44 Outlines of European History Books of science The Nile voyage — arrival at Thebes happiness for all. We notice here a contrast with the Pyramid Age. With the in-coming of the pyramid-builders we saw a tremendous growth in power, in building, and in art ; but the Feudal Age reveals progress in a higher realm, that of conduct and character (see description under Fig. 25). Very few rolls were needed to contain the science of this time. The largest and the most valuable roll of all contains what they had learned about medicine and the organs of the human body. This oldest medical book when unrolled is about sixty-six feet long and has recipes for all sorts of ailments. Some of them call for remedies, like castor oil, which are still in common use ; many represent the ailment as due to demons, which were long believed to be the cause of disease. Other rolls contain the simpler rules of arithmetic, geometry, and elementary algebra. Even observations of the heavenly bodies with crude instruments were made ; but these records, like those in geography, have been lost. Section 9. The Empire As we continue our Nile journey southward, the course of the river swings sharply eastward toward the Red Sea, and we round a great bend in the stream (see map, p. 56). All at once, as we look toward the east bank through the thick palm groves, we catch glimpses of vast masses of stone masonry and lines of tall columns. They are the ruins of the once great city of Thebes. Our voyage up the river has now carried us through many cen- turies. The monuments along its banks have told us the story of two of the three periods ^ into which the career of this great people of the Nile falls. At Thebes we reach the Empire, the third of those periods. A walk around the temple of Karnak ^ here is as instructive for this period as we have found the Gizeh cemetery to be for 1 These three ages are (i) Pyramid Age, about 3000 to 2500 b.c. (section 7) ; (2) Feudal Age, flourishing 2000 B.C. (section 8) ; (3) The Empire, about 1580 to 1 1 50 B.C. (section 9). 2 Karnak is a tiny modern village by the greatest temple at Thebes.
