Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/34

 14 General History of Europe camp. The charcoal of his wood fire mingled with the hot frag- ments of ore, and thus the ore was " reduced," as the miners say ; that is, the copper in metallic form was released from the lumps of ore. Next morning the Egyptian discovered a few glittering metal globules. Before long he learned whence these strange shining beads came. He produced more of them, at first only to be worn as ornaments by the women. Then he learned to cast the metal into a blade to replace the flint knife which he carried. 20. Dawning of the Age of Metal. Without knowing it this man stood at the dawning of a new era, the Age of Metal. The bit of shining copper which he drew from the ashes, if this Egyptian wanderer could have seen it, might have reflected to him a vision of steel buildings, huge factories roaring with the noise of thou- sands of machines of metal, and vast stretches of railroads. Since the discovery of fire, thousands of years earlier, man had made no advance which could compare in importance to the first use of metal (note, 9). II. AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS 21. Egypt like a Museum. Egypt is like a vast historical mu- seum, through which the traveler can wander and study the way in which the ancient Egyptians lived and many of the things they made and did. We owe this museum to the Egyptians' firm belief in a life to come after death. In order to enjoy existence in the next world they thought that the body must be preserved by em- balming it and then be safely placed in a tomb where no one could disturb its rest. Such well-preserved bodies are called mummies. They are generally the remains of Egyptian kings and nobles, who could afford a well-built tomb and the expenses of careful embalming. It was believed that if the dead man was to be happy in the next world he should be surrounded by the things he had used in his lifetime and by pictures of his former servants, workmen, cattle, and even his dinner table. So the tombs are themselves like museums, for they contain the actual furniture and utensils and jewelry that the rich Egyptian used, as well as reliefs, statuettes, and wall-paintings representing his daily life.