldier and a high officer under +Government in what we should call the diplomatic service, has told a +young friend his opinion of soldiering as a profession. The young man +had evidently been dazzled with the idea of being in the cavalry, or, +rather, the chariotry, for the Egyptian soldiers did not ride on horses +like our cavalry, but drove them in chariots, in each of which there +were two men--the charioteer, to drive the two horses, and the soldier, +who stood beside the driver and fought with the bow, and sometimes with +the lance or sword. + +But this wise old friend tells him that even to be in the chariotry is +not by any means a pleasant job. Of course it seems very nice at first. +The young man gets his new equipment, and thinks all the world of +himself as he goes home to show off his fine feathers. + + "He receives beautiful horses, + And rejoices and exults, + And returns with them to his town." + +But then comes the inspection, and if he has not everything in perfect +order he has a bad time of it, for he is thrown down on the ground, and +beaten with sticks till he is sore all over. + +But if the lot of the cavalry soldier is hard, that of the infantry-man +is harder. In the barracks he is flogged for every mistake or offence. +Then war breaks out, and he has to march with his battalion to Syria. +Day after day he has to tramp on foot through the wild hill-country, so +different from the flat, fertile homeland that he loves. He has to carry +all his heavy equipment and his rations, so that he is laden like a +donkey; and often he has to drink dirty water, which makes him ill. +Then, when the battle comes, he gets all the danger and the wounds, +while the Generals get all the credit. When the war is over, he comes +home riding on a donkey, a broken-down man, sick and wounded, his very +clothes stolen by the rascals who should have attended on him. Far +better, the wise man says, to be a scribe, and to remain comfortably at +home. I dare say it was all quite true, just as perhaps it would not be +very far from the truth at the present time; but, in spite of it all, +Pharaoh had his battles to fight, and he got his soldiers all right when +they were needed. + +The Egyptian army was not generally a very big one. It was nothing like +the great hosts that we hear of nowadays, or read of in some of the old +histories. The armies that the Pharaohs led into Syria were not often +much bigger than what we should call an army corps nowadays--probably +about 20,000 men altogether, rarely more than 25,000. But in that number +you could find almost as many different sorts of men as in our own +Indian army. There would be first the native Egyptian spearmen and +bowmen--the spearmen with leather caps and quilted leather tunics, +carrying a shield and spear, and sometimes an axe, or a dagger, or +short sword--the bowmen, more lightly equipped, but probably more +dangerous enemies, for the Egyptian archers were almost as famous as the +old English bowmen, and won many a battle for their King. Then came the +chariot brigade, also of native Egyptians, men probably of higher rank +than the foot-soldiers. The chariots were very light, and it must have +been exceedingly difficult for the bowman to balance himself in the +narrow car, as it bumped and clattered over rough ground. The two horses +were gaily decorated, and often wore plumes on their heads. The +charioteer sometimes twisted the reins round his waist, and could take a +hand in the fighting if his companion was hard pressed, guiding his +horses by swaying his body to one side or the other. + +Round the Pharaoh himself, as he stood in his beautiful chariot, marched +the royal bodyguard. It was made up of men whom the Egyptians called +"Sherden"--Sardinians, probably, who had come over the sea to serve for +hire in the army of the great King. They wore metal helmets, with a +round ball on the top and horns at the sides, carried round bossed +shields, and were armed with great heavy swords of much the same shape +as those which the Norman knights used to carry. Behind the native +troops and the bodyguard marched the other mercenaries--regiments of +black Soudanese, with wild-beast skins thrown over their ebony +shoulders; and light-coloured Libyans from the West, each with a couple +of feathers stuck in his leather skull-cap. + +Scouts went on ahead to scour the country, and bring to the King reports +of the enemy's whereabouts. Beside the royal chariot there padded along +a strange, but very useful soldier--a great tame lion, which had been +trained to guard his master and fight with teeth and claws against his +enemies. Last of all came the transport train, with the baggage carried +on the backs of a long line of donkeys, and protected by a +baggage-guard. The Egyptians were good marchers, and even in the hot +Syrian sunshine, and across a rough country where roads were almost +unknown, they could keep up a steady fifteen miles a day for a week on +end without being fagged out. + +Let us follow the fortunes of an Egyptian soldier through one of the +great battles of the nation's history. Menna was one of the most skilful +charioteers of the whole Egyptian army--so skilful that, though he was +still quite young, he was promoted to be driver of the royal war-chariot +when King Ramses II. marched out from Zaru, the frontier garrison town +of Egypt, to fight with the Hittites in Northern Syria. During all the +long march across the desert, through Palestine, and over the northern +mountain passes, no enemy was seen at all, and, though Menna was kept +busy enough attending to his horses and seeing that the chariot was in +perfect order, he was in no danger. But as the army began to wind down +the long valley of the Orontes towards the town of Kadesh, the scouts +were kept out in every direction, and the whole host was anxiously on +the lookout for the Hittite troops. + +Kadesh came in sight at last. Far on the horizon its towers could be +seen, and the sun's rays sparkled on the river and on the broad moat +which surrounded the walls; but still no enemy was to be seen. The +scouts came in with the report that the Hittites had retreated +northwards in terror, and King Ramses imagined that Kadesh was going to +fall into his hands without a battle. His army was divided into four +brigades, and he himself hurried on rather rashly with the first +brigade, leaving the other three to straggle on behind him, widely +separated from one another (Plate 4). + +The first brigade reached its camping-ground to the north-west of +Kadesh; the tired troops pitched camp; the baggage was unloaded; and the +donkeys, released from their burdens, rolled on the ground in delight. +Just at that moment some of the Egyptian scouts came in, bringing with +them two Arabs whom they had caught, and suspected to belong to the +enemy. King Ramses ordered the Arabs to be soundly beaten with sticks, +and the poor creatures confessed that the Hittite King, with a great +army, was concealed on the other side of Kadesh, watching for an +opportunity to attack the Egyptian army. In great haste Ramses, scolding +his scouts the while for not keeping a better lookout, began to get his +soldiers under arms again, while Menna ran and yoked to the royal +chariot the two noble horses which had been kept fresh for the day of +battle. + +But before Pharaoh could leap into his chariot a wild uproar broke out +at the gate of the camp, and the scattered fragments of the second +brigade came pouring in headlong flight into the enclosure. Behind them +the whole Hittite chariot force, 2,500 chariots strong, each chariot +with three men in it, came clattering and leaping upon the heels of the +fugitives. The Hittite King had waited till he saw the first brigade +busy pitching camp, and then, as the second came straggling up, he had +launched his chariots upon the flank of the weary soldiers, who were +swept away in a moment as if by a flood. + +The rush of terrified men carried off the first brigade along with it in +hopeless rout. Ramses and Menna were left with only a few picked +chariots of the household troops, and the whole Hittite army was coming +on. But though King Ramses had made a terrible bungle of his +generalship, he was at least a brave man. Leaping into his chariot, and +calling to the handful of faithful soldiers to follow him, he bade Menna +lash his horses and charge the advancing Hittites. Menna was no coward, +but when he saw the thin line of Egyptian troops, and looked at the +dense mass of Hittite chariots, his heart almost failed him. He never +thought of disobedience, but, as he stooped over his plunging horses, he +panted to the King: "O mighty strength of Egypt in the day of battle, we +are alone in the midst of the enemy. O, save us, Ramses, my good lord!" +"Steady, steady, my charioteer," said Ramses, "I am going among them +like a hawk!" + +In a moment the fiery horses were whirling the King and his charioteer +between the files of the Hittite chariots, which drew aside as if +terrified at the glittering figures that dashed upon them so fearlessly. +As they swept through, Menna had enough to do to manage his steeds, +which were wild with excitement; but Ramses' bow was bent again and +again, and at every twang of the bowstring a Hittite champion fell from +his chariot. Behind the King came his household troops, and all together +they burst through the chariot brigade of the enemy, leaving a long +trail marked by dead and wounded men, overturned chariots, and maddened +horses. + +Still King Ramses had only gained a breathing-space. The Hittites far +outnumbered his little force, and, though his orderlies were madly +galloping to bring up the third and fourth brigades, it must be some +time yet before even the nearest could come into action. Besides, on the +other bank of the river there hung a great cloud of 8,000 Hittite +spearmen, under the command of the Hittite King himself. If these got +time to cross the river, the Egyptian position, bad enough as it was, +would be hopeless. There was nothing for it but to charge again and +again, and, if possible, drive back the Hittite chariots on the river, +so as to hinder the spearmen from crossing. + +So Menna whipped up his horses again, and, with arrow on string, the +Pharaoh dashed upon his enemies once more. Again they burst through the +opposing ranks, scattering death on either side as they passed. Now some +of the fragments of the first and second brigades were beginning to +rally and come back to the field, and the struggle was becoming less +unequal. The Egyptian quivers were nearly all empty now; but lance and +sword still remained, and inch by inch the Hittites were forced back +upon the river. Their King stood ingloriously on the opposite bank, +unable to do anything. It was too late for him to try to move his +spearmen across--they would only have been trampled down by the +retreating chariots. At last a great shout from the rear announced the +arrival of the third Egyptian brigade, and, the little knot of brave men +who had saved the day still leading, the army swept the broken Hittites +down the bank of the Orontes into the river. + +Great was the confusion and the slaughter. As the chariots struggled +through the ford, the Egyptian bowmen, spread out along the bank, picked +off the chiefs. The two brothers of the Hittite King, the chief of his +bodyguard, his shield-bearer, and his chief scribe, were all killed. The +King of Aleppo missed the ford, and was swept down the river; but some +of his soldiers dashed into the water, rescued him, and, in rough first +aid, held the half-drowned leader up by the heels, to let the water +drain out of him. The Hittite King picked up his broken fugitives, +covered them with his mass of spearmen, and moved reluctantly off the +field where so splendid a chance of victory had been missed, and turned +into defeat. The Egyptians were too few and too weary to attempt to +cross the river in pursuit, and they retired to the camp of the first +brigade. + +Then Pharaoh called his Captains before him. The troops stood around, +leaning on their spears, ashamed of their conduct in the earlier part of +the day, and wondering at the grim signs of conflict that lay on every +side. King Ramses called Menna to him, and, handing the reins to a +groom, the young charioteer came bowing before his master. Pharaoh +stripped from his own royal neck a collar of gold, and fastened it round +the neck of his faithful squire; and, while the Generals and Captains +hung their heads for shame, the King told them how shamefully they had +left him to fight his battle alone, and how none had stood by him but +the young charioteer. "As for my two horses," he said, "they shall be +fed before me every day in the royal palace." + +[Illustration: PLATE 5. +ZAZAMANKH AND THE LOST CORONET.] + +Both armies had suffered too much loss for any further strife to be +possible, and a truce was agreed upon. The Hittites drew off to the +north, and the Egyptians marched back again to Egypt, well aware that +they had gained little or nothing by all their efforts, but thankful +that they had been saved from the total destruction which had seemed so +near. + +A proud man was Menna when he drove the royal chariot up to the bridge +of Zaru. As the troops passed the frontier canal the road was lined on +either side with crowds of nobles, priests, and scribes, strewing +flowers in the way, and bowing before the King. And after the Pharaoh +himself, whose bravery had saved the day, there was no one so honoured +as the young squire who had stood so manfully by his master in the hour +of danger. