DT WITH AZIR GIRGES IN EGYPT i WALTER SCOTT PERKf Class ./I / .-wr Book 2-^ Cop>fightN"_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. WITH AZIR GIRGES IN EGYPT HIHHHHBH AN EGYI'TIAN TEMPLE PYLON WITH AZIR GIRGES IN EGYPT BY WALTER SCOTT PERRY, M. A. DIRECTOR SCHOOL OF FINE AND APPLIED ARTS PRATT INSTITUTE. LECTURER ON THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. AUTHOR "eGYPT THE LAND OF THE TEMPLE BUILDERS." HONORARY SECRETARY EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND. ATKINSON, MENTZER & COMPANY Boston New York Chicago Dallas y%w Copyright 1913 By WALTER SCOTT PERRY e 6 e e c ••• ©CI.A332809 fairjiela and Ajerton xoho love io much stories of ' other lands, and who always want just one more, this stont of Qy^xir Girges in Egypt if ajfectionatelii dedicated. retaceJ THE author of this hook seeks to interest American boys and girls in the country of Egypt; in the village and home life of the Egyptian children of the present day; and in the remark- able civilization of Egypt of olden times, when the pyramids and the greatest tem- ples of the world were built, and when many kinds of beautiful things were made by the people who dwelt upon the banks of the River Nile. The many places of interest in that wonderful country are visited with Azir Gir^es, the donkey boy ,;,. :!o ■ .■>.:! •'- •'•' ri'i •iT' M 1 ; 1 ) I r !•: i{ K A N i; A N s !•: A :,■■'■ ■'' "■'»^' ' \ 1 '■' ^ \'^ .■-i 1 >..,.,, ...-■/^s ..- -l.l'ifM :i il >. •< 1 \ i an ^^^: 1,-.. ' >C';^rcul.. ■-. ■•• . , "< - Mey dtxj m ^ ^ \ "sT 1 1 '■•';' '' ''■,^ '' ^ • .. ,hV ^ -t^ ■^■ ^■r''\'\ "> ,.„ i,I'v,.--f ', -', """s"!:>.-'^ ' >' ^_ \l u ft I ■^ >' "'''■''"£^-^"'^C" : ,•' ' :i; ^ 1, 1 ^ ^ Edfoxi 1 ( — . i 1 '■"■"|.;'.::,::\, b..s / 4 I ,, / s- I'^i ■"'"■.,,., ■V /■■ /v / ; i' \ -J. ' , :.■' ■ ■■' ;il ;:- :,.i :; 4 ;■■:. MAP OF EGYPT CONTENTS PAGE I The Home OF AziR GiRGES 13 II How THE People Live in Egypt 19 An Egyptian Town 19 Children of Egypt 23 Water-Carriers of the Nile 26 Camels and Caravans 31 HI The Land of the Nile 35 The Great River 35 Plowing, Planting, and Harvesting in Egypt . . 41 IV Great Mounds and Temples 47 How the Mounds were Formed 47 The Temple of Edfu 52 V Early Egyptian Writing 59 VI Old Egypt 65 The Great Pyramids 65 The Pyramids and the Sphinx 73 Picture Stories of Old Eg}'pt 76 VII Religion of the Ancient Egyptians .... 80 Horus, the Morning Sun-God 80 Ra, the Noonday Sun-God 84 VIII Temples and Temple Builders 90 The Great Temples of Karnak 90 The Great King Ramses II 98 An Obelisk in the Making 105 IX The Wonderful Statues of Memnon . . . iii X Temples and Storehouses 119 Queen Hatasu's Temple 119 Egyptian Boats 123 XI Amulets, Ornaments and Jewelry . . . . 12S 7 8 Contents XII The Tombs of the Kings 137 Sacred Wall Paintings 137 How Egyptian Children Learned to Draw . . 142 Egyptian Furniture 147 XIII The City of Cairo 151 Street Scenes, Shops, and Craftsmen . . » . 151 Mohammedan Schools 157 A Sunset in Eg^^pt 161 XIV AziR GiRGEs's Letter 165 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS An Egyptian Temple P34oin Frontispiece Map of Egypt . 6 The Town of Luxor where Azir Girges Lives .... 12 The Street Leading up to Azir Girges's House .... 13 The Street on Which Azir Girges Lives 14 The Home of Azir Girges 15 Azir Girges and His Donkey 16 A Town in Egypt 19 The Market-Place 20 The River Bank at Luxor 21 An Egyptian Village 23 The Children's Sleeping Place 25 Women with Water Jars 27 Men with Water Skins 28 Water Sellers 29 Camels Laden with Wood 31 The Brother of Azir Girges 33 A Caravan in the Desert 34 The Temple of Karnak 36 View from the Pylon of Karnak 37 A Town Surrounded by the Nile 39 Plowing in Egypt 41 A Field Ready for Planting 42 Men Dipping Water from the Nile 43 An Egyptian Well 45 Threshing Grain , . 46 Mound and Temple Wall 48 A Temple nearly Buried in a Mound 49 Policeman on Wall of Temple 50 Temple Colonnade at Philae 51 Excavating an Egyptian Temple ......... 53 The Temple of Edfu 54 The Sanctuary in the Temple of Edfu 55 View from Pylon of Edfu 57 Egyptian Hieroglyphics 60 9 10 List of Illustrations The Rosetta Stone 62 Papyrus Roll Showing Egyptian Writing 64 The Road to the Pyramids 65 The Pyramids from the Field . . . - ... 66 Another View of the Pyramids 67 The Great Pyramid of Khufu 69 Climbing the Great Pyramid 70 View of Delta from Top of Pyramid 71 View of Desert from Top of Pyramid 72 The Sphinx and the Pyramids 74 The Temple of the Sphinx 76 Traveling in the Desert 77 Arrival at an Ancient Tomb 78 Picture Stories on Wall of Tomb 79 Hathor and Horus, Horus the Morning Sun-God ... 81 Ra, the Noonday Sun-God 86 Kings Making Offerings 88 Avenue of Approach to Temples of Karnak 91 The Temple of Khonsu 93 The Great Hall of Columns and Obelisk, Karnak ... 94 The Ancient Avenue of Sphinxes 95 Drawings on Wall of Sanctuary at Karnak 97 Dahabiyeh and Temple of Luxor 99 The Front Wall of the Temple of Luxor 100 Statues and Hall of Columns, Temple of Luxor .... 101 Temple of Abu-Simbel and Statues of Ramses H . . . 103 Statue of Ramses H , . 104 A Caravan on the Desert Highway 106 Freight Boats on the Nile 107 An Obelisk in the Quarry 108 Top of an Obelisk with Picture-Writing 109 A Ferry-Boat on the Nile Ill Landing on the River Bank 112 Statues of Memnon at Time of Overflow of Nile . . . 114 The Great Statues of Memnon 115 List of Illustrations 11 Sandstone Cliffs of the Desert 116 The Broken Statue of Ramses II 118 Storehouses and the Desert .... .o,. o.. 119 Der-el-Bahri, Queen Hatasu's Temple . . « , . . . 121 Picture-Writing, Der-el-Bahri 122 Pictures of Boats Sent to Land of Punt 124 Picture of a Boat on a Temple Wall 126 Model Boat Three Thousand Years Old 127 Natives Selling Amulets 129 Scarab Belonging to Seti I 130 Scarab of Seti I Enlarged 131 Egyptian Jewelry Thirty-five Hundred Years Old . . . 133 Egyptian Amulets 135 The Road to the Tombs .136 The Cliffs and Tombs 137 Arrival at the Tombs 138 Egyptian Girls at Entrance to Ancient Tomb 139 Tomb of King Seti I Covered with Wall Paintings . . . 140 An Unfinished Drawing of a Ram 143 Painting on Wall of an Ancient Tomb 145 An Ancient Egyptian Drawing 146 An Ancient Eg5^ptian Couch 147 An Ancient Egyptian Chair 148 An Ancient Egyptian Embroidery Stand 149 The Suez Canal 151 A Street in Cairo 153 A Shop in Cairo 155 A Mohammedan Woman 157 A Mohammedan School 158 Students in the Cairo University 159 A Page from a Mohammedan Book 160 View of Cairo and the Pyramids 161 A Village near the Pyramids 162 Looking across the Nile toward the West at Luxor . . . 163 Azir Girges on a Camel 164 K - a - ^ y THE STREET I.EAniNG T"P TO AZIR GIRGES-'S HOUSE CHAPTER I THE HOME OF AZIR GIRGES Azir Girges lives in Luxor. He lives in a mud house on one of the main streets and that is where we are to visit him on this very hot day in February. In the picture we see the street leading up to Azir Girges's house. Close by sits an old woman with her flat loaves of unleavened bread spread out in the dusty road for their first baking in the hot sun. A queer kitchen, isn't it? and not very clean. A little farther up the street, and on each side, there are high walls of crude hand-made bricks. On the right side of the street w^e come to a wooden door set in the mud wall. Azir is there to welcome us and 13 14 The Home of Azir Girges he proudly shows us into the house, where we are introduced to his mother and his sister Louise. What a strange house this would seem to be to an American girl or boy! Within the walls are several little al- THE STREET ON WHICH AZIR GIRGES LIVES coves or rooms. Here the hens, the doves, the don- keys, and the family live together. A tall, hollow mud cylinder stands near the middle of the court. It is filled with grain for food. We look for chairs and beds and other ordinary comforts, but do not find them. Here is a platform made of earth near the center of the room. "What is this, Azir?" \yc ask, pointing to it. "That is the bed where my father sleeps," he re- plies. You see, Azir has learned to speak English fairly The Home of Azir Girges i.-; •"« nt't * * • • * or THE HOME OF AZIU GIRGES well. He has been to the Mission School of Luxor and he has also been a donkey boy for a number of years, thus meeting daily through the winter months many English and American travelers, and he has acquired many English words. "But where do you and your brothers sleep?" we inquire curiously. ''Oh, on the roof, and around," is his reply. These simple, kind people are always ready to give their visitors something of the little which they have, and Azir's mother immediately takes her best dress from the hempen rope that stretches across one of the small alcove rooms. How the dust flies as she pulls it from the line where it has hung for a long 16 The Home of Azir Girges AZiK Gii;i:i;s and his huxkey time just above the dirt floor! She presents the dress to one of the ladies of the party, who declines to take it, in the most polite manner possible, for it is offered in the kindly spirit shown by the people of the East. Little Louise, a dark-skinned, pretty girl, hurries toward a small closet in the wall. Its door is about a foot square. In the closet Louise keeps the school- books that have been given to her at the Mission School. But something else is stored away in that closet; it is a shawl w^hich she has been taught to crochet. It must be her chief treasure, the work of her busy little fingers, but she brings it out and politely presents it to one of the visitors. Now, true courtesy in Egypt requires that some one of the things presented shall be kept, so the little shawl is taken away, only to be returned to Louise on The Home of Azir Girges 17 the last day of our. stay in Luxor. We of course shall tell her that it has been greatly enjoyed and that we now wish to have the pleasure of presenting it in turn to her. It is an ancient custom among orientals to give a guest the pleasure of enjoying some treasure of the family, and later of returning it or some equiv- alent gift. Louise is made very happy by the present of a brightly-printed cotton dress purchased in the market-place, and of money to pay her tuition at school for another year. We are next invited to go upstairs to a room built on the roof of one part of the house. Here we get a good view of the interior of the home. How strange some of the walls look! They are made of large earthen jars laid in rows one over another, the spaces between the jars being filled with mud. While we are standing here, we notice Azir's mother taking some small unwashed cups out of an- o*ther cupboard in the mud wall. ''What is your mother doing, Azir?" we ask. ''She is preparing coffee for you," he replies. "But where is the stove?" Azir points to a small mound of dried earth shaped like a beehive, in the court below. It has a small door and a space within for the fire. No wood is used in building the fire, for these poor people have no wood. There are no forests in Egypt, so there are no trees to cut down for fire-wood or for building material. Here and there palm- groves protect the villages from the great heat 18 The Home of Azir Girges of the sun. But it would not do to cut down those trees, as they are needed for shade. So these poor families burn the dry refuse of the stable-yard and the dovecote. With this poor fuel Azir's mother is making the fire and slowly preparing the coffee. It is not pleas- ant to drink the coffee, for the cups are very dirty. We hesitate and Azir says, ''You must take coffee. You always say 'No' when you come here. The last time you said you could not stop, as you were in a hurry to go to the temple of Karnak. Today you have much time, so you must take coffee with us." It is hard to disappoint these people when they have done everything in their power to entertain their guests. To refuse their hospitality causes them pain; for they are true and loyal, courteous and kind. We know that the ancient Egyptians were very courteous because of such words as these written more than thirty-five hundred years ago: "Do not remain sitting when thy elder, or thy superior, is standing." "Be not discourteous to the stranger who is in thy house. He is thy guest." A TOWN IX EGYPT CHAPTER II HOW THE PEOPLE LIVE IN EGYPT AX EGYPTIAX TOWN What a strange picture this is, of a town in Egypt! It is very much like the village that Azir Girges lives in. We see a few houses that look comfortable, but most of the people live in houses that are simply walls of mud held in place by sticks driven into the ground. Sometimes the walls are made of small bricks of mud mixed with straw. The bricks are first dried in the sun, but they do not get hard like the burnt bricks with which we build our houses. They are laid one upon another, making high walls that enclose one large room or court. 19 20 How the People Live in Egypt That large room has no roof, but the owner usually builds other little rooms against the wall and covers them with straw and corn-stalks. It seldom rains in Egypt; therefore a roof of this kind is all that is needed to keep out the hot sun. Sometimes a roof is THE MAKKET-PLACE made of mud bricks and curved in the form of an arch or vault shaped like a half-barrel, as you may see in the picture. In rooms like those described boys and girls live with their parents, and it often happens that their donkeys and other animals live with them in the large room. The rooms have no floor of wood. The earth is the floor and is so dry that it becomes very dusty. Hew the People Live in Egypt 21 THE RIVER BAXK AT LUXOR The dust is often several inches deep and the dirt flies everywhere. The village streets also are very dusty. The sun is hot and even in winter the days are very warm. But there are beautiful palm-trees in some of the towns, and their shade is enjoyed by the boys and girls who run about and play, just as boys and girls do in America. In its center, or sometimes just outside the town, is the market-place, w^here people meet to trade in food, animals, and clothing. The people live mostly on bread made from wheat flour, and on corn, barley, rice, lentils, beans, and other vegetables. They need but little clothing because of the heat, the climate 22 How the People Live in Egypt being very warm most of the year. As they live in the sun all their lives, their skin is of a beautiful bronze color. It is a curious sight to see the people on market day, for everyone from all the nearby villages seems to be going to market. The main road is over the mud-bank of the river Nile. A strange and long pro- cession stretches away toward the market-place. Men, women, and children hurry along, their loose clothing fluttering in the fresh wind of the morning. There are animals of many kinds and sizes in the procession, including camels, donkeys, buffaloes, cows, calves, sheep, and goats. The camels are often so heavily laden that they look like great bundles walking along the river-bank. Little donkeys stagger under their burdens of vegetables, grain, and live chickens. There are men with great travs of flat round loaves of bread, which they hope to sell before nightfall. There are cows and goats to be milked in the open market, so that the purchasers may have a fresh supply of warm milk. The market-place itself is the center of interest to everyone. Many go there to buy and to sell; many just to see the sights and to talk with friends. To- ward sunset the long procession returns and all go back contented and happy to their homes in the little mud villages. Hois: the People Live in Egypt 23 AN EGYPTIAN VILLAGE CHILDREN OF EGYPT What a beautiful group of palm-trees this is! They grow by a small reservoir which is filled with water from the Nile. Under the trees are Azir Girges and his old gray donkey. The donkey's sad- dle, as you see, is very large. It is padded in front, and therefore is very thick. Perhaps the padding is to keep his rider from sliding ofi when the donkey falls down. The poor donkey's legs are not very strong. His knees are weak, and often when he is made to trot with a heavy rider on his back his legs suddenly give out, and down he goes. Then what do you think 24 How the People Live in Egypt happens? The man on his back has to be quick if he would jump, but often he has no time to jump, and he goes over the donkey's head to the ground. The man and the donkey look very much ashamed as they scramble to their feet again. The straps are then tightened around the donkey's body to hold the saddle on more firmly, and again the rider jumps to the back of the little animal. We see two little boys in the picture. One is sit- ting on the ground and the other is standing by the head of the white donkev. Their dress is verv much like that of the girl who has her hand up to her face. She does not wish to have her photograph taken. Girls and women in Egypt do not like to have men take photographs of them. They usually cover their faces whenever they meet men on the street. Nearly all the boys and men wear long blue