The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pharaoh and the Priest, by Boleslaw Prus

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Title: The Pharaoh and the Priest
An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

Author: Boleslaw Prus

Translator: Jeremiah Curtin

Release Date: November 28, 2007 [EBook #23646]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHARAOH AND THE PRIEST ***

Produced by Charles Klingman

THE PHARAOH
AND THE PRIEST

AN HISTORICAL NOVEL
OF ANCIENT EGYPT

The Pharaoh and the Priest

THE PHARAOH
AND THE PRIEST

FROM THE ORIGINAL POLISH OF ALEXANDER GLOVATSKI

BY

JEREMIAH CURTIN

TRANSLATOR OF "WITH FIRE AND SWORD," "THE DELUGE"
"QUO VADIS," ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN
AND COMPANY.1902

CURTIN.

All rights reserved.
Published September, 1902.

UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSON AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

PREFATORY REMARKS

The position of Ancient Egypt was unique, not in one, but in every
sense. To begin at the very foundation of life in that country, we find
that the soil was unlike any other on earth in its origin. Every acre
of fruitful land between the first cataract and the sea had been
brought from Inner Africa, and each year additions were made to it. Out
of this mud, borne down thousands of miles from the great fertile
uplands of Abyssinia by rivers, grew everything needed to feed and
clothe man and nourish animals. Out of it also was made the brick from
which walls, houses, and buildings of various uses and kinds were
constructed. Though this soil of the country was rich, it could be
utilized only by the unceasing co-ordinate efforts of a whole
population constrained and directed. To direct and constrain was the
task of the priests and the pharaohs.

Never have men worked in company so long and successfully at tilling
the earth as the Egyptians, and never has the return been so continuous
and abundant from land as in their case.

The Nile valley furnished grain to all markets accessible by water;
hence Rome, Greece, and Judaea ate the bread of Egypt. On this national
tillage was founded the greatness of t