upon it vast stores of corn, much
of which was floated down the river to its mouth, and taken thence to
various countries of Europe and Asia, in merchant ships, over the
Mediterranean Sea. Caravans, too, sometimes came across the neighboring
deserts to obtain supplies of Egyptian corn. This was done by the sons
of Jacob when the crops failed them in the land of Canaan, as related in
the sacred Scriptures.

There were two great natural wonders in Egypt in ancient times as now:
first, it never rained there, or, at least, so seldom, that rain was
regarded as a marvelous phenomenon, interrupting the ordinary course of
nature, like an earthquake in England or America. The falling of drops
of water out of clouds in the sky was an occurrence so strange, so
unaccountable, that the whole population regarded it with astonishment
and awe. With the exception of these rare and wonder-exciting instances,
there was no rain, no snow, no hail, no clouds in the sky. The sun was
always shining, and the heavens were always serene. These meteorological
characteristics of the country, resulting, as they do, from permanent
natural causes, continue, of course, unchanged to the present day; and
the Arabs who live now along the banks of the river, keep their crops,
when harvested, in heaps in the open air, and require no roofs to their
huts except a light covering of sheaves to protect the inmates from the
sun.

The other natural wonder of Egypt was the annual rising of the Nile.
About midsummer, the peasantry who lived along the banks would find the
river gradually beginning to rise. The stream became more turbid, too,
as the bosom of the waters swelled. No cause for this mysterious
increase appeared, as the sky remained as blue and serene as before, and
the sun, then nearly vertical, continued to shine with even more than
its wonted splendor. The inhabitants however, felt no surprise, and
asked for no explanation of the phenomenon. It was the common course of
nature at that season. They had all witnessed it, year after year, from
childhood. They, of course, looked for it when the proper month came
round, and, though they would have been amazed if the annual flood had
failed, they thought nothing extraordinary of its coming.

When the swelling of the waters and the gradual filling of the channels
and low grounds in the neighborhood of the river warned the people that
the flood was at hand, they all engaged busily in the work of completing
th