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CHILD-LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT + + +How did the boys and girls live in this quaint old land so many hundreds +of years ago? How were they dressed, what sort of games did they play +at, what sort of lessons did they learn, and what kind of school did +they go to? If you could have lived in Egypt in those far-off days, you +would have found many differences between your life of to-day and the +life that the Egyptian children led; but you would also have found that +there were very many things much the same then as they are now. Boys and +girls were boys and girls three thousand years ago, just as they are +now; and you would find that they did very much the same things, and +even played very much the same games as you do to-day. + +When you read in your fairy-stories about a little boy or girl, you +often hear that they had fairy godmothers who came to their cradles, and +gave them gifts, and foretold what was going to happen to the little +babies in after years. Well, when little Tahuti or little Sen-senb was +born in Thebes fifteen hundred years before Christ, there were fairy +godmothers too, who presided over the great event; and there were others +called the Hathors, who foretold all that was going to happen to the +little boy or girl as the years went on. The baby was kept a baby much +longer in those days than our little ones are kept. The happy mother +nursed the little thing carefully for three years at all events, +carrying it about with her wherever she went, either on her shoulder, or +astride upon her hip. + +If baby took ill, and the doctor was called in, the medicines that were +given were not in the least like the sugar-coated pills and capsules +that make medicine-taking easy nowadays. The Egyptian doctor did not +know a very great deal about medicine and sickness, but he made up for +his ignorance by the nastiness of the doses which he gave to his +patients. I don't think you would like to take pills made up of the +moisture scraped from pig's ears, lizard's blood, bad meat, and decaying +fat, to say nothing of still nastier things. Often the doctor would look +very grave, and say, "The child is not ill; he is bewitched"; and then +he would sit down and write out a prescription something like this: +"Remedy to drive away bewitchment. Take a great beetle; cut off his head +and his wings, boil him, put him in oil, and lay him out. Then cook +his head and his wings; put them in snake-fat, boil, and let the patient +drink the mixture." I think you would almost rather take the risk of +being bewitched than drink a dose like that! + +[Illustration: Plate 6 +GRANITE STATUE OF RAMSES II. _Page_ 75 +Note the hieroglyphics on base of statue. _Pages_ 68, 69] + +Sometimes the doctor gave no medicines at all, but wrote a few magic +words on a scrap of old paper, and tied it round the part where the pain +was. I daresay it did as much good as his pills. Very often the mother +believed that it was not really sickness that was troubling her child, +but that a ghost was coming and hurting him; so when his cries showed +that the ghost was in the room, the mother would rise up, shaking all +over, I daresay, and would repeat the verse that she had been taught +would drive ghosts away: + + "Comest thou to kiss this child? I suffer thee not to kiss him; + Comest thou to quiet him? I suffer thee not to quiet him; + Comest thou to harm him? I suffer thee not to harm him; + Comest thou to take him away? I suffer thee not to take him away." + +When little Tahuti has got over his baby aches, and escaped the ghosts, +he begins to run about and play. He and his sister are not bothered to +any great extent with dressing in the mornings. They are very particular +about washing, but as Egypt is so hot, clothes are not needed very much, +and so the little boy and girl play about with nothing at all on their +little brown bodies except, perhaps, a narrow girdle, or even a single +thread tied round the waist. They have their toys just like you. Tahuti +has got a wonderful man, who, when you pull a string, works a roller up +and down upon a board, just like a baker rolling out dough, and besides +he has a crocodile that moves its jaws. His sister has dolls: a fine +Egyptian lady and a frizzy-haired, black-faced Nubian girl. Sometimes +they play together at ninepins, rolling the ball through a little gate. + +For about four years this would go on, as long as Tahuti was what the +Egyptians called "a wise little one." Then, when he was four years old, +the time came when he had to become "a writer in the house of books," +which is what the Egyptians called a school-boy; so little Tahuti set +off for school, still wearing no more clothes than the thread tied round +his waist, and with his black hair plaited up into a long thick lock, +which hung down over his right ear. The first thing that he had to learn +was how to read and write, and this was no easy task, for Egyptian +writing, though it is very beautiful when well done, is rather difficult +to master, all the more as there were two different styles which had to +be learned if a boy was going to become a man of learning. I don't +suppose that you think your old copy-books of much importance when you +are done with them; but the curious thing is that among all the books +that have come down to us from ancient Egypt, there are far more old +copy-books than any others, and these books, with the teachers' +corrections written on the margins, and rough sketches scratched in here +and there among the writing, have proved most valuable in telling us +what the Egyptians learned, and what they liked to read; for a great +deal of the writing consisted in the copying out of wise words of the +men of former days, and sometimes of stories of old times. + +These old copy-books can speak to us in one way, but if they could speak +in another, I daresay they would tell us of many weary hours in school, +and of many floggings and tears; for the Egyptian school-master +believed with all his heart in the cane, and used it with great vigour +and as often as he could. Little Tahuti used to look forward to his +daily flogging, much as he did to his lunch in the middle of the day, +when his careful mother regularly brought him three rolls of bread and +two jugs of beer. "A boy's ears," his master used to say, "are on his +back, and he hears when he is beaten." One of the former pupils at his +school writing to his teacher, and recalling his school-days, says: "I +was with thee since I was brought up as a child; thou didst beat my +back, and thine instructions went into my ear." Sometimes the boys, if +they were stubborn, got punishments even worse than the cane. Another +boy, in a letter to his old master, says: "Thou hast made me buckle to +since the time that I was one of thy pupils. I spent my time in the +lock-up, and was sentenced to three months, and bound in the temple." I +am afraid our schoolboys would think the old Egyptian teachers rather +more severe than the masters with whom they have to do nowadays. + +Lesson-time occupied about half the day, and when it came to an end the +boys all ran out of the school, shouting for joy. That custom has not +changed much, anyway, in all these hundreds of years. I don't think they +had any home lessons to do, and so, perhaps, their school-time was not +quite so bad as we might imagine from the rough punishments they used to +get. + +When Tahuti grew a little older, and had fairly mastered the rudiments +of writing, his teacher set him to write out copies of different +passages from the best known Egyptian books, partly to keep up his +hand-writing, and partly to teach him to know good Egyptian and to use +correct language. Sometimes it was a piece of a religious book that he +was set to copy, sometimes a poem, sometimes a fairy-tale. For the +Egyptians were very fond of fairy-tales, and later on, perhaps, we may +hear some of their stories, the oldest fairy-stories in the world. But +generally the piece that was chosen was one which would not only +exercise the boy's hand, and teach him a good style, but would also help +to teach him good manners, and fill his mind with right ideas. Very +often Tahuti's teacher would dictate to him a passage from the wise +advice which a great King of long ago left to his son, the Crown Prince, +or from some other book of the same kind. And sometimes the exercises +would be in the form of letters which the master and his pupils wrote as +though they had been friends far away from one another. Tahuti's +letters, you may be sure, were full of wisdom and of good resolutions, +and I dare say he was just about as fond of writing them as you are of +writing the letters that your teacher sometimes sets as a task for you. + +When it came to Arithmetic, Tahuti was so far lucky that the number of +rules he had to learn was very few. His master taught him addition and +subtraction, and a very slow and clumsy form of multiplication; but he +could not teach him division, for the very simple reason that he did not +properly understand it himself. Enough of mensuration was taught him to +enable him to find out, though rather roughly, what was the size of a +field, and how much corn would go into a granary of any particular size. +And when he had learned these things, his elementary education was +pretty well over. + +[Illustration: Plate 7 +NAVE OF THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK. _Pages_ 75, 76] + +Of course a great deal would depend on the profession he was going to +follow. If he was going to be only a common scribe, his education +would go no farther; for the work he would have to do would need no +greater learning than reading, writing, and arithmetic. If he was going +to be an officer in the army, he entered as a cadet in a military school +which was attached to the royal stables. But if he was going to be a +priest, he had to join one of the colleges which belonged to the +different temples of the gods, and there, like Moses, he was instructed +in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was taught all the strange ideas +which they had about the gods, and the life after death, and the +wonderful worlds, above and below, where the souls of men lived after +they had finished their lives on earth. + +But, whether his schooling was carried on to what we should call a +University training or not, there was one thing that Tahuti was taught +with the utmost care, and that was to be very respectful to those who +were older than himself, never to sit down while an older person was +standing in the room, and always to be very careful in his manners. +Chief of the older people to whom he had to show respect were his +parents, and above all, his mother, for the Egyptians reverenced their +mothers more than anyone else in the world. Here is a little scrap of +advice that a wise old Egyptian once left to his son: "Thou shalt never +forget what thy mother has done for thee. She bare thee, and nourished +thee in all manner of ways. She nursed thee for three years. She brought +thee up, and when thou didst enter the school, and wast instructed in +the writings, she came daily to thy master with bread and beer from her +house. If thou forgettest her, she might blame thee; she might lift up +her hands to God, and He would hear her complaint." Children nowadays +might do a great deal worse than remember these wise words of the +oldest book in the world. + +But you are not to think that the Egyptian children's life was all +teaching and prim behaviour. When Tahuti got his holidays, he would +sometimes go out with his father and mother and sister on a fishing or +fowling expedition. If they were going fishing, the little papyrus skiff +was launched, and the party paddled away, armed with long thin spears, +which had two prongs at the point. Drifting over the quiet shallow +waters of the marshy lakes, they could see the fish swimming beneath +them, and launch their spears at them. Sometimes, if he was lucky, +Tahuti's father would pierce a fish with either prong of the spear, and +then there was great excitement. + +But still more interesting was the fowling among the marshes. The spears +were laid aside on this kind of expedition, and instead, Tahuti and his +father were armed with curved throw-sticks, shaped something like an +Australian boomerang. But, besides the throw-sticks, they had with them +a rather unusual helper. When people go shooting nowadays, they take +dogs with them to retrieve the game. Well, the Egyptians had different +kinds of dogs, too, which they used for hunting; but when they went +fowling they took with them a cat which was trained to catch the wounded +birds and bring them to her master. The little skiff was paddled +cautiously across the marsh, and in among the reeds where the wild ducks +and other waterfowl lived, Sen-senb and her mother holding on to the +tall papyrus plants and pulling them aside to make room for the boat, or +plucking the beautiful lotus-lilies, of which the Egyptians were so +fond. When the birds rose, Tahuti and his father let fly their +throw-sticks, and when a bird was knocked down, the cat, which had been +sitting quietly in the bow of the boat, dashed forward among the reeds +and secured the fluttering creature before it could escape. + +[Illustration: PLATE 8. +"AND THE GOOSE STOOD UP AND CACKLED."] + +Altogether, it was great fun for the brother and sister, as well as for +the grown folks, and Tahuti and Sen-senb liked nothing so well as when +the gaily-painted little skiff was launched for a day on the marshes. I +think that, on the whole, they had a very bright and happy life in these +old days, and that, though they had not many of the advantages that you +have to-day, the boys and girls of three thousand years ago managed to +enjoy themselves in their own simple way quite as well as you do now. