s to be
regarded in the same light as any scientific inference which is made at
the present time to give a specific application of some general theory
considered to be well founded. The Proto-Egyptians clearly believed in
the validity of the general biological theory of the life-giving
properties of water. Many facts, no doubt quite convincing to them,
testified to the soundness of their theory. They accepted the principle
with the same confidence that modern people have adopted Newton's Law of
Gravitation, and Darwin's theory of the Origin of Species, and applied
it to explain many phenomena or to justify certain procedures, which in
the light of fuller knowledge seem to modern people puerile and
ludicrous. But the early people obviously took these procedures
seriously and regarded their actions as rational. The fact that their
early biological theory was inadequate ought not to mislead modern
scholars and encourage them to fall into the error of supposing that the
ritual of libations was not based upon a serious inference. Modern
scientists do not accept the whole of Darwin's teaching, or possibly
even Newton's "Law," but this does not mean that in the past innumerable
inferences have been honestly and confidently made in specific
application of these general principles.

It is important, then, that I should examine more closely the
Proto-Egyptian body of doctrine to elucidate the mutual influence of it
and the ideas suggested by the practice of mummification. It is not
known where agriculture was first practised or the circumstances which
led men to appreciate the fact that plants could be cultivated. In many
parts of the world agriculture can be carried on without artificial
irrigation, and even without any adequate appreciation on the part of
the farmer of the importance of water. But when it came to be practised
under such conditions as prevail in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the
cultivator would soon be forced to realize that water was essential for
the growth of plants, and that it was imperative to devise artificial
means by which the soil might be irrigated. It is not known where or by
whom this cardinal fact first came to be appreciated, whether by the
Sumerians or the Egyptians or by some other people. But it is known that
in the earliest records both of Egypt and Sumer the most significant
manifestations of a ruler's wisdom were the making of irrigation canals
and the controlling of water. Important as these fact