or white gowns that look very much like the dresses of women. The woman in the picture holds a basket on her head. She can carry the basket in that wav when it is full. She does not have to balance it with her hands. Across the water is the village of Karnak. All its houses seem to be made of mud and sun-dried bricks. In some of them which have no roofs we see large cylinders of dried mud. The cylinders are store- closets. Perhaps they are used for storing grain un- til it is needed by the family. Some of the cylinders have tops that look like great bowls. This cvlinder has a hole in the side. We How the People Live in Egypt 25 THE CHILDItEX S SLEEPING PLACE shall ask Azir what it is used for. What do you sup- pose he says? He tells us that this is the room where the small children sleep at night. Their parents put them into the cylinder through the hole and then close it. The children are thus safe for the night. They cannot fall out of bed, and jackals or other ani- mals cannot trouble them. If the children wake up they may amuse them- selves by looking up at the many stars. The stars are very bright indeed, because there are no clouds or rain and the air is very clear. There is no need of a light. The children go to bed early, for they must be up before it gets hot in the bright sun. 26 Hoin: the People Live in Egypt Perhaps the children are sometimes kept awake by the barking of dogs. There are a great many dogs in the little Egyptian villages, and they bark wildly at night. If we ride on our donkeys through a village street at night, we shall find no lights in the street and but few in the houses, yet the place will seem alive with dogs. And oh, how they do bark! Every- one in these towns, it would seem, keeps dogs. The dogs do not get much to eat and they are very lean and miserable. Poor people that have very little themselves al- ways seem to keep dogs. One would think them so poor that they would not try to take care of animals. But the fact that they do, shows that however poor people may be, they still have in their hearts a place for helpless creatures. People do not have to be rich to be kind. Poor people can be just as kind as rich people and if they are very kind they will be happy. So, let us remember that the men and women, and boys and girls, in these mud villages of Egypt are not unhappy. They love one another and are fond of their animals, and they are kind to strangers and to travelers. WATER-CARRIERS OF THE NILE The water of the river Nile is very muddy. It does not look like pure water that may be good to drink, yet Azir and all the other people living in the towns along the river must get their daily supply How the People Live in Egypt n WOMEN WITH WATER JARS from it. So, in the early morning and evening hours, we find men, women, and children, among them doubtless Azir's family, wading into the river to fill their jars and water bags. They do not seem to mind walking in the w^ater and stirring it up till it is even muddier than it was before they came. The women fill large earthen jars, which they skillfully balance on their heads. They can carry those jars full of water on their heads to the village, without touching them with their hands. The men have leather bags made of the skins of animals which they fill with water and carry upon their backs. The bags are supported by a rope hung over the left shoulder. All the water used in the 28 Hoiv the People Live in Egypt MKN wrnr watkr skin; villages for washing, cooking, and drinking must be carried from the river in such earthen jars and leather bags. The water is warm when first drawn from the river, but after it is put into porous earthen jars it becomes cool in a short time. That is the way in which people get cool water for drinking purposes, in hot countries where there is no ice. The jars are porous and a little of the water oozes through to the outside surfaces, and evaporates. In evaporat- ing, the water gives ofif so quickly the heat which has been absorbed from the sun's rays that the jar becomes cool and so cools the water. Every day men go about the streets of Luxor and other towns with drinking-water to sell. They carry it in large earthen bottles that hang from their How the People Live in Egypt 29 WATER SELLERS shoulders, as seen in the picture. One of the boys in the picture has a water-jar on his shoulder and the other boy has just had his cup filled from it. Some- 30 Ho^v the People Live in Egypt times the water is sweetened to give it a pleasant flavor like our soda water. In some of the larger towns men water the streets by sprinkling water from a leather bag carried on the back, for the ground is covered with fine earth that is very dry. Nearly everyone in the small towns in Egypt goes barefoot. In the evening when the men and boys wish to bathe, they go down to the river near the places where they get their supply of drinking- water. It makes no difference whether or not peo- ple are filling their water bottles there. They do not think the water dirty. They regard it as sweet and clean, because it comes from the great river that means so much to them. The ancient Egyptians used to believe that there was a great god of the Nile. They knew that their lives were absolutely dependent upon the river and its yearly overflow. Without that overflow there could be no crops and no food for them. But they could not understand whv the river should overflow its banks every summer. So they thought that there must be a god who watched carefully over the waters of the Nile, bringing life to the people of Egypt. They were very grateful indeed, and they showed their gratitude in their hymns and songs as well as in various other ways, as in these words: "Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile ! shine forth ! Giving life to men by his oxen ; Giving life to his oxen by the pastures! Shine forth in glory, O Nile." How the People Live in Egypt 31 CAMELS LADEN WITH WOOD CAMELS AND CARAVANS The camel in this picture is laden with wood. There is not much wood in Egypt that can be used for fire-wood, and when a tree dies or is cut down men dig out its roots, that no wood may be wasted. The wood on this camel is bound by ropes around his body. It is a cruel load, for the ugly roots must hurt him very much. The people of Egypt have few carts or wagons and heavy loads must be carried on the backs of camels and donkeys. In that way all the grass and grain and all the vegetables and fruits are carried from place to place. In the picture Azir Girges's 32 How the People Live in Egypt brother is driving his camel through the town. The bridle is simply a noose of rope put around the camel's head just above its nose. The noose is kept in place by a smaller rope slipped back of the ears. The boy has a leading-rope in his hand and carries a whip made of rope. The bags of netting sup- ported by the wooden frame upon the camel's back are to hold the load of goods that Azir's brother is to get in a near-by village. Can you imagine how the boy got upon the camel's back? When the boy wants to get on or ofif the camel, he makes the animal kneel down and the camel then drops his huge body gradually to the ground. Then the boy can easily mount or dis- mount. When the camel rises, he seems to unfold his hind legs part way, and then his front legs, and then his hind legs again, so that his body sways first one way and then another. If one is not care- ful, there is danger of being thrown off the camel's back when he rises to start on his journey. In some parts of the desert of Sahara great cara- vans may be seen. They consist of a large com- pany of merchants using camels to carry their goods. Formerly caravans furnished the only method of bringing merchandise from the interior of the coun- try to the coast. Many men traveling together in a caravan can pass in safety over the unprotected highways of the East, which are often infested with robbers. If no village is near, they pitch their tents in a large group, when they rest at night. THE BliOTIIER OF AZIR UIRCiES 34 How the People Live in Egypt A CAItAVAN IX THE DESEUT Caravans form a very interesting picture. The men, some riding and others walking beside their camels, are dressed in the white flowing robes of the East. Camels are often called "ships of the desert." Laden with heavy bales of goods, they hurry for- ward with a long swinging stride. Camels can live longer without fresh water than any other animals. Nature has provided them w^ith a receptacle for water from which they are able to quench thirst during their long hot journeys. Their feet are pro- vided with soft cushions, which enable them to walk in the sand more easily than donkeys and horses. What a dreary country this would be to live in! Yet there are hundreds of miles of desert in the northern part of Africa and many tribes live in tents on the little spots of fertile soil called oases. CHAPTER III THE LAND OF THE NILE THE GREAT RIVER Today we are going with Azir Girges to the tem- ple of Karnak, which is near the village of Luxor. We are going to ride on donkeys, for it is nearly two miles to the temple. There are no street-cars in the town of Luxor, and if we wish to ride we shall select the best donkey we can find. In Egypt the boy or the man who cares for your donkey and goes with you wherever you wish to go over the fields and desert is called a 'Monkey boy." Azir Girges is one of the donkey boys that we are to take with us not only today but on many other days. He is such a good donkey boy that we may take him to many places in Egypt. He will be of great service to us. As a donkey boy he must look after our donkey every day. He must see that the animal is fed and cared for. In the morning he must fasten the saddle upon the donkey's back and have everything ready for the day's trip. He must help us mount and then urge his donkey on as fast as its little legs will carry it. But the donkey in reality goes very slowly and Azir Girges can easily 35 36 The Land of the Nile THE TEMPLE OF KARXAK keep pace with it. Sometimes, when a donkey boy thinks that you are not looking, he twists the donkey's tail, making the donkey start and turn part way round very suddenly. If you are not careful you may be thrown from his back. Azir Girges has been to the Mission School and has learned a little English. By the time we say "good-bye" to him when we leave Egypt, he will have learned much more that will be of use to him, for he is to travel with us far from his home and he will talk with us every day and try to an- swer our many questions. This great temple of Karnak, the ruins of which we are approaching, was built many hundreds of The Land of the Nile 37 years ago by the people we call ancient Egyptians. It has in front of it a great gateway called a pylon. A pylon or gateway is a very wide and high wall of cut stone with a place for large gates in its center. We are going to climb the pylon in front of the temple of Karnak, to get a view of the beautiful valley of the Nile. VIEW I'liOM THE PYLON OI^ KARNAK In the center of the picture that we see is the river Nile. On both sides of the river is the black, rich soil of the land of Egypt. We can see the wide fields that have been planted by Azir Girges's father and other men of the village. Those fields will soon be covered with a bright carpet of green and, later in the season, will be brilliant with waving grain. Farther to the westward are the sandstone moun- tains, which glitter in the bright sunshine; for the sun nearly always shines during the day in Upper Egypt. Those mountains are in the great desert of drifting sands that borders the valley of the Nile. 38 The Land of the Nile The desert, which is a part of the great Sahara Desert, stretches from the black soil of the Nile Valley far away for hundreds of miles to the west. If we should now turn squarely round we should see the desert on the east also, with its high sparkling clififs. In the front of the picture spread out before us is another little town of mud houses shaded by palm- trees. We can see people walking in the loose dirt of the village street. It is market day and they are going to Luxor to market. Some have articles to sell and others are going to buy their week's supply of food. '^Is this the way all Egypt looks?" you ask. Yes, for Egypt in reality is a very narrow strip of land extending for hundreds of miles along the banks of the great river Nile. In some places the fertile black soil is only a few hundred feet wide and in other places it is one or more miles wide. Except near the Delta, which is the place where the Nile flows into the sea, very little rain ever falls in Egypt. Azir, who lives quite a long distance from the sea, says that he has never seen it rain. "But if it never rains, how does the land get water for the grass, the grain and the vegetables?" you in- quire. Far up in the mountains and lakes of Africa, un- der the equator, four thousand miles from the sea, the Nile river begins its long journey to the sea. Rain falls on the mountain-sides and fills the The Land of the Nile 39 A TOWN .STRUOtlNDED BY THE NILE Streams and lakes. From those mountain streams the water flows into the Nile and then down the long stretch of fertile soil to the Mediterranean sea. But the banks of the Nile river, though very high, cannot hold all the water. After a time the water reaches the tops of the banks and then spreads out over all the low land of Egypt, even to the edge of the desert on each side. During the overflow of the river some parts of the country are like great lakes. The towns are on a little higher level than that of the flat land and during the summer are entirely surrounded by water, just as you see the city of Assiout in the picture. A crooked road leads from that island city to the edge of the desert hills of sand. After it has stopped raining in the moun- 40 The Land of the Nile tains and a great deal of the water has either soaked into the ground or has reached the sea, the Nile gradually recedes until it is again many feet be- low the level of its banks. The land, however, has been thoroughly watered by that time and the rich mud carried by the river remains on the surface of the ground, and makes it so fertile that plants grow in it very rapidly. A great deal of water is caught and held in lakes and canals so that it can be pumped up on to the land again during the dry season. The climate of Egypt is so warm that the Egyptians can plant their grain in the winter months and their crops will grow very fast. This hymn to the Nile river written in Egypt more than three thousand years ago shows how sacred to the Egyptians was that noble river: ''Hail to thee, O Nile! Thou showest thyself in this land, Overflowing the gardens created by Ra ; Giving life to all animals; Watering the land without ceasing: The way of heaven descending: Lover of food, bestower of corn, Giving light to every home." The Land of the Nile 41 PLOWING IN EGYPT PLOWING, PLANTING, AND HARVESTING IN EGYPT In the picture on this page we see the brother of Azir Girges plowing. How black and rich is the soil that the river has deposited! A thin coating of mud is left on the land every time the river overflows its banks, and that little coating of mud added to those of many, many years before, has made the soil of the Nile Valley very rich. You remem- ber the story of Joseph in Egypt and how, when he was governor of the country, he sold corn to his brothers in Canaan and to all the countries round about Egypt in time of famine. On page 119 you will see a picture of storehouses such as were used 42 The Land of the Nile for storing corn in years of plenty, to provide for possible years of famine. The soil of the Nile Valley is so fertile that Egyp- tian farmers do not have to plow very deep. Their plow seems to us most crude and primitive. It is made of three rough pieces of wood fastened to- A FIELD READY FOR FLAXTING gether so that one piece stirs up the soil as it is dragged along the ground, the second reaches up to the yoke of the camels or cattle, and the third forms the handle of the plow, which is held by the man who drives the camels. Sometimes the plow is drawn by two camels or by two small oxen, and sometimes by a cow and a donkey. When the ground has been broken up by the rude The Land of the Nile 43 plow, it is usually divided into small square fields. That work is done by making little canals or trenches a few inches deep and about a foot wide between MKX DirriNG WATER FROM THE XILE the squares. When the land is ready for planting it looks like a great checkerboard. After the planting, comes the long tedious time of watering the land. The Nile by that time has gone down far below the level of its banks. All along the river men dip up the water in buckets and pour it into the little canals. The water runs first to one little square field and waters it, then is made to run to another field, then 44 The Land of the Nile to another, and so on until the