Part 7

A, White or albumen. B, Vitelline membrane. C, Chalaza. D, White yolk. E, Germinal disc. F, Shell. G, Air space. H, Shell membrane. K, Yellow yolk.]

EGG, (1) in the narrower sense, the female reproductive or germ-cell, which after impregnation or fertilization by a male germ-cell (spermatozoon or sperm) develops into an embryo. (See _Ovum_.) (2) The term is applied, more broadly, to a more complicated reproductive body that consists of an ovum together with supplementary parts. The egg of a bird, for example, includes the fertilized and developing ovum (yolk), nutritive white (albumen), and protective double egg membrane covered by a porous calcareous shell. The eggs of animals lower than the birds have usually only three parts, viz. the germinal spot or dot, the germinal vesicle, and the vitellus or yolk; the first being contained in the vesicle, and that again in the yolk. The common domestic fowl, the turkey, the pea-hen, and the common duck produce the eggs which are commonest in the market. The eggs of the green plover (_Vanellus cristatus_) are esteemed as a delicacy. The hard roes of fishes are the ovaries, containing innumerable eggs (over nine millions in the cod). The salted hard roes of the sturgeon are known as caviare. A hen's egg of good size weighs about 1000 grams, of which the white constitutes 600, the yolk 300, and the shell 100. When the white of an egg is warmed it coagulates to a firm opaque mass. Eggs form an important article in British commerce; the number imported in 1919 amounted to the value of L8,613,000, mainly from Russia, Denmark, Austria, France, and Italy.

EGG, an island of Scotland. See _Eigg_.

EGGA, a town of N. Nigeria, on the right bank of the Niger, about 70 miles above the junction of the Binue. Pop. 10,000.

EGGAR, or EGGER, a name given to moths of the family Lasiocampidae. _Lasiocampa trifolii_, a well-known British moth, is called the grass-egger, and the _L. quercus_ the oak-egger, from the food of their caterpillars.

EGG-BIRD, or SOOTY TERN (_Sterna fuliginosa_), a bird of considerable commercial importance in the West Indies, as its eggs, in common with those of two other species of tern, form an object of profitable adventure to the crews of numerous small vessels.

EGGLESTON, Edward, American novelist and miscellaneous writer, born in 1837, died in 1902. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Church, was engaged in pastoral work for some years, afterwards as pastor of an independent church founded by himself. He wrote and edited much, among his books being: _The Hoosier Schoolmaster_ (1871), which first appeared in _Hearth and Home_; _The End of the World_: _A Love Story_; _Roxy_, a highly popular novel (1878); _The Hoosier Schoolboy_; _The Graysons_; _Household History of the United States_; _The Faith Doctor_. His novels are marked by abundance of incident, skilful handling of dialect, and realistic portraiture.

EGG-PLANT, or BRINJAL (_Sol[=a]num melong[)e]na_), nat. ord. Solanaceae, an herbaceous plant, from 1 foot to 18 inches high, with large white or purplish flowers. The fruit is about the size of a goose's egg, and generally yellow, white, or violet, and when boiled or stewed is used as an article of food. It is cultivated in India, the United States, &c., and in European hothouses. There are several other species of egg-plants, as _S. indicum_ and _S. sodomeum_.

EGHAM, an urban district of England, county of Surrey, on the Thames opposite Staines, about 21 miles from London, with the Royal Holloway College for women, and the Holloway Sanatorium. Near it is Runnymede, where King John signed Magna Charta.

EGIL SKALLAGRIM, an Icelandic bard or poet of the tenth century, who distinguished himself by his warlike exploits in predatory invasions of Scotland and Northumberland. Having fallen into the hands of a hostile Norwegian prince, he procured his freedom by the composition and recitation of a poem called _Egil's Ransom_, which is still extant.

EGINHARD, or EINHARD, friend and biographer of Charles the Great (Charlemagne), born in Maingau (East Franconia) about 770, died in 840. He was educated in the monastery at Fulda, and his capacity attracted the attention of Charles, who made him superintendent of public buildings, and of whom he became the constant companion. He also enjoyed the favour of his son Louis the Pious. His later years were passed at M[:u]hlheim-on-the-Main, where he founded a monastery. His _Vita Caroli Magni_ is a work of great value, and his letters are also important.

EG'LANTINE, one of the names of the sweetbrier (_Rosa rubiginosa_), a kind of wild rose. The name has sometimes been erroneously used for other species of the rose and for the honeysuckle.

