Bird Notes from the Nile. 73 



the inhabitants of Egypt, from the 

 earliest days of the dim distant past, 

 we may trace the existence and the 

 lives of the Egyptian birds, even less 

 altered through the long years by outward 

 circumstance than those of their human 

 compatriots. 



Various nations have ruled in Egypt, 

 and numberless strangers have sojourned 

 in the country, while countless genera- 

 tions of swallows have built their snug 

 nests among the capitals and cornices 

 of the great temples, where the fol- 

 lowers of many creeds have worshipped. 

 And still to-day, as through all these 

 ages, we find among these people faith 

 in a great and ever-bountiful Creator, 

 who cares for the humblest of His 

 works. 



This belief was ever the keynote of 

 the religion of the Egyptians, and 

 was beautifully expressed in one of the 

 verses of the old " Hymn to Amen." 

 For many thousand years the music of 

 that hymn must have mingled with the 

 songs of the birds from the " Northern 

 Sea" to beyond the "Golden Stone" 