ground is well watered. Then the men must begin over again and water the first square, and the next square, and so on again, to the end of the field. For many weeks the work goes on all day, and day after day. The workmen are very poor, for like Azir Girges's father, they receive only about ten cents a day for dipping water from the river into the little canals. In the picture we see oxen drawing a pole round and round. The pole turns three very old wheels made of wood. Do you see the big earthen jars fastened to the rope that passes over one of the wheels? A small boy sits near the wheel. The spokes of the wheels are made of rude planks. When the wheels turn round the jars go down into a deep well, are filled with water, and come up hanging to the rope. When they reach the top, they turn over with the wheel and the water is emptied into the little canal or runlet at the right. The water then flows out into the square fields. In that way many acres of land are watered from wells like that in the picture. Thus it was that gardens wTre supplied with water in the rainless country of, ancient Egypt, as this ancient love song shows : "Fain would I be to thee as the garden in which I have planted flowers and sweet-smelling shrubs ! the garden watered by pleasant runlets, and refreshed by the north breeze." The Land of the Nile 45 AN ECnrXIAN WELL This well is near some Egyptian houses. Do you see the children playing about? They live within the mud walls of those houses. The houses are their homes. How would you like to live in such a house? Yet the Egyptian people and their children seem very happy. The children are looking at a man who is taking a photograph of them and of their homes and of the old water-wheels by the well. Those same wheels may have been used by the little boy's grand- father, or even by his great-great-grandfather; for things are used for many long years in Egypt. The Egyptians never seem to think of having new things; old things are good enough for them, and, besides, 46 The Land of the Nile they are very poor and cannot afford to buy much that is new. In some parts of Egypt the people still have a very old-fashioned ^Yay of threshing out their grain. In the picture two camels draw an old machine with many wheels, round and round over the grain, time and time again, until the kernels are beaten out of the husks and straw by the camel's feet and the wheels of the machine. The place where this is done is called a threshing floor. "Thresh the corn, oh ye oxen! Thresh for yourselves, oh oxen ! ^ The fodder for eating, The grain for your master!" (Fro?n a threshing song ivritten J650 B. C.) THRESHING GBAIN CHAPTER IV GREAT MOUNDS AND TEMPLES HOW THE MOUNDS WERE FORMED Today we are going to ride on donkeys to one of the great mounds of Egypt. Azir Girges has the donkeys ready for us and we must be off early, as we have much to see. We ride first along a nar- row path through wide grain fields. The grain is very high and moves in great waves, as it is blown by the fresh winds of the morning. There are no clouds in the sky. Everything seems quiet and peaceful. In the distance is a large mound of earth. As we approach it we can see the top of a temple above it. Mounds are great heaps of earth rising like hills above the plains. They are half a mile or more from side to side. How were the mounds formed, do you ask? You already know that the Egyptian of today builds his house of sun-dried bricks. For hundreds and thou- sands of years, Egyptians have built their houses of similar material, which is nothing but mud mixed with straw and dried in the sun. It seldom rains in Egypt and the air is so dry that the mud houses 47 48 Great Mounds and Temples MOUND AND TEMPLE WALL built there last for many years, yet after a time they crumble away. When the Egyptian decides to build a new house, all he has to do is to throw dow^n what is left of his old walls, level off the dirt, and then build a house in the same way in which the first was built. He makes a wall of mud bricks around the little piece of ground that he is to call his home. Inside and against the wall, he makes little rooms also of mud. A long time ago Egyptians living in a large town worshiped in a great temple made of stone. The temple was very sacred to them. They built their homes around it and as near to the sacred enclosure as possible. Many houses of sun-dried brick were Great Mounds and Temples 49 built, and in time the houses grew old and crumbled away. The dirt thus formed was leveled off, and new houses were made. Such building was repeated many, m.any times, until gradually a great mound was formed that surrounded the temple and ex- tended a long distance away from it. A TEMPLE NKAItl.Y lifiniOI) IN A MOUXD After many hundreds of years the sacred char- acter of the temple was forgotten. Poor people lived in the temple and around it. The dirt became very deep on its floor; it even filled the temple in time, and on the outside it rose higher than the roof. In that way some of the great temples in Egypt have been gradually covered and forgotten. Of course, through the long years, some things got lost in the dirt. Some of those things had been used 50 Great Mounds and Temples in cooking and others had been worn as ornaments on the body. So Egyptian mounds contain many pieces of broken pottery and broken ornaments. When men dig into the mounds as is shown in the picture, they uncover the old temple and in the dirt find objects that were made thousands of years I'OLK i:.MA,N ON WALL OF TEMI'LE ago. The objects are very interesting, for they show what people used before the temple was covered up and what kind of jewelry they made with which to adorn themselves. When found, the objects are placed in cases in museums, and if we visit those museums we learn a great deal about the ancient Egyptians, and about the boys and girls who lived in the towns along the banks of the great river Nile. Do you see the policeman in the photograph? His Great Mounds and Temples 51 TEMPT.E COT.ONNAnE AT PHII^AE dress is of the kind that men in Egypt wear today. He has his badge of office on his arm. He is turn- ing round to answer a question; he can speak a little English. He is there to guard the temple, for it is no longer a house of worship. Do you see another small temple with its top just appearing above the mound? All the rest of it is buried in the great heap of dirt. Some day all the dirt will be taken away and the temple walls will be found covered with picture-writing some of which may read like this: "I have opened for thee a court on the north side with a double staircase ; thy porch is magnificent ; its doors are like the horizon of the sky, in order that the multitude may wor- ship thee." 52 Great Mounds and Temples THE TEMPLE OF EDFU We have just learned how temples became sur- rounded and covered with earth. It took many hundreds of years for the mound shown in the photograph to reach its present height around the temple. We see that the temple is now being uncovered. Many people in America, England, France, and Germany are eager to know all they can about the temples of Egypt. They wish to learn the stories and records of past history written upon the walls of her temples. They wish to have copies of the pictures that are drawn and carved upon the walls. Therefore, they give money to send men to Egypt to look after the work of uncovering the temples and to protect them from further injury. The picture and stories on the temple walls are cut in the stone. They were made by people who lived in Egypt when the temple was built, over three thousand years ago. The poor Egyptians of to- day know nothing about the history of their temples. They do not know why they were built or when they were built, therefore they might injure the temples and the pictures if people from America and other countries did not protect them. But the excavator sent from America or from some other foreign country must have the help of natives in all the work that he does. Some of the Great Mounds and Temples 53 EXCAVATING AN EGYl'TIAX TEMl'LE helpers are boys and some are men. Each helper has a basket. The men carry no larger baskets than the boys. When the baskets are filled, men and boys walk off together, each with his basket upon his head or shoulder. These people of the East al- ways sing as they work. When pulling or lifting they sing together a strange half wild melody that seems to lighten their task. It takes many months to remove in this slow way all the earth that surrounds the temple shown in the picture. The superintendent keeps a very sharp watch on all that is done. In the dirt there are many small ornaments, pieces of pottery, and other articles 54 Great Mounds and Temples of interest. It is only by keeping an eye on all the material that is loosened and put into the baskets that such objects are found and saved. In the picture of the temple of Edfu nearly all the earth has been removed and we see that the tem- ple has a great gateway in front. The gateway is THE TEMl'LK OF KDIU called a pylon. It is very high, very wide, and very thick. We can see back of the pylon a large open court or hall. It is surrounded by columns and has no roof. Beyond that hall are other and smaller halls. Some of them have roofs of stone and many columns. There are many rooms. Some of the rooms were once closed by doors. We find large holes in the thresholds where the pivots of hinges that supported Great Mounds and Temples 55 THE SANCTUARY IN THE TEMPLE OF EDFU 56 Great Mounds and Temples the doors turned as the doors were opened and closed. The last room of all was the most sacred place of the ancient temple. When the temple was used for worship, only the king and the chief priest or minister could enter the most holy place. Some of the people were allowed to go only as far as the pylon. Others of higher office were permitted to go inside the great courts and halls, but the holy place or sanctuary was thought too sacred for any but the king and the high priest to enter. Pictures and drawings cover the pylon. They also cover the walls of the temple. Scholars have learned to read the strange language that has pictures of ob- jects for words, and thus we may know a great deal about the temple. Sometimes the king who had built or restored a temple in honor of a god expressed himself thus: "I erected for him a great door fashioned of new cedar, wrought with gold, mounted with real black copper. The great name upon it was of doubly refined gold and black copper. It was more beautiful than anything that has ever been. His majesty further made for him these three portals." We learn that the temple of Edfu was built in honor of the sun-god. The Egyptians thought that the sun was a god and they named the early morn- ing sun "Horus." Therefore, on the walls of the temple of Edfu are written the words: "This temple is dedicated to the god Horus who spreads his wings ; the great god ; the lord of heaven who, clad in bright plumage, comes forth out of the sun mountain." Great Mounds and Temples S7 VIEW FROM PYLON OF EDFU Other writings tell us of great processions that took place and of festivals that were held when the temple was finished. We learn also that the temple was repaired two thousand years ago. Do you see the four dark places in the front of the pylon which are like black vertical lines? They were cut into the stone so that great flag-poles could be placed against the wall of the pylon. Flags and pennants hung from the poles at the time of the great religious processions that were often made to the temple. Let us try to think of the temple when it was new and in perfect order. Think of it when all the pic- ture-writings were brilliant in color. How beautiful 58 Great Mounds and Temples the processions must have been as they moved slowly toward the temple on festive days! People wore garments of gay colors. They carried banners in their hands and all tried to honor the sun-god whom they worshiped. But Azir Girges is calling us. He wants us to go upstairs to the top of the pylon. Sure enough, here is a narrow flight of steps that leads to the top. There are two hundred and forty steps in the staircase. Pos- sibly this pylon was once used as a watch-tower. From the top of the pylon we can look down into the first great court. Under the flat roof beyond are many rooms that were used by the priests. In some were kept the sacred objects used in processions and in temple worship. The roof has fallen in one place near the farther end. It was in that room that the sacred shrine was placed. It was the most holy place in the temple. It is sometimes called the "holy of holies." Now if we look away we shall see the village of Edfu close to the great temple. Beyond it is the rich land made by the Nile in its yearly overflow. Farther on we see the Nile itself, a wonderful river. If it were not for the river no one could live in Egypt. There would be nothing but desert sands and sandhills, like those as far away as the eye can see as we stand on the pylon of the temple of Edfu. CHAPTER V EARLY EGYPTIAN WRITING We have seen that temple walls in Egypt are cov- ered with a peculiar kind of writing. Many of the words, or signs, are much like men, birds, or ani- mals. There are men sitting, men standing, and men walking. Birds and animals also are represented in various positions. So, in very early times, men began writing by making pictures of the things they wanted to write about, and that picture-writing was the beginning of written language. We know that the Indians and other primitive people drew pictures to express their ideas. Such writing is called hiero- glyphic writing. It is the kind used on the temple walls of Egypt. As time went on people got into the way of using fewer marks for each bird, animal, or plant form. Instead of making a careful drawing of a bird when they were trying to write something about birds, they would make a mark like the figure 3 . That fig- ure turned lengthwise is just what children sometimes make when drawing birds flying in the air. So the Egyptians made a great variety of marks for animals, men, plants, and for things being done by men. Those marks became their form of writing. 59 60 Early Egyptian Writing o M ' M: !i=r '■-.-# III'. '"T, •*^ 4* •fy [S --^ Hi :^ '^ ^ ^ ^^ 7" »■ Ci >^ KCiYl'TlAN IIIEUO(;i^Yl'III(S Early Egyptian Writing 61 In those ancient days people did not make paper as we do now, but did use papyrus. The papy- rus is a plant that grew at the water's edge. Its fibrous pulp was made into a kind of paper that was very durable. Great quantities of that paper have been found in the tombs of Egypt. On the rolls of papyrus are written stories of very great interest to us now. From them we learn much regarding the life and the thought of the ancient Egyptians. Some of the writings on papyrus and on stone, when translated, sound much like those with which we are familiar. The following quotations are two of them: "I have given bread to the hungrj^; I have given water to the thirsty; I have given clothes to the naked." "There is no minor that I have put to grief; no laborer that I have turned off ; no shepherd that I have imprisoned ; no chief of office from whom I have taken his men for forced labor. There were no hungry or miserable in my day, for if a season of want came, I had cultivated all the arable land of Meh. None hungered; I gave to the widow; I made no distinction between great and small in all that I gave." In Egypt a little over one hundred years ago, a flat stone about three feet long and of the shape shown in the picture was dug out of the earth, near the Rosetta Mouth of the Nile. On the face of the stone, which is now called the Rosetta Stone, were a great number of little marks made for letters and words. The inscription was divided into three parts, one 62 Early Egyptian Writing THE ROSETTA STONE Early Egyptian Writing 63 of which was written in the Greek language. When that section was read by Greek scholars, it was learned that it was written upon the stone at the time of the coronation of a king of Egypt who lived two hun- dred years before Christ. Some priests of a temple had commanded that one of the laws for the people should be written upon stone, in three languages. One of the languages was to be Greek because Greeks were living in Egypt at the time. The law was to be written in Egyptian hieroglyphics also and, again, in the language of the common people, so that everybody in Egypt might be able to know the law. Now no one living at the time the stone was found was able to read the strange language of the Egyp- tians, because no one knew the old Egyptian alpha- bet. But as some people could read Greek and as the Greek inscription showed that the other inscrip- tions meant exactly what the Greek inscription meant, scholars began to try to find out what the .Egyptian alphabet might be, by comparing all the strange Egyptian marks and words with the Greek letters and