EGYPT AND SOUDAN MISSIONS, CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTRIES, THEIR PEOPLES AND THEIR RELIGIONS. The Countries.

THE area of Egypt proper is 400,000 square miles. It contains two parallel ranges of low hills, the Arabian and Libyan, running due north and south, which enclose the valley of the Nile. That river is formed by the junction at Khartoum of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The former is a low stream, with no rise and fall, coming lazily down from the great lakes, and wasting half of its water on the sponge-like swamps in the upper half of its way; and the latter is little more than a winter stream, fed by the torrents that rush down the Abyssinian mountains after the early summer rains. In Upper Egypt practically no rain falls, and in the Delta the people are aggrieved if they have more than a dozen wet days in the winter season. The climate is warm and dry. The area of the Soudan, which extends southwards from the frontier of Egypt to Uganda and the Belgian Congo, and stretches from the Red Sea to the confines of Wadai in Central Africa, is 950,000 square miles, Ancient History.

It is impossible to do more than outline the course of the ancient history of Egypt. The following points should be noticed :—(1) Reliable history of ancient Egypt begins with Menes of the 1st (united) dynasty—an undoubtedly historical person. (2) The Pyramid builders were of the 3rd, 4th and 5th dynasties, still many hundred years before Abraham. (3) The Pharaohs of the Patriarchs were probably of the 12th and the 15th to the 17th dynasties. (4) The Pharaohs of the Oppression were the 19th or Rameside dynasty, under which foreign conquests were made and enormous building works carried out. (5) After these Pharaohs Hgypt weakened; the