nointeth
himself with perfumes.
"X.--Establisher of true riches, desire of men,--here are seductive
words in order that thou mayest reply;--if thou dost answer mankind
by waves of the heavenly Ocean,--Napri, the grain-god, presents his
offering,--all the gods adore (thee),--the birds no longer descend upon
the hills;--though that which thy hand formeth were of gold--or in the
shape of a brick of silver,--it is not lapis-lazuli that we eat,--but
wheat is of more worth than precious stones.
"XI.--They have begun to sing unto thee upon the harp,--they sing
unto thee keeping time with their hands,--and the generations of thy
children rejoice in thee, and they have filled thee with salutations of
praise;--for it is the god of Riches who adorneth the earth,--who maketh
barks to prosper in the sight of man--who rejoiceth the heart of women
with child--who loveth the increase of the flocks.
"XII.--When thou art risen in the city of the Prince,--then is the rich
man filled--the small man (the poor) disdaineth the lotus,--all is solid
and of good quality,--all herbage is for his children.--Doth he forget
to give food?--prosperity forsaketh the dwellings,--and earth falleth
into a wasting sickness."
[Illustration: 055.jpg Libyan Mountains]
The word Nile is of uncertain origin. We have it from the Greeks,
and they took it from a people foreign to Egypt, either from the
Phoenicians, the Khiti, the Libyans, or from people of Asia Minor. When
the Egyptians themselves did not care to treat their river as the god
Hapi, they called it the sea, or the great river. They had twenty terms
or more by which to designate the different phases which it assumed
according to the seasons, but they would not have understood what was
meant had one spoken to them of the Nile. The name Egypt also is part
of the Hellenic tradition; perhaps it was taken from the temple-name of
Memphis, Haikuphtah, which barbarian coast tribes of the Mediterranean
must long have had ringing in their ears as that of the most important
and wealthiest town to be found upon the shores of their sea. The
Egyptians called themselves Bomitu, Botu, and their country Qimit, the
black land. Whence came they? How far off in time are we to carry back
the date of their arrival? The oldest monuments hitherto known scarcely
transport us further than six thousand years, yet they are of an art so
fine, so well determined in its main outlines, and reveal so ingeniously
combined a
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