d dynasty.]

The most ancient mention of a ship in the world's history is to be found
in the name of the eighth king of Egypt after Mena, the founder of the
royal race. This king, who was at the head of the second dynasty, was
called Betou (Boethos in Greek), which word signifies the "prow of a
ship." Nineteen kings intervened between him and Khufu (Cheops), the
builder of the Great Pyramid at Ghizeh. The date of this pyramid is
given by various authorities as from about 4235 to 3500 B.C. As the
knowledge of Egyptology increases the date is set further and further
back, and the late Mariette Pasha, who was one of the greatest
authorities on the subject, fixed it at 4235 B.C. About five centuries
intervened between the reign of Betou and the date of the Great Pyramid.
Hence we can infer that ships were known to the Egyptians of the
dynasties sixty-seven centuries ago.

Fortunately, however, we are not obliged to rely on inferences drawn
from the name of an individual; we actually possess pictures of vessels
which, there is every reason to believe, were built before the date of
the Great Pyramid.

The boat represented by Fig. 3 is of great interest, as it is by far the
oldest specimen of a true Egyptian boat that has yet been discovered. It
was copied by the late Mr. Villiers Stuart from the tomb of Ka Khont
Khut, situated in the side of a mountain near Kau-el-Kebir, on the right
bank of the Nile, about 279 miles above Cairo.[1] The tomb belongs to a
very remote period. From a study of the hieroglyphs, the names of the
persons, the forms of the pottery found, and the shape, arrangement, and
decoration of the tomb, Mr. Villiers Stuart came to the conclusion that
it dates from the third dynasty, and that, consequently, it is older
than the Great Pyramid at Ghizeh. If these conclusions are correct, and
if Mariette's date for the Great Pyramid be accepted, Fig. 3 represents
a Nile boat as used about 6,300 years ago--that is to say, about fifteen
centuries before the date commonly accepted for the ark. Mr. Villiers
Stuart supposes that it was a dug-out canoe, but from the dimensions of
the boat this theory is hardly tenable. It will be noted that there are
seven paddlers on each side, in addition to a man using a sounding, or
else a punt, pole at the prow, and three men steering with paddles in
the stern, while amidships there is a considerable free space, occupied
only by the owner, who is armed with a whip, or courbash. Th