Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

II.] Fascination of the Scene. 45

Nile alone do we find, centuries before the date
of the Accadian Sargon, a settled monarchy
and a constituted state, an elaborate Ritual
and organic hierarchy, a specific architecture
and a copious alphabet. Hence it is that the
principal anomaly which usually blurs our
conception of antiquity, namely, the interfer-
ence of an element alien to the environment
in the formation of the customs of a race, more
particularly when that race has been trans-
planted from some wholly diverse soil, is
absent from the horizon of Egypt; and the
picture which we may draw of Egyptian civili-
zation has its source, its development, and its
consummation in the conditions of Egypt
alone. No feature of attraction is wanting in
that remarkable scene. The stately river, the
source of perennial life and freshness to the
entire land, the long line of majestic temples
crowning the banks, the laughing population
crowding its waters, the dances, the games.
the songs, the wrestlings, the perpetual feasts.