36 THE WISDOM OF OLD EGYPT 



kings. By 4,500 b.c. Egypt was divided among a 

 number of these small kings. 1 By 4,000 b.c. the 

 country was divided into only two kingdoms, Upper 

 and Lower Egypt ; and about 3,500 b.c. was founded 

 the first dynasty of the rulers of all Egypt, with 

 Memphis as their capital. 



This little sketch does not propose to tell the 

 exploits of kings, and it will be as little as possible 

 decorated with their august and unpronounceable 

 names. I am telling the flow of peoples, the shaping 

 of institutions, the unsteady rise of ideals from one 

 age to another. It is enough to say that during this 

 long process of unification the people passed slowly 

 out of Neolithic " barbarism " into a simple civiliza- 

 tion. The mass of the people, indeed, altered little, 

 as it was not in the interests of their pastors and 

 masters to alter them. From the remains we get a 

 sufficient picture of the people six or seven thousand 

 years ago. They dwelt in mud huts (as many still 

 do), and irrigated and cultivated the soil; and there 

 was a " boss " to each village, who was supposed to 

 see to the irrigation trenches and levy so many 

 baskets of corn from each hut for the higher authori- 

 ties. He scratched a basket and a number of strokes 

 (the number of baskets due) on the hut ; which may 

 have been the origin of their picture-writing. The 

 priests were just as much interested in keeping them 

 as they were, and so the hawk-headed and cattle- 

 headed deities and sacred cats, and so on, of the 

 older days were kept alive. 



But the type of pottery steadily improved, and 



1 The dates are, of course, disputed. Some would make this date 

 6,000 b.c. Where I give dates I am following the very moderate 

 chronology of Professor Breasted. 