EG'MONT, Lamoral, Count, Prince of Gavre, was born in 1522, of an illustrious family of Holland. He adopted a military career, accompanied Charles V in his African expeditions, and distinguished himself under Philip II in the battles of St. Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558). Philip having gone to Spain, Egmont soon became involved in the political and religious disputes which arose between the Netherlands and their Spanish rulers. He tried to adjust the difficulties between both parties, and in 1565 went to Spain to arrange matters with Philip. He was well received, sent back with honour, but quite deceived as to the king's real intentions. In 1567 the Duke of Alva was sent with an army to the Netherlands to reduce the insurgents. One of his first measures was to seize Count Egmont and Count Horn. After a trial before a tribunal instituted by Alva himself they were executed at Brussels 5th June, 1568. A well-known drama of Goethe's is founded on the story of Egmont.

E'GOISM, as a philosophical doctrine, the view that the elements of all knowledge and the reality of the things known are dependent on the personal existence of the knower. This theory is also called Subjective Idealism or Solipsism. It maintains that his individual ego is the only being that a man can logically assert to exist. As an ethical theory (practical egoism) it is the opposite of altruism. It maintains that the governing principle of conduct for the individual is his own good on the whole, and that self-interest is the basis of morality. Egoism is to be distinguished from egotism, which denotes the practice of putting forward or dwelling upon oneself, of thinking, talking, or writing about oneself.

EGREMONT, a town of England, in Cumberland, in the valley of the Ehen, 3 miles from the sea, giving name to a parliamentary division. It has ruins of an ancient (twelfth century) castle associated with a legend that served Wordsworth as the subject of a poem. Iron-ore and limestone are worked. Pop. 6300.

EG'RET, a name given to those species of white herons which have the feathers of the lower part of the back elongated and their webs disunited, reaching to the tail or beyond it at certain seasons of the year. Their forms are more graceful than those of common herons. The American egret (_Ard[)e]a egretta_) is about 37 inches long to the end of the tail; plumage soft and blended; head not crested; wings moderate; the tail short, of twelve weak feathers. The European egret (_A. alba_) is about 40 inches long, of a pure white plumage; the bill is black or dark brown, yellow at the base and about the nostrils, and the legs are almost black. The little egret (_A. garzetta_) is about 22 inches long from bill to end of tail, the plumage is white. The term egret is used in the feather trade for a bunch of the loose plumes, valued as an ornament.

EGYPT (from Gr. _Aiguptos_) is, as Herodotus has said, "the gift of the Nile". This great river, about 4000 miles in length, rises as the White Nile, three degrees south of the equator, drawing its waters from the Central African lakes. To the south of Khartoum, and 1350 miles from the sea, it is joined by the Blue Nile, which rises in the mountains of Abyssinia, and about 140 miles farther on it is fed by the Atbara, its last tributary. On the tableland of Nubian sandstone between Khartoum and Elephantine the river forms two great loops, and is intercepted by shallows or cataracts, of which there are six in all. The 'first cataract'--the last on the journey northward--is at Assouan, where a ridge of intercepting granite crops up. At Edfu, about 68 miles farther north, the limestone formation is entered, and the Nile then flows uninterrupted between flanking hills that here and there attain the height of 1000 feet. Egypt proper extends from Assouan to the Mediterranean. At a distance of about 100 miles from the sea the Nile divides into the branches forming the Delta. To the south of Cairo it sends out the Bahr Yusuf, a branch about 200 miles long, which flows into the fertile Fayum. The narrow valley, the average breadth of which is 10 miles, is 'the land of Egypt'. Its cultivable area is not so large as Belgium, being under 10,000 sq. miles in extent. Rain falls to the north of Cairo, but in Upper Egypt there are showers only once in every three or four years. The fertility of the country is due to the Nile. Each year the great river rises in flood when the equatorial lakes are suddenly swollen by heavy tropical rains and the snow melts in the Abyssinian mountains. The mean summer heat is 83deg F. in the Delta and 122deg F. in the valley. It is a dry heat, not so oppressive as that of India, and malaria is practically unknown. The most trying part of the year is during the period of 'Low Nile'. Before the surplus waters were stored in the Assouan Dam, the river shrank so low that its flow seemed uncertain. For about two months the hot and blistering 'hanseen' (or 'sand-wind') keeps blowing. A new season is ushered in by the cool north wind--the Etesian wind of the Greeks--which clears the accumulated dust from vegetation. It is lauded in ancient texts by priestly poets and Pharaohs. About the same time the conspicuous star Sirius makes its appearance. It was anciently regarded as a form of the Mother Goddess. On the 'Night of the Drop', in June, a fertilizing tear was supposed to fall from this star, and thereafter the 'new Nile' was born. For about four days (before the Assouan Dam was constructed) the rising river flowed green, the slimy matter on the marshes of Upper Egypt being pushed forward by the 'new water'. This was the 'Green Nile'. Then the Nile turned blood-red with Abyssinian clay. This was the 'Red Nile'. As soon as the fertilizing 'new water' touched the parched sands, Egypt awoke to new life. Countless insects appeared, new grass and flowers sprang up, and trees and shrubs broke into brilliant blossoms that filled the air with sweet perfume. Bursting over its banks, the steadily rising river flooded the valley generously and refreshingly. According to the Coptic Calendar, the inundation season lasted from June till September, the seed-time from October till January, and the harvest began in February.

