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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF THE
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
Vignette A. The Pyramids, during the Inundation, from near the Fork of the Delta.
CHAPTER I.
Origin of the Egyptians.—Slow Increase of the Delta.—The Ægyptus of Homer.—Ethiopia sometimes put for the Thebaïd.—Early State of Society.—The Hunter, Shepherd, and Agriculturist.—Hierarchy of Egypt.—Menes the first King.—Neither Osiris nor any other Deity ever supposed by the Egyptians to have lived on Earth.—Period elapsed from Menes to the Persian Invasion.—Oldest Monuments of Egypt.—The Pyramids.—Osirtasen Contemporary of Joseph.—The Pastor Kings not the Jews.—Early Advancement of Egypt, from the Monuments and Scripture History.—Nothing certain before Osirtasen I.
The oldest and most authentic record of the primeval state of the world is unquestionably the Scripture history; and, though the origin of its early inhabitants is only traced in a general and comprehensive manner, we have sufficient data for conjecture on some interesting points.