words. After many long years of study scholars succeeded in discovering the alphabet of the old Egyptians, and today those who have learned that alphabet may read the strange words that are written upon the walls of the ancient temples and tombs and upon papyrus, the paper of the Egyptians. Egyptian temples and tombs, therefore, are like great open books, but instead of being made of paper 64 Early Egyptian Writing ■awmwwwg^ PAPYRUS ROLL SHOWING EGYl'TIAX WRITING and parchment they are made of stone. The stones serve two purposes; they are the walls of the temples and tombs and they also take the place of books. By reading the inscriptions on the walls and upon papyrus we learn most interesting facts about the old Egyptians. We learn of many of their beauti- ful religious thoughts and prayers as well as of their laws and customs. Some of the inscriptions are printed here and in other chapters of this book. "If thou wouldst be of good conduct and dwell apart from evil beware of bad temper; for it contains the germs of all wickedness. When a man takes justice for his guide and walks in her ways, there is no room in his soul for bad tem- per. "Do not repeat the violent words of others. Do not listen to them. They have escaped a heated soul. If they are re- peated in thy hearing, look on the ground and be silent." THE UilAD T(; TlIK I'YUAMIUS CHAPTER VI OLD EGYPT THE GREAT PYRAMIDS Of course you have heard of the pyramids. The pyramids of Egypt are known to every boy and girl. They are the largest monuments in all the world. There are many pyramids in Egypt, but when we speak of the pyramids we mean the three great pyramids of Gizeh, which are near the city of Cairo. They are on the west side of the Nile and are built on the edge of the desert. The valley of the Nile, which is very narrow for hundreds of miles, begins to broaden just there into what is called the Delta. On the map it looks like a very large letter Y. The pyramids may not look so 65 66 Old Egypt large as we thought they would, as we ride toward them along the road leading out from Cairo; but that is because we are still far from them. THE I'YliAMIDS FKnM THE FIELD Let us turn into the open fields at the left of the roadway. We must ride on our donkeys, for the ground is still partly covered with water from the last overflow of the Nile. There is a little village of mud houses ahead of us, and beyond it in the sands of the desert rise the three great pyramids. Now they seem far apart. When we reach the edge of the desert we shall have to give up -our donkeys and ride camels instead. Camels, you remember, have soft cushioned feet and can travel in the sand more easily than other animals. Now the three pyramids seem to move up closer Old Egypt 67 ANOTHER VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS to one another the nearer we approach them. That is because they are so large that one partly hides another. How large do you suppose one of the three great pyramids is? Remember it is built of great blocks of stone and that all of the stone had to be brought from the quarry which is many miles away. The pyramid illustrated on page 69 is called the pyramid of Khufu and measures seven hundred and fifty feet on each of its four sides, and it is four hun- dred and fifty feet high. If you live in the city, just think that one side of the pyramid is nearly equal to the length of a long city block. If the pyramid were built in a city it would nearly cover a long 68 Old Egypt block one way, and it would spread out over three of the narrow blocks the other way and cover the streets between. It would be more than twice the height of Bunker Hill monument, and nearly as high as the Washington monument. If you live in the country perhaps you know of some square field containing thirteen acres. That is just the number of acres covered by the base of the pyramid. It is said that if the pyramid could be weighed, it would be found to weigh seven million tons. The builders of the pyramid first leveled off the rock that they found under the sand, and then they covered thirteen acres of it with blocks of stone about three feet high, making a great level floor. Then they covered that floor over with another floor of stone of the same thickness. They fitted the stones close together, but they did not make the second floor quite so large as the first. You see they wanted each floor a little smaller than the one below, so that the sides of the pyramid would slope toward the top. All four sides would thus meet in a point when finished. After the builders had made one floor of blocks of stone three feet high, they next made a narrow^ road-way up to it on one side by slanting earth up to the level of the floor. Up the incline thus made, they moved the stones needed for the second floor. When the second floor was in place they slanted earth up to that, then rolled stones up for the Old Egypt 69 THE CilJEAT PYRAMID OF KinTFTJ third floor. They kept on working in that way un- til they reached the top. Then there was a long slanting hill of earth on one side extending to the top- most stone. When the pyramid was finished they took all the earth away. Of course, at first the sides of the pyramids were like great steps, but the builders filled the steplike spaces so that the sides sloped smoothly to the very top of the pyramid. The filling has disappeared from the largest pyramid, and we can now climb to its top over one hundred and .fifty steps, each step be- ing about three feet high. But we shall find the ascent of the pyramid very hard work indeed. We shall need two or three Arabs to help us, just as we see 70 Old Egypt them helping men in the picture. We shall have to rest many times on the way up. What shall we see when we reach the top? If we look off to the north we shall see the great level Delta of the Nile covered with rich soil that has tLiMi;i.\i; THE i;i;i:.\r rviiAMii Old Egypt 71 been made by the mud of many yearly overflows. The Delta is as level as a floor and is dotted with villages. We can see the road that stretches across to Cairo also. It is bordered with trees. The sands of the desert surround the base of the pyramid and reach close to the edge of the Delta. VIEW OF DELTA EHUJI TOP OF I'YUAMID Now, when we turn round in the opposite direc- tion, we shall learn just what is meant by the word "desert." There are no plants, grasses, or trees. It is all a dreary waste of sand. The desert is not level, for its yellow brown sand drifts with the wind, and in some places looks like great snowdrifts. Barren rocks show here and there. In many of the rocks there are ancient tombs. The pyramids are in reality situated in a great 72 Old Egypt tomb field, or cemetery, the burying-ground of the capital of Lower E tery for hundreds, and The pyramids were the builders built the That part of the desert was the great city of Memphis, gypt. It was used as a ceme- perhaps thousands, of years, the tombs of kings. When pyramids they took care to ^fiSs:^ VIEW OF DESEBT FBOM TOP OF PTBAMID leave one or two rooms of small size near the center or deep down in the foundation. Very narrow pas- sageways lead to those rooms. After the kings were buried in those inner chambers, the entrances were closed with blocks of stone. Some of the narrow passageways in the pyramids have been discovered and opened and we can now go into them, but it is very difficult to climb to the rooms of the largest pyramid. There are no good Old Egypt 73 steps in its passageway. It is very steep, very narrow and dark, and the air is very bad. We should have to take lights w^ith us and have one or two Arabs help us, and then we should find only two small dark rooms to reward us for our effort. It was in one of those rooms that the king was buried in a large stone coffin. In one pyramid a stone has been found that has painted on it the name, Khufu, the king who built the pyramid. This fact shows that the stones must have been marked when they left the quarry much as stones are marked by builders today. The following sentence from a very ancient writ- ing refers to the directions given to a builder who was sent to the granite quarries of the island of Ele- phantine near Assuan to secure material for building one of the pyramids: ''His majesty sent me to Elephantine to bring a door of granite, together with Its offering tablet, doors and settings of granite, belonging to the upper chamber of the pyramid." THE PYRAAHDS AND THE SPHINX Thousands of men were employed in building the pyramids, and it took many, many years to complete them. Of course there had to be large towns near-by for the workmen to live in, and there were also all the women and children that lived in the towns to be cared for. The children probably played in the streets between the mud walls just as they play in the little pyramid village today. 74 Old Egypt THE SPHINX AXD THE PYKAillDS How old do you suppose the pyramids are? Well, it is known that they are about five thousand years old. That is a very, very great age indeed. When Joseph dwelt in Egypt he may have lived near the pyramids. Of course he saw them, for the pyra- mids had been there a thousand years or more be- fore Joseph, who was sold by his brothers, became the governor of Egypt. The old Sphinx was there too, and probably Joseph went to see it many times. The Sphinx is carved out of the solid rock that appears here and there in the desert. Its body is over one hundred and forty feet long and it is sixty-six feet high. In the picture, an Arab stands under the head of the Sphinx and Old Egypt 7S there is a camel on one paw. The size of the Arab and of the camel helps us to realize how very large the Sphinx is. The Sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a man. It faces the east. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun. To them the early morning sun was the young god Horus, whose picture we shall see on the wall of a temple that we shall visit later. The Sphinx was a symbol of the early morning sun and of Horus the god-child. Facing directly to the east it reflects the brilliancy of the sun. The following very old writing refers to the sun- god: "When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven, Thou fillest every land with thy beauty; For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth." The kings of Egypt thought they w^ere related to the sun-god, and when the Sphinx came to be a symbol of the power of the sun the kings adopted it as a symbol of their divine nature and their power over men. Therefore they used small Sphinxes to decorate the avenues leading to their temples. The eyes of the Sphinx have a far-away look of intense earnestness. The whole face has much power and seems very thoughtful. It is aw^-inspiring and must have appealed strongly to the Egyptians, who believed in its powder as a god. Near the great Sphinx is a temple in the sand. The temple actually consists of a series of rooms upon the natural stone floor below the level of the sand. 76 Old Egypt THE TKMFLE Ul' THE Sl'IIINX Its rooms are lined with granite and alabaster and are as beautifully finished as though made today in- stead of several thousand years ago. The temple was a memorial hall where services were probably held by the relatives of the king who was buried near-by in his own pyramid. PICTURE STORIES OF OLD EGYPT When we were on the top of the pyramid of Khufu, we could see just how the desert looked to the south and west. We could also see that there were many tombs near the pyramids which looked like caves in the sand. Those tombs were built long Old Egypt 77 TRAVELIN IX THE KESEKT ago and are now mostly filled with sand that drifts with the winds of the desert. The great cemetery of the ancient city of Memphis extends for several miles along the edge of the desert. There are small pyramids there, too. One of them is called the "stepped" pyramid, because its sides are like great steps. We are going past that pyra- mid to visit one or two of the oldest tombs of Egypt. We can ride our donkeys a short distance into the desert, but Azir Girges and the other donkey boys must continually urge them on, for they do not like to travel in the desert. It is very hard for them to do so. Their little feet sink deep into the yielding sand. 78 Old Egypt ARRIVAL AT AN ANCIKNT TOMB Here we are at the entrance to the tomb, where we leave the donkeys. The tomb slants down into the solid rock for a long distance. If men did not remove the sand often, it would drift over the tomb and cover it again. In that way nearly all the Egyp- tian tombs have been covered and lost to view. When you walk into the tomb you will find one or more rooms, and, on the walls of the rooms, rows upon rows of pictures one above another. The pic- tures are carved in low relief and colored. Why! you will find pictures of almost everything that you can think of that happens on a farm! There are pictures of all kinds of farm animals and farm- ers sowing, plowing, and reaping. Some men are Old Egypt 79 milking cows and some are tying cows out in the fields. Others are driving animals before them, per- haps to the barnyards. Men are also engaged in putting grain into large bins. It seems strange that the old Egyptians should have had all these pictures modeled and painted upon the walls of their tombs. I'lCTI'ItE STOKIES OX WALL OF TO.MI! CHAPTER VII RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS HORUS, THE MORNING SUxN-GOD "Hail to thee, Lord of all gods, Lord of Righteousness, the maker of men, and animals, and plants, and all things, above and here below . . . Blessed be thou, the only One . . . by whose will the Nile is, and the palm; all created things do homage unto thee." (From an ancient Egyptian hymn.) Let us look carefully at the picture and at the strange writing on the stone. We must remember that everything in the picture was made by artists who lived over thirty centuries ago. The picture is only one of many w^hich were made upon the wall of a great temple at Abydos in Egypt. In the center of it a woman is seated upon a beau- tiful throne chair. She holds a boy in her lap. The woman wears the horns of a cow upon her head and between the horns there is a disk shaped like the sun. ''Now, what does this picture mean/' do you ask? Let me tell you. We remember that the sun always shines during the day in Upper Egypt. The ancient Egyptians did not understand what created the sun- shine. They thought that the sun must be a god, 80 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians 81 HATHUE AND HOBUSj HORUS THE MORNING SUN-GOD 82 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians who traveled in a golden boat through the heavens from east to west every day. They could not under- stand what became of the sun at night. But when it came up again each morning they thought that it had been born again as a little child, and they gave it the name Horus or Ra, as in this song of praise: "When through the heavenl}^ vale Thou takest through blue fields thy path of light, Then all the gods tremble at thy approach With sweet delight, thou child of heaven, Ra!" Horus, as the Egyptians thought, had a divine mother, a beautiful woman. This picture represents that divine mother holding in her lap the divine child Horus. They called the! divine mother Hathor. ''But why did they put horns on Hathor's head,'' you ask? They wished to distinguish her from other gods and goddesses. She was to them the divine mother; and as the cow seemed to be the most motherly of animals, they gave Hathor a headdress with the horns of a cow upon it. With a headdress like that, Hathor could be easily recognized. Hathor also expressed the thought of love. As she was loving to her son, so she would be loving to everyone else. Some of their drawings may seem very strange to you, but you see that the Egyptians had very beau- tiful thoughts that they expressed as well as they could. Horus wears a very elaborate necklace. He has a strange-looking cap on his head. The shep- Religion of the Ancient Egyptians 83 herd's crook that he holds is a symbol of his great power of leadership as the sun-god. Below and at the right of the throne chair we see men making offerings of food, to show that they are very grateful for all that the sun does for them. It is the sun that sheds warmth upon the earth. It is the sun that causes the plants to grow. It is the sun that makes it possible to have food. So, you see, the Egyptians felt that they should show their thankfulness by bringing offerings to the sun. All around these pictures you see other little pic- tures. There are drawings of birds, feathers, ani- mals, of men walking, men sitting, of arms, eyes, circles, oblongs, hooks, flags, and of many other things. These drawings put together by the old Egyptians spelled out wo^-ds. Some scholars today can read such picture-writing. They tell us what it means and what was written here about Hathor and her little son Horus, — Horus who was a symbol of the early morning light. There is no other picture that will give you such an excellent idea of the art of the Ancient Egyptians as this of Hathor and Horus. The Egyptians did not know how to draw men and women so well as we do now, but they designed and drew beautiful orna- ments. Everthing here, including the writing, is done with great care. See how carefully the throne chair is modeled and decorated. Look at the head- dress of Hathor. Then, too, see how tenderly the love of Hathor toward her son Horus is expressed. 