18 ANNUAL ADDRESS ; 



Homer and Strabo to the Nile, and tlien was extended to tlie 

 whole country which the Nile has created,, and still nourishes. 



Ancient records represent Egypt as consisting of two 

 provinces : — Ta Res, " The Southern Province " ; and Ta 

 Meshit, " The Northern Province." They correspond to the 

 two divisions. Upper and Lower Egypt, already mentioned. 

 The sovereign of each province is distinguished on monu- 

 ments by a special crown. That of the Upper Province is 

 white, and in form something like an Eastern water-jar ; that 

 of the Lower is red, and in shape not unlike a child's arm- 

 chair. Each sovereign had also a distinctive title. The 

 Upper was named Shuten, " King " ; the Lower, Sheht," Bee.''' 

 May not this illustrate some passages of the Bible otherwise 

 very obscure ? The initial hieroglyphic sign of the word 

 Shuten is a fractured reed ; and the prophet Isaiah Avarned 

 Israel, at a critical period of its history, in these figurative 

 words : " Lo, thou trustest on the staff of this bruised reed, on 

 Egypt " (xxxvi. 6 ; cf. Ezek. xxix. 6, 7) ; and the same 

 prophet, in another place, speaks thus : '' The Lord shall hiss 

 for the yZ/y that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt j 

 and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria" (vii. 18). 

 This is altogether characteristic of the style, of Eastern 

 imagery, playing on peculiar proper names. 



When the two provinces were united under one sovereign 

 he took the double title SJmten-Sheht, and assumed the double 

 crown, that of the Upper Province being placed above, or 

 rather set in, the other, as may be seen in statues of 

 Rameses III. In one of the courts of the Temple of Rameses 

 at Medinet Habou, in Thebes, there is an interesting repre- 

 sentation of the coronation of the monarch, who, in the 

 accompanying inscription, is said to have put on the crown of 

 Upper and Lower Egypt. 



Egypt is but a small country to have played such an 

 important part in the history of the world. It is made up of 

 the Delta and the Nile Valley as far south as the First Cataract. 

 The Delta, as the name implies, is a triangle, its base on the 

 Mediterranean, extending from Alexandria to Port Said, about 

 150 miles. Its apex is at Cairo, and each side, roughly esti- 

 mated, measures about 120 miles. A large portion of this 

 area, however, perhaps nearly one-half, is lake, marsh, or 

 desert, unfit for cultivation. South of Cairo there is only the 

 Valley of the Nile, extending about 580 miles to Syene, and 

 varying from two to twelve miles in width, of which the river 

 averages one mile. The valley is hemmed in on each side by 

 naked deserts. In places there are high cliffs bordering the 

 alluvial banks, and in places ranges of yellow rocky hills^ 