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO + + +The little brown boys and girls who lived in Egypt three thousand years +ago were just as fond as you are of hearing wonderful stories that begin +with "Once upon a time;" and I want in this chapter to tell you some of +the tales that Tahuti and Sen-senb used to listen to in the evening when +school was over and play was done--the oldest of all wonder-tales, +stories that were old and had long been forgotten, ages before The +Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk were first thought of. + +One day, when King Khufu, the great King who built the biggest of the +Pyramids, had nothing else to do, he called his sons and his wise men +together, and said, "Is there anyone among you who can tell me the tales +of the old magicians?" Then the King's son, Prince Baufra, stood up and +said, "Your Majesty, I can tell you of a wonder that happened in the +days of your father, King Seneferu. It fell on a day that the King grew +weary of everything, and sought through all his palace for something to +please him, but found nothing. Then he said to his officers, 'Bring to +me the magician Zazamankh.' And when the magician came, the King said to +him, 'O Zazamankh, I have sought through all my palace for some delight, +and I have found none.' Then said Zazamankh, 'Let thy Majesty go in thy +boat upon the lake of the palace, and let twenty beautiful girls be +brought to row thee, and let their oars be of ebony, inlaid with gold +and silver. And I myself will go with thee; and the sight of the +water-birds, and the fair shores, and the green grass will cheer thy +heart.' So the King and the wizard went down to the lake, and the twenty +maidens rowed them about in the King's pleasure-galley. Nine rowed on +this side, and nine on that, and the two fairest stood by the two +rudders at the stern, and set the rowing song, each for her own side. +And the King's heart grew glad and light, as the boat sped hither and +thither, and the oars flashed in the sunshine to the song of the rowers. + +"But as the boat turned, the top of the steering-oar struck the hair of +one of the maidens who steered, and knocked her coronet of turquoise +into the water; and she stopped her song, and all the rowers on her +side stopped rowing. Then his Majesty said, 'Why have you stopped +rowing, little one?' And the maiden answered, 'It is because my jewel of +turquoise has fallen into the water.' 'Row on,' said the King, 'and I +will give you another.' But the girl answered, 'I want my own one back, +as I had it before.' So King Seneferu called Zazamankh to come to him, +and said, 'Now, Zazamankh, I have done as you advised, and my heart is +light; but, behold, the coronet of this little one has fallen into the +water, and she has stopped singing, and spoiled the rowing of her side; +and she will not have a new jewel, but wants the old one back again.' + +"Then Zazamankh the wizard stood up in the King's boat, and spoke +wonderful words. And, lo! the water of one half of the lake rose up, and +heaped itself upon the top of the water of the other half, so that it +was twice as deep as it was before. And the King's bark rode upon the +top of the piled-up waters; but beyond it the bottom of the lake lay +bare, with the shells and pebbles shining in the sunlight. And there, +upon a broken shell, lay the little rower's coronet. Then Zazamankh +leaped down and picked it up, and brought it to the King. And he spake +wonderful words again, and the water sank down, and covered the whole +bed of the lake, as it had done at first. So his Majesty spent a joyful +day, and gave great rewards to the wizard Zazamankh." + +When King Khufu heard that story, he praised the men of olden times. But +another of his sons, Prince Hordadef, stood up, and said, "O King, that +is only a story of bygone days, and no one knows whether it is true or a +lie; but I will show thee a magician of to-day." "Who is he, Hordadef?" +said King Khufu. And Hordadef answered, "His name is Dedi. He is a +hundred and ten years old, and every day he eats five hundred loaves of +bread, and a side of beef, and drinks a hundred jugs of beer. He knows +how to fasten on a head that has been cut off. He knows how to make a +lion of the desert follow him, and he knows the plan of the house of God +that you have wanted to know for so long." + +Then King Khufu sent Prince Hordadef to bring Dedi to him, and he +brought Dedi back in the royal boat. The King came out, and sat in the +colonnade of the palace, and Dedi was led before him. Then said his +Majesty, "Why have I never seen you before, Dedi?" And Dedi answered, +"Life, health, strength to your Majesty! A man can only come when he is +called." "Is it true, Dedi, that you can fasten on a head which has been +cut off?" "Certainly I can, your Majesty." Then said the King, "Let a +prisoner be brought from the prison, and let his head be struck off." +But Dedi said, "Long life to your Majesty; do not try it on a man. Let +us try a bird or an animal." + +So a goose was brought; its head was cut off; and the head was laid at +the east side of the hall, and the body at the west. Then Dedi rose, and +spoke wonderful words. And, behold! the body of the goose waddled to +meet the head, and the head came to meet the body. They joined together +before his Majesty's throne, and the goose stood up and cackled (Plate +8). + +Then, when Dedi had joined to its body again the head that had been +struck off from an ox, and the ox followed him lowing, King Khufu said +to him, "Is it true, O Dedi, that you know the plans of the house of +God?" "It is true, your Majesty; but it is not I who shall give them to +you." "Who, then?" said the King. "It is the eldest of three sons who +shall be born to the lady Rud-didet, wife of the priest of Ra, the +Sun-God. And Ra has promised that these three sons shall reign over this +kingdom of thine." When King Khufu heard that word, his heart was +troubled; but Dedi said, "Let not your Majesty's heart be troubled. Thy +son shall reign first, then thy son's son, and then one of these." So +the King commanded that Dedi should live in the house of Prince +Hordadef; and that every day there should be given to him a thousand +loaves, a hundred jugs of beer, an ox, and a hundred bunches of onions! + +When the three sons of Rud-didet were born, Ra sent four goddesses to be +their godmothers. They came attired like travelling dancing-girls; and +one of the gods came with them, dressed like a porter. And when they had +nursed the three children awhile, Rud-didet's husband said to them, "My +ladies, what wages shall I give you?" So he gave them a bushel of +barley, and they went away with their wages. But when they had gone a +little way, Isis, the chief of them, said, "Why have we not done a +wonder for these children?" So they stopped, and made crowns, the red +crown and the white crown of Egypt, and hid them in the bushel of +barley, and sealed the sack, and put it in Rud-didet's store-chamber, +and went away again. + +A fortnight later, when Rud-didet was going to brew the household beer, +there was no barley. And her maidservant said, "There is a bushel, but +it was given to the dancing-girls, and lies in the store-room, sealed +with their seal." So the lady said to her maid, "Go down and fetch it, +and we shall give them more when they need it." The maid went down, but +when she came to the store-room, lo! from within there came a sound of +singing and dancing, and all such music as should be heard in a King's +Court. So in fear she crept back to her mistress and told her, and +Rud-didet went down and heard the royal music, and she told her husband +when he came home at night, and their hearts were glad because their +sons were to be Kings. + +But after a time the lady Rud-didet quarrelled with her maid, and gave +her a beating, as ladies sometimes did in those days; and the weeping +maid said to her fellow-servants, "Shall she do this to me? She has +borne three Kings, and I will go and tell it to his Majesty, King +Khufu." So she stole away first to her uncle, and told him of her plot; +but he was angry because she wished to betray the children to King +Khufu, and he beat her with a scourge of flax. And as she went away by +the side of the river a great crocodile came out of the water, and +carried her off.... But here, alas! our story breaks off; the rest of +the book is lost, and we cannot tell whether King Khufu tried to kill +the three royal babies or not. Only we do know that the first three +Kings of the race which succeeded the race of Khufu bore the same names +as Rud-didet's three babies, and were called, like all the Kings of +Egypt after them, "Sons of the Sun." + +These, then, are absolutely the oldest fairy-stories in the world, and +if they do not seem very wonderful to you, you must remember that +everything has to have a beginning, and that the people who made these +tales hadn't had very much practice in the art of story-telling. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO (_Continued_) + + +Our next story belongs to a time several hundred years later, and I dare +say it seemed as wonderful to the little Egyptians as the story of +Sindbad the Sailor does to you. It is called "The Story of the +Shipwrecked Sailor," and the sailor himself tells it to a noble +Egyptian. + +"I was going," he says, "to the mines of Pharaoh, and we set sail in a +ship of 150 cubits long and 40 cubits wide (225 feet by 60 feet--quite a +big ship for the time). We had a crew of 150 of the best sailors of +Egypt, men whose hearts were as bold as lions. They all foretold a happy +voyage, but as we came near the shore a great storm blew, the sea rose +in terrible waves, and our ship was fairly overwhelmed. Clinging to a +piece of wood, I was washed about for three days, and at last tossed up +on an island; but not one was left of all my shipmates--all perished in +the waves. + +"I lay down in the shade of some bushes, and when I had recovered a +little, I looked about me for food. There was plenty on every hand--figs +and grapes, berries and corn, with all manner of birds. When my hunger +was satisfied, I lit a fire, and made an offering to the gods who had +saved me. Suddenly I heard a noise like thunder; the trees shook, and +the earth quaked. Looking round, I saw a great serpent approaching me. +He was nearly 50 feet long, and had a beard 3 feet in length. His body +shone in the sun like gold, and when he reared himself up from his coils +before me I fell upon my face. + +"Then the serpent began to speak: 'What has brought thee, little one, +what has brought thee? If thou dost not tell me quickly what has brought +thee to this isle, I shall make thee vanish like a flame.' So saying, he +took me up in his mouth, carried me gently to his lair, and laid me down +unhurt; and again he said, 'What has brought thee, little one, what has +brought thee to this isle of the sea?' So I told him the story of our +shipwreck, and how I alone had escaped from the fury of the waves. Then +said he to me: 'Fear not, little one, and let not thy face be sad. If +thou hast come to me, it is God who has brought thee to this isle, which +is filled with all good things. And now, see: thou shalt dwell for four +months in this isle, and then a ship of thine own land shall come, and +thou shalt go home to thy country, and die in thine own town. As for me, +I am here with my brethren and my children. There are seventy-five of us +in all, besides a young girl, who came here by chance, and was burned by +fire from heaven. But if thou art strong and patient, thou shalt yet +embrace thy children and thy wife, and return to thy home.' + +"Then I bowed low before him, and promised to tell of him to Pharaoh, +and to bring him ships full of all the treasures of Egypt; but he smiled +at my speech, and said, 'Thou hast nothing that I need, for I am Prince +of the Land of Punt, and all its perfumes are mine. Moreover, when thou +departest, thou shalt never again see this isle, for it shall be changed +into waves.' + +[Illustration: PLATE 9. +AN EGYPTIAN COUNTRY HOUSE.] + +"Now, behold! when the time was come, as he had foretold, the ship drew +near. And the good serpent said to me, 'Farewell, farewell! go to thy +home, little one, see again