Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt

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at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt, by James Baikie

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Title: Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt
Author: James Baikie
Illustrator: Constance Baikie
Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22799]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
ANCIENT EGYPT
[Illustration: PLATE 1. AN EGYPTIAN GALLEY.]

PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
ANCIENT EGYPT
BY REV. JAMES BAIKIE, F.R.A.S.
AUTHOR OF "PEEPS AT THE HEAVENS," "THE STORY OF THE PHARAOHS," "THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE," ETC.
WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, THOSE IN COLOUR BEING BY CONSTANCE N. BAIKIE
A. & C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 & 6, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1916
* * * * *
First published October 1912 Reprinted January and April 1916
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO
INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. Macmillan Building, BOMBAY 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
Printed in Great Britain.
* * * * *

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A LAND OF OLD RENOWN 1 II. A DAY IN THEBES 6 III. A DAY IN THEBES (continued) 11 IV. PHARAOH AT HOME 17 V. THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER 24 VI. CHILD-LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT 33 VII. SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO 41 VIII. SOME FAIRY-TALES OF LONG AGO (continued) 47 IX. EXPLORING THE SOUDAN 54 X. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 59 XI. EGYPTIAN BOOKS 66 XII. TEMPLES AND TOMBS 72 XIII. AN EGYPTIAN'S HEAVEN 82
* * * * *

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
*1. AN EGYPTIAN GALLEY, 1500 B.C. Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
2. THE GODDESS ISIS DANDLING THE KING 9
3. THE GREAT GATE OF THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR, WITH OBELISK 16
*4. RAMSES II. IN HIS WAR-CHARIOT--SARDINIAN GUARDSMEN ON FOOT 25
*5. ZAZAMANKH AND THE LOST CORONET 32
6. GRANITE STATUE OF RAMSES II. 35
7. NAVE OF THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK 38
*8. "AND THE GOOSE STOOD UP AND CACKLED" 41
*9. AN EGYPTIAN COUNTRY HOUSE 48
10. STATUES OF KING AMENHOTEP III. 51
11. THE SPHINX AND THE SECOND PYRAMID 54
*12. A DESERT POSTMAN 57
*13. THE BARK OF THE MOON, GUARDED BY THE DIVINE EYES 64
14. GATEWAY OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFU 73
15. WALL-PICTURES IN A THEBAN TOMB 80
*16. PHARAOH ON HIS THRONE 20
Sketch-Map of Ancient Egypt on page viii
* These eight illustrations are in colour; the others are in black and white.
* * * * *

[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT.]
ANCIENT EGYPT
CHAPTER I
"A LAND OF OLD RENOWN"
If we were asked to name the most interesting country in the world, I suppose that most people would say Palestine--not because there is anything so very wonderful in the land itself, but because of all the great things that have happened there, and above all because of its having been the home of our Lord. But after Palestine, I think that Egypt would come next. For one thing, it is linked very closely to Palestine by all those beautiful stories of the Old Testament, which tell us of Joseph, the slave-boy who became Viceroy of Egypt; of Moses, the Hebrew child who became a Prince of Pharaoh's household; and of the wonderful exodus of the Children of Israel.
But besides that, it is a land which has a most strange and wonderful story of its own. No other country has so long a history of great Kings, and wise men, and brave soldiers; and in no other country can you see anything to compare with the great buildings, some of them most beautiful, all of them most wonderful, of which Egypt has so many. We have some old and interesting buildings in this country, and people go far to see cathedrals and castles that are perhaps five or six hundred years old, or even more; but in Egypt, buildings of that age are looked upon as almost new, and nobody pays very much attention to them. For the great temples and tombs of Egypt were, many of them, hundreds of years old before the story of our Bible, properly speaking, begins.
The Pyramids, for instance, those huge piles that are still the wonder of the world, were far older than any building now standing in Europe, before Joseph was sold to be a slave in Potiphar's house. Hundreds upon hundreds of years before anyone had ever heard of the Greeks and the Romans, there were great Kings reigning in Egypt, sending out their armies to conquer Syria and the Soudan, and their ships to explore the unknown southern seas, and wise men were writing books which we