84 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians This picture is certainly very wonderful and inter- esting, and so are the following words written to the sun-god : "Thou hast created all things that exist As far as stretches the great vault of heaven. Thou art the guardian whose mild gentle ray Brings precious life to all whose hearts are pure." RA, THE NOONDAY SUN-GOD It may be cloudy today in America, but it is never cloudy in Upper Egypt. The sun always shines there and it shines very, very brightly. If you should awake at sunrise you would see a beautiful sight as the sun appeared to come up out of the sand fields of the eastern desert. In another direction you might discern a long line of mountains of deep rich purple. Above the mountains the sky might be orange, blend- ing into a yellow as pure as gold. But what is that now peeping with a golden eye over the sandstone hills of the east? Up, up it comes, the symbol of victory and of resurrection to the ancient Egyptians. Last night we saw the sun go down, as it seemed, directly into the desert sands of the west. Where has it been through the night? The old Egyptians believed that the sun wrestled all night with Typhon, the god of darkness. Vic- torious, it rose again in the morning with all the vigor of youth. So, when they wished to make a picture of the early morning sun they painted a Religion of the Ancient Egyptians 85 beautiful boy and they called his name Horus, as we have already learned. The sun is the giver of light and day, the giver of life, of warmth, of the clear atmosphere, of color, and of beautiful flowers. Do you ever stop to think that without the sun the earth would be in darkness all the time, that no one could live on it, that there would be no trees, no grass, no flowers, and that our world would be intensely cold? It was a beautiful thought of the Egyptians to regard the sun as a god, the giver of life, and to picture the sun in the morning as a beautiful child. And now we see the sun mount rapidly upward from the belt of earth, now pink, now gold, now of crystal purity. It mounts higher and higher as though with wings. We do not wonder that the Egyptians thought of the sun as having wings, or as sailing in a golden boat through the heavens. By this time the water of the Nile is like beautiful bronze. The sand clififs glisten in an intense light. The palm-trees make a lovely picture against the golden sky. The great sails of the Nile boats fill with the rising wind. The people of the village are awake. The boys and girls come down to the river to get water. Another day in Egypt has been born. But let us look at the next picture. "What can it mean?" you ask in wonder. The man has a head like a hawk and on his head is a disk. In one hand is a sceptre of power; in the other a cross, which means life. That is the way in which the ancient Egyp- 86 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians UA, TUE i^•OU^•UAl SL'X liUU Religion of the Ancient Egyptians 87 tians tried to express the power of the sun at noon- day. In the morning the sun was pictured as a child. At noonday it was pictured as a strong man; it was then the child grown to manhood. They wished to show, too, that the sun was some far-away power. The hawk flies very high; so high that it disappears from sight. The Egyptians thought it could reach the sun or go nearer to the sun than anything else could, so they put the hawk's head on the shoulders of the man made to represent the sun. On the head of the hawk they set the sun disk. ''He formed me as a Horus hawk of gold, he gave to me his might and his strength and 1 was splendid with these, his diadems, in this my name, Golden Horus, mighty in strength, splendid in diadems." In the hands of the man they placed the sceptre and the cross, the symbols of power and of life. This picture, then is one which made the Egyptians think of the sun, and of the great power of the sun, which brings life, flowers, and beauty into the world. We see the king making an offering to the sun- god. The offering is upon the table. Above the offering and in the hands of the king are clusters of lotus flowers. The lotus was the most beautiful of all flowers to the Egyptians. It was a symbol of purity. We see it in nearly all pictures made by the ancient Egyp- tians. They also designed a great many of their 88 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians j ♦ •■•* L KINGS makixct offerings ornaments from the lotus, just as boys and girls in school today make designs from our flowers. If we look at the many Egyptian pictures in this book, we shall find that the sacred lotus appears in a variety of ways. It is seen in the bud, as the partly open flower, and as the full blossom upon the stalk. It forms a design about the shafts of columns. The capitals of columns are often shaped like the bud; often, like the flower. The lotus is also used to dec- orate temples, tombs, and mummy cases. On the throne chair of Hathor and Horus the lotus and papyrus are bound together, to symbolize the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. The lotus was used in amulets and gold ornaments. Religion of the Ancient Egyptians 89 It was carried in the hands of kings when they made offerings. It was the pure lily of the Nile, the sym- bol of purity and resurrection. It was very beauti- fully drawn and often colored in pink, blue, or white, like the natural flower. In ancient Egyptian litera- ture we find many lines referring to the lotus. Two of them are given below: "I am a pure lotus, issue of the field of the sun." "I offer thee the flower which was, in the beginning, the glorious lily of the great water." They thought that when laid away in the tomb the pictures would be useful to them or that their souls would have a chance to enjoy all the good things that they themelves had owned and loved when liv- ing on earth. It is by studying such pictures and songs like that given below, that we learn very much about the an- cient Egyptians and how they lived in the Nile val- ley close to the edge of the desert. "All cattle rest upon their herbage; All trees and plants flourish ; The birds flutter in their marshes. Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee, All the sheep dance upon their feet ; All winged things fly; They live when thou hast shone upon them." CHAPTER VIII TEMPLES AND TEMPLE BUILDERS THE GREAT TEMPLES OF KARNAK A king who lived thirty-five hundred years ago thus described a temple that he built: *'I performed excellent duties in the house of Amon ; I made for him a temple at the upper portal of the house of Amon. I erected obelisks therein of granite, whose beauty approached heaven. A wall was before it of stone over against Thebes. It was flooded and the gardens were plant- ed with trees. I made very great double doors of electrum. I hewed very great flagstaves and erected them in the fore- court in front of his temple." There was once a great and beautiful city in Egypt called Thebes. Powerful kings lived in the citv, and in it they built wonderful temples. Those tem- ples are the largest in all the world. Thebes must have been a very great city thronged with people, many of whom lived in mud houses like those found in the little villages of today. But the kings and the rich people lived in palaces. Those palaces were surrounded with walls and within the walls were beautiful gardens. Thebes was a city of triumph, wealth and power. 90 Temples and Temple Builders 91 AVENUE OP ArrnOACH TO TEMPLES OF KARNAK When Thebes was in its glory, the Egyptians be- lieved in a god that was related to the sun-god Ra. He was known as Amon-Ra. In his honor they erected the great temple of Karnak, which we are to visit today. Much wealth was bestowed upon that temple, or rather upon that group of temples, for there were actually many temples. The temples were built by different kings, and the building w^as continued dur- ing many hundreds of years. Karnak became the largest temple in the world and the wonder of the ages. There is little left now of the mighty city of Thebes except the ruins of its temples. Its palaces have all crumbled away. Its houses are gone, and the few people who live where Thebes once stood live now in the little villages of Luxor and Karnak. 92 Temples and Temple Builders Azir Girges lives in Luxor, you know. It is nearly two miles from his home to the temples of Karnak. So we must take our donkeys and ride out along the old road that was once a beautiful avenue of ap- proach to the temples. We are coming to the temple of Khonsu. We leave Azir and walk slowly toward the great pylon. See the boys and girls standing near it and think how high the pylon is. It is like a great gateway, or watch-tower, standing a little in front of the temple itself. The wall of the pylon is covered with draw- ings and strange picture-writing, all cut in the stone. The drawings and picture-writing tell us stories of the lives of the old kings and why the temple was erected. In an old Egyptian story a king says of this temple: "I built a house in Thebes for thy son Khonsu, of good hewn stone, its doors covered with gold adorned with elec- trum like the celestial horizon." A great sun-disk with wings is above the doorway. There is a serpent carved in the stone on each side of the disk. The name of the ornament is the ''winged globe." The outspread wings were symbols of divine protection. The serpents were symbols of royalty. The old Egyptians had this winged globe carved or painted over doorways. They thought it a good sign, a sign of protection. They believed that it insured safety to all within the house. Now, this temple that is called Khonsu is only Temples and Temple Builders 93 THE TEMl'LE OF KlIONSU one of the great group of temples. It is much like the temple of Edfu, which we visited a few days ago. So we hasten to Karnak, the largest of these temples. 94 Temples and Temple Builders THK GREAT HALL OF LULU.M.NS A.NU UBELL>^K, TK.MI'LE OF KARXAK The great temple of Karnak is nearly a quarter of a mile long. The front wall is about four hundred feet wide and one hundred and fifty feet high. In- side of the wall are large courts surrounded by col- umns. There are also great rooms crowded with columns made to support the roof. The temple is a little way from the river. We can see part of the avenue that leads down to it. The avenue is bordered with Sphinxes. You will remem- ber that the kings used Sphinxes as symbols of their power. This must have been a very grand avenue in the time of great religious processions. We can imagine how the boats looked sailing up Temples and Temple Builders 95 THE AXCIKNT .WICMK UF .Sl'IUNXES the river to the landing-place. The state barges were brilliant in color and decorated with gold. As the procession formed, choirs upon the river bank sang songs of praise to the god Amon-Ra. The jeweled gowns of the priests and of other dignitaries in the procession sparkled in the bright sunlight. The procession was probably led by the king. It moved slowly up the avenue of Sphinxes. Flags and pennants waved from their staffs. Sacred emblems and banners richly decorated wxre carried by the people. In the first great court of the temple gathered the sacred hosts. Only a smaller number could enter the second court, and only the king and the high priest could approach the most sacred place or ''holy of holies." To reach the sanctuary, they had to pass through 96 Temples and Temple Builders the great hall of columns. As we look at those col- umns we wonder how the workmen could have built them. Just think; they are about twelve feet in diameter and seventy-five feet high. Their great capitals spread out as though to support the dome of heaven. Why do you suppose those kings of old built tem- ples so vast in size? Was it to show their power as kings, or was it to show their faith in a great god who rules over the earth? In reality an Egyptian temple was not a place of public worship and prayer, as are churches today. It was a gift from the king and was built with the hope of securing favor from the gods. In the pictures upon the temples the king is al- most always seen making offerings to the gods or asking favors of them. The gods are represented, too, as granting the favors asked, and the writings tell us of the king's gratitude. Think of the great number of men employed in building those temples. What a city Thebes must have been with its wonderful buildings and its streets gay with the brilliant costumes of its people! In all sunny climates very bright colors are usually worn, as dull tones are not attractive in the dazzling sunlight, and so it must have been in ancient Egypt. Here in Thebes stands a great obelisk also, covered with picture-writing. Only a part of it shows in the illustration. It was erected by the noted queen Hatasu. A part of the inscription reads, "Hatasu Temples and Temple Builders 97 DRAWINGS OX WALL OF SAXlTUAUY AT KARNAK erected this as a monument to her father, Amon, the lord of the throne of Both Lands." Farther back is the sanctuary. Upon the wall of the sanctuary we see the same kind of picture-writ- ing that we have found on other temples. But do you note the drawings of boats with queer little oars and sails? Why do you suppose the Egyptians made those drawings? You would hardly know them as boats. In the center of each is a drawing of a door. That is meant to represent the door of a tomb, and the boat is supposed to be carrying a soul across the river to its tomb. But a sail sweeps right across the door, and by means of it a very beautiful thought is expressed. The sail is a symbol of new breath, the new wind of the morning. The Egyptians believed that every 98 Temples and Temple Builders one who died would come to life again somewhere, somehow. They believed that one should not think of the tomb as a dark and dismal place. They thought that a new life would some time come to the one placed within the tomb. So you see that this picture means, that although a person who had died might be taken across the river in the boat and buried in the tomb, yet, as the sail catches the fresh breeze of the morning, so the soul would live again. It is a symbol not of sad- ness but of joy in the new life to come and is a beau- tiful expression of the thought of the soul's immor- tality. The following very old Egyptian writing refers to the boats upon the Nile sailing in the sun- light of the god Ra: "The barks sail upstream and downstream alike. Every highway is open because thou hast dawned. The fish in the river leap up before thee. And thy rays are in the midst of the great sea." THE GREAT KING RAMSES II There are many temples in Upper and Lower Egypt. They are not far from the banks of the Nile. Some of them are close to the river. The temple of Luxor, which wx see in the picture, is very near in- deed. Luxor is the village, you will remember, where Azir Girges lives and where we visited him, his mother, and his sister Louise. The boat that is close to the bank of the river is Temples and Temple Builders 99 DAHABIYEH AND TEMPLE OF LUXOR called a dahabiyeh. It is so built that it can be used where the water is very shallow. Its mast is close to the bow. A long slanting pole is fastened to the top of the mast and on it is tied the sail. We can count fourteen men who have been sent aloft to tie up the sail while the boat is at anchor for the passengers to visit the temple. In the back part of the boat are cabins and living-rooms. Such boats are comfortable to live in and travelers frequently spend several months of the winter in them. It is delightful to live on a dahabiyeh while traveling on the Nile and visiting the many wonder- ful places to be seen in the land of the Egyptians. 