Horus was the last of the divine race of kings. After him, some traditions said that dynasties of demigods and of manes ruled before King Mena ascended the throne, but the name by which the Egyptians always distinguished the inhabitants of the land in prehistoric times was _Horshesu_—followers of Horus. There were certain cities also in Egypt whose foundation was assigned to those prehistoric times. The twin cities Thinis-Abydos were, so far as we know, the most ancient in the land. Thinis was the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy: the first Egyptian dynasties were Thinite, and Mena went from thence to found his new capital. But Abydos was revered as the burial-place and shrine of Osiris himself, and many devout Egyptians in following ages directed their own tombs to be prepared and their bodies laid in this consecrated spot. The origin of Pa-Ra,[4] the City of the Sun, is also lost in remote antiquity. It stood not far from Memphis, and is better known to us by the name of On. It was the centre of the worship of Ra, as Abydos was of the worship of Osiris, but there was no jealousy or rivalry between the two. They were, in fact, essentially one, and the same individual might be priest or priestess of both sanctuaries. On was famous from time immemorial as a seat of learning, and its priesthood was held in high repute. The city itself was of small dimensions. ‘The walls may yet be traced,’ says Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, ‘enclosing an irregular square of about half a mile in the measure of each of its sides.’ And of this limited space the great temple of Ra must have occupied about half. The population, one would think, must have been mainly composed of scholars, as the priests’ dwellings would be within the temple precincts. Hither came the young men of Egypt—who shall say how many thousand years ago!—to learn all that the priests could teach at this, the most ancient university of the world. Nor were the priests, who carefully cultivated and taught the various branches of learning, by any means an exclusive caste. They had family ties, mixed in social life, and could hold other than priestly dignities. A royal prince was often priest of a temple, and a priest might be a warrior, an architect, or a court official. So far as we can gather, the teaching at an Egyptian university would comprise a knowledge of the sacred books, besides general teaching in morality. The study of the language itself must have been a somewhat arduous undertaking even for a native-born Egyptian, and to write the hieroglyphic characters, required considerable skill, and even art.[5] Many branches of science must have been pursued—medicine, law, geometry, astronomy, and chemistry, whilst in mechanics a quite marvellous proficiency was attained. Music too was highly prized and carefully taught, and it is not unlikely that architects and sculptors also received their training in these schools.