and carried
their raids as far as Thebes. Elephantine, like Assuan at the present
day, was the centre of a flourishing trade. Here might be seen
Kushites from Napata or Meroe, negroes from the Upper Nile and the Bahr
el-Ghazal, and Ammonians, from all of whom the curious visitor might
glean information while frequenting the bazaars. The cataract was
navigable all the year round, and the natives in its vicinity enjoyed
the privilege of piloting freight boats through its difficult channel.
It took four days to pass through it, instead of the three, or even
two, which suffice at the present day. Above it, the Nile spread out
and resembled a lake dotted over with islands, several of which, such
as Phike and Biggeh, contained celebrated temples, which were as much
frequented by the Ethiopians as by the Egyptians.

Correctly speaking, it was not Egypt herself that the Greeks saw,
but her external artistic aspect and the outward setting of Egyptian
civilisation. The vastness of her monuments, the splendour of her tombs,
the pomp of her ceremonies, the dignity and variety of her religious
formulas, attracted their curiosity and commanded their respect: the
wisdom of the Egyptians had passed into a proverb with them, as it had
with the Hebrews. But if they had penetrated behind the scenes, they
would have been obliged to acknowledge that beneath this attractive
exterior there was hopeless decay. As with all creatures when they have
passed their prime, Egypt had begun to grow old, and was daily losing
her elasticity and energy. Her spirit had sunk into a torpor, she
had become unresponsive to her environment, and could no longer adapt
herself to the form she had so easily acquired in her youth: it was as
much as she could do to occupy fully the narrower limits to which she
had been reduced, and to maintain those limits unbroken. The instinct
which made her shrink from the intrusion of foreign customs and ideas,
or even mere contact with nations of recent growth, was not the mere
outcome of vanity. She realised that she maintained her integrity only
by relying on the residue of her former solidarity and on the force of
custom. The slightest disturbance of the equilibrium established among
her members, instead of strengthening her, would have robbed her of the
vigour she still possessed, and brought about her dissolution.

[Illustration: 367.jpg DARIUS III.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coin in the Cabinet des
Medai