chapter 2.

"Brugsch explains the name Egypt by 'ha-ka-ptah,' i. e. 'the precinct of Ptah.' As Ptah was more especially the god of Memphis, this name would have come from Memphis."

_M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 1, chapter 1, note._

"The last use of Kem died out in the form Chemi in Coptic, the descendant of the classical language, which ceased to be spoken a century ago. It survives among us in the terms 'chemistry' and 'alchemy,' sciences thought to be of Egyptian origin."

_R. S. Poole, Cities of Egypt, introduction._

EGYPT: Its Historical Antiquity.

The lists of Egyptian kings which have been found "agree in presenting the name of Mena [or Menes] as that of the first Pharaoh of Egypt, and as such he is unhesitatingly accepted, although no contemporary monumental record of the fact has yet been discovered. According to Manetho, the age of Mena dates back to a period of 5,004 years before the Christian era, a date which is nearly equal to 7,000 years from the present day. Brugsch favours a somewhat less interval, namely, 4455 B. C.; others place it as low as 2700 B. C., whilst Birch and Chabas adopt a medium date, namely 4000 B. C., which is equivalent to 6000 years backward from the existing time. These extreme variations are chiefly referable to the difficulty of ascertaining the precise length of each individual reign, and especially to the occasional contemporaneous reign of two or more kings, and sometimes the existence of two or more dynasties in different parts of the empire. ... Lieblein gives full credit to the chronology of Manetho [a priest of Heliopolis, who wrote about 260 B. C.], as recorded by the historian Africanus, as likewise did the distinguished Mariette, and differs very little from the standard adopted by Birch. He assigns to Mena, as the pioneer of the first monarchy, a date in round numbers of 3900 years."

_E. Wilson, The Egypt of the Past, chapter 1._

"As to the era ... when the first Pharaoh mounted the throne, the German Egyptologers have attempted to fix it at the following epochs: Boeckh, B. C. 5702; Unger, 5613; Brugsch, 4455; Lauth, 4157; Lepsius, 3892; Bunsen, 3623. The difference between the two extreme points of the series is amazingly great, for its number of years amounts to no less than 2079. ... The calculations in question are based on the extracts already often mentioned from a work by the Egyptian priest Manetho on the history of Egypt. That learned man had then at his command the annals of his country's history, which were preserved in the temples, and from them, the best and most accurate sources, be derived the materials for his work, composed in the Greek language, on the history of the ancient Egyptian Dynasties. His book, which is now lost, contained a general review of the kings of the land, divided into Thirty Dynasties, arranged in the order of their names, with the lengths of their reigns, and the total duration of each dynasty. Though this invaluable work was little known and certainly but little regarded by the historians of the old classical age, large extracts were made from it by some of the ecclesiastical writers. In process of time the copyists, either by error or designedly, corrupted the names and the numbers, and thus we only possess at the present day the ruins instead of the complete building. The truth of the original, and the authenticity of its sources were first proved by the deciphering of the Egyptian writings. And thus the Manethonian list served, and still serves, as a guide for assigning to the royal names read on the monuments their places in the Dynasties."

_H. Brugsch-Bey, History of Egypt under the Pharaohs,