EGYPT 479 EOYPT ley is the absence of woods and forests. The Pharaohs got their timber chiefly from Lebanon, and modern Egypt is supplied from the forests of Asia Minor. Of flowers, the celebrated lotos, or water-lily, has supplied many ideas to Egyptian architects. The lack of jungle or cover of any sort accounts for the poverty of the Egyptian fauna ; the crocodile, like the hippopotamus, is Iv at- ing a retreat to the tropics. The ordi- nary beasts of burden are the ass and camel. Serpents are numerous, and among them the dreaded cobra and the cerastes. The Nile is full of fish, of rather poor flavor, Egypt is an agri- cultural country; in some parts, by the aid of regulated artificial irrigation, the rich alluvial deposit will bear three crops in the year. Wheat is the chief cereal; STREET IN CAIRO, EGYPT barley, maize, durra, beans, lentils, and clover are also largely grown with very little trouble. The extensive cultui-e of papyrus, which anciently supplied ma- terial for paper, has in modern times been superseded by that of sugar cane, cotton, indigo, and tobacco. Religion. — The two main principles on which the religion of Egypt was based appear to have been the existence of an Omnipotent Being, whose various attri- butes being deified, formed a series of divinities; and the deification of the sun and moon. Each ^oup of divinities formed a triad composed of a chief male deity, with a wife or sister and a son, as Osiris, Isis, and Horus, or Amun, Maut, and Khonso. Among the other gods of the Egyptian Pantheon are Ra, the sun, usually represented as a hawk-headed man; Mentu and Atmu are merely two phases of Ra, the rising and setting sun. The worship of the bull Apis is connect- ed with Osiris. Serapis is the defunct Apis, who has become Osiris. Seth or Set represents the power of evil. Am- mon (Egyptian Amen), ori^nally a lo- cal god, owed his importance to the greatness of his city, Thebes. Thoth was the chief moon-god, and is generally represented as ibis-headed. Anubis, the jackal-headed, belonged to the family of Osiris, and presided over mummifica- tion. Besides these deities, the Egypti- ans worshiped beasts, reptiles, and even vegetables, probably as symbols. Ancient Civilization. — When the Egyptians first appeared in history, they were already possessed of a mar- velously advanced civilization, which presupposes thousands of years of devel- opment, even before the remote period, ^ nearly 4000 B. C, when the pyramid builders reigned. In the sciences, as early as the 4th dynasty the notation of time, and the decimal system of num- bers, weights, and measures, and the di- vision of the year were already known, while the form of the buildings implies a knowledge of geometry and its sister sciences. They had also a knowledge of astronomy and chemistry. The art of literary composition existed as early as the 4th dynasty. The language of the period, though concise and obscure, was, nevertheless, fixed. Architecture had attained great refinement. The trans- port of enormous blocks of stone testi- fies to an early development of engineer- ing skill. The statues of the 4th dynasty, carved nearly 4,000 years B. C, were generally conventional, owing to their employment in architecture; but in portraiture great perfection was at- tained. Painting appeared at the same age chiefly in tempera or whitewashed surfaces, though fresco was occasionally used. In the art of music, the harp and flute appear in use as early as the 4th, and heptachord and pentachord lyres as early as the 12th dynasty; besides which drums, tambourines, flutes, cym- bals, trumpets, and guitars are seen in the 18th, and the natural instrument, the jingling sistrum, in the 4th. Poetry was at all times in use. The civil government was adminis- tered by the three highest professions; the priests were distingruished by their
