8 FAMINE THE MOTHER OF ASTRONOMY. 



system of dikes, reservoirs, and lock-canals, by means 

 of which the excessive waters of a violent Nile were 

 turned from the fields and stored up to supply the 

 wants of a dry year ; thus also the precious fluid was 

 conveyed to tracts of land lying above the level of the 

 river, and was distributed over the whole valley with 

 such precision that each lot or farm received a just 

 and equal share. Next, as the inundation destroyed 

 all landmarks, Surveying became a necessary art in 

 order to settle the disputes which broke out every 

 year. And as the rising of the waters was more and 

 more carefully observed, it was found that its com- 

 mencement coincided with certain aspects of the stars. 

 This led to the study of Astronomy and the discovery 

 of the solar year. Agriculture became a mathematical 

 art : it was ascertained that so many feet of water 

 would yield so many quarters of corn ; and thus, be- 

 fore a single seed was sown, they could count up the 

 harvest as correctly as if it had been already gathered in. 

 A natural consequence of all this was the separation 

 of the inventor class, who became at first the coun- 

 sellors, and afterwards the rulers of the people. But 

 while the men of mind were battling with the forces 

 of Nature, a contest of another kind was also going 

 on. Those who dwell on the rich banks of a river 

 flowing through desert lands are always liable to be 

 attacked by the wandering shepherd hordes who resort 

 to the waterside in summer, when the wilderness pas- 

 ture is dried up. There is nothing such tribes desire 

 better than to conquer the corn-growing people of the 

 river lands, and to make them pay a tribute of grain 

 when the crops are taken in. The Egyptians, as soon 

 as they had won their harvests from the flood, were 

 obliged to defend them asrainst the robbers of the 



