CHAPTER VI
The City of the Elf God
The London of Ancient Egypt—Ptah Chief of Nine Earth Spirits—God of a Military Aristocracy — Palestine Cave-dwellers and Alpine “Broad Heads”—Creation Artificers of Egyptians, Europeans, Indians, and Chinese— Sun Egg and Moon Egg—The Later Ptah—Neith as a Banshee—Sokar, God of the Dead—Earliest Memphite Deity—Ptah and Osiris—Manetho’s Folk Tales—A Famous Queen—The First Pyramid.
Now, when there was corn in Egypt “as the sand of the sea”, traders from foreign countries crossed the parched deserts and the perilous deep, instructed, like the sons of Jacob, to “get you down thither and buy for us from thence.” So wealth and commerce increased in the Nile valley. A high civilization was fostered, and the growing needs of the age caused many industries to flourish.
The business of the country was controlled by the cities which were nursed into prosperity by the wise policy of the Pharaohs. Among these Memphis looms prominently in the history of the early Dynasties. Its ruling deity was, appropriately enough, the artificer god Ptah, for it was not only a commercial but also an important industrial centre; indeed it was the home of the great architects and stone builders whose activities culminated in the erection of the Pyramids, the most sublime achievements in masonry ever accomplished by man.
To-day the ruins of Old Memphis lie buried deep in the sand. The fellah tills the soil and reaps the harvest in season above its once busy streets and stately temples,
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