_Early Religion and Civilization._--In its earliest phases the religion of ancient Egypt reflected the natural phenomena of the Nile Valley in their relation to the needs, experiences, and achievements of mankind. The flood was an annual 'miracle of mercy', and the early people tried to account for it. They concluded it was a gift of the gods. It ensured the food-supply; it brought health and relief from the oppressive heat endured when the sand-wind prevailed and the river was low. The new water was 'the water of life'; it fertilized the parched soil and caused barley and millet (which grew wild in the Delta) to spring up, trees to yield fruit, and curative herbs to appear on the river banks. In the prehistoric period the Nile was identified with Osiris, who, according to the traditions of the Delta people, once reigned as their king, and introduced the agricultural mode of life which made it possible for large and growing communities to dwell in the narrow valley. In the Pyramid Texts (_c._ 2700 B.C.) Osiris is the controller of the Nile, the principle of life in the Nile, and the Nile itself. In one of his phases the god is the 'Green One'--the Green Nile. A Pyramid Text reads: "Horus comes! He beholds his father in thee, Green One, in thy name of Water of Greenness". The soul-substance (literally 'the seed') of Osiris was the vital principle in the green or new water. Osiris was the serpent-soul in the water, and the serpent (leviathan) of the ocean which 'encircled the netherworld'. The god is addressed in a Pyramid Text: "Thou art great, thou art green in thy name of Great Green" (Mediterranean Sea). Osiris was slain by Set, and his life-blood was the Red Nile, which entered the soil and vegetation. Osiris was not regarded as the Green One because vegetation is green; the ancient Egyptians appear to have attributed the greenness of vegetation to the Green Nile, the soul-substance of Osiris. The sap of shrubs and trees was 'Blood'--the blood of the god. Osiris continued to live after death. On earth he was in barley, fruit, &c., and in the fertilized soil. He was in the other world Judge and King of the Dead. In his underworld Paradise the souls of the dead grew corn and cultivated fruit-trees--the 'food of life'. The Osirian cult had origin in the Delta of Lower Egypt. In Upper Egypt a solar cult exalted Horus, the falcon god, as chief deity. Their heaven was beyond the sky 'to the east'. In the Pyramid Texts there is clear evidence that the solar cult believed the souls of the dead went eastward, while the Osirian cult believed they went westward. Osiris was called 'First of the Westerners'. The 'Easterners' of the south (Upper Egypt) conquered the 'Westerners' of the north (Lower Egypt), and Egypt was united into a single kingdom by the traditional King Mena, with whom begins the dynastic history of Egypt. This conquest appears to have been due to the introduction of copper weapons.

