The Persian kings were glad to employ the Egyptian physicians, whose skill gained them high renown in the ancient world. Dr. Brugsch, in his account of the Egyptians in the Persian service, gives a translation of the inscriptions of Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, of the period of the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. “O ye gods who are in Saïs! Remember all the good that has been done by the president of the physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris. In all that ye are willing to requite him for all his benefits, establish for him a great name in this land for ever. O Osiris! thou eternal one! The president of the physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, throws his arms around thee, to guard thy image; do for him all good according to what he has done, (as) the protector of thy shrine for ever.”[164] The last words addressed to Osiris refer to the form of the statue. The chief physician of Saïs is standing upright, with his hands embracing a shrine which holds the mummy of Osiris. Whether the ancient Greeks derived their knowledge of medicine from Egypt or from India has often been debated; the evidence seems to show that Greece was indebted to India rather than to Egypt in this respect. Mr. Flinders Petrie concludes “that Europe had an indigenous civilization, as independent of Egypt and Babylonia as was the indigenous Aryan civilization of India; that this civilization has acquired arts independently, just as much as India has, and that Europe has given to the East as much as it has borrowed from there.”[165] Amongst the Egyptian fellahs some curious observances, says Mr. Flinders Petrie, are connected with accidental deaths. “Fires of straw are lighted, one month after the death, around the ground where the body has lain; and where blood has been shed, iron nails are driven into the ground, and a mixture of lentils, salt, etc., is poured out. These look like offerings to appease spirits, and the fires seem as if to drive away evil influences. Funeral offerings are still placed in the tombs for the sustenance of the dead, just as they were thousands of years ago.”[166] Modern Egyptians, like the ancient, wear written charms against sickness and disease. “Magical preparations of all sorts are frequently used as remedies in illness, and in even serious cases the patient is made to swallow pieces of paper inscribed with texts from the Koran, and to try various similar absurd means, before a physician is applied to.”[167] CHAPTER II. JEWISH MEDICINE. The Jews indebted to Egypt for their Learning.—The only Ancient People who discarded Demonology.—They had no Magic of their own.—Phylacteries.—Circumcision.—Sanitary Laws.—Diseases in the Bible.—The Essenes.—Surgery in the Talmud.—Alexandrian Philosophy.—Jewish Services to Mediæval Medicine.—The Phœnicians.