There was desert all about them, but it was not desert so deserted that it was quite without inhabitants. There were "oases," or fertile patches, in the desert itself, and the deserts had their limits; there were tolerably fertile lands beyond them again. And it has always been a wonder how the desert-dwellers, such as the Arabs and some kinds of antelopes, do manage to subsist where there seems to be so little for them to eat, and almost nothing for them to drink. But there were people--Libyans on the west, Nubians on the south, Ethiopians (what we should call negroes)--of various tribes who probably were envious enough of the easy life that they saw their neighbours living along the river-bank. Therefore, although it sounds as if it were a very peaceful, as well as pleasant, life that I have tried to show you that these {21} ancient Egyptians were leading, you are not to suppose that they were not beset, from time to time, by incursions and invasions and attacks by the peoples round about them. It would take far too long to recite all these invasions against which they succeeded more or less in holding their own. That they were not always successful is quite evident from the records. [Sidenote: The First Dynasty] The record of Egyptian kings is given to us by an Egyptian priest, named Manctho, and the date of the earliest king, the founder of what is called the First Dynasty, has been estimated by some students to have been as far back as 5500 years before Christ was born. That is to say, more than seven thousand years ago. Other learned men have supposed the date of this first king to be quite two thousand years later in the story. This shows the very great difficulty of fixing the dates of these events that happened so very long ago. What is more important is that we know at least one of the great acts of this first Egyptian king, whose name was Menes. It is known, from inscriptions, that he united into one kingdom what had, before him, been two countries, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. And here I must warn you of a difficulty which may perplex you. On the map you may see that Lower Egypt is the part near the Delta, that is the mouth, or mouths, of the Nile where it flows into the sea. Upper Egypt is the more southern part reaching as far south as the first cataract. But, as you look at the map, this Lower Egypt looks upper, to your eye. You must not pay any attention to that, but must remember that the northern part must be lower, really, because it is the part towards which the river runs; and a river, as you know, must run from higher ground to {22} lower. Remember, then, that Lower Egypt is the northern part, near the sea and Upper Egypt the southern.