"They had the game of draughts or checkers almost identical with the one we play to-day. They did not play at cards, so far as we know. In fact, cards were invented in comparatively modern days, and the tradition is that they were originally made for the amusement of an insane king. The Egyptians had the game of "mora," and from them it probably descended to the Italians, with whom it is a national amusement. They were skilful in what we call 'the Indian club exercise,' and one of the pictures represents men raising heavy weights, after the manner of the professors of gymnastics in New York or Chicago. Sometimes they used bags of sand instead of clubs or stones, but the result was the same in each case--an exhibition of strength. [Illustration: SAND-BAG EXERCISE.] "There are pictures that show bull-fights and rowing-matches, together with other amusements of the same sort. Wrestlers were as numerous as they are to-day, and probably quite as skilful, and endowed with similar strength; but we have nothing to prove to us that they travelled with the circus, or that an Egyptian Barnum existed with his wonderful hippodrome. Many of the wrestlers were women, and some of the pictures represent them showing feats of strength of which the men might be proud." [Illustration: A BULL-FIGHT.] From the room of the toys our friends wandered to another which contained, among other things, several mummies, together with the cases in which they had reposed. Some of the mummies were wholly and others only partially unrolled, and the boys eagerly examined the remains of the ancient inhabitants of the land. While they were doing so, Doctor Bronson explained the process by which bodies were preserved by the Egyptians, and their reasons for devoting so much time and attention to the preservation of the dead. [Illustration: GODDESSES OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE.] "The ancient Egyptians," said he, "had a great many gods: the list is so long that it would not be worth while to name them all, as you could not remember them; and, besides, it would take more time than we have to spare. Each of the gods had distinct attributes, and was represented in a form unlike the others; some of them had the heads of birds, beasts, or reptiles, but their bodies were of human shape. They are thus represented on the walls of temples, and the evidences are that the ignorant classes believed the gods had the shapes ascribed to them. There was one supreme deity who had power over all the other gods, and his shape was not represented. The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul, in the responsibility of every one for his individual acts, and in a future state of rewards and punishments. [Illustration: THE NAME OF APIS, AN EGYPTIAN GOD, IN HIEROGLYPHICS.]