14 



THURSDAY, MARCH lOth, 1898. 

 (In the Art Room, Municipal School op Art.) 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



BY 



Mk. w. clarkson wallis. 



The lecture was illustrated by lantern slides, and also by a 

 large collection of objects obtained in Egypt by Mr. Wallis. 



Ancient Egypt is a land of special interest to us, not only 

 from the familiarity we had with it from our earliest days by 

 means of the Scriptures, but also by the completeness with 

 which we were able to realise the history of the life of those far-off 

 ages. So wonderfully had the climate and soil of that country 

 assisted in the preservation of records, that nowadays we were 

 able to picture for ourselves all the varied features of a 

 civilization that had long passed away. For the present age, 

 it was a land of expectations ; we never knew what we were 

 going to discover next. Fragments of Homer and of sacred 

 literature had been found, and, for all that we knew, 

 surprises of an extraordinary and deeply interesting nature 

 might be in store. There was no reason why explorers should 

 not come upon some ancient copy of the Scriptures that would do 

 much to settle troublesome controversies. Talking about the 

 geography and geology of Egypt, Mr. Wallis said that it was 

 essentially the land of the Nile. That wonderful river was, 

 indeed, the " river of the water of life ; " it was Hapi, " the 

 father of gods, Lord of sustenance who giveth life, who 

 banisheth want and filleth the granaries." The early history 

 of Egypt went back many thousands of years, far beyond 

 what had generally been accepted as the limits of historic time. 

 The early inhabitants were lost in the mists of a prehistoric 

 period. In historic times they found a mixed race in the 

 land. The monuments proved that there were four distinct 

 types, — the negro, the Lybian, the Asiatic, and the Punite, which 

 last developed into the dynastic race. Mr. Wallis made reference 

 to the peculiar race also found in Egypt, who, so far from 

 mummifying their dead and preserving the bodies with 

 scrupulous care, actually devoured the flesh, not for food, but as a 

 special mark of honour. Passing over the mythical period of 