The idea that the Horites were invaders from Arabia or Mesopotamia has been abandoned. Copper was anciently found in the wadis of Upper Egypt and on the shores of the Red Sea. After boat-building and navigation were well advanced copper was mined in Sinai. According to Egyptian evidence, Edfu was the centre of the early copper industry and of the Horus cult. As Egyptian copper is naturally hard, it required no amalgam. Egypt, therefore, never had a Bronze Age, nor had it a Neolithic Age. The copper artifacts were imitations of Palaeolithic forms of the Solutrian type. After the conquest there occurred fusions of religious cults. Local pantheons reflected local politics. But although the sun-cult of Heliopolis exalted Ra [Illustration: Painted inner wooden coffin of Pen-Amen-Neb-Nest-Taui, a prophet of the God Amen and of the Goddess Bast at Thebes.] [Illustration: Types of Columns from Egyptian Temples.] (or Re) as King of the Gods, the belief that all that existed originated in water persisted till the end. The water-mother was Hathor, who gave birth to Osiris. As the Nile was supposed to come from heaven, she was the sky-goddess; her animal was the primeval cow of a pre-dynastic cult, and she was the shell-spirit of water as well--the Egyptian Aphrodite. The shell, pearl, cow, sky, sun, moon, and stars were connected with Hathor as Nut. Ra, the sun-god, was, like Osiris, regarded as her son. Her attributes were in time absorbed by Isis. At the dawn of the Dynastic Age the religious beliefs of the Egyptian peoples were already well developed, the agricultural mode of life was established in the Nile Valley and in the Delta area, the calendar had been introduced, while copper weapons and implements were in use. The subsequent history of the official religion has a political aspect. Local cults rose into prominence as a city-state or ruling family achieved political ascendancy. Memphite theology and the Memphite god Ptah (the god of artisans) assumed importance when the city of Memphis became the capital of the united kingdom. Heliopolis ('the city of the sun') was the northern centre of the solar cult, which, during the fourth and fifth dynasties (_c._ 2900-2625 B.C.), became influential enough to impose its theology on the court. The popular Osirian faith was absorbed. Pharaohs were 'Sons of Ra', the sun-god, and Ra supplanted the southern sun-god Horus. Before the Pyramid Age the Osirian and Horite cults had been blended, and Horus became the son of Osiris. Although the living Pharaoh, however, was the son of Ra, he was also a Horus; after death he became an Osiris. The culture-blending process introduced many complexities. During the twelfth dynasty (2000-1788 B.C.) the name of the Theban god Amon entered into royal names. But the permanent political ascendancy of Amon of Thebes really followed upon the expulsion of the Hyksos military aristocracy about 1580 B.C. By this time the northern sun cult's influence had become sufficiently strong to have Ra blended with the Theban deity who was subsequently known as Amon-Ra. Before the close of the eighteenth dynasty (_c._ 1350 B.C.) a royal sun cult, promoted by Pharaoh Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), exalted Aton, the sun-disc, as sole god of Egypt and the rest of the world. The Amon-Ra cult regained its political ascendancy with the rise of the nineteenth dynasty. In later times the chief gods of the reigning families were blended forms of Amon, Ra, Ptah, and Osiris. Not only the gods, but the rival Paradises, were blended. Osiris's under-world Paradise was transferred to the mythical other world beyond the horizon, and the sun-barque of the sun-god, which carried the soul of the Pharaoh, was supposed to touch at 'the port of Paradise'. It went westward and passed through the under-world, and emerged again next morning at dawn in the east. The contradictions in the Egyptian religious texts are believed to be mainly due to the blending of beliefs regarding the fate of man which were originally fundamentally different. Local deities were embraced in the official theology, but at their centres remained prominent and influential. But these, too, were in time so strongly influenced by the solar and Osirian faiths that they suffered in no small degree loss of identity except in name. The religious beliefs of Egypt as a whole were never completely systematized. There were no heresies because there were no orthodox beliefs. Any religious cult was tolerated, so long as it acknowledged the supremacy of the god or pantheon of the ruling family. In the later period the cult of Serapis (Asar Hapi), the bull form of Osiris, was popular.

_Arts and Crafts._--Art developed in ancient Egypt under religious patronage. The earliest use made of Nubian gold was in manufacturing imitation luck-shells worn by the pre-dynastic peoples. Gold thus acquired a religious significance; at an early period it was associated with the sun-deity--the mother-goddess in her solar aspect was called 'Golden Hathor'. The hieroglyph for gold (_nub_) is a collar of beads. Exquisite gold ornaments in symbolic shapes were produced during the early dynasties. No finer gold ornaments have ever been produced anywhere than those of the twelfth dynasty (_c._ 2000 B.C.). These include chased gold pectoral ornaments and coronets and crowns inlaid with stones. When copper was first introduced it was used like gold. After implements were made of copper, vases of alabaster, diorite, &c., were worked with increasing skill and taste. The hardest stone was hewn and dressed for building purposes. No people have ever shown greater skill than the Egyptians in their stonework. The sculptors set themselves, when constructing temples, to imitate in stone the lashed palm-sticks, reeds, and papyrus stems used in the earliest shrines to stiffen the mud walls. Massive temple pillars were decorated with lotus petals, rose petals, &c. The early artists, who carved ivory, began to work in stone after copper implements were invented, and produced low reliefs in temples and tomb-chapels. Statuary in limestone, wood, and copper in the early dynastic period was vigorous and realistic. The sculptors were using the hardest material by the time of the Pyramid Age (_c._ 2700 B.C.). A great tomb-statue of Pharaoh-Khafra, in diorite, preserved in the Cairo Museum, is one of the triumphs of Egyptian sculpture. The Empire-period sculpture reached a high level of excellence. It was to provide 'soul-bodies' for dead Pharaohs that these great works of art were produced. A great advance in the manufacture of pottery was achieved during the Pyramid Age, when the potter's wheel was invented. To Egypt the ancient world owed this notable contrivance. It was introduced in time into Babylonia, Iran, India, China, Crete, Greece, and Western Europe. Shipbuilding is another Egyptian industry which promoted progress. Cretan and Phoenician vessels were of Egyptian design. In all histories of shipping and navigation the ancient Egyptians are credited with being the pioneers of maritime enterprise. The custom of mummification arose in Egypt, and promoted the study of anatomy. Surgery had its origin in mummification, as astronomy had in astrology, and chemistry had in alchemy. Connected with each temple were architects, artists and sculptors, metal-workers and dyers. Ships were constructed to obtain wood for temples and to import pearls, precious stones, herbs, incense-bearing shrubs and trees, &c., for religious purposes. In the history of early civilization the Egyptian priests play a prominent part as patrons of the arts and crafts.