SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Undor this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other 'arms.] Egypt of Yesterday and To-day. By Percy Withers. (Grant Richards. 6s. net.)—Mr. Withers does not take account of Herodotus when he says that "Legend was the only means known to antiquity of explaining the yearly doings of the Nile." If he will turn to the Second Book of the "Histories" he will find that the Greeks had various theories of the cause, one of them not very far from the truth, except that for rain in the African interior it put snow. Homer may be said to have guessed right when he speaks of the river as Stmerhs, "fallen from heaven,"—i.e., swollen by rain. Herodotus, it is true, complains that the Egyptians could give him no information ; perhaps they put him off with the legend about the tear of This which Mr. Withers mentions. This is not a very good start for the book; but as we proceed we are better pleased. The author Las the gift of observation, he can describe effectively what he sees, and he has a satisfactory knowledge of Egyptian history to make a background for his pictures of the present. Thebes, its temples and its tombs, is in particular a good piece of description. Then he does not forget that his title commits him to deal with things more recent even than the Ptolemies. "Yesterday" refers better to the Egypt of our era. Accordingly we have an account of the monastery of St. Simeon. One chapter is given to Philae. From this we gather that the place with all its beauties is to be, in fact is already, sacrificed to the general interests of the country. The great reservoir will increase incalculably the comfort of the people. No work of the kind can be compared to it. No one can say that the price ought not to have been paid; but it is certainly high. This is a book which any one may read with pleasure, and which the traveller in Egypt who is not wholly occupied with thinking about his lungs will find particularly useful.
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