History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 | Page 9

or Barbarians is not surprising; we find even Berossos
describing one of the early dynasties of Babylonia as "Median" where Manda, and not
Madâ, must plainly be meant.
These and similar problems, however, will doubtless be cleared up by the progress of
excavation and research. Perhaps M. de Morgan's excavations at Susa may throw some
light on them, but it is to the work of the German expedition, which has recently begun
the systematic exploration of the site of Babylon, that we must chiefly look for help. The
Babylon of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar rose on the ruins of Nineveh, and the story
of downfall of the Assyrian empire must still be lying buried under its mounds.
A. H. SAYCE.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
In completing the translation of this great work, I have to thank Professor Maspero for
kindly permitting me to appeal to him on various questions which arose while preparing
the translation. His patience and courtesy have alike been unfailing in every matter
submitted for his decision.
I am indebted to Miss Bradbury for kindly supplying, in the midst of much other literary
work for the Egypt Exploration Fund, the translation of the chapter on the gods, and also
of the earlier parts of some of the first chapters. She has, moreover, helped me in my own

share of the work with many suggestions and hints, which her intimate connection with
the late Miss Amelia B. Edwards fully qualified her to give.
As in the original there is a lack of uniformity in the transcription and accentuation of
Arabic names, I have ventured to alter them in several cases to the form most familiar to
English readers.
The spelling of the ancient Egyptian words has, at Professor Maspero's request, been
retained throughout, with the exception that the French ou has been invariably
represented by û, e.g. Khnoumou by Khnûmû.
By an act of international courtesy, the director of the Imprimerie Nationale has allowed
the beautifully cut hieroglyphic and cuneiform type used in the original to be employed in
the English edition, and I take advantage of this opportunity to express to him our thanks
and appreciation of his graceful act.
M. L. McClure.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
--THE NILE AND EGYPT The River and its Influence upon the Formation of the
Country--The Oldest Inhabitants of the Valley and its First Political Organization
CHAPTER II.
--THE GODS OF EGYPT Their Number and their Nature--The Feudal Gods, Living and
Dead--The Triads--Temples and Priests--The Cosmogonies of the Delta--The Enneads of
Heliopolis and of Hermopolis
CHAPTER III.
--THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT The Divine Dynasties: Râ, Shû, Osiris, Sit,
Horus-Thot, and the Invention of Sciences and Writing-Menes, and the Three First
Human Dynasties
[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE ONE]
[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE TWO]
CHAPTER I.
--THE NILE AND EGYPT
THE RIVER AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF

THE COUNTRY--THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE LAND--THE FIRST
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE VALLEY.
The Delta: its gradual formation, its structure, its canals--The valley of Egypt--The two
arms of the river--The Eastern Nile--The appearance of its hanks--The hills--The gorge of
Gehel Silsileh--The cataracts: the falls of Aswan--Nubia--The rapids of Wady
Halfah--The Takazze--The Blue Nile and the White Nile.
The sources of the Nile--The Egyptian cosmography--The four pillars and the four
upholding mountains--The celestial Nile the source of the terrestial Nile--the Southern
Sea and the islands of Spirits--The tears of Isis--The rise of the Nile--The Green Nile and
the Bed Nile--The opening of the dykes---The fall of the Nile--The river at its lowest ebb.
The alluvial deposits and the effects of the inundation upon the soil of Egypt--Paucity of
the flora: aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus; the sycamore and the date-palm, the
acacias, the dôm-palms--The fauna: the domestic and wild animals; serpents, the urstus;
the hippopotamus and the crocodile; birds; fish, the fahaka.
The Nile god: his form and its varieties--The goddess Mirit--The supposed sources of the
Nile at Elephantine--The festivals of Gebel Silsileh-Hymn to the Nile from papyri m the
British Museum.
The names of the Nile and Egypt: Bomitu and Qimit--Antiquity of the
Egyptianpeople--Their first horizon--The hypothesis of their Asiatic origin--The
probability of their African origin--The language and its Semitic affinities--The race and
its principal types.
The primitive civilization of Egypt--Its survival into historic times--The women of
Amon--Marriage--Rights of women and
children--Houses--Furniture--Dress--Jewels--Wooden and metal arms--Primitive
life-Fishing and hunting--The lasso and "bolas"--The domestication of animals--Plants
used for food--The lotus--Cereals--The hoe and the plough.
The conquest of the valley--Dykes--Basins--Irrigation--The princes--The nomes--The first
local principalities--Late organization of the Delta--Character of its
inhabitants--Gradual division of the principalities and changes of then areas--The god of
the city.
[Illustration: 003.jpg CHAPTER ONE]

THE NILE AND EGYPT
The river and its influence upon the formation of the country--The oldest inhabitants of
the valley and its first political organization.
* The same