thy children, and let thy name be good in +thy town; these are my wishes for thee.' So I bowed low before him, and +he loaded me with precious gifts of perfume, cassia, sweet woods, ivory, +baboons, and all kinds of precious things, and I embarked in the ship. +And now, after a voyage of two months, we are coming to the house of +Pharaoh, and I shall go in before Pharaoh, and offer the gifts which I +have brought from this isle into Egypt, and Pharaoh shall thank me +before the great ones of the land." + +Our last story belongs to a later age than that of the Shipwrecked +Sailor. About 1,500 years before Christ there arose in Egypt a race of +mighty soldier-Kings, who founded a great empire, which stretched from +the Soudan right through Syria and Mesopotamia as far as the great River +Euphrates. Mesopotamia, or Naharaina, as the Egyptians called it, had +been an unknown land to them before this time; but now it became to them +what America was to the men of Queen Elizabeth's time, or the heart of +Africa to your grandfathers--the wonderful land of romance, where all +kinds of strange things might happen. And this story of the Doomed +Prince, which I have to tell you, belongs partly to Naharaina, and, as +you will see, some of our own fairy-stories have been made out of very +much the same materials as are used in it. + +Once upon a time there was a King in Egypt who had no child. His heart +was grieved because he had no child, and he prayed to the gods for a +son; so in course of time a son was born to him, and the Fates (like +fairy godmothers) came to his cradle to foretell what should happen to +him. And when they saw him, they said, "His doom is to die either by the +crocodile, or by the serpent, or by the dog." When the King heard this, +his heart was sore for his little son, and he resolved that he would put +the boy where no harm could come to him; so he built for him a beautiful +house away in the desert, and furnished it with all kinds of fine +things, and sent the boy there, with faithful servants to guard him, and +to see that he came to no hurt. So the boy grew up quietly and safely in +his house in the desert. + +But it fell on a day that the young Prince looked out from the roof of +his house, and he saw a man walking across the desert, with a dog +following him. So he said to the servant who was with him, "What is this +that walks behind the man who is coming along the road?" "It is a dog," +said the page. Then the boy said, "You must bring me one like him," and +the page went and told His Majesty. Then the King said, "Get a little +puppy, and take it to him, lest his heart be sad." So they brought him a +little dog, and it grew up along with him. + +Now, it happened that, when the boy had grown to be a strong young man, +he grew weary of being always shut up in his fine house. Therefore he +sent a message to his father, saying, "Why am I always to be shut up +here? Since I am doomed to three evil Fates, let me have my desire, and +let God do what is in His heart." So the King agreed, and they gave the +young Prince arms, and sent him away to the eastern frontier, and his +dog went with him, and they said to him, "Go wherever you will." So he +went northward through the desert, he and his dog, until he came to +the land of Naharaina. + +[Illustration: Plate 10 +STATUES OF KING AMENHOTEP III.] + +Now, the chief of the land of Naharaina had no children, save one +beautiful daughter, and for her he had built a wonderful house. It had +seventy windows, and it stood on a great rock more than 100 feet high. +And the chief summoned the sons of all the chiefs of the country round +about, and said to them, "The Prince who can climb to my daughter's +window shall have her for his wife." So all the young Princes of the +land camped around the house, and tried every day to climb to the window +of the beautiful Princess; but none of them succeeded, for the rock was +very steep and high. + +Then, one day when they were climbing as they were wont, the young +Prince of Egypt rode by with his dog; and the Princes welcomed him, +bathed him, and fed his horse, and said to him, "Whence comest thou, +thou goodly youth?" He did not wish to tell them that he was the son of +Pharaoh, so he answered, "I am the son of an Egyptian officer. My father +married a second wife, and, when she had children, she hated me, and +drove me away from my home." So they took him into their company, and he +stayed with them many days. + +Now, it fell on a day that he asked them, "Why do you stay here, trying +always to climb this rock?" And they told him of the beautiful Princess +who lived in the house on the top of the rock, and how the man who could +climb to her window should marry her. Therefore the young Prince of +Egypt climbed along with them, and it came to pass that at last he +climbed to the window of the Princess; and when she saw him, she fell in +love with him, and kissed him. + +Then was word sent to the Chief of Naharaina that one of the young men +had climbed to his daughter's window, and he asked which of the Princes +it was, and the messenger said, "It is not a Prince, but the son of an +Egyptian officer, who has been driven away from Egypt by his +stepmother." Then the Chief of Naharaina was very angry, and said, +"Shall I give my daughter to an Egyptian fugitive? Let him go back to +Egypt." But, when the messengers came to tell the young man to go away, +the Princess seized his hand, and said, "If you take him from me, I will +not eat; I will not drink; I shall die in that same hour." Then the +chief sent men to kill the youth where he was in the house. But the +Princess said, "If you kill him, I shall be dead before the sun goes +down. I will not live an hour if I am parted from him." So the chief was +obliged to agree to the marriage; and the young Prince was married to +the Princess, and her father gave them a house, and slaves, and fields, +and all sorts of good things. + +But after a time the young Prince said to his wife, "I am doomed to die, +either by a crocodile, or by a serpent, or by a dog." And his wife +answered, "Why, then, do you keep this dog always with you? Let him be +killed." "Nay," said he, "I am not going to kill my faithful dog, which +I have brought up since the time that he was a puppy." So the Princess +feared greatly for her husband, and would never let him go out of her +sight. + +Now, it happened in course of time that the Prince went back to the land +of Egypt; and his wife went with him, and his dog, and he dwelt in +Egypt. And one day, when the evening came, he grew drowsy, and fell +asleep; and his wife filled a bowl with milk, and placed it by his side, +and sat to watch him as he slept. Then a great serpent came out of his +hole to bite the youth. But his wife was watching, and she made the +servants give the milk to the serpent, and he drank till he could not +move. Then the Princess killed the serpent with blows of her dagger. So +she woke her husband, and he was astonished to see the serpent lying +dead, and his faithful wife said to him, "Behold, God has given one of +thy dooms into thy hand; He will also give the others." And the Prince +made sacrifice to God, and praised Him. + +Now, it fell on a day that the Prince went out to walk in his estate, +and his dog went with him. And as they walked, the dog ran after some +game, and the Prince followed the dog. They came to the River Nile, and +the dog went into the river, and the Prince followed him. Then a great +crocodile rose in the river, and laid hold on the youth, and said, "I am +thy doom, following after thee." ... + +But just here the old papyrus roll on which the story is written is torn +away, and we do not know what happened to the Doomed Prince. I fancy +that, in some way or other, his dog would save him from the crocodile, +and that later, by some accident, the poor faithful dog would be the +cause of his master's death. At least, it looks as if the end of the +story must have been something like that; for the Egyptians believed +that no one could escape from the doom that was laid upon him, but had +to suffer it sooner or later. Perhaps, some day, one of the explorers +who are searching the land of Egypt for relics of the past may come on +another papyrus roll with the end of the story, and then we shall find +out whether the dog did kill the Prince, or whether God gave all his +dooms into his hand, as his wife hoped. + +These are some of the stories that little Tahuti and Sen-senb used to +listen to in the long evenings when they were tired of play. Perhaps +they seem very simple and clumsy to you; but I have no doubt that, when +they were told in those old days, the black eyes of the little Egyptian +boys and girls used to grow very big and round, and the wizard who could +fasten on heads which had been cut off seemed a very wonderful person, +and the talking serpents and crocodiles seemed very real and very +dreadful. + +Anyhow, you have heard the oldest stories in all the world--the fathers +and mothers, so to speak, of all the great family of wonder-tales that +have delighted and terrified children ever since. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +EXPLORING THE SOUDAN + + +There is no more wonderful or interesting story than that which tells +how bit by bit the great dark continent of Africa has been explored, and +made to yield up its secrets. But did you ever think what a long story +it is, and how very early it begins? It is in Egypt that we find the +first chapters of the story; and they can still be read, written in the +quaint old picture writing which the Egyptians used, on the rock +tombs of a place in the south of Egypt, called Elephantine. + +[Illustration: Plate 11 +THE SPHINX AND THE SECOND PYRAMID. _Page_ 79] + +In early days the land of Egypt used to end at what was called the First +Cataract of the Nile, a place where the river came down in a series of +rapids among a lot of rocky islets. The First Cataract has disappeared +now, for British engineers have made a great dam across the Nile just at +this point, and turned the whole country, for miles above the dam, into +a lake. But in those days the Egyptians used to believe that the Nile, +to which they owed so much, began at the First Cataract. Yet they knew +of the wild country of Nubia beyond and, in very early times indeed, +about 5,000 years ago, they used to send exploring expeditions into that +half-desert land which we have come to know as the Soudan. + +Near the First Cataract there lies the island of Elephantine, and when +the Egyptian kingdom was young the great barons who owned this island +were the Lords of the Egyptian Marches, just as the Percies and the +Douglases were the Lords of the Marches in England and Scotland. It was +their duty to keep in order the wild Nubian tribes south of the +Cataract, to see that they allowed the trading caravans to pass safely, +and sometimes to lead these caravans through the desert themselves. A +caravan was a very different thing then from the long train of camels +that we think of now when we hear the name. For, though there are some +very old pictures which show that, before Egyptian history begins at +all, the camel was known in Egypt, somehow that useful animal seems to +have disappeared from the land for many hundreds of years. The Pharaohs +and their adventurous barons never used the queer, ungainly creature +that carries the desert postman in our picture (Plate 12), and the +ivory, gold-dust, and ebony that came from the Soudan had to be carried +on the backs of hundreds of asses. + +The barons of Elephantine bore the proud title of "Keepers of the Door +of the South," and, in addition, they display, seemingly just as +proudly, the title "Caravan Conductors." In those days it was no easy +task to lead a caravan through the Soudan, and bring it back safe with +its precious load through all the wild and savage tribes who inhabited +the land of Nubia. More than one of the barons of Elephantine set out +with a caravan never to return, but to leave his bones, and those of his +companions, to whiten among the desert sands; and one of them has told +us how, hearing that his father had been killed on one of these +adventurous journeys, he mustered his retainers, marched south with a +train of a hundred asses, punished the tribe which had been guilty of +the deed, and brought his father's body home, to be buried with all due +honours. + +Some of the records of these early journeys, the first attempts to +explore the interior of Africa, may still be read, carved on the walls +of the tombs where the brave explorers sleep. One baron, called Herkhuf, +has told us of no fewer than four separate expeditions which he made +into the Soudan. On his first journey, as he was still young, he went in +company with his father, and was away for seven months. The next time he +was allowed to go alone, and brought back his caravan safely after an +absence of eight months. + +On his third journey he went farther than before, and gathered so large +a quantity of ivory and gold-dust that three hundred asses were required +to bring his treasure home. So rich a caravan was a tempting prize +for the wild tribes on the way; but Herkhuf persuaded one of the +Soudanese chiefs to furnish him with a large