m the total destruction which had seemed so
near.

A proud man was Menna when he drove the royal chariot up to the bridge
of Zaru. As the troops passed the frontier canal the road was lined on
either side with crowds of nobles, priests, and scribes, strewing
flowers in the way, and bowing before the King. And after the Pharaoh
himself, whose bravery had saved the day, there was no one so honoured
as the young squire who had stood so manfully by his master in the hour
of danger.

CHAPTER VI

CHILD-LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

How did the boys and girls live in this quaint old land so many hundreds
of years ago? How were they dressed, what sort of games did they play
at, what sort of lessons did they learn, and what kind of school did
they go to? If you could have lived in Egypt in those far-off days, you
would have found many differences between your life of to-day and the
life that the Egyptian children led; but you would also have found that
there were very many things much the same then as they are now. Boys and
girls were boys and girls three thousand years ago, just as they are
now; and you would find that they did very much the same things, and
even played very much the same games as you do to-day.

When you read in your fairy-stories about a little boy or girl, you
often hear that they had fairy godmothers who came to their cradles, and
gave them gifts, and foretold what was going to happen to the little
babies in after years. Well, when little Tahuti or little Sen-senb was
born in Thebes fifteen hundred years before Christ, there were fairy
godmothers too, who presided over the great event; and there were others
called the Hathors, who foretold all that was going to happen to the
little boy or girl as the years went on. The baby was kept a baby much
longer in those days than our little ones are kept. The happy mother
nursed the little thing carefully for three years at all events,
carrying it about with her wherever she went, either on her shoulder, or
astride upon her hip.

If baby took ill, and the doctor was called in, the medicines that were
given were not in the least like the sugar-coated pills and capsules
that make medicine-taking easy nowadays. The Egyptian doctor did not
know a very great deal about medicine and sickness, but he made up for
his ignorance by the nastiness of the doses which he gave to his
patients. I don't think you would like to take pills made up of the
moisture scraped from