amuse Greek children so many years ago, that you are first going
to hear.

About two thousand years before the birth of Christ, in the days when
Isaac wanted to go down into Egypt, Greece was inhabited by a savage
race of men called the Pe-las'gi-ans. They lived in the forests, or in
caves hollowed out of the mountain side, and hunted wild beasts with
great clubs and stone-tipped arrows and spears. They were so rude and
wild that they ate nothing but raw meat, berries, and the roots which
they dug up with sharp stones or even with their hands.

For clothing, the Pelasgians used the skins of the beasts they had
killed; and to protect themselves against other savages, they gathered
together in families or tribes, each having a chief who led in war and
in the chase.

There were other far more civilized nations in those days. Among these
were the E-gyp'tians, who lived in Africa. They had long known the use
of fire, had good tools, and were much further advanced than the
Pelasgians. They had learned not only to build houses, but to erect the
most wonderful monuments in the world,--the Pyr'a-mids, of which you
have no doubt heard.

In Egypt there were at that time a number of learned men. They were
acquainted with many of the arts and sciences, and recorded all they
knew in a peculiar writing of their own invention. Their neighbors, the
Phoe-ni'-cians, whose land also bordered on the Mediterranean Sea,
were quite civilized too; and as both of these nations had ships, they
soon began to sail all around that great inland sea.

As they had no compass, the Egyptian and Phoenician sailors did not
venture out of sight of land. They first sailed along the shore, and
then to the islands which they could see far out on the blue waters.

When they had come to one island, they could see another still farther
on; for, as you will see on any map, the Mediterranean Sea, between
Greece and Asia, is dotted with islands, which look like stepping-stones
going from one coast to the other.

Advancing thus carefully, the Egyptians and Phoenicians finally came
to Greece, where they made settlements, and began to teach the
Pelasgians many useful and important things.

II. THE DELUGE OF OGYGES.

The first Egyptian who thus settled in Greece was a prince called
In'a-chus. Landing in that country, which has a most delightful climate,
he taught the Pelasgians how to make fire and how to cook their meat. He
also showed them how to bu