escort, and the caravan was +so strongly guarded that the other tribes did not venture to attack it, +but were glad to help its leader with guides and gifts of cattle. +Herkhuf brought his treasures safely back to Egypt, and the King was so +pleased with his success that he sent a special messenger with a boat +full of delicacies to refresh the weary traveller. + +[Illustration: PLATE 12. +A DESERT POSTMAN.] + +But the most successful of all his expeditions was the fourth. The King +who had sent him on the other journeys had died, and was succeeded by a +little boy called Pepy, who was only about six years old when he came to +the throne, and who reigned for more than ninety years--the longest +reign in the world's history. In the second year of Pepy's reign, the +bold Herkhuf set out again for the Soudan, and this time, along with +other treasures, he brought back something that his boy-King valued far +more than gold or ivory. + +You know how, when Stanley went in search of Emin Pasha, he discovered +in the Central African forests a strange race of dwarfs, living by +themselves, and very shy of strangers. Well, for all these thousands of +years, the forefathers of these little dwarfs must have been living in +the heart of the Dark Continent. In early days they evidently lived not +so far away from Egypt as when Stanley found them, for, on at least one +occasion, one of Pharaoh's servants had been able to capture one of the +little men, and bring him down as a present to his master, greatly to +the delight of the King and Court. Herkhuf was equally fortunate. He +managed to secure a dwarf from one of these pigmy tribes, and brought +him back with his caravan, that he might please the young King with his +quaint antics and his curious dances. + +When the King heard of the present which his brave servant was bringing +back for him, he was wild with delight. The thought of this new toy was +far more to the little eight-year-old, King though he was, than all the +rest of the treasure which Herkhuf had gathered; and he caused a letter +to be written to the explorer, telling him of his delight, and giving +him all kinds of advice as to how careful he should be that the dwarf +should come to no harm on the way to Court. + +The letter, through all its curious old phrases, is very much the kind +of letter that any boy might send on hearing of some new toy that was +coming to him. "My Majesty," says the little eight-year-old Pharaoh, +"wisheth to see this pigmy more than all the tribute of Punt. And if +thou comest to Court having this pigmy with thee sound and whole, My +Majesty will do for thee more than King Assa did for the Chancellor +Baurded." (This was the man who had brought back the other dwarf in +earlier days.) Little King Pepy then gives careful directions that +Herkhuf is to provide proper people to see that the precious dwarf does +not fall into the Nile on his way down the river; and these guards are +to watch behind the place where he sleeps, and look into his bed ten +times each night, that they may be sure that nothing has gone wrong. + +The poor little dwarf must have had rather an uncomfortable time of it, +one fancies, if his sleep was to be broken so often. Perhaps there was +more danger of killing him with kindness and care, than if they had left +him more to himself; but Pepy's anxiety was very like a boy. However, +Herkhuf evidently succeeded in bringing his dwarf safe and sound to the +King's Court, and no doubt the quaint little savage proved a splendid +toy for the young King. One wonders what he thought of the great cities +and the magnificent Court of Egypt, and whether his heart did not weary +sometimes for the wild freedom of his lost home. + +Herkhuf was so proud of the King's letter that he caused it to be +engraved, word for word, on the walls of the tomb which he hewed out for +himself at Elephantine, and there to this day the words can be read +which tell us how old is the story of African exploration, and how a boy +was always just a boy, even though he lived five thousand years ago, and +reigned over a great kingdom. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY + + +About 3,500 years ago, there reigned a great Queen in Egypt. It was not +usual for the Egyptian throne to be occupied by a woman, though great +respect was always shown to women in Egypt, and the rank of a King's +mother was considered quite as important as that of his father. But once +at least in her history Egypt had a great Queen, whose fame deserves to +be remembered, and who takes honourable rank among the great women, like +Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, who have ruled kingdoms. + +During part of her life Queen Hatshepsut was only joint sovereign along +with her husband, and in the latter part of her reign she was joint +sovereign with her half-brother or nephew, who succeeded her; but for at +least twenty years she was really the sole ruler of Egypt, and governed +the land wisely and well. + +Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened in her reign was the +voyage of discovery which she caused to be made by some ships of her +fleet. Centuries before her time, when the world was young, the +Egyptians had made expeditions down the Red Sea to a land which they +sometimes called Punt, and sometimes "The Divine Land." Probably it was +part of the country that we now know as Somaliland. But for a very long +time these voyages had ceased, and people only knew by hearsay, and by +the stories of ancient days, of this wonderful country that lay away by +the Southern Sea. + +One day, the Queen tells us, she was at prayers in the temple of the god +Amen at Thebes, when she felt a sudden inspiration. The god was giving +her a command to send an expedition to this almost forgotten land. "A +command was heard in the sanctuary, a behest of the god himself, that +the ways which lead to Punt should be explored, and that the roads to +the Ladders of Incense should be trodden." In obedience to this command, +the Queen at once equipped a little fleet of the quaint old galleys that +the Egyptians then used (Plate 1), and sent them out, with picked crews, +and a royal envoy in command, to sail down the Red Sea, in search of the +Divine Land. The ships were laden with all kinds of goods to barter with +the Punites, and a guard of Egyptian soldiers was placed on board. + +We do not know how long it took the little squadron to reach its +destination. Sea voyages in those days were slow and dangerous. But at +last the ships safely reached the mouth of the Elephant River in +Somaliland, and went up the river with the tide till they came to the +village of the natives. They found that the Punites lived in curious +beehive-shaped houses, some of them made of wicker-work, and placed on +piles, so that they had to climb into them by ladders. The men were not +negroes, though some negroes lived among them; they were very much like +the Egyptians in appearance, wore pointed beards, and were dressed only +in loincloths, while the women wore a yellow sleeveless dress, which +reached halfway between the knee and ankle. + +Nehsi, the royal envoy, landed with an officer and eight soldiers, and, +to show that he came in peace, he spread out on a table some presents +for the chief of the Punites--five bracelets, two gold necklaces, a +dagger, with belt and sheath, a battle-axe, and eleven strings of glass +beads--much such a present as a European explorer might give to-day to +an African chief. The natives came down in great excitement to see the +strangers who had brought such treasures, and were astonished at the +arrival of such a fleet. "How is it," they said, "that you have reached +this country, hitherto unknown to men? Have you come by way of the sky, +or have you sailed on the waters of the Divine Sea?" The chief, who was +called Parihu, came down with his wife Aty, and his daughter. Aty rode +down on a donkey, but dismounted to see the strangers, and, indeed, the +poor donkey must have been greatly relieved, for the chieftainess was an +exceedingly fat lady, and her daughter, though so young, showed every +intention of being as fat as her mother. + +After the envoy and the chief had exchanged compliments, business began. +The Egyptians pitched a tent in which they stored their goods for +barter, and to put temptation out of the way of the natives, they drew a +guard of soldiers round the tent. For several days the market remained +open, and the country people brought down their treasures, till the +ships were laden as deeply as was safe. The cargo was a varied and +valuable one. Elephants' tusks, gold, ebony, apes, greyhounds, leopard +skins, all were crowded into the galleys, the apes sitting gravely on +the top of the bales of goods, and looking longingly at the land which +they were leaving. + +But the most important part of the cargo was the incense, and the +incense-trees. Great quantities of the gum from which the incense was +made were placed on board, and also thirty-one of the incense sycamores, +their roots carefully surrounded with a large ball of earth, and +protected by baskets. Several young chiefs of the Punites accompanied +the expedition back to Thebes, to see what life was like in the strange +new world which had been revealed to them. Altogether the voyage home +must have been no easy undertaking, for the ships, with their heavy +cargoes, must have been very difficult to handle. + +The arrival of the squadron at Thebes, which they must have reached by a +canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea, was made the occasion of a +great holiday festival. Long lines of troops in gala attire came out to +meet the brave explorers, and an escort of the royal fleet accompanied +the exploring squadron up to the temple quay where the ships were to +moor. Then the Thebans feasted their eyes on the wonderful treasures +that had come from Punt, wondering at the natives, the incense, the +ivory, and, above all, at a giraffe which had been brought home. How the +poor creature was stowed away on the little Egyptian ship it is hard to +see; but there he was, with his spots and his long neck, the most +wonderful creature that the good folks of Thebes had ever seen. The +precious incense gum was stored in the temple, and the Queen herself +gave a bushel measure, made of a mixture of gold and silver, to measure +it out with. + +So the voyage of discovery had ended in a great success. But Queen +Hatshepsut's purpose was only half fulfilled as yet. In a nook of the +limestone cliffs, not far from Thebes, her father before her had begun +to build a very wonderful temple, close beside the ruins of an older +sanctuary which had stood there for hundreds of years. Hatshepsut had +been gradually completing his work, and the temple was now growing into +a most beautiful building, very different from ordinary Egyptian +temples. From the desert sands in front it rose terrace above terrace, +each platform bordered with rows of beautiful limestone pillars, until +at last it reached the cliffs, and the most sacred chamber of it, the +Holy of Holies, was hewn into the solid wall of rock behind. + +This temple the Queen resolved to make into what she called a Paradise +for Amen, the god who had told her to send out the ships. So she planted +on the terraces the sacred incense-trees which had been brought from +Punt; and, thanks to careful tending and watering, they flourished well +in their new home. And then, all along the walls of the temple, she +caused her artists to carve and paint the whole story of the voyage. We +do not know the names of the artists who did the work, though we know +that of the architect, Sen-mut, who planned the building. But, whoever +they were, they must have been very skilful sculptors; for the story of +the voyage is told in pictures on the walls of this wonderful temple, so +that everything can be seen just as it actually happened more than three +thousand years ago. + +You can see the ships toiling along with oar and sail towards their +destination, the meeting with the natives, the palaver and the trading, +the loading of the galleys, and the long procession of Theban soldiers +going out to meet the returning explorers. Not a single detail is +missed, and, thanks to the Queen and her artists, we can go back over +all these years, and see how sailors worked, and how people lived in +savage lands in that far-off time, and realize that explorers dealt with +the natives in foreign countries in those days very much as they deal +with them now. When our explorers of to-day come back from their +journeys, they generally tell the story of their adventures in a big +book with many pictures; but no explorer ever published the account of a +voyage of discovery on such a scale as did Queen Hatshepsut, when she +carved the voyage to Punt on the walls of her great temple at +Deir-el-Bahri, and no pictures in any modern book are likely to last as +long, or to tell so much as these pictures that have come to light again +during the last few years, after being buried for centuries under the +desert sands. + +[Illustration: PLATE 13. +THE BARK OF THE MOON, GUARDED BY THE DIVINE EYES.] + +Queen Hatshepsut has left other memorials of her greatness besides the +temple with its story of