100 Temples and Temple Builders THE FRONT WALL OF THE TEMI'LE OF L! ;:( 11 The temples of Egypt were built by powerful kings, who employed thousands of men and slaves to do the work. Of course the kings thought them- selves very great. They believed that they wxre re- lated to the sun-god and that they were able to do wondrous things. This temple of Luxor is several hundred miles from the mouth of the Nile. It was built over three thousand years ago by Ramses II. We shall first w^alk round to the front of the build- ing. The streets are very dirty. Some of the bet- ter houses of the town are directly in front of the temple. But we do not see all of the front wall of the temple as we approach it. It is one of the tem- Temples and Temple Builders 101 STATUES AND HALL OF COLUMNS, TEMPLE OF LUXOR pies that were gradually covered by the crumbling away of the many mud houses built during thousands of years of time. Most of the earth has now been re- moved and we must go down about twenty-five feet to reach the floor of the temple. It hardly seems possible that once upon a time the town of Luxor was on the same level as that of the temple floor. Upon the wall or pylon is a long story that king Ramses had cut in the stone. In it he tells of his wonderful power and boasts of what he was able to do in honor of the god Amon-Ra. He says, ^'I be- seech thee, O father Amon, look upon me here in the midst of countless foes that are strange to me. All nations have united themselves against me and 102 Temples and Temple Builders I am alone and no one is with me." He then tells how he alone defeated twenty-five hundred chariots of war, aided, as he believed, by Amon-Ra. Back of the pylon we find that the earth has been removed, and we see a great avenue of columns. Be- tween the columns are broken granite statues that are several times the height of Azir Girges, who stands by one of them. At the left is a statue of Ramses II, which he him- self had placed there. In course of time the statue, like the temple, was covered with the dust of many cities built one on top of another. The pedestal and one foot of the statue are still nearly covered. On the pedestal is the king's name. Ramses II took great pride in having statues of himself set up all over Egypt, and he had many stories of his life and of his great power written upon temple walls. Far away up the Nile is one of those temples. It is called Abu-Simbel and, unlike the other temples that we have seen, it is cut out of the sandstone clifif that reaches far above the river. On the front are four statues of Ramses carved in the solid rock. If we examine the picture we shall see what a pow- erful man Ramses thought himself to be. In it we see small statues between the legs of Ramses. They do not reach up to the knees of the king. The king intended them to represent his wife and children. There are two men standing near and, by comparing them with the statues, we see how very high and large Temples and Temple Builders 103 TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL AND STATUES OP KAMSES II the statues of the king are, and how important the king appears. On another temple, that of Abydos, Ramses II boasts of what he did to restore the temple built by his father Seti I. The following are the words that he had cut into the temple wall, that they might last for ages: ''Then spoke His Majesty unto them and said: "I have called my father to a new life in gold (that is, as a gold statue) in the first year of my exaltation. I have given orders that his temple be adorned, and I have made sure his posses- sion of the land. ... I built new walls of the temple. I presented before him the man whom I had selected to superin- tend the works. ... I erected pylons in front of it. I have covered his house with sculptures. I have STATUE OF liAMSES 11 Temples and Temple Builders 105 adorned its columns and provided stones for the founda- tions. A finished work was the monument, doubly as glori- ous as at first. It is named after my name and after the name of my father.' " AN OBELISK IN THE MAKING In one of the photographs of the temple of Luxor and in another of Karnak we have seen great shafts of granite covered with picture-writing. The an- cient Egyptians usually placed two such shafts of stone in front of each temple as memorial or trium- phal monuments. They are called obelisks. Some of them are about one hundred feet high. As each is a single block of stone, it is very heavy indeed. We wonder how the old Egyptians could cut their obelisks out of the stone quarry and then move them far away to the temple and set them up on end in such a secure way that they would remain in place for many, many centuries. Today we are going with Azir Girges to visit one of the Egyptian quarries. We shall start from Assuan, situated at the first cataract on the Nile. The donkeys are made ready; their thick saddles are securely strapped around their bodies, and we are off upon the desert highway. This road of sand has been the main highway for many centuries. But what do we see moving toward us? It is a caravan from the South. It has come all the way from the Sudan, near the center of Africa. Its camels are loaded with goods that are to be put on the freight boats and sent to Cairo. 106 Temples and Temple Builders A man from the caravan has started to run toward us. What do you suppose he wants? He cannot speak English, but he makes it very clear, by mo- tions with his hands, that he wants some money be- cause he allowed us to take a photograph of himself and the caravan train. Well, wt shall give him a little fee. It takes several copper coins in Egyptian money to equal one or two cents of American money. Eight freight boats may be seen in another picture. The fresh breeze of the morning fills their lateen sails until they look like the wrings of great birds. A CAUAVAX (IX THE DESERT HIGHWAY On they rush past the little villages that nestle among palm-trees on the river's edge. But we must not forget our visit to the old granite quarries that are a little distance from the road Temples and Temple Builders 107 FREIGHT BOATS UX THE NILE through the desert. Let us turn our donkeys to- ward the left and make our way among the rocks. The ground is covered with chips of granite. Many statues and obelisks were carved here by stone-cutters who lived ages ago. Here is an obelisk that still forms a part of the solid rock. Three sides have been made smooth, but the fourth side has never been separated from its granite bed. If the old Egyptians had finished this obelisk and had made it ready to be moved to some temple, how do you suppose they would have cut the fourth side so that the obelisk could be carried awav? 108 Temples and Temple Builders In all probability they would have made a great many holes side by side the entire length of the obelisk. Then they would have driven sticks of wood into those holes and wet them with water. You know that wood swells when wet and all those little sticks, swelling at the same time, would produce so great a force that the stone would split along its entire length. Finally the masons would have rolled the obelisk over and made the fourth side smooth like those you see in the picture. After all the cutting was done an obelisk was moved in some way to the AN OHELl.SK l.\ TIIK QlAUltY river below the rapids, loaded upon a great raft and floated down the stream to some temple. We do not know how the Egyptians could set the TOP OF AN OBELISK WITH PICTUnE-WRITING 110 Temples and Temple Builders obelisk up in front of the temple, because of its great weight. The ancient Egyptians certainly were a most wonderful people and were able to accomplish great tasks with very simple appliances. After obelisks were put in place, the}^ were cov- ered with picture-writing including the names of the kings and queens who had them erected. All obelisks were pointed at the top. Their points were probably decorated with gold, and that brilliant metal glistening in the sun could be seen from all parts of the city and from a great distance. An obelisk has been brought to Central park in New York City from Egypt. But it will not remain long in good condition in our climate. In Egypt the air is very dry and it seldom rains. Nor are there any frosts. But in New York rain, snow, and frost have chipped ofif small pieces from the obelisk and it will not be long before the carving on it will be destroyed unless it is protected by some special means. We know that the ancient kings sent out skilled workmen in large numbers to do all kinds of work, because of these words written in Egypt nearly two thousand years before the time of Christ: "Now, his majesty commanded that there go forth to this august highland an army with me, men of the choicest of the whole land ; miners, artificers, quarrymen, artists, draughtsmen, stone-cutters, gold workers, treasurers of Pharaoh, of every department and office of the king's house, united behind me. I made the highlands a river and the upper valleys a waterway." A FERRY-BOAT ON THE NILE CHAPTER IX THE WONDERFUL STATUES OF MEMNON It is early morning in Luxor. Our donkeys are being taken across the river Nile. The donkeys are used to the ferry. They are made to get into our large rowboats and stand side by side crosswise be- tween the rowers. On the farther side of the river they are tumbled into shallow water to make their ow^n way to the shore. There they wait with the donkey boys, a boy or man to each donkey, for the coming of the various members of our party in other rowboats. Sometimes, w^hen the breeze is 111 112 The Wonderful Statues of Memnon favorable, the triangular sail is set and our boat glides quickly over the blue water of the Nile to the farther shore. Today a visit is to be made to the statues of Memnon and to the memorial temples at the foot of the western cliflfs. Azir Girges is there with his LANDING ON THE RIVER BANK faithful donkey. The donkey is so small that the feet of the rider nearly touch the ground. The start is made toward the west through fields of waving grain toward the desert about two miles distant. Ours is a large company, for everyone has his donkey boy, and there are with us a dozen or more girls with earthen jars upon their heads. The jars are filled with water from the river. The girls trudge on all day through long miles of desert sand, The Wonderful Statues of Memnon 113 hoping to sell the water to those who may be thirsty. They have learned a few words of English and they hope to win purchasers among the men by such com- pliments as: "Nice man, beautiful man, lovely man, buy water, buy water." During the course of the trip someone asks, "Do you like your donkey?" Thinking that Azir is out of hearing, the reply is, "We keep the donkey be- cause we like the boy." "Thank you, thank you, sir, I tries to be a good boy," Azir is heard to say. A little while afterward Azir asks us to get him a pair of shoes when we go to Assuan. "But how shall we know the size you wear?" "I show you," he says; and, sitting down by the path, for we are in the grain fields again, he pulls a long spear of grass and measures his foot from toe to heel that we may know the size of the shoe re- quired. The shoes are purchased and given to Azir upon the return trip from Assuan. You will remember that the beautiful grain fields through which we are now passing are covered with water during the summer season. It is then that the Nile overflows its banks, and if we could look off over the country during July, August, and Septem- ber, it would very much resemble the next picture. Here we see the water extending far away to the very edge of the desert. The water is muddy, and when it drains away and sinks into the ground it will leave the little coating of mud that not only 114 The Wonderful Statues of Memnon makes the soil rich but adds a little to its depth. It adds but very, very little each year, yet it has con- tinued to add that little during so many long years that the land is much higher than it was in the time of the ancient Egyptians. ifaitnitTniiiiiBiiiiTifii ACmaSr-* STATUES OP MEMXON AT TIME OF OVERFLOW OF NILE Do you see the great seated figures rising out of the water? They are called the Statues of Memnon. At one time there was a temple just back of them. The avenue leading up to the temple lay between the figures. Some great king had them put there when the temple was built. It must have been a very great temple, but it has entirely disappeared and the land is now at a higher level than when the temple was built. These statues are very large indeed. Just think! The Wonderful Statues of Memnon 115 THE GKEAT STATUES OF MEMNON The leg from the foot to the knee measures twenty feet and the middle finger of each hand is four and a half feet long. You may imagine how large they are when you look at Azir Girges standing near them with his donkey. Each one of the statues was made from a single block of stone, which is now much broken. They are sixty-five feet high and each weighs over a thousand tons. If the statues could speak and tell us all they have seen, what a story they would have to relate! They were here when Thebes was a great and glorious city, with very many beautiful temples and palaces. Thousands of men and women, boys and girls, who lived here, must have seen those temples and pal- 116 The PVonderfiil Statues of Memnofi aces often, and wondered at their great size. Beau- tiful processions, too, have crossed the plains in front of them. They have w^itnessed many gorgeous fes- tivals held in honor of kings of ancient Thebes. The great city has vanished. Its people have passed away. But these statues seem as everlasting as the hills. They look out over the world as if pene- trating the future with their steadfast gaze. Few other statues erected by the hands of men seem so filled with life. Side by side they have sat through the ages, but the secrets of time they will never tell. Back of the statues we see the sandstone cliffs of the desert. They seem to be filled with caves, and some of the caves have openings like doors. They are tombs that were made when the people of the ancient city were very wealthy. SANDSTONE CLIFFS OP THK DESEllT The Wonderful Statues of Memnon 117 Everyone who could afford it prepared a strong tomb for his last resting-place. It was thought to be more important than to have a good house while liv- ing. The tombs were built in the mountains of the desert on the west side of the Nile. They were placed in the west because the sun, the giver of life, seemed to go down into the western desert every night. As the sun is born anew every morning, so the Egyp- tians thought that all people would live again. Some of the tombs are wonderfully made. They are cut far into the mountains and have many rooms decorated in color. Many of them when new con- tained furniture, food offerings, and articles for personal use. A short distance from the Statues of Memnon are the ruins of the great temple called the Ramesseum, which was built by the renowned king Ramses II. You can see that temple and a broken statue in the next picture. The temple is sujrounded by sand, for it was built on the edge of the desert away from the annual over- flow of the Nile. There were many rooms in it and a great many stone columns supported its roof, which was also of stone. You remember that Ramses had many great stat- ues made of himself. The largest one was set up in front of the Ramesseum. The statue was of gran- ite cut from the quarry at Assuan where we saw the obelisk the day we rode out over the desert high- way. That was the day we met the caravan of 118 The Wonderful Statues of Memnon camels coming from the Sudan of Central Africa. In the picture we can see part of the great statue. It was probably thrown down and broken at the time of an earthquake. A man stands on the crown of the head. If that was the crown think how large the head and the whole statue must have been. THE TIKUKEX STATfE OF P.AMSE The statue was nearly sixty feet high and weighed two million pounds. And it was of one piece of stone! We wonder that men were able to cut it out of the quarry, move it to the temple, and place it on end. Perhaps a canal was cut from the river to the temple. The statue could then have been car- ried all the way on a great flat boat; but we shall probably never understand how the statue could have been set up on end by a people without machines to aid them. STOBEHOTJSES AND THE DESEET CHAPTER X TEMPLES AND STOREHOUSES QUEEN HATASU'S TEMPLE Just a little way from the Ramesseum we find men uncovering another temple. They are carrying earth away in baskets. They will not use wheelbarrows under any circumstances. They think it is easier and more manly to carry the earth in baskets; besides it has always been carried that way in Egypt. The men have already uncovered parts of stone columns. The columns must have been very high, for they supported the roof that has now disappeared. There is much writing on them, and from it some day we may learn the story of the building of the tem- ple. Very near this temple and that of Ramses are some 119 120 Temples and Storehouses strange rooms built of sun-dried brick. You see that each room has a roof in the form of an arch. The rooms are very large and were probably used as great storehouses. Grain may have been kept in them. They were probably filled in time of plenty and kept filled for future use. It may be that gran- aries of this kind were stored with corn when Joseph was governor of Egypt and provided for the time of famine that he felt sure w^ould come. The following words, written as long ago as Jo- seph's time, were believed to have been spoken by the Egyptian god Ra regarding the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt: "I give thee a great Nile, I endow for thee the two lands with wealth, produce, food and luxuries, giving plentj^ in every place where thou treadest. I give to thee constant har- vests, to feed the Two Lands at all times ; the sheaves thereof are like the sands of the shore, their granaries approach heaven, and their grain heaps are like mountains." We are now going on farther, across the long stretch of sand to the mountains in the distance. But let us look for a moment at a picture of the near-by cliffs. Do you see the sand in a steep hill reaching half-way up the face of the rock? Some of that sand may have drifted over the top but much of it was formed by the crumbling away of the face of the cliff. Little pieces no larger than particles of sand have been breaking off for hundreds of years and thus forming loose sand. Now if any temple had been built close to the Temples and Storehouses 121 DEK-EL-BAHRI, QUEEN HATASU'S TEJIPLE cliff it would have been covered in time, would it not? That is just what did happen at the base of the mountain that we are approaching as we ride across the glistening sand fields. How high the cliffs are! At their very base we see a temple. It was built by order of the great Queen Hatasu. You remember that it was this queen who had the beautiful obelisk erected at Karnak. This temple of Queen Hatasu is called Der-el- Bahri. Long after the time of Hatasu people did nothing to keep the temple in repair. They did not even remove the sand that crumbled off the cliffs or that drifted over them. So in time this temple was covered with sand and was forgotten. 