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A History of Art in Ancient Egypt.
that there is a constantly accumulating capital, on both banks of the river, of the richest vegetable earth.
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Fig. 2.—Hoeing; Beni-Hassan. (Champollion, pl. 381 bis[1])
Thus the first tribes established themselves in the country under singularly favourable conditions; thanks to the timely help
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Fig. 3.—Ploughing; from the Necropolis of Memphis. (Description de l'Égypte, ant. V., pl. 17.)
of the river they found themselves assured of an easy existence.[2] We know how often the lives of those tribes who live by fishing
- ↑ This work of Champollion's, to which we are greatly indebted, is entitled: Monuments de l'Égypte et de la Nubie, 4 vols. folio. It contains 511 plates, partly coloured, and was published between the years 1833 and 1845. The drawings for the plates were made by members of the great scientific expedition of which Champollion was the head. Many of those drawings were from the pencil of Nestor L'Hôte, one of those who have most sympathetically rendered the Egyptian monuments.
- ↑ This advantage was thoroughly appreciated by the ancients. Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the Egyptians, says that "At the beginning of all things, the first men were born in Egypt, in consequence of the happy climate of the country and the physical properties of the Nile, whose waters, by their natural fertility and their power of producing various kinds of aliment, were well fitted to nourish the first