her voyage. She has told us how one day she was +sitting in her palace, and thinking of her Creator, when the thought +came into her mind to rear two great obelisks before the Temple of Amen +at Karnak. So she gave the command, and Sen-mut, her clever architect, +went up the Nile to Aswan, and quarried two huge granite blocks, and +floated them down the river. Cleopatra's Needle, which stands on the +Thames Embankment, is 68-1/2 feet high, and it seems to us a huge stone +for men to handle. Our own engineers had trouble enough in bringing it +to this country, and setting it up. But these two great obelisks of +Queen Hatshepsut were 98-1/2 feet high, and weighed about 350 tons +apiece. Yet Sen-mut had them quarried, and set up, and carved all over +from base to summit in seven months from the time when the Queen gave +her command! One of them still stands at Karnak, the tallest obelisk in +the temple there; while the other great shaft has fallen, and lies +broken, close to its companion. They tell us their own plain story of +the wisdom and skill of those far-off days; and perhaps the great Queen +who thought of her Creator as she sat in her palace, and longed to +honour Him, found that the God whom she ignorantly worshipped was indeed +not far from His servant's heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +EGYPTIAN BOOKS + + +The Egyptians were, if not quite the earliest, at least among the +earliest of all the peoples of the world to find out how to put down +their thoughts in writing, or in other words, to make a book; and one of +their old books, full of wise advice from a father to his son, is, +perhaps, the oldest book in the world. Two words which we are constantly +using might help to remind us of how much we owe to their cleverness. +The one is "Bible," and the other is "paper." When we talk of the Bible, +which just means "the Book," we are using one of the words which the +Greeks used to describe the plant out of which the Egyptians made the +material on which they wrote; and when we talk of paper, we are using +another name, the commoner name, of the same plant. For the Egyptians +were the first people to make paper, and they used it for many centuries +before other people had learned how much handier it was than the other +things which they used. + +Yet, if you saw an Egyptian book, you would think it was a very curious +and clumsy thing indeed, and very different from the handy volumes which +we use nowadays. When an Egyptian wanted to make a book, he gathered the +stems of a kind of reed called the papyrus, which grew in some parts of +Egypt in marshy ground. This plant grew to a height of from 12 to 15 +feet, and had a stalk about 6 inches thick. The outer rind was peeled +off this stalk, and then the inner part of it was separated, by means +of a flat needle, into thin layers. These layers were joined to one +another on a table, and a thin gum was spread over them, and then +another layer was laid crosswise on the top of the first. The double +sheet thus made was then put into a press, squeezed together, and dried. +The sheets varied, of course, in breadth according to the purpose for +which they were needed. The broadest that we know of measure about 17 +inches across, but most are much narrower than that. + +When the Egyptian had got his paper, he did not make it up into a volume +with the sheets bound together at the back, as we do. He joined them end +to end, adding on sheet after sheet as he wrote, and rolling up his book +as he went along; so when the book was done it formed a big roll, +sometimes many feet long. There is one great book in the British Museum +which measures 135 feet in length. You would think it very strange and +awkward to have to handle a book like that. + +But if the book seemed curious to you, the writing in it would seem +still more curious; for the Egyptian writing was certainly the +quaintest, and perhaps the prettiest, that has ever been known. It is +called "hieroglyphic," which means "sacred carving," and it is nothing +but little pictures from beginning to end. The Egyptians began by +putting down a picture of the thing which was represented by the word +they wanted to use, and, though by-and-by they formed a sort of alphabet +to spell words with, and had, besides, signs that represented the +different syllables of a word, still, these signs were all little +pictures. For instance, one of their signs for _a_ was the figure of an +eagle; their sign for _m_ was a lion, and for _u_ a little chicken; so +that when you look at an Egyptian book written in the hieroglyphic +character, you see column after column of birds and beasts and creeping +things, of men and women and boats, and all sorts of other things, +marching across the page. + +When the Egyptians wanted any of their writings to last for a very long +time, they did not trust them to the frail papyrus rolls, but used +another kind of book altogether. You have heard of "sermons in stones"? +Well, a great many of the Egyptian books that tell us of the great deeds +of the Pharaohs were written on stone, carved deep and clear in the hard +granite of a great obelisk, or in the limestone of a temple wall. When +one of the Kings came back from the wars, he generally published the +account of his battles and victories by carving them on the walls of one +of the great temples, or on a pillar set up in the court of a temple, +and there they remain to this day for scholars to read. + +When the hieroglyphics were cut in stone, the lines were often filled in +with pastes of different colours, so that the whole writing was a blaze +of beautiful tints, and the walls looked as if they were covered with +finely-coloured hangings. Of course, the colours have mostly faded now; +but there are still some temples and tombs where they can be seen, +almost as fresh as when they were first laid on, and from these we can +gather some idea of how wonderfully beautiful were these stone books of +ancient Egypt. The scribes and carvers knew very well how beautiful +their work was, and were careful to make it look as beautiful as +possible; so much so, that if they found that the grouping of figures to +make up a particular word or sentence was going to be ugly or clumsy, +they would even prefer to spell the word wrong, rather than spoil the +appearance of their picture-writing. Some of you, I dare say, spell +words wrong now and again; but I fancy it isn't because you think they +look prettier that way. + +But now let us turn back again to our papyrus roll. Suppose that we have +got it, clean and fresh, and that our friend the scribe is going to +write upon it. How does he go about it? To begin with, he draws from his +belt a long, narrow wooden case, and lays it down beside him. This is +his palette; rather a different kind of palette from the one which +artists use. It is a piece of wood, with one long hollow in it, and two +or three shallow round ones. The long hollow holds a few pens, which are +made out of thin reeds, bruised at the ends, so that their points are +almost like little brushes. The shallow round hollows are for holding +ink--black for most of the writing, red for special words, and perhaps +one or two other colours, if the scribe is going to do a very fine piece +of work. So he squats down, cross-legged, dips a reed-pen in the ink, +and begins. As he writes he makes his little figures of men and beasts +and birds face all in the one direction, and his readers will know that +they must always read from the point towards which the characters face. +Now and then, when he comes to some specially important part, he draws, +in gay colours, a little picture of the scene which the words describe. + +Now, you can understand that this picture-writing was not very easy work +to do when you had nothing but a bruised reed to draw all sorts of +animals with. Gradually the pictures grew less and less like the +creatures they stood for to begin with, and at last the old hieroglyphic +broke down into a kind of running hand, where a stroke or two might +stand for an eagle, a lion, or a man. And very many of the Egyptian +books are written in this kind of broken-down hieroglyphic, which is +called "hieratic," or priestly writing. But some of the finest and +costliest books were still written in the beautiful old style. + +On their papyrus rolls the Egyptians wrote all sorts of things--books of +wise advice, stories like the fairy-tales which we have been hearing, +legends of the gods, histories, and poems; but the book that is oftenest +met with is one of their religious books. It is nearly always called the +"Book of the Dead" now, and some people call it the Egyptian Bible, but +neither of these names is the right one. Certainly, it is not in the +least like the Bible, and the Egyptians themselves never called it the +Book of the Dead. They called it "The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day," +and the reason they gave it that name was because they believed that if +their dead friends knew all the wisdom that was written in it, they +would escape all the dangers of the other world, and would be able in +heaven to go in and out just as they had done upon earth, and to be +happy for ever. + +The book is full of all kinds of magical charms against the serpents and +dragons and all the other kinds of evil things that sought to destroy +the dead person in the other world. The scribes used to write off copies +of it by the dozen, and keep them in stock, with blank places for the +names of the persons who were to use them. When anyone died, his +friends went away to a scribe, and bought a roll of the Book of the +Dead, and the scribe filled in the name of the dead person in the blank +places. Then the book was buried along with his mummy, so that when he +met the demons and serpents on the road to heaven, he would know how to +drive them away, and when he came to gates that had to be opened, or +rivers that had to be crossed, he would know the right magical words to +use. + +Some of these rolls of the Book of the Dead are very beautifully +written, and illustrated with most wonderful little coloured pictures, +representing different scenes of life in the other world, and it is from +these that we have learned a great deal of what the Egyptians believed +about the judgment after death, and heaven. But the common ones are very +carelessly done. The scribes knew that the book was going to be buried +at once, and that nobody was likely ever to see it again; so they did +not care much whether they made mistakes or not, and often they missed +out parts of the book altogether. They little thought that, thousands of +years after they were dead, scholars would dig up their writings again, +and read them, and see all their blunders. + +Of course, a great deal of this book is dreadful rubbish, and anything +more unlike the noble and beautiful teaching of the Bible you can +scarcely imagine. It has no more sense in it than the "Fee! fi! foh! +fum!" of our fairy-stories. Here is one little chapter from it. It is +called "The Chapter of Repulsing Serpents," and the Egyptians supposed +that when a serpent attacked you on your way to heaven, you had only to +recite this verse, and the serpent would be powerless to harm you: +"Hail, thou serpent Rerek! advance not hither. Stand still now, and thou +shalt eat the rat which is an abomination unto Ra (the Sun-God), and +thou shalt crunch the bones of a filthy cat." + +It sounds very silly, doesn't it? And there are many things quite as +silly as this in the book. You can scarcely imagine how wise people like +the Egyptians could ever have believed in such drivel. But, then, side +by side with this miserable stuff, you find really wonderful and noble +thoughts, that surely came to these men of ancient days from God +Himself, telling them how every man must be judged at last for all that +he has done on earth, and how only those who have done justly, and loved +mercy, and walked humbly with God, will be accepted by Him. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TEMPLES AND TOMBS + + +Anyone travelling through our own land, or through any European country, +to see the great buildings of long ago, would find that they were nearly +all either churches or castles. There are the great cathedrals, very +beautiful and wonderful; and there are the great buildings, sometimes +partly palaces and partly fortresses, where Kings and nobles lived in +bygone days. Well, if you were travelling in Egypt to see its great +buildings, you would find a difference. There are plenty of churches, +or temples, rather, and very wonderful they are; but there are no +castles or palaces left, or, at least, there are next to none. Instead +of palaces and castles, you would find tombs. Egypt, in fact, is a land +of great temples and great tombs. + +[Illustration: Plate 14 +GATEWAY OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFU. _Pages_ 74, 75] + +Now, one can see why the Egyptians built great temples; for they were a +very religious nation, and paid great honour to their gods. But why did +they give so much attention to their tombs? The reason is, as you will +hear more fully in another chapter, that there never was a nation which +believed so firmly as did the Egyptians that the life after death was +far more important than life in this world. They built their houses, and +even their palaces, very lightly, partly of wood and partly of clay, +because they knew that they were only to live in them for a few years. +But they called their tombs "eternal dwelling-places"; and they have +made them so wonderfully that they have lasted long after all the other +buildings of the land, except the temples, have passed away. + +First of all, let me try to give you an idea of what an Egyptian temple +must have been like in the days of its splendour. People come from all +parts of the world to see even the ruins of these buildings, and they +are altogether the most astonishing buildings in the world; but they are +now only the skeletons of what the temples once were, and scarcely give +you any more idea of their former glory and beauty than a human skeleton +does of the beauty of a living man or woman. Suppose, then, that we are +coming up to the gates of a great Egyptian temple in the days when it +was still the house of a god who was worshipped by hundreds of thousands +of people. + +As we pass out of the narrow streets of the city to which the temple +belongs, we find ourselves standing upon a broad paved way, which +stretches before us for hundreds of yards. On either side, this way is +bordered by a row of statues, and these statues are in the form of what +we call sphinxes--that is to say, they have bodies shaped like crouching +lions, and on the lion-body there is set the head of a different +creature. Some of the sphinxes, like the Great Sphinx, have human heads; +but those which border the temple avenues have oftener either ram or +jackal heads. + +As we pass along the avenue, two high towers rise before us, and between +them is a great gateway. In front of the gate-towers are two tall +obelisks, slender, tapering shafts of red granite, like Cleopatra's +Needle on the Thames Embankment. They are hewn out of single blocks of +stone, carved all over with hieroglyphic figures, polished till they +shine like mirrors, and their pointed tops are gilded so that they flash +brilliantly in the sunlight. Beside the obelisks, which may be from 70 +to 100 feet high, there are huge statues, perhaps two, perhaps four, of +the King who built the temple. These statues represent the King as +sitting upon his throne, with the double crown of Egypt, red and white, +upon his head. They also are hewn out of single blocks of stone, and +when you look at the huge figures you wonder how human hands could ever +get such stones out of the quarry, sculpture them, and set them up. +Before one of the temples of Thebes still lie the broken fragments of a +statue of Ramses II. When it was whole the statue must have been about +57 feet high, and the great block of granite must have weighed about +1,000 tons--the largest single stone that was ever handled by human +beings. Plate 10 will give you some idea of what these huge statues +looked like. + +Fastened to the towers are four tall flagstaves--two on either side of +the gate--and from them float gaily-coloured pennons. The walls of the +towers are covered with pictures of the wars of the King. Here you see +him charging in his chariot upon his fleeing enemies; here, again, he is +seizing a group of captives by the hair, and raising his mace or his +sword to kill them; but whatever he is doing, he is always gigantic, +while his foes are mere helpless human beings. All these carvings are +brilliantly painted, and the whole front of the building glows with +colour; it is really a kind of pictorial history of the King's reign. + +Now we stand in front of the gate. Its two leaves are made of cedar-wood +brought from Lebanon; but you cannot see the wood at all, for it is +overlaid with plates of silver chased with beautiful designs. Passing +through the gateway, we find ourselves in a broad open court. All round +it runs a kind of cloister, whose roof is supported upon tall pillars, +their capitals carved to represent the curving leaves of the palm-tree. +In the middle of the court there stands a tall pillar of stone, +inscribed with the story of the great deeds of Pharaoh, and his gifts to +the god of the temple. It is inlaid with turquoise, malachite, and +lapis-lazuli, and sparkles with precious stones. + +At the farther side of this court, another pair of towers and another +gateway lead you into the second court. Here we pass at once out of +brilliant sunlight into semi-darkness; for this court is entirely roofed +over, and no light enters it except from the doorway and from grated +slits in the roof. Look around you, and you will see the biggest single +chamber that was ever built by the hands of man. Down the centre run two +lines of gigantic pillars which hold up the roof, and form the nave of +the hall; and beyond these on either side are the aisles, whose roofs +are supported by a perfect forest of smaller columns. + +Look up to the twelve great pillars of the nave. They soar above your +head, seventy feet into the air, their capitals bending outwards in the +shape of open flowers. On each capital a hundred men could stand safely; +and the great stone roofing beams that stretch from pillar to pillar +weigh a hundred tons apiece. How were they ever brought to the place? +And, still more, how were they ever swung up to that dizzy height, and +laid in their places? Each of the great columns is sculptured with +figures and gaily painted, and the surrounding walls of the hall are all +decorated in the same way. But when you look at the pictures, you find +that it is no longer the wars of the King that are represented. The +inside of the temple is too holy for such things. Instead, you have +pictures of the gods, and of the King making all kinds of offerings to +them; and these pictures are repeated again and again, with endless +inscriptions, telling of the great gifts which Pharaoh has given to the +temple. + +Finally we pass into the Holy of Holies. Here no light of day ever +enters at all. The chamber, smaller and lower than either of the others, +is in darkness except for the dim light of the lamp carried by the +attendant priest. Here stands the shrine, a great block of granite, hewn +into a dwelling-place for the figure of the god. It is closed with cedar +doors covered with gold plates, and the doors are sealed; but if we +could persuade the priest to let us look within, we should see a small +wooden figure something like the one that we saw carried through the +streets of Thebes, dressed and painted, and surrounded by offerings of +meat, drink, and flowers. For this little figure all the glories that we +have passed through have been created: an army of priests attends upon +it day by day, dresses and paints it, spreads food before it, offers +sacrifices and sings hymns in its praise. + +Behind the sanctuary lie storehouses, which hold corn and fruits and +wines enough to supply a city in time of siege. The god is a great +proprietor, holding more land than any of the nobles of the country. He +has a revenue almost as great as that of Pharaoh himself. He has troops +of his own, an army which obeys no orders but his. On the Red Sea he has +one fleet, bringing to his temple the spices and incense of the +Southland; and from the Nile mouths another fleet sails to bring home +cedar-wood from Lebanon, and costly stuffs from Tyre. His priests have +far more power than the greatest barons of the land, and Pharaoh, mighty +as he is, would think twice before offending a band of men whose hatred +could shake him on his throne. Such was an Egyptian temple 3,000 years +ago, when Egypt was the greatest power in the world. + +But if the temples of ancient Egypt are wonderful, the tombs are almost +more wonderful still. Very early in their history the Egyptians began to +show their sense of the importance of the life after death by raising +huge buildings to hold the bodies of their great men. Even the earliest +Kings, who lived before there was any history at all, had great +underground chambers scooped out and furnished with all sorts of things +for their use in the after-life. But it is when we come to that King +Khufu, who figures in the fairy-stories of Zazamankh and Dedi, that we +begin to understand what a wonderful thing an Egyptian tomb might be. + +Not very far from Cairo, the modern capital of Egypt, a line of strange, +pointed buildings rises against the sky on the edge of the desert. These +are the Pyramids, the tombs of the great Kings of Egypt in early days, +and if we want to know what Egyptian builders could do 4,000 years +before Christ, we must look at them. Take the largest of them, the Great +Pyramid, called the Pyramid of Cheops. Cheops is really Khufu, the King +who was so much put out by Dedi's prophecy about Rud-didet's three +babies. No such building was ever reared either before or since. It +stands, even now, 450 feet in height, and before the peak was destroyed, +it was about 30 feet higher. Each of its four sides measures over 750 +feet in length, and it covers more than twelve acres of ground, the size +of a pretty large field. But you will get the best idea of how +tremendous a building it is when I tell you that if you used it as a +quarry, you could build a town, big enough to hold all the people of +Aberdeen, out of the Great Pyramid; or if you broke up the stones of +which it is built, and laid them in a line a foot broad and a foot deep, +the line would reach a good deal more than halfway round the world at +the Equator. You would have some trouble in breaking up the stones, +however; for many of the great blocks weigh from 40 to 50 tons apiece, +and they are so beautifully fitted to one another that you could not get +the edge of a sheet of paper into the joints! + +Inside this great mountain of stone there are long passages leading to +two small rooms in the centre of the Pyramid; and in one of these rooms, +called "the King's Chamber," the body of the greatest builder the world +has ever seen was laid in its stone coffin. Then the passages were +closed with heavy plug-blocks of stone, so that no one should ever +disturb the sleep of King Khufu. But, in spite of all precautions, +robbers mined their way into the Pyramid ages ago, plundered the coffin, +and scattered to the winds the remains of the King, so that, as Byron +says, "Not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops." + +The other pyramids are smaller, though, if the Great Pyramid had not +been built, the Second and Third would have been counted world's +wonders. Near the Second Pyramid sits the Great Sphinx. It is a huge +statue, human-headed and lion-bodied, carved out of limestone rock. Who +carved it, or whose face it bears, we do not certainly know; but there +the great figure crouches, as it has crouched for countless ages, +keeping watch and ward over the empty tombs where the Pharaohs of Egypt +once slept, its head towering seventy feet into the air, its vast limbs +and body stretching for two hundred feet along the sand, the strangest +and most wonderful monument ever hewn by the hands of man (Plate 11). + +Later on in Egyptian history the Kings and great folk grew tired of +building pyramids, and the fashion changed. Instead of raising huge +structures above ground, they began to hew out caverns in the rocks in +which to lay their dead. Round about Thebes, the rocks on the western +side of the Nile are honeycombed with these strange houses of the +departed. Their walls, in many cases, are decorated with bright and +cheerful pictures, showing scenes of the life which the dead man lived +on earth. There he stands, or sits, placid and happy, with his wife +beside him, while all around him his servants go about their usual work. +They plough and hoe, sow and reap; they gather the grapes from the vines +and put them into the winepress; or they bring the first-fruits of the +earth to present them before their master (Plate 15). In other pictures +you see the great man going out to his amusements, fishing, hunting, or +fowling; or you are taken into the town, and see the tradesmen working, +and the merchants, and townsfolk buying and selling in the bazaars. In +fact, the whole of life in Ancient Egypt passes before your eyes as you +go from chamber to chamber, and it is from these old tomb-pictures that +we have learned the most of what we know of how people lived and worked +in those long-past days. + +In one wild rocky glen, called the "Valley of the Kings," nearly all the +later Pharaohs were buried, and to-day their tombs are one of the sights +of Thebes. Let us look at the finest of them--the tomb of Sety I., the +father of that Ramses II. of whom we have heard so much. Entering the +dark doorway in the cliff, you descend through passage after passage and +hall after hall, until at last you reach the fourteenth chamber, "the +gold house of Osiris," 470 feet from the entrance, where the great King +was laid in his magnificent alabaster coffin. The walls and pillars of +each chamber are wonderfully carved and painted. The pillars show +pictures of the King making offerings to the gods, or being welcomed by +them, but the pictures on the walls are very strange and weird. They +represent the voyage of the sun through the realms of the +under-world, and all the dangers and