122 Temples and Storehouses The temple remained covered for many long cen- turies. A few years ago it was discovered. Men and boys were immediately set to work with little bas- kets, to remove the sand that had concealed it. While one man beat time that all might work together, the baskets were filled, carried away, and emptied. It PICTUKK-WKITIAU, DEK-KL-BAIIKI took many months to carry all the sand and earth away. When that had been done the floors of the rooms wxre swept clean; and now, when we go to Egypt we can walk in the very rooms that Queen Hatasu walked in more than thirty-five hundred years ago. As in other temples, the walls of the rooms of Der-el-Bahri are covered with picture-writing. The pictures were drawn on the walls and then the art- Temples and Storehouses 123 ists cut away the stone so that the pictures would stand out in relief, just like those in the photograph. The pictures were then covered with color, and, strangely enough, much of that color still remains on the stone walls. In the illustration we see a company of soldiers. They appear to be dressed in the skins of animals. Each carries a spear and a shield. Three of the men have axes in their hands. Probably all have axes, but we cannot see them because they are be- hind the shields. When Egyptian artists wanted to show many men or animals in one picture they drew one just in front of the other. Above the soldiers the story of the picture is told in Egyptian hiero- glyphics. EGYPTIAN BOATS The next illustration is very different from those we have already seen. It is a picture of a boat such as was used in the time of Queen Hatasu. The queen sent boats and many men to the east coast of Africa to get products that were of great value to her kingdom. She sent them to a place called the Land of Punt. If we could read the writing that we see on the walls all around the boats we should learn a large part of the story of that famous expedi- tion. The Land of Punt was on the east coast of Africa. It was a long and perilous voyage thither for the vessels of that time. The queen sent many presents 124 Temples and Storehouses to the rulers of Punt and received in return various kinds of precious woods, incense, ivory, ebony, gold and silver, birds and skins of animals. In the picture-writing numerous boats are repre- sented. On the central boat we see many rowers, but there is a mast in each boat, with a sail to be PICTURES OF BOATS SENT TO LAND OF PUNT used in a favorable wind. Many ropes support the sail. On the prow of each boat we see the pilot giv- ing directions to a sailor. On the stern of the boat at the left is a large oar used for steering. The water is represented by vertical zigzag lines. The water is filled with fish of different kinds. So the Temples and Storehouses 125 wall of the temple is like an open book and from it we may read a story of the reign of Queen Hatasu. "Thej^ loaded the ships very heavily with marvels of the country of Punt; all goodly fragrant woods of God's land, with fresh myrrh trees, with ebony and pure ivory, with gold, with cinnamon wood, with apes, monkeys, dogs, and with skins of the southern panther, with natives and their chil- dren. Never was brought the like of this for any king who has been since the beginning." So dependent were the ancient Egyptians upon their sacred river that they dwelt close to its banks. For that reason much of their traveling for long dis- tances north or south w^as done in boats. Thebes, the capital city of Upper Egypt, was sev- eral hundred miles up the Nile above Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt. The Egyptians used boats a great deal and made many pictures of them on walls of temples and tombs. In the next picture, which has been much injured, we see a small boat with seem- ingly very large people in it. The sail is supported on a slender mast. It is a peculiar sail and of a very interesting pattern. In reality the boat was not so small in proportion to the men. The picture was drawn as it is to attract attention to the hunters. They are spearing a hippopotamus which, like the boat, is made on a small scale. Occasionally, the Egyptians placed small boats in their tombs. We see such a boat pictured on page 127. The people of Egypt were so accustomed to seeing and using boats that they thought the sun-god 126 Temples and Storehouses PICTUIIE OF A BOAT ON A TEMI'LE WALL must travel through the heavens in a golden boat. They thought, too, that the soul after death must travel in a boat to its last resting-place. The soul, in the form of a mummy, is here seen seated under a Temples and Storehouses 127 MODEL BOAT THliEE THOUSAND YEAK.S OLD canopy. It is being taken across the river to the land of the setting sun. The boat in the picture has a mast and a cloth sail. The little images of wood are the sailors of the boat. Some of the sailors are using oars. Others seem to be giving orders. It was a strange idea to put a boat like this in a tomb, but it was the symbol of a beautiful thought of life for the soul beyond the grave. And now, after three thousand years, this boat and other boats have been found and placed in museums for people, among them school children of today, to see and study, that they may understand the life and thought of the ancient dwellers in the Nile valley. CHAPTER XI AxMULETS, ORNAMENTS, AND JEWELRY If we look again at the photograph of the temple of Der-el-Bahri, we shall find that it is close to rock cliffs. We could climb those cliffs by a narrow path, but we should find the path very steep indeed. What we want to do is to go over into the narrow valley beyond the top of the mountain. We are told it was there that the Egyptian kings and queens who lived more than a thousand years before Christ built their tombs. The better way to reach the tombs will be to get on our donkeys again and go round the cliffs by the desert road. So we send for Azir Girges and the other donkey boys and begin our long hot ride to the valley of the tombs of the kings. Do you know that natives follow the traveler al- most everywhere in Egypt, begging him to buy some little trifle which they have found in the sand about temples or tombs? Some of those objects actually were made long ago at the time the temples and tombs were built. Many, however, have been made to deceive the purchaser and are merely modern copies. 128 Amulets f Ornaments, and Jewelry 129 In the picture, men are tempting a would-be pur- chaser to buy their treasures. Some of the orna- ments are carved in the form of a beetle and are called ''scarabs." In ancient Egypt it was a very common thing to use scarabs mounted on finger- rings. They were also worn around the neck. When NATIVES SELLIXC AMULETS a person died and was buried, a scarab was placed over his heart. You know that the ancient Egyptians believed that the body would at some time after death live again. They believed in the resurrection of the body to a new life. Now the real beetle was in the habit of laying a very small tgg^ which it covered with mud. The beetle then rolled the little ball of mud enclosing the 130 Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry SCARAB BELONGING TO SETI I Qgg away from the Nile, so that it would not be de- stroyed. In time the egg hatched, and a new beetle was formed. The Egyptians, perhaps, did not know that an egg was inside the ball of mud. What they did know was, that a new life came out of the mud ball. They thought the coming forth of that new life very won- derful, and they made it a symbol of the new life which they believed all would have at some time after death. Of course, in a new life, the heart must first give strength to the body; so the Egyptians placed one of their scarabs, the symbol of life, over the heart of the dead. The scarabs were made of clay, stone, or ivory. On the flat side is a prayer asking the heart not to bear witness against the soul at the day of judgment. Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry \^ SCARAB OF SETI I ENLARGED The photographs show two views of a large scarab; one is the side view and the other is the lower face. On this face the two names' of the king Seti I are written and repeated many times. Each name is written in an ellipse and it is called '^. 132 Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry cartouche. The peculiar drawings that spell out the two names of Seti I in the first two ellipses are alter- nately repeated in all the other ellipses. Seti I was one of the greatest kings of Egypt. He lived about thirteen hundred years before Christ and was the father of Ramses II, whose statue is show^n on page 104. In the space at the top of the scarab there are two hawks, which are symbols of the sun-god Ra. The small scarabs used on finger-rings often had a name on the flat side and were used as seals. There was a hole from end to end in each scarab so that it might be placed on a w^ire. It could thus be easily mounted in a ring and turned so that the name on the flat side could be used as a seal. It was very necessary for a man to have with him a seal, as it was by means of this that he signed his name. Rings with seals were made of copper, silver, or gold. The ring given by Pharaoh to Joseph very likely was a scarab mounted in gold. Probably Joseph used it as a seal in signing his name as governor of Egypt. The following words help us to understand that the arts and crafts received attention as long ago as when Joseph lived in Egypt: "I taught every craft which had been neglected in this city, in order that my name might be excellent upon every monument which I made." "It is decked with eternal works, and well-made ornaments in stones set in gold, with true gems." The ancient Egyptians were very fond of beau- Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry 133 EGYPTIAN JEWELRY THIRTY-FIVE HUXDRED YEARS OLD tiful ornaments. They wrought them in gold, sil- ver, and precious stones. Countless numbers of ornaments and jewels have been found buried with Egyptian mummies. They include finger-rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets, diadems, and chains. Gold ornaments have been found beau- tifully executed, though made by gold workers who lived long ago. The Egyptians did not use the diamond, ruby, and sapphire, which are so highly prized by our jewel- ers of today, but they did use the emerald, ame- thyst, pearl, turquoise, garnet, and other semi-pre- cious stones. The stones were perfectly cut. Great numbers were used as beads and made into neck- 134 Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry laces. While the finest jewelry belonged to the rich, yet everybody wore ornaments of some kind and nearly every little girl had her necklace and bracelets. The ancient Egyptians were not content, how- ever, to use ornaments merely for the sake of decora- tion. Back of their use was some thought, either spiritual or superstitious. They believed that mis- fortunes or evils could be overcome by wearing cer- tain objects; just as today some people think that wearing amber beads will prevent sore throat or that wearing a hare's foot on the person will bring good luck. The Egyptians did not believe that when a man died he would leave his earthly possessions behind him. They felt that he would have need of them in another world. Therefore, the ornaments of his per- son were carefully placed on his body after death. Especially those amulets were used which brought him into favor with his gods or warded ofif evils that he might meet on his long journey in the under- world. The lotus was the most popular form of ornament and is found in every conceivable design. To the Egyptians it was the symbol of resurrection and was therefore most sacred to them. Scarabs, which represented the beetle, were very numerous. The beetle was, like the lotus, a symbol of resurrection. Both the lotus and the scarab are seen in the picture of ancient Egyptian jewelry. The scarabs were made of clay, stone, or gold and Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry 135 EGYPTIAN AMULETS were used in great numbers for finger-rings, brace- lets, earrings, and pendants. When the scarab or any other object is worn upon the body as a symbol of good luck or to avert the evil eye, it is called an amulet. The illustrations show several forms of amulets. One of them, shaped somewhat like a small column with bars across it, is the symbol of faithfulness. It is called a nilometer. The bars represent the level of the Nile at its annual overflow. As the Nile was faithful in watering the land almost every year through centuries of time, so the wearer of the nil- ometer was supposed to be faithful in the afifairs of life. 136 Amulets, Ornaments, and Jewelry Many amulets made of semi-precious stones were shaped like birds and animals, or like the heart, or the images of the gods. They were worn upon the body with the belief that they would bring good luck, or ward off sickness or evil. The Uta, or sacred eye, was worn upon the wrist or the arm, as a protection against the bite of serpents and against words spoken in anger or envy. That anger was to be carefully avoided and another's feelings considered, is illus- trated by these ancient teachings: "Beware of giving pain by the words of thy mouth and make not thyself to be feared." "Do not eat bread In the presence of one who stands and waits without putting forth thy hand toward the loaf for im. THE KOAD TO THE TUiiiis THE CLIFFS AXD TOMBS CHAPTER XII THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS SACRED AVALL-PAINTINGS Those people just ahead of us also are going to the tombs of the kings. Oh, how hot it is! The sun shines brightly from morning till night. It burns almost like fire. There is not a blade of grass, not a shrub, nothing that is green and has life. Rocks and sand glisten and glimmer so in the sun- light that we are almost blinded. Azir Girges and the other donkey boys run barefooted behind the donkeys. They try to hurry the poor animals onward through the intense heat. 137 138 The Tombs of the Kings AKKIVAL AT THE TOMBS At last we reach the head of the valley. A large party of tourists have arrived before us. They are standing close to the opening of a tomb. There seem to be tombs everywhere. But it is noon. We must have luncheon. We are very tired and must get out of the terrible heat of the sun. We have brought our luncheon with us, so we walk a little way into a tomb and sit down on the floor to eat and rest. Do you see the children at the door of the tomb? These tombs are cut in the solid rock. Some of them extend into the rock for a distance of several hun- dred feet. Their passageways slant downward and in some of them are several flights of stairs. The Tombs of the Kings 139 EUYI'TIAN GIKLS AT K.N'TIJANCK TU ANCIKNT ToMB Some tombs have rooms on each side of the pas- sageway. At the very end of the passageway is the room in which the king or queen was once buried in 140 The Tombs of the Kings TOMB OF KING SETI I COVERED WITH WALL PAIXTIXGS a great stone coffin. After burial, the tombs were closed tightly with blocks of stone and everything possible was done to hide them. The kings did not The Tombs of the Kings 141 wish their tombs broken into, for fear that their royal bodies might be destroyed by robbers. A picture has been taken by