The history of civilization begins with the Egyptians and the
Chaldeans; but from the fifteenth century before our era, history
concerns itself only with the Aryan and Semitic peoples.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Ethnography is the study of races from the point of view of their
objects and customs.
[4] The Chinese only of the yellow race have elaborated among themselves
an industry, a regular government, a polite society. But placed at the
extremity of Asia they have had no influence on other civilized peoples.
[The Japanese should be included.--ED.]
[5] The English and French are mixtures of Celtic and German blood.
CHAPTER III
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST
THE EGYPTIANS
=The Land of Egypt.=--Egypt is only the valley of the Nile, a narrow
strip of fertile soil stretching along both banks of the stream and
shut in by mountains on either side, somewhat over 700[6] miles in
length and 15 in width. Where the hills fall away, the Delta begins, a
vast plain cut by the arms of the Nile and by canals. As Herodotus
says, Egypt is wholly the gift of the Nile.
=The Nile.=--Every year at the summer solstice the Nile, swollen by
the melted snows of Abyssinia, overflows the parched soil of Egypt.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48