Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

142

CITIES OF EGYPT.

Hebrew, or a language akin to it, was also taught. The
documents of the scribes of that age not only show by
their accurate transliteration of Semitic words that the
writers had a mastery of the foreign sounds they wrote ;
but more than this, it was, as already noticed, the fashion
at this time to introduce Semitic words into the Egyptian
language. The sacred bocks, voluminous and hard to
interpret, were also studied by those who intended to
follow the career of priests. Some science was taught.
Astronomy was necessary for the calendar, and closely
connected with religion. Arithmetic was needed for the
common affairs of life. Geometry was of the highest
importance for the determination of the limits of the
fields after the inundation had withdrawn, carrying with
it all the land-marks between the deserts; nor was it of
less value for the measurement of materials and all
matters connected with the cost of building. For the
architects and many of the scribes, mechanics, in which
the Egyptians were great, formed a necessary study.
Chemistry must have been a branch of learning. Medi-
cine was eagerly studied from the earliest ages ; yet the
Egyptians were far behind the Mosaic Law in sanitary
regulations, in which, indeed, that code has anticipated