It is my object in this chapter to show that the ancient history of Egypt has a real bearing on certain aspects of the polemics of the country.  I need not again touch upon the matters which were referred to on page 8 in order to demonstrate this fact.  I will take but one subject—­namely, that of Egypt’s foreign relations and her wars in other lands.  It will be best, for this purpose, to show first of all that the ancient and modern Egyptians are one and the same people; and, secondly, that the political conditions, broadly speaking, are much the same now as they have been throughout history.

Professor Elliot Smith, F.R.S., has shown clearly enough, from the study of bones of all ages, that the ancient and modern inhabitants of the Nile Valley are precisely the same people anthropologically; and this fact at once sets the matter upon an unique footing:  for, with the possible exception of China, there is no nation in the world which can be proved thus to have retained its type for so long a period.  This one fact makes any parallel with Greece or Rome impossible.  The modern Greeks have not much in common, anthropologically, with the ancient Greeks, for the blood has become very mixed; the Italians are not the same as the old Romans; the English are the result of a comparatively recent conglomeration of types.  But in Egypt the subjects of archaic Pharaohs, it seems certain, were exactly similar to those of the modern Khedives, and new blood has never been introduced into the nation to an appreciable extent, not even by the Arabs.  Thus, if there is any importance in the bearing of history upon politics, we have in Egypt a better chance of appreciating it than we have in the case of any other country.

It is true that the language has altered, but this is not a matter of first-rate importance.  A Jew is not less typical because he speaks German, French, or English; and the cracking of skulls in Ireland is introduced as easily in English as it was in Erse.  The old language of the Egyptian hieroglyphs actually is not yet quite dead; for, in its Coptic form, it is still spoken by many Christian Egyptians, who will salute their friends in that tongue, or bid them good-morning or good-night.  Ancient Egyptian in this form is read in the Coptic churches; and God is called upon by that same name which was given to Amon and his colleagues.  Many old Egyptian words have crept into the Arabic language, and are now in common use in the country; while often the old words are confused with Arabic words of similar sound.  Thus, at Abydos, the archaic fortress is now called the Shunet es Zebib, which in Arabic would have the inexplicable meaning “the store-house of raisins”; but in the old Egyptian language its name, of similar sound, meant “the fortress of the Ibis-jars,” several of these sacred birds having been buried there in jars, after the place had been disused as a military stronghold.  A large number of Egyptian towns still