H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 193 
ago not a single monument was known that could be ascribed with 
certainty to the period before the Third Egyptian Dynasty. To-day 
we possess a continuous series of written documents which carry 
us back to Menes, the Founder of the Monarchy, some 3,400 years 
or more before our era. These written documents, moreover, show 
clearly that Menes himself must have come at the end of a very 
long period of development. Egypt had already had a long history 
when the Upper and Lower Countries were first united under a single 
sceptre. From Upper Egypt we possess a continuous series of un- 
inscribed monuments which take us back far into prehistoric times. An 
immense vista has been opened out before our eyes by the discoveries 
of the last thirty years, and now, in Egypt better than in any other 
country in the world, we can see man passing from the primitive hunter 
to the pastoral nomad, from the pastoral nomad to the agriculturist, 
and then on to the civilised life which begins with the art of writing. 
We can see in the Delta and in the Lower Nile Valley tribes becoming 
permanently settled in fixed abodes around primitive cult-centres, and 
then uniting with others into one community. We can trace the fusion 
of several communities into single States, and then, later, the uniting 
of States under a supreme sovereign. What other country in the world 
preserves such a record of its early history ? 
I have but little time left to speak of the modern Egyptians, but to 
the anthropologist few people are more interesting. In almost every 
circumstance of daily life we see the Old in the New. Most of the 
ceremonies from birth to burial are not Muslim, or Christian, or Roman, 
or Greek; they are Ancient Egyptian. In the transition of a people 
from one religion to another the important institutions of the older doc- 
trine are generally completely abolished; many ceremonies and mucit 
unessential detail, however, survive, and in the Delta and Lower Nile 
Valley survivals are extraordinarily numerous. It was Lady Duff 
Gordon who said that Egypt is a palimpsest in which the Bible is written 
over Herodotus, and the Koran over that; the ancient writing is still 
legible through all. There is a passage in one of her letters which 
describes her visit to some Nubian women. Their dress and ornaments 
were the same as those represented in the ancient tomb-paintings. Their 
hair was arranged in little plaits, finished off with lumps of yellow clay 
burnished like golden tags. In their house, Lady Duff Gordon sat on 
a couch of ancient Egyptian design, with a semicircular head-rest. 
They brought her dates in a basket such as you may see in the British 
Museum. So closely did they and their surroundings resemble the 
scenes of the ancient tombs that she says she felt inclined to ask them 
how many thousand years old they were! The modern worship of the 
people is full of the ancient; many of the sacred animals and trees 
have taken service with Muslim Saints. Up to a few years ago cats 
were still fed by the ‘ Servant of Cats’ in the Kadi’s court in Cairo. 
Cobras are still held in great reverence in the City cf the Khalifs. Some 
time ago the Director of the Zoological Gardens in Cairo told me that 
it was most difficult to procure cobras for the Gardens. It was not 
because they were scarce, but because the demand for them was so great 
that the price asked was far more than the Government would pay. 
P2 