flashlight of the tomb of King Seti I. He was the father of the proud King Ramses II, who had so many large statues of himself made during his lifetime. If you should go to Egypt you would find that some of the tombs have been lighted by electricity, so that visitors may study the interesting decorations on their walls without the use of torches, which would blacken the pictures. You would find the walls covered with very strange drawings in rows, one above another. The pictures are colored. They represent the thought of the ancient Egyptians regarding the judgment of the soul and the many trials it must undergo to become pure and holy. They are very sacred paintings. Hymns of praise also are written upon the walls, for it was believed that after many trials the soul would be rewarded with eternal life. The tomb, therefore, was not in the belief of the Egyptians a final resting-place. In time the soul would become a pure spirit and take upon itself a new and sacred life. It would unite with the god of light and with those who had gone before. While they were living, the Egyptians took good care to provide themselves with tombs. When they died, their bodies were first very carefully em- balmed and wrapt in cloth, that they might be in 142 The Tombs of the Kings perfect condition for the soul to re-enter at some time in the far future. The bodies, which we call mum- mies, were then placed in elaborate wooden coffins brilliantly decorated in color. When we visit muse- ums we often see coffins that have been taken from Egyptian tombs and placed in the museums for us to study. They are called mummy-cases. They are covered with pictures and with picture-writing tell- ing stories similar to those upon the walls of the tomb. HOW EGYPTIAN CHILDREN LEARNED TO DRAW Children in school today have lessons in draw- ing; do you know that children in Egypt three and four thousand years ago also had lessons in drawing? There were teachers who made drawings for their pupils. The pupils copied them over and over again until they could make designs with accu- racy and care. They began to draw on slabs of limestone and on drawing-boards that had been covered with red or white stucco. A reed was steeped in w^ater until the fibres on one end separated, making a very good brush for painting. The young art students studied from life also, and in time were able to make very good drawings and paintings from animals and birds. A great many such drawings and paintings by artists have been found on the walls of tombs and temples and on mummy-cases and papyrus. The Tombs of the Kings 143 Many palettes have been found. They are of wood and are oblong in shape. There is a groove in the palette in which to lay brushes, and hollow places for colors. Black, red, yellow, and blue were the colors most used. The pupil had a mortar and pes- tle for grinding his colors, and a cup of water in AN UNFIXISHED DKAWING Ol'" A liAJI which to dip and wash his brush, just as children have today; only now colors come nicely ground and prepared. The pupil sat cross-legged before his copy, with the palette in his left hand. The drawing was first made with black lines and corrected by the teacher in red. In time some of the children learned to draw animals, birds, flowers, and designs, with great accuracy and beauty. 144 The Tombs of the Kings In the picture of the ram we see how the Egyptian artist worked. He made strong drawings in outline just as we do now. You can even see where he cor- rected his drawings by a second line. After the dec- oration had been sketched upon the surface of the stone, the entire design was colored. All the dark and some of the light parts in the picture of a room at the end of a tomb show where the color was ap- plied. This is another illustration of an offering being made. All the men are making offerings. The altar is loaded with food, and above it are clusters of the sacred lotus. Some of the men hold lotus flowers in their hands. It seems strange that the Egyptians, who could draw exceedingly well, should have drawn men stand- ing in very unnatural positions. They drew the face from the side, as the outline was more easily made than the full front view. But they drew the shoul- ders with full front view so as to show both shoulders and both arms. The body was drawn as if turned part way round. The legs were drawn as seen from the side, as was the face. Thus the figures of men appear very much twisted. The Egyptians drew men in action, however, in a very different way, much as we do now. Men are shown doing al] kinds of work on the farm, and the different animals are exceedingly well drawn. Men are hunting and fishing. There are also soldiers, sailors, and craftsmen represented. The Egyptians were able to make all of their The Tombs of the Kings 145 I'AIXTIXC; (IX WALL Ol" AX AX( IKNT Tn.Mli drawings with wonderful skill. Of course, young people had to take lessons of older artists who had learned how to make the designs that cover the walls of the temples and tombs, that in time they might do similar work. 146 The Tombs of the Kings The Egyptians did not use light and shade. Every- thing was first drawn in line, and then the painters put on broad flat washes of color. They did not try to imitate every detail of natural objects. Water is always shown by a perfectly flat tint of blue, which is usually covered with zigzag lines in black. Men are painted reddish brown; and women, pale yellow. In all their designs the Egyptians used very bril- liant colors. They knew well how to use pure col- ors side by side so as to produce a beautiful effect. We may see Egyptian color designs in many of our museums. The Egyptians used very bright colors in dark rooms, as in such places strong color is needed to please the eye. They used bright colors on walls ex- posed to strong light also, because it takes much color in strong sunlight to satisfy the eye. A.V AlH'CIK^X KGYPTIAN DUA\VI>;G The Tombs of the Kings 147 These words of an ancient writing help us to un- derstand how the Egyptians loved color: "The sun which was from the beginning, rose like a hawk from the midst of its lotus bud. When the doors of its leaves open in sapphire-colored brilliants it has divided the night from the day." AX ANCIENT EGYPTIAN COUCH EGYPTIAX FURNITURE The houses and palaces occupied by the Egyptians of long ago have crumbled into dust. Almost the only things that remain to tell us what was in those homes have been found in the Egyptian tombs. There are many rooms in most of the tombs and their decorations are in bright colors. They often contained furniture such as we use today and some of it was very beautiful in design and execution. We find in the tombs of Egypt such familiar things as beds, tables, chairs, couches, trunks, embroidery 148 The Tombs of the Kings AA AiSCIENT EUirXIAN CHAIU Stands, vases, mirrors, fans with handles of gold, and even chariots with whips and harness. There are cushions also for couches and for chairs. In the tomb of one of the queens was recently found an embroidery stand painted blue, with designs traced in gilt and inlaid with ivory. All the objects found are very beautiful in shape and design. Indeed, some of the chairs and couches are so perfect that they may well serve as models for us to copy and use in our own homes today. All the furniture is beautifully made. The joints The Tombs of the Kings 149 AX ANCIENT EGYPTIAN EMr.TtOiniUlY STANU are fastened with wooden pegs. Nails were not in- vented until modern times. Beds and chair seats were covered with braided material. Chair seats also were covered with leather. The beds are in the form of couches. Their w^ooden frames are grace- fully curved and their legs and head pieces delicately carved and gilded. All the designs are religious in character. ISO The Tofnbs of the Kings It must be remembered that these ancient people were very religious. Their religion was a part of their everyday life. They wove designs in their fab- rics telling the story of the gods whom they wor- shiped. The carved designs on their furniture also related to their religious beliefs. We know that the women of the court, including the queen, wove beau- tiful patterns and embroidered with colored threads the fine textiles used to decorate the palaces. Those textiles were rich in color and rare in quality. As there was no machinery in those days all the cloth was woven on looms by hand and embroidered by hand. The beautiful rugs, carpets, and hangings thus made were used to decorate the dwellings. The Egyptians believed that the soul lived in the tomb as really as in life. They therefore put into the tomb chamber objects that were necessary to the liv- ing person. Thus their tombs are found to contain the chairs, beds, and other objects that belonged to them when living. Many of the tombs have been opened and their beautiful contents are found in good condition because of the dry atmosphere of the desert. They are most interesting to study, and help us to imagine how an Egyptian house may have looked when furnished. We may be surprised to learn that the ancient Egyptians had quite as beau- tiful and comfortable furniture in their homes as we have today. a?HE SUEZ CANAL CHAPTER XIII THE CITY OF CAIRO STREET SCENES, SHOPS, AND CR^^FTSMEN There are not many large towns in Egypt. We have seen how most of its people live in mud vil- lages. But there are, of course, some large cities. The three largest are at the corners of the great Delta. You know that the valley of Egypt is like the let- ter Y, or like a flower with a very long stem, the stem being the river Nile with the narrow strip of rich soil on each side. The upper part of the Y is the Delta where the Nile spreads out into many channels running to the sea. At the left upper corner is the city of Alexandria, 151 152 The City of Cairo situated upon the Mediterranean sea. At the right upper corner is the city of Port Said, which is also on the Mediterranean just where the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean sea with the Hed sea. That is the place where many great ships stop be- fore entering the canal. The canal is nearly one hundred miles long. Ships passing through the canal have to go very slowly and when two ships meet, the one that is sig- naled first must stop and must wait for the other to go by. If the ships should pass each other when both are in motion they would make such big waves that the sides of the canal would in time be washed away. In the picture we see one of the ships, also the rail- road that runs down to another great city at the other angle of the Delta. That other city is called Cairo. It is the largest city in Egypt. Over half a million of people live in Cairo. But those people are not of one race. They dififer greatly one from another in appearance. Their costumes are not alike; their language is not the same. They do not work in the same way. We find in the streets of the city Turks, Arabs, Moors, Algerians, Jews, Negroes, Europeans, and native Egyptians. The native Egyptians, by the way, are called fellaheen. They are the people that we find in the mud villages throughout Egypt. The eastern part of the town is much the oldest. Its streets are poorly paved and too narrow for a carriage. Men, women, children, and animals crowd one an- The City of Cairo 153 A STREET IN CAIRO Other in those very narrow streets. The noisy cries of venders and shopkeepers, and the jingling coins of the money-changers, together with the braying of donkeys, the moaning of camels, and the barking of dogs give the streets an air of wild confusion, It is 154 The City of Cairo with difficulty that we make our way through the crowd. But these streets of Cairo we find full of interest. We might spend a great many days in them and never tire of their strange and amusing scenes. Great numbers of little shops are filled with all sorts of ob- jects arranged to attract the visitor. There are beau- tiful rugs and prayer carpets, shining brass and cop- per vessels, and gold, silver, and tinsel ornaments heaped about so as to make a great display of color. The keeper of a little shop sits cross-legged upon a rug-covered platform. He can reach most of his goods without changing his seat. The makers of jewelry and other small wares work in their little shops seated on the platform close to the pushing, jostling crowd. They do not seem dis- turbed by the many passers-by or fear that any of their wares, though often of gold and silver, will be stolen from them. In some of the narrow lanes there is the ring of metal in one loud continuous clang, as men beat sheets of copper and brass into all sorts of pleasing shapes for use in the household. On market days, which are Mondays and Thursdays, it is almost im- possible for us to walk through the narrow streets. But it is worth the effort that is required to do so, because there are many most amusing scenes on every hand. Peddlers elbow their way through the crowd, shouting loudly their wares, which are either carried on small tables or are hung about their necks. The City of Cairo 155 A SUOP IN CAIKO Auctioneers, often with the goods that they have to sell upon their heads, hurry up and down the street, shouting the offer of the last bidder. Coffee-sellers and water-carriers are everywhere. Everybody seems 156 The City of Cairo to be talking or shouting, and elbowing his way on this side or on that, without seemingly following any special direction. Whatever is made and sold by these people is well made, yet their work is done with very simple and old-fashioned tools. In America we have lathes on which to turn chair-legs, balusters, and objects of similar shape and use, but in the old streets of Cairo we find men seated on the ground, turning the piece of wood to be used, first one way and then the other, by using a bow and string. The stick of wood is fastened at both ends. The string passes around the wood and is drawn tight to the bow. Then, by pushing the bow forward and backward, the piece of wood is turned around quite rapidly. A chisel is held firmly against the wood, cutting it into the shape of the model or pattern de- sired. Sometimes the workman sits on the ground and uses the toes of one foot to help guide the chisel. It is surprising what a perfect copy of a model he can make with his simple tools. Above the shops are the balconies and latticed win- dows of the houses. The latticed windows are made in interesting patterns. The women of the house- hold can look out through the open spaces but peo- ple of the street cannot look in. The Mohammedan women do not permit their faces to be seen by the stranger. When they appear upon the street they wear a peculiar veil like that in the picture. A device that fits the nose holds the The City of Cairo 157 A MOHAMMEDAN WOMAN veil in place. It cannot be very comfortable, but of course as they wear it so much, the Egyptian women soon get used to it. For a woman to wear a veil thus fastened is but one of the strange customs of the East. MOHAMMEDAN SCHOOLS Of course wx must visit one of the Mohammedan schools. There are many schools in Cairo and in the other cities along the north coast of Africa. The pupils sit on the floor with their teacher either in their midst or on a raised platform before them. The teacher sometimes sits on a beautiful rug. On the blackboard in the picture and on page 160 we see 158 The City of Cairo A MOIIASIMEUAN SCHOOL the peculiar but very beautiful writing of the Mo- hammedans. It must be very difficult to learn the meaning of all its little marks and complex forms. One of the boys has made a drawing on his slate. He is turning it so that we can see his design. Each of the boys wears a cap called a fez. Those caps are worn only by the Turkish Mohammedans. Notice that the boys have taken ofi their shoes so as not to soil the rug. Mohammedans are never seen in the street, shop, or mosque with the head uncovered, and they always remove their shoes upon entering a house or mosque. In the other photograph we see a great number of students. They are in a university. The building The City of Cairo 159 STUDENTS IN THE CAIRO UNIVERSITY has been used as a school for one thousand years. There are about eight thousand students who attend this university. They do not pay fees. The teach- ers receive no salaries. They must support them- selves by private teaching and by copying books. The students sit in a circle on the floor around the teacher. There are a great many teachers and as many circles. Often the students study aloud, at the same time swaying their bodies backward and forward. When many classes are studying aloud there is great noise and seeming confusion. The students must learn to repeat long chapters in the Koran, which is the Mohammedan Bible. Their studies relate largely to their Bible and to law, lan- guage, and poetry. The page from a small Mo- hammedan book is very beautifully written N . '^s* ® Sita'bji'^^5 » Op^- /vj^i^ •>*-^ty-' ® -(j^-^ ^L^ ^-^^ ^0u^