In the twelfth century the work of the convents was greatly enlarged, ceased to be chiefly aristocratic, and received women of all classes. They gradually lowered in moral tone as they became popular, the wealthy ceased to furnish them with resources, and those not richly endowed found life a struggle. This afforded an excuse for confiscation of their estates, and for the disbanding of many. In this manner their extinction was practically certain, even had not the Reformation given vigorous incentive to their abolition.

From the seventh to the fourteenth centuries the convents afforded women almost their only opportunity for systematic culture. Limited as was the training they afforded in letters and philosophy, it surpassed that of all men except those educated for the church. They were in several regions of developing civilization, as in Ireland, among the Anglo-Saxons, and in Saxony, centers of light and learning for the whole country around. When the universities began to appear in the twelfth century the convents were no longer to the same degree demanded as places for the pres-ervation of books and knowledge. As the universities grew the interest in the training of women lessened. Offering no intellectual aid to women, they caused a distinct diminution in the demand for their education. This tendency increased to the time of the Reformation, when, owing to the abolition of the convents, there resulted a period of two or three centuries, in all northern lands, during which the intellectual training of women largely ceased.

Bibliography.

Germanic Origins: A Study of Primitive Culture, by Francis B. Gummere. The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-Speaking Nations, by Paul B. du Chaillu, 2 vols. Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law, by Henry Adams and others. Primitive Folk-Moots or Open-air Assemblies in Britain, George L. Gomme. Italy and Her Invaders, by_Thomas Hodgkin. Mediaeval Europe (814-1300), by Ephraim Emerton, Civilization during the Middle Ages, by George Burton Adams. The Feudal Regime, by Charles Seignobos. Law and Politics in the Middle Ages, by Edward Jenks. Feudalism: Its Rise, Progress,

and Consequences, by J. T. Abdy. Mediaeval England: English Feudal Society from the Norman Conquest to the Middle of the Fourteenth Century, by Mary Bateson. Chivalry, by F. W. Cornish, in Social England Series. The Spirit and Influence of Chivalry, by J. Batty. The Troubadours at Home: Their Lives and their Personalities, their Songs, and their World, by Justin H. Smith, 2 vols. The Troubadours and Courts of Love, by John Frederick Rowbotham, in the Social England Series. The System of Courtly Love, studied as an Introduction to the Vita Nuova of Dante, by Lewis Freeman Mott. The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, by William Allan Neilson, being vol. VI in Studies and Notes in Philololgy and Literature. The Great Epics of Mediaeval Germany, by George Theodore Dippold. Old German Love Songs translated from the Minnesingers of the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Centuries, by Frank C. Nicholson. The Troubadours: Their Lives and their Loves, by John Rutherford. Woman under Monasticism, by Lina Eckenstein. Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard, by Comte de Montalembert, 7 vols. A Short History of Monks and Monasteries, by Alfred Wesley Wishart. Legends of the Monastic Orders in the Fine Arts, by Anna Jameson. Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Paul Sabatier. A History of Politics, by Edward Jenks, in The Temple Primers.

IV. The Voyage of the Nile---The Tombs of the Barons---Abydos and Denderah*

By James H. Breasted

Professor of Egyptology and Oriental History, and Director Haskell Oriental Museum, University of Chicago.

T

HOUSANDS of visitors who annually flock to the Nile

are not content to stop at Cairo, but push on up the river to Thebes, or beyond to the cataract, or even above into Nubia. Memphis, Heliopolis, the cities of the Delta, indeed all the cities of the North have perished, as we have seen. He who would gain some idea of the architecture of the Nile must make the voyage of the river. Several lines of tourist-steamers now run frequently between Cairo and the cataract. They carry large parties well organized for rapid movement, but how often has my sympathy been stirred at the sight of these long lines of weary and perspiring sight-seers, toiling through the sand and gathering about to listen to the perfunctory drone of the supercilious dragoman, as out of the abundant fullness of his unspeakable ignorance, he pours forth a flood of stupidity, misinformation and intentional lies regarding the monument to be admired by his confiding hearers for just thirteen minutes, before they plunge on to the next, where a similar infliction awaits them. It would be a matter of no great difficulty for

*Copyright, 1909, by James Henry Breasted.