difficulties which the soul of the +dead man has to encounter as he accompanies the sun-bark on its journey. +Serpents, bats, and crocodiles, spitting fire, or armed with spears, +pursue the wicked. The unfortunates who fall into their power are +tortured in all kinds of horrible ways; their hearts are torn out; their +heads are cut off; they are boiled in caldrons, or hung head downwards +over lakes of fire. Gradually the soul passes through all these dangers +into the brighter scenes of the Fields of the Blessed, where the +justified sow and reap and are happy. Finally, the King arrives, +purified, at the end of his long journey, and is welcomed by the gods +into the Abode of the Blessed, where he, too, dwells as a god in +everlasting life. + +[Illustration: Plate 15 +WALL-PICTURES IN A THEBAN TOMB. _Pages_ 80, 81] + +The beautiful alabaster coffin in which the mummy of King Sety was laid +is now in the Soane Museum, London. When it was discovered, nearly a +century ago, it was empty, and it was not till 1872 that some modern +tomb-robbers found the body of the King, along with other royal mummies, +hidden away in a deep pit among the cliffs. Now it lies in the museum at +Cairo, and you can see the face of this great King, its fine, proud +features not so very much changed, we can well believe, from what they +were when he reigned 3,200 years ago. In the same museum you can look +upon the faces of Tahutmes III., the greatest soldier of Egypt; of +Ramses II., the oppressor of the Israelites; and, perhaps most +interesting of all, of Merenptah, the Pharaoh who hardened his heart +when Moses pled with him to let the Hebrews go, and whose picked troops +were drowned in the Red Sea as they pursued their escaping slaves. + +It is very strange to think that one can see the actual features and +forms on which the heroes of our Bible story looked in life. The reason +of such a thing is that the Egyptians believed that when a man died, his +soul, which passed to the life beyond, loved to return to its old home +on earth, and find again the body in which it once dwelt; and even, +perhaps, that the soul's existence in the other world depended in some +way on the preservation of the body. So they made the bodies of their +dead friends into what we call "mummies," steeping them for many days in +pitch and spices till they were embalmed, and then wrapping them round +in fold upon fold of fine linen. So they have endured all these hundreds +of years, to be stored at last in a museum, and gazed upon by people who +live in lands which were savage wildernesses when Egypt was a great and +mighty Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AN EGYPTIAN'S HEAVEN + + +In this chapter I want to tell you a little about what the Egyptians +thought of heaven--what it was, where it was, how people got there after +death, and what kind of a life they lived when they were there. They had +some very quaint and curious ideas about the heavens themselves. They +believed, for instance, that the blue sky overhead was something like a +great iron plate spread over the world, and supported at the four +corners, north, south, east, and west, by high mountains. The stars were +like little lamps, which hung down from this plate. Right round the +world ran a great celestial river, and on this river the sun sailed day +after day in his bark, giving light to the world. You could only see him +as he passed round from the east by the south to the west, for after +that the river ran behind high mountains, and the sun passed out of +sight to sail through the world of darkness. + +Behind the sun, and appearing after he had vanished, came the moon, +sailing in its own bark. It was protected by two guardian eyes, which +watched always over it (Plate 13), and it needed the protection, for +every month it was attacked by a great enemy in the form of a sow. For a +fortnight the moon sailed on safely, and grew fuller and rounder; but at +the middle of the month, just when it was full, the sow attacked it, +tore it out of its place, and flung it into the celestial river, where +for another fortnight it was gradually extinguished, to be revived again +at the beginning of the next month. That was the Egyptians' curious way +of accounting for the waxing and waning of the moon, and many of their +other ideas were just as quaint as this. + +I do not mean to say anything of what they believed about God, for they +had so many gods, and believed such strange things about them, that it +would only confuse you if I tried to make you understand it all. But the +most important thing in all the Egyptian religion was the belief in +heaven, and in the life which people lived there after their life on +earth was ended. No other nation of these old times ever believed so +firmly as did the Egyptians that men were immortal, and did not cease to +be when they died, but only began a new life, which might be either +happy or miserable, according to the way in which they had lived on +earth. + +They had a lot of different beliefs about the life after death, some of +them rather confusing, and difficult to understand; but I shall tell you +only the main things and the simplest things which they believed. They +said, then, that very long ago, when the world was young, there was a +great and good King called Osiris, who reigned over Egypt, and was very +good to his subjects, teaching them all kinds of useful knowledge. But +Osiris had a wicked brother named Set, who hated him, and was jealous of +him. One day Set invited Osiris to a supper, at which he had gathered a +number of his friends who were in the plot with him. When they were all +feasting gaily, he produced a beautiful chest, and offered to give it to +the man who fitted it. One after another they lay down in the chest, but +it fitted none of them. Then at last Osiris lay down in it, and as soon +as he was inside, his wicked brother and the other plotters fastened the +lid down upon him, and threw the chest into the Nile. It was carried +away by the river, and at last was washed ashore, with the dead body of +the good King still in it. + +But Isis, wife of Osiris, sought for her husband everywhere, and at last +she found the chest with his body. While she was weeping over it the +wicked Set came upon her, tore his brother's body to pieces, and +scattered the fragments far and wide; but the faithful Isis traced them +all, and buried them wherever she found them. + +Now, Isis had a son named Horus, and when he grew to manhood he +challenged Set, fought with him, and defeated him. Then the gods all +assembled, and gave judgment that Osiris was in the right, and Set in +the wrong. They raised Osiris up from the dead, made him a god, and +appointed him to be judge of all men after death. And then, not all at +once, but gradually, the Egyptians came to believe that because Osiris +died, and rose again from the dead, and lived for ever after death, +therefore all those men who believed in Osiris would live again after +death, and dwell for ever with Osiris. You see that in some respects the +story is strangely like that of the death and resurrection of Jesus +Christ. + +Well, then, they supposed that, when a man died on earth, after his body +was mummified and laid in its tomb, his soul went on to the gates of the +palace of Osiris in the other world, where was the Hall of Truth, in +which souls were judged. The soul had to know the magic names of the +gates before it could even enter the Hall; but as soon as these names +were spoken the gates opened, and the soul went in. Within the Hall +there stood a great pair of scales, and beside the scales stood a god, +ready to mark down the result of the judgment; while all round the Hall +sat forty-two terrible creatures, who had authority to punish particular +sins. + +The soul had to make confession to these avengers of sin that he had not +been guilty of the sins which they had power to punish; then, when he +had made his confession, his heart was taken, and weighed in the scales +against a feather, which was the Egyptian sign for truth. If it was not +of the right weight, the man was false, and his heart was thrown to a +dreadful monster, part crocodile, part hippopotamus, which sat behind +the balances, and devoured the hearts of the unjust; but if it was +right, then Horus, the son of Osiris, took the man by the hand, and led +him into the presence of Osiris the Judge, and he was pronounced just, +and admitted to heaven. + +But what was heaven? Well, the Egyptians had several different ideas +about it. One rather pretty one was that the souls which were pronounced +just were taken up into the sky, and there became stars, shining down +for ever upon the world. Another was that they were permitted to enter +the boat, in which, as I told you, the sun sails round the world day by +day, and to keep company with the sun on his unending voyage. + +But the idea that most believed in and loved was that somewhere away in +a mysterious land to the west, there lay a wonderful and beautiful +country, called the Field of Bulrushes. There the corn grew three and a +half yards high, and the ears of corn were a yard long. Through the +fields ran lovely canals, full of fish, and bordered with reeds and +bulrushes. When the soul had passed the Judgment Hall, it came, by +strange, hard roads, and through great dangers, to this beautiful +country. And there the dead man, dead now no more, but living for ever, +spent his time in endless peace and happiness, sowing and reaping, +paddling in his canoe along the canals, or resting and playing draughts +in the evening under the sycamore-trees. + +Now, I suppose that all this seemed quite a happy sort of heaven to most +of the common people, who had been accustomed all their days to hard +work and harder fare; but by-and-by the great nobles came to think that +a heaven of this sort was not quite good enough for them. They had never +done any work on earth; why should they have to do any in heaven? So +they thought that they would find out a way of taking their slaves with +them into the other world. I fancy that at first they actually tried to +take them by killing the slaves at their master's grave. When the +funeral of a great man took place, some of his servants would be killed +beside the tomb, so that they might go with their lord into heaven, and +work for him there, as they had worked for him on earth. + +But the Egyptians were always a gentle, kind-hearted people, and they +quickly grew disgusted with the idea of such cruelty, so they found +another way out of the difficulty. They got numbers of little clay +figures made in the form of servants--one with a hoe on his shoulder, +another with a basket in his hand, and so on. They called these little +figures "Answerers," and when a man was buried, they buried a lot of +these clay servants along with him, so that, when he reached heaven, and +was summoned to do work in the Field of Bulrushes, the Answerers would +rise up and answer for him, and take the task off his shoulders. + +So, along with the mummies of the dead Egyptians, there is often found +quite a number of these tiny figures, all ready to make heaven easy for +their master when he gets there. They have sometimes a little verse +written upon them, to tell the Answerer what he has got to do in the +other world. It runs like this: + +"Oh, thou Answerer, when I am called, and when I am asked to do any kind +of work that is done in heaven, and am required at any time to cause +the field to flourish, or to convey the sand from east to west, thou +shalt say, 'Here am I.'" + +It all seems rather a curious idea of heaven, does it not? And most +curious of all is the idea of dodging work in the other world by +carrying a bundle of china dolls to heaven with you. But, even if we +think that very ridiculous, we need not forget that the Egyptians had a +wonderfully clear and sure grasp of the fact that it is a man's +character in this world which will make him either happy or unhappy in +the next, and that evil-doing, even if it escapes punishment in this +life, is a thing that God will surely punish at last. + +Remember that these men of old, wonderfully wise and strong as they were +in many ways, were still the children of the time when the world was +young; like children, forming many false and even ridiculous ideas about +things they could not understand; like children, too, reaching out their +groping hands through the darkness to a Father whose love they felt, +though they could not explain His ways. We need not wonder if at times +they made mistakes, and went far astray. We may wonder far more at the +way in which He taught them so many true and noble things and thoughts, +never leaving Himself without a witness even in those days of long ago. + + + + +The End. + + +PRINTED AT THE COMPLETE PRESS WEST NORWOOD LONDON + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt, by James Baikie + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEEPS AT MANY LANDS: ANCIENT EGYPT *** + +***** This file should be named 22799.txt or 22799.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/9/22799/ + +Produced by Geetu Melwani, Bruce Albrecht and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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