from cereals. The lily
loaves are mentioned in the Papyrus Anastasi, No. 4, p. 14.
1. 1.

Bread and cakes made of cereals formed the habitual food of the people.
Durrah is of African origin; it is the "grain of the South" of the
inscriptions. On the other hand, it is supposed that wheat and six-rowed
barley came from the region of the Euphrates. Egypt was among the first
to procure and cultivate them.[*] The soil there is so kind to man, that
in many places no agricultural toil is required.

* The position which wheat and barley occupy in the lists
of offerings, proves the antiquity of their existence in
Egypt. Mariette found specimens of barley in the tombs of
the Ancient Empire at Saqqarah.

[Illustration: 086.jpg THE EGYPTIAN HOE.2]

2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

As soon as the water of the Nile retires, the ground is sown without
previous preparation, and the grain, falling straight into the mud,
grows as vigorously as in the best-ploughed furrows. Where the earth is
hard it is necessary to break it up, but the extreme simplicity of the
instruments with which this was done shows what a feeble resistance it
offered. For a long time the hoe sufficed. It was composed either of a
large stone tied to a wooden handle, or was made of two pieces of wood
of unequal length, united at one of their extremities, and held together
towards the middle by a slack cord: the plough, when first invented was
but a slightly enlarged hoe, drawn by oxen. The cultivation of cereals,
once established on the banks of the Nile, developed, from earliest
times, to such a degree as to supplant all else: hunting, fishing,
the rearing of cattle, occupied but a secondary place compared with
agriculture, and Egypt became, that which she still remains, a vast
granary of wheat. The part of the valley first cultivated was from Gebel
Silsileh to the apex of the Delta.[*]

* This was the tradition of all the ancients. Herodotus
related that, according to the Egyptians, the whole of
Egypt, with the exception of the Theban nome, was a vast
swamp previous to the time of Menes. Aristotle adds that the
Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the area now occupied by the
Delta, formed one sea. Cf. pp. 3-5 of this volume, on the
formation of the Delta.

[Illustration: 087.jpg PLOUGHING. 2]

2 Bas-relief from