304 "THE NILE IS EGYPT" 



reconstruct in part the manner and social economy of the 

 Ancient Egyptians, but also to gather, aided by excavated 

 tackle, fairly accurate knowledge of their various devices for 

 catching fish. And so to the religious conception which 

 fostered the adornment of the tombs the gratitude of all fisher- 

 men is due, and should be deep. 



If the god Hapi, who is represented with the girdle of a 

 fisherman round his loins, and bearing lotus flowers, fowl, 

 and fish, was hymned by the people as " the Creator of all 

 things good," to the Father of Rivers i the Father of History 

 renders tribute for his gift of one " thing good " which furnished 

 to all, bar kings and priests, a stable and staple food, fish. 



Its economic importance can hardly be over-rated. 

 Testimony as to its cheapness and abundance is not wanting. 

 Of such is the wail of the poorer folk that the price of com 

 might be that of fish. 2 Not less impressive rings the plaint of 

 wandering Israel — even heaven-sent manna apparently palls ! 

 — " we remember the fish we did eat in Egypt for naught." 

 The Egyptians accounted the fish plague, next to the death of 

 the firstborn, as direst in result. 



Confirmatory witnesses are Diodorus Siculus, who notes 

 the great number and the many varieties of fish found in 

 the Nile, 3 and ^F^lian, who neatly and truly characterises the 

 aftermath of the annual inundation as " a harvest of fish." * 

 Evidence, again, of " a plenty " of fish, its pursuit, and its 

 copious consumption fronts us in the prehistoric kitchen- 

 middens and in the bone or horn harpoons of pre-dynastic 

 graves. Later, the frequent tomb fishing-scenes and some 

 textual notices attest absence of dearth. 



The numerous slate palettes in the pre-dynastic graves 

 furnish Mr. Bates with further proof, and with a new theory, 



* The Nile is the second longest river in the world (Perthes, Taschen 

 Atlas). The Egyptians believed that it sprang from four sources at the 

 twelfth gate of the nether world, at a place described in ch. 146 of the Book 

 of the Dead, and that it came to light at the two whirlpools of the first cataract. 



2 Brugsch., JDic/. Supplem., 1915. Cf. Stele de Van VIII. de Rameses II., by 

 Ahmed Bey Kamal [Rec. irav., etc., vol. 30, pp. 216-217). The King, as an 

 instance of how well his workmen are provided for, cites the fact that special 

 fishermen are allotted to them. 



'^ I. 36. 



* N. H., X. 43, 6.fX7)ros ("xGuwc. 



