s and her wars in other
lands. It will be best, for this purpose, to show first of all that the
ancient and modern Egyptians are one and the same people; and,
secondly, that the political conditions, broadly speaking, are much the
same now as they have been throughout history.

Professor Elliot Smith, F.R.S., has shown clearly enough, from the study
of bones of all ages, that the ancient and modern inhabitants of the
Nile Valley are precisely the same people anthropologically; and this
fact at once sets the matter upon an unique footing: for, with the
possible exception of China, there is no nation in the world which can
be proved thus to have retained its type for so long a period. This one
fact makes any parallel with Greece or Rome impossible. The modern
Greeks have not much in common, anthropologically, with the ancient
Greeks, for the blood has become very mixed; the Italians are not the
same as the old Romans; the English are the result of a comparatively
recent conglomeration of types. But in Egypt the subjects of archaic
Pharaohs, it seems certain, were exactly similar to those of the modern
Khedives, and new blood has never been introduced into the nation to an
appreciable extent, not even by the Arabs. Thus, if there is any
importance in the bearing of history upon politics, we have in Egypt a
better chance of appreciating it than we have in the case of any other
country.

It is true that the language has altered, but this is not a matter of
first-rate importance. A Jew is not less typical because he speaks
German, French, or English; and the cracking of skulls in Ireland is
introduced as easily in English as it was in Erse. The old language of
the Egyptian hieroglyphs actually is not yet quite dead; for, in its
Coptic form, it is still spoken by many Christian Egyptians, who will
salute their friends in that tongue, or bid them good-morning or
good-night. Ancient Egyptian in this form is read in the Coptic
churches; and God is called upon by that same name which was given to
Amon and his colleagues. Many old Egyptian words have crept into the
Arabic language, and are now in common use in the country; while often
the old words are confused with Arabic words of similar sound. Thus, at
Abydos, the archaic fortress is now called the _Shunet es Zebib_, which
in Arabic would have the inexplicable meaning "the store-house of
raisins"; but in the old Egyptian language its name, of similar sound,
meant "the fortress