Page:The land of enchantment (1907, Cassell).djvu/47

 told me made it so much more interesting. In fact, I owe you no end, for Father was so pleased that I knew so much about all the old chaps you told me about that he promised me—what do you think?”

“I am no Delphic Oracle!” replied Herodotus, smiling.

“Well, he said he would take me to Egypt next year. Isn’t that ripping?”

“I am glad for thee,” said Herodotus, “and strange ’tis that I was about to tell thee of ancient Egypt. Even as I came towards thee I had this in my mind.”

“Right away!” cried Harry. “I’m so glad you're starting.”

“Well, thou knowest that the Egyptian race is one of the oldest in the world; that the record of their kings, or ‘dynasties’ as they are called, goeth back to three thousand years and more before the birth of Christ. In ancient Egypt the people boasted that they were the oldest race of all, but their king Psammetichus, who died in 611 B.C., was the first to undeceive them. And he did it in this wise. He took two infants and gave them to his shepherds, with strict commands to bring them up in a cottage apart from all other dwellings on the hills. None was to speak to them—only were they to have their fill of goats’ milk each day. Psammetichus’ commands were faithfully obeyed; and one day, two years after, when the herdsman entered the hut, the children ran towards him with outstretched hands, crying ‘Becos.’ At first the man took no heed of this; but after a while he told the king, who summoned the children to his presence. ‘Becos’ they cried again, and Psammetichus set to work at once to find what people used that word. He discovered it to be Phrygian for ‘ bread.’ The Phrygians dwelt in Asia Minor, thou knowest. Thereupon Psammetichus declared that although the Egyptians exceeded most nations in antiquity, yet the Phrygians exceeded them.”

“Those old johnnies had some first-rate ideas,” said Harry approvingly, as he chewed a piece of grass and lay on his back amongst the buttercups.

“Methinks, though,” said Herodotus musingly, “that the word the children spoke was sooner the cry of the goats than a Phrygian word.”

“I never thought of that,” said Harry. “Of course, ‘becos’ does sound like bleating. It’s a good story, anyway.”

“Thou wilt marvel,“ continued Herodotus, “to hear of things which existed in ancient Egypt—of inventions, of games, of customs—