History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1

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CHAPTER I.-THE NILE AND EGYPT



THE RIVER AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY-THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE LAND-THE FIRST POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE VALLEY.



The Delta: its gradual formation, its structure, its canals-The valley of Egypt-The two arms of the river-The Eastern Nile-The appearance of its hanks-The hills-The gorge of Gehel Silsileh-The cataracts: the falls of Aswan-Nubia-The rapids of Wady Halfah-The Takazze-The Blue Nile and the White Nile.

The sources of the Nile-The Egyptian cosmography-The four pillars and the four upholding mountains-The celestial Nile the source of the terrestial Nile-the Southern Sea and the islands of Spirits-The tears of Isis-The rise of the Nile-The Green Nile and the Bed Nile-The opening of the dykes–The fall of the Nile-The river at its lowest ebb.

The alluvial deposits and the effects of the inundation upon the soil of Egypt-Paucity of the flora: aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus; the sycamore and the date-palm, the acacias, the dôm-palms-The fauna: the domestic and wild animals; serpents, the urstus; the hippopotamus and the crocodile; birds; fish, the fahaka.

The Nile god: his form and its varieties-The goddess Mirit-The supposed sources of the Nile at Elephantine-The festivals of Gebel Silsileh-Hymn to the Nile from papyri m the British Museum.

The names of the Nile and Egypt: Bomitu and Qimit-Antiquity of the Egyptianpeople-Their first horizon-The hypothesis of their Asiatic origin-The probability of their African origin-The language and its Semitic affinities-The race and its principal types.


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