History is concerned during the earlier periods almost exclusively with the upper valley ; the Delta was evidently still but partially reclaimed, though certain towns there are already met with in the myths and in the earliest liiatory. Phj-sical contrasts are coincident with that divi.sion into Upper and Lower Egy|)t which we find an estab- lislied fact of the remutest historic times ; already the two kingdoms— for such undoubtedly tliey once had been — are united, each, however, retain- ing its own tutelary deity, and its independent capital, Nlih (El-Kab) and liuto.
Beyond this twofold partition, Egypt appears from the earliest times subdivided into a number (about 22 in south and north resiiectively) of Hiiialler districts (nomoH, from i-o^As), which become later the basis of au administrative system, bnt
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which originated probably in the vaguely defined Bettlements of dilterent tribes. The lists of the nomes are our chief source of topographical know- ledge ; but no full lists are preserved from early periods, although several most ancient documents (tomb of M(n, Pyramid texts) mention a few of the nomes. In the later lists each nonie is per- sonified by its guardian deity, fetish, or emblem, which serves as a kind of coat-of-arms. A nome was held to be composed of four elements : (1) the metropolis, the seat of the tribal religion and residence of the chief ; (2) the cultivated land ; (3) the canals by which the fields were fed witii river-water ; (4) the marshes which, rarely cul- tivable, served as a hunting-ground for the local nobles. The hieroglyphic -l-i-l-r. which expressed one of the words for 'nome,' is a testimony to some primitive irrigation system, representing as it does a canal-divided field, and the founder of the 1st Dynasty is credited with the construction of the great dyke which stUl protects the province of Gizeh from a too extensive inundation, while his successors had all to occupy themselves with the regulation of the water, the cutting of canals, and the satisfaction of local claims upon the benefits of proximity to the river itself. Varia- tions in the annual height of the inundation were no doubt carefully observed in the remotest ages ; we know that they were recorded in the Cataract district by the kings of the 12th Dynasty, and at Kamak in later times.
The Nile is not only the great fertilizer ; it is also, now as formerly, the main highway. We hear relatively little of journej^s by road ; locomotion was normally by water, either upon the river or upon the subsidiary canals. The commonest words for journeying implied the idea of sailing up or down stream. The dead were drawn to tlieir rock-cut tombs on boat-formed cars ; the solar gods were thought to traverse the sky in a divine bark. Such roads as we do hear of are chiefly those leading from the Nile across the desert — eastwards (from Coptos) to the Red Sea, west- wards to the Natron Lakes, or southwards into the Soudan.
iii. Fauna. — The bones of sacrificial animals from various periods, and countless animal mum- mies from the base epochs, might, if carefully preserved and located, teach much as to the ultimate homes of several species, while an exten- sive knowledge of both the domesticated and wild animals might be had from the frescoes of the tombs — especially those of the Middle Kingdom. Each animal is there accompanied by its name, though it is often difficult to find for these their modem equivalents. For the earliest times the hieroglyphic signs themselves would supply a considerable list, giving evidence that the species then known have since changed little. The lion is freouently depicted, though probably seldom met with until the desert had been reached. The lion hunts recorded in the New Kingdom refer mainly to Syria or Nubia, though Thutraosis rv. hunted lions in the neighbourhood of Memphis. Leopards (or panthers ?) seem to have been seen in the south ; elephants and giraffes were not unknown to those who traded on the Upper Nile ; jackals, then as now, were very familiar ; desert wolves and hyienas somewhat less so ; many kinds of antelopes were well known. The hippopotamus, once commonly met in the river and hunted in the swamps, has by now been driven far up the Nile. Of oxen various breeds were kept ; the familiar long-homed species existed until the plague in the middle of the present century. Oxen are often represented ploughing or threshing. Certain varieties, or rather individual members of certain varieties, distinguished by peculiar, carefully sought mark-
ings, were held sacred from the earliest times- Apis at Memphis, Mnevis at Heliopolis, Bacis at Hermonthis. Sheep were no doubt kept, but occur rarely on the monuments. Varieties of the long- and the spiral-horned ram were sacred. The ass was the usual beast of burden, and was not rivalled by the camel till a very late date. It will be remembered that in Gn 12'" (Abraham and Pharaoh) and Ex y (Moses) camels are neverthe- less mentioned — both by J — as if known in Egypt. The horse is likewise unknown in the older epochs ; as it appears first after the Hyksos period, it is assumed to have been introduced by those in- vaders. The reference to Egyptian horse-breeding in 1 K 10^ should more probably be applied to some Asiatic country (Winckler, Altt. Unt. 173 A). The Egj'ptian name for the horse meant properly ' a pair, and was due i)robably to its first employ- ment in the war-chariot. Foreign names, among them Semit. did, once borrowed, became even more usual. The horse appears to have been seldom ridden. Several breeds of dogs were known ; some were valued for the chase. The names of some breeds are preserved, and show that certain Libyan (or Nubian ?) varieties were popular. The cat, sacred to the goddess B'stt, was larger in ancient than in modem Egypt. It figures in a very ancient solar myth {Book of the Dead, ch. 17). The pig, except for its mention in the sacred books, is not met with until late times. Of birds a great number are depicted — geese, ducks, herons of many sorts; migratory birds, e.g. swallows, plovers, quails. Eagle, vulture, hawk, and owl are among the most constantly recurring hieroglyphics, while the vulture, Iiawk, and ibis were sacred to pro- minent divinities, and were embalmed in numbers (in the base epochs) in the localities of which those divinities were the patrons. It is remarkable that, though hen-breeding is universal in Egypt to-day, that bird was apparently unkno\vn to the ancients. Of the larger reptiles the most important was the crocodile, now no longer to be met with below the Cataracts. There is a variety of snakes, the best known being the urceus, emblem of the patron- goddess of Lower Egypt and hence of the king, and the homed viper. From the importance and frequency in the earliest religious literature of charms against large snakes, it may be inferred that their numbers and dimensions were once greater than they are at present.