The greatest story in the world, period 1 (of 3)

by Horace G. Hutchinson

CYPERUS PAPYRUS.

The papyrus

The papyrus was a plant which grew wild in the marshes, and it was of the greatest importance to them, and also to us, because it was on strips cut from the stalk and fastened flat together that the substance was made which served them for paper, on which very much of the story which I am now telling you was written. I have said that much of the story is taken from the writings and pictures on stone, whether on the rocks as they stood where nature had put them, or as the stone was worked into the tombs or monuments of kings and great people, into pyramids and the like. But the greatest part of the record is written on the papyrus. The stem of the plant was used also for the building of boats, and it supplied them with material for ropes. Though it was found wild, they cultivated it, and so increased the natural supply.

It is likely that their houses were commonly built of brick. You will have noticed that as the country was so poorly supplied with timber-trees few wooden houses could be built. But the brick of which the houses of most of the people were made would not be of the brick that we know. You will remember that one of the burdens imposed on the Israelites in Egypt was to make bricks "without straw," and it may have happened to you to wonder at that, because, as you know, our bricks are not made with straw. But straw and pieces of reed were used in the making of much of the ancient brick, because the clay often was not burnt in a kiln, but only dried by the sun's heat. This did not give nearly so hard or lasting a brick as the brick that was burnt by the fire in a kiln, but a mixture of the straw helped to hold the clay together and to prevent its crumbling.

They knew all about the proper burning of bricks, to make them durable, also, but this sun-drying was a less troublesome way, and was used for the commoner kind of brick.

Works of art

At a very early period they became skilful in the making of pottery, by which I mean vessels for household use, such as jugs, etc., in clay, and they were clever workers of glass. They made ornaments of gold, and engraved jewels. They were interested in medicine, and knew the use of splints for setting broken bones. They knew something of the movement of the stars, as seen from the earth. We have noticed that they began their New Year at the date of the rising of Sothis, as they called the Dog-Star, about the season that the Nile began to rise. The carvings and drawings on stone and on papyrus are remarkable, even from the first, for the correctness and firmness of the outline. The earliest show the hands and feet left in a curiously unfinished state, and many of the figures have the two legs shown as one. As time went on they came to draw the figure very much more perfectly and with attention to finishing the hands and feet. The faces indicate quite clearly the race of men to which the originals of the portraits belonged.

But, of course, the achievements of the old Egyptians by which they are best known to us are those gigantic monuments the Pyramids, that strange head of the Sphinx, the many temples and the mummied corpses found within them. All these, as well as their hieroglyphical or picture writing, are connected very closely with their religious beliefs; and this is such a very curious and interesting subject that I propose to write about it in a chapter of its own.

I do not know whether you will agree, but it seems to me that the story of mankind is much more amusing, and will do us much more good, if we try to see how the peoples of the world lived from time to time, what kind of people they were, and how they worked and played and fought, rather than if we just study a list of the names of their kings and of their towns. I do not think the names can help us much, unless we know what the people that the names belonged to did, or what happened in the towns so called. For that reason I have avoided mentioning any names that do not seem to have that kind of interest in the story. I think they only confuse us and get in the way of our seeing how the things happened that really did make a difference in the world.

But you are not to suppose that when these Egyptian people had settled themselves down along the course of this pleasant river, they were allowed to remain there quite peaceably, without any interference from their neighbours who lived in a far less fertile and agreeable country. The greatest of all facts in Egypt was the Nile. It went from end to end of the country. People went along it in boats and ships, they fished in it, hunted the hippopotamus, and possibly the crocodile, in it. Sometimes they were killed by either of these, and especially by the latter. The Nile was their life. Without it they would have died.