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Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 06 by Georg Ebers
page 45 of 79 (56%)
faithfully to the old traditions. Not less than a hundred generations of
my ancestors, and of yours, and of many other priestly families, have
lived and died here by the banks of the Nile--of Rameses race we have
seen ten, and only know of them that they descend from strangers, from
the caste of Amu! He is like all the Semitic race; they love to wander,
they call us ploughmen,--[The word Fellah (pl. Fellahin) means ploughman]
--and laugh to scorn the sober regularity with which we, tilling the dark
soil, live through our lives to a tardy death, in honest labor both of
mind and body. They sweep round on foraying excursions, ride the salt
waves in ships, and know no loved and fixed home; they settle down
wherever they are tempted by rapine, and when there is nothing more to be
got they build a house in another spot. Such was Seti, such is Rameses!
For a year he will stop in Thebes, then he must set out for wars in
strange lands. He does not know how to yield piously, or to take advice
of wise counsellors, and he will not learn. And such as the father is,
so are the children! Think of the criminal behavior of Bent-Anat!"

"I said the kings liked foreigners. Have you duly considered the
importance of that to us? We strive for high and noble aims, and have
wrenched off the shackles of the flesh in order to guard our souls. The
poorest man lives secure under the shelter of the law, and through us
participates in the gifts of the spirit; to the rich are offered the
priceless treasures of art and learning. Now look abroad: east and west
wandering tribes roam over the desert with wretched tents; in the south a
debased populace prays to feathers, and to abject idols, who are beaten
if the worshipper is not satisfied. In the north certainly there are
well regulated states, but the best part of the arts and sciences which
they possess they owe to us, and their altars still reek with the
loathsome sacrifice of human blood. Only backsliding from the right is
possible under the stranger, and therefore it is prudent to withdraw from
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