From the darkness which envelopes the centuries modern research has brought to light much that was unknown or forgotten. With almost the creative touch it has made the dry bones to live again and link by link drawn out the long chain of the years. What was once a mere roll of names with a wide hiatus here and there has grown to be a record of the words and deeds of men of like passions with ourselves. We feel once more in touch with the past, as it is the aim of the highest altruism to beat responsive to the heart of the present and the by-gone faces look forth by the side of modern man and claim the universal brotherhood.

Well may we marvel at the faith, the patience, the ingenuity which has unraveled so much of the tangled skein in “The Story of the Nations.” Like Cuvier, from a single bone elaborating a whole animal, the Egyptologist has patiently evolved from shreds of parchment, from fragments of pottery, from broken plinth and capital a more or less complete whole. He has woven a tapestry from which some of the figures start forth with a lifelike vigor.

Few countries claim such antiquity as Egypt and of none were the estimated dates more widely apart. Sometimes involving periods of hundreds and thousands of years. An accumulation of difficulties meets the student as it does the explorer. A cycle of time, beside which modern life seems like a single breath. A language, at first indecipherable, and even now imperfectly read. The hasty guesses of scholars anxious to prove some point or be in the vanguard of discovery; broken monuments, rifled tombs, and inscriptions, mutilated, erased and altered by the monarchs of succeeding generations. Among all these difficulties lies the way. But with patience and care we are rewarded and with “imagination for a servant,” not a master, one “arrives,” as the French say (at least in a measure), at last.

The list of authorities consulted by the author would be too long to enumerate, but among them may be mentioned Rawlinson, Wilkinson, Maspero, Erman, Ebers and later Edwards, Sayce, Petrie and Mahaffy, whose interest is so absorbing and the researches of some of whom are of such recent date. To these may be added the study of all available pictures and photographs, and the experiences of late travel and travellers.

CONTENTS.

Introduction[i]
CHAPTER ONE.
The Black Hand[1]
CHAPTER TWO.
The Queen[15]
CHAPTER THREE.
Mertytefs[26]
CHAPTER FOUR.
Nitocris[42]
CHAPTER FIVE.
Sebek-Nefru-Ra[57]
CHAPTER SIX.
Aah-Hotep[74]
CHAPTER SEVEN.
Aahmes-Nefertari[91]
CHAPTER EIGHT.
Hatshepsut[110]
CHAPTER NINE.
Hatsheput—concluded[125]
CHAPTER TEN.
Maut-a-mua[142]
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
Tyi[157]
CHAPTER TWELVE.
Tyi—continued[174]
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Nefertiti[187]
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
Tuaa[205]
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
Nofutari-Minimut[218]
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
Ur-Maa-Nofur-Ra[235]
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
Tausert[253]
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
Succeeding Queens[265]
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
Succeeding Queens—continued[281]
CHAPTER TWENTY.
Daily Life[299]
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
Persian Queens[312]
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
Roxane[335]
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
Ptolemy Queens[348]
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
Arsinoe II.[362]
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
Ptolemy Queens—continued[385]
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
Ptolemy Queens—continued[396]
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.
Ptolemy Queens—continued[407]
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
Cleopatra VI.[421]
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
Cleopatra VI.—continued[432]