Earlier articles of the series were: I. "The Nile Dwellers and Their Land," September; II. "Alexandria and Cairo," October; III. "The Pyramids and Sphinx-Memphis and Heliopolis," November.

these tourist agencies to organize a body of intelligent and well-informed European guides, who would be of real service to the traveler, in place of these stupid and ignorant native dragomans, who, because of their picturesqueness I suppose, the companies now impose upon their unsuspecting patrons. If the traveler's means and leisure will permit, he should escape the discomfort of numbers, unavoidably involved in the steamer party, and with a few chosen friends make the voyage in a "dahabiyeh."

The name "dahabiyeh" means "golden," and has for centuries been the term applied by Nile boatmen to the cabin sail-boats plying the river, because such boats were formerly employed only by the rich and were sumptuously decorated with gold. They are long and narrow craft with a high awning-covered poop-deck occupying the after half of the vessel. The cabin under this deck contains a dining room in the middle, while in front of it are pantries, storage cupboards and servants' berths, and behind it are small sleeping rooms with a dressing room for the occupants at the after end. The kitchen is perched like a drygoods box on the bow forward of the mast, where a native cook trained in some Cairo kitchen prepares marvelous dinners. The crew live and sleep on the deck forward of the cabin. The awning-covered high poop-deck is an out-door sitting room. It is of course furnished with chairs, settees, hammocks, a writing table and other conveniences. With good servants, a capable cook, a dragoman to act as steward and not as cicerone, a small library of the right books on the country and a sufficient preparatory course of reading behind one, the voyage of the Nile in such a craft remains an experience unique and ineffaceable, a source of joy and an inspiring memory through all after life. After such a voyage who will not sigh for the dreamy days on that awning-deck, lulled asleep by the lapping of the swift flowing waters or the melodious chant of the sailors as they bend to the heavy sweeps. Again the eye wanders languidly over the far still landscape glowing with vivid green under

the golden sunshine. The verdant plain is dotted here and there with palm groves, beneath which nestle picturesque little villages of mud huts looking out in sombre grey against the deep green of the palms and fields, just as they have done these thousands of years, save where now and then the white gleam of the Moslem minaret proclaims the Egypt of today. The boat skims on often but a few yards from the dry clods and waving grain of the fields that come down to the margin of the river. The waters have dropped till the deck where we lie is just on a level with the billowy top of the grain. Tiny lads come running along the margin, but a yard or two from our rail and on a level with it; their brown bodies shine in the sun, as they turn ludicrous cart-wheels for the amusement of the traveler, in the hope that he will throw out a biscuit as reward. So close is the green that we seem to be floating out over the sweet fields, fragrant with lupins, and we wish the tall white figure at the helm just behind us would swing the tiller and carry us far out over the emerald floor to the faint yellow cliffs which rise yonder behind the palms. They are broken and indistinct now in the waves of the tremulous heat, and all the land takes on a magic of wondrous gold as the sun sinks into such a pageant of color as no other sky displays. The weird song of the fellah bending to the heavy shadoof floats out on the heavy evening air, and white figures steal out from the village to the water's edge to bathe and then bow down with face toward Mecca, rising and bowing, rising and bowing till the boat passes on and they are lost in the dusk. Now the strong north wind that has borne us southward all day dies slowly down, the huge triangular sail on the mainyard flaps ominously against the foremast, and presently as the sharp voice of the old ra'ees breaks the silence a score of agile white figures move swiftly up the enormous yard rising sharply against the pallor of the first faint stars. Like flies the white forms lie along it distributed to the very tip of the lofty spar as they gather in the great sail and house it securely for the night. With only the mizzen sail