6　埃及谜语

埃及是人类最早开始用文字进行书写的地区之一。但埃及人并不像如今的我们，并不是用字母来书写，而是用有点儿像是图画的符号，比如一头狮子、一支长矛、一只小鸟或者一根鞭子来书写的。这种用图画书写出来的文字，就叫作“象形文字”；你们不妨将这个词多读几遍：象—形—文—字。或许，你们在报纸的谜语版里已经看到过用图画写成的、让你们去猜测意思的故事。是的，象形文字正像是这种故事。

上面这位埃及王后的名字，便是用象形文字写出来的。这种文字很是滑稽古怪，你们永远都猜不出她叫什么的。她叫“哈特谢普苏特”。你们能一口气读出来吗？它并没有乍一看的那么难吧。哈特—谢普—苏特。她可是人类历史上的第一位女性统治者哩。

国王或者王后的名字，四周通常都会画有线条，就像你们看到“哈特谢普苏特”这个名字周围有线条框住一样，其目的就是突出这个名字，使它显得更加重

prominently and give it more importance. It was something like the frame that we put around a fine picture to make it Hatshepsut in look better where it hangs on the wall.

There was no paper in those days and so the Egyptians wrote on the stalks of a plant called papyrus that grew in the water. They pressed the thick stalks until they were thin and flat and looked like paper.It is from this name papyrus that we get the name paper.Can you see that paper and papyrus look and sound something alike?The Egyptians'books were written by hand,of course,but they had no pencils nor pens nor ink with which to write.For a pen they used a reed,split at the end,and for ink a mixture of water and soot.

Their books were not made of separate pages like our books,but from long sheets of papyrus pasted together. This was rolled up to form what was called a scroll,something like a roll of wallpaper,and was read as it was unrolled.

Stories of their kings and battles and great events in their history they used to write on the walls of their buildings and monuments. This writing they carved into the stone,so that it would last much longer than that on the papyrus leaves.

All the old Egyptians,who wrote in hieroglyphics and knew how to read this writing,had died long since,and for a great many years no one knew what such writing meant. But a man found out by accident how to read and understand hieroglyphics once again.This is the way he happened to do so.

The Nile separates into different streams before it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. At the mouth of one of these streams is a port called Rosetta.

要。这就好像是我们会给一幅好画裱上边框，从而使得画作挂上墙后更好看那样。

由于那时没有纸张，所以古埃及人是在一种生长于水中、叫作“纸草”的植物茎秆上写字的。他们使劲按压纸草，直到厚厚的纸草茎秆变得又薄又平，看上去就像纸张似的。“纸张”（paper）一词，正是从“纸草”（papyrus）这个词而来的。“纸张”和“纸草”这两个词看起来、听上去都有点儿相似，你们发现了吗？古埃及人的书，当然是用手写成的；可他们却并没有写字所用的铅笔、钢笔和墨水。原来，他们是把芦苇的一头劈开做成钢笔，并用水和烟灰和起来当墨水的。

他们所写的书，可不像我们的图书那样分成一页一页，而是将长长的、一片一片的纸草粘在一起做成的。然后，他们将这种用纸草写成的书卷起来，形成我们所称的“卷轴”；它有点儿像是一卷墙纸，要看的时候就展开来。

他们常常把国王的经历、战争等重大的历史事件写在建筑物的墙壁或者纪念碑上。他们将这些文字刻在石头上，从而使之能够比纸草片上的文字更加长久地保存下去。

那些能够书写并阅读象形文字的古埃及人，很久、很久以前就全都死了，因此在很长一段时间里，都没有人明白这种文字的意思。不过，有个人却在无意当中发现了再次阅读和理解象形文字的方法。下面就来说一说这个人碰巧发现的办法。

尼罗河一路上分成了数条不同的支流，然后才流入地中海。在这些支流当中的一条河的入海口，有个叫作罗塞塔的港口。

One day some soldiers were digging near Rosetta when they found a stone,something like a tombstone with three kinds of writing on it. The top writing was in pictures,which we now call hieroglyphics,and no one understood what it meant.Below this was written what was supposed to be the same story in the Greek language,and a great many people do understand Greek.All one had to do,therefore,to find out the meaning of the hieroglyphics,was to compare the two writings.It was like reading secret writing when we know what the letters stand for.You may have tried to solve a puzzle in the back of your magazine,and this was just such an interesting puzzle,only there was no one to tell the answers.

The puzzle was not as easy as it sounds,however,for it took a clever man almost twenty years to solve it. That is a long time for anyone to spend in trying to solve a puzzle,isn't it?But after this key to the puzzle was found,men were able to read all of the hieroglyphics in Egypt and so to find out what happened in that country long ago.

This stone is called the Rosetta Stone. It is now in the great British Museum in London and is very famous,because from it we were able to learn so much history that we otherwise would not have known.

We know that Egypt was a fine place to live. It was chiefly on account of a habit of the river Nile—a bad habit you might at first think it—a habit of flooding the country once a year.

It rained so hard that the water filled up the river Nile,overflowed its banks,and spread water and mud far out over the land,but not very deep.

The people knew when the overflow was coming.They invented a calendar to keep

有一天，一些士兵正在罗塞塔附近一个地方进行挖掘的时候，发现了一块石头；这块石头有点儿像是墓碑，上面写着三种文字。最上面的那种文字是图画，即如今我们所称的象形文字，可没有人理解它的意思。图画之下，应当是用希腊语叙述了同一个故事，而很多人都懂得希腊语。因此，要想理解那些象形文字的意思，我们需要做的就是把两种文字进行比较。这就好比是我们在懂得了每个字所代表的意思后，再去阅读一封密信一样。你们可能都试过解出杂志背面的谜语，而这正像是一个有趣的谜语，只是没有人来告诉你们正确的答案是什么罢了。

然而，这个谜语可不像听上去那么容易，因为它让一个聪明人花了差不多二十年的时间才解答出来。对于任何一个试图解开谜语的人来说，这段时间都花得够久的，不是吗？不过，解开谜语的这把钥匙找到之后，人们就可以读懂古埃及的所有象形文字，从而了解那个国家很久以前的情况了。

这块石头，被人们称为“罗塞塔碑”。如今，它保存在伦敦的大英博物馆内，非常有名；因为从这块石头上，我们能够了解到大量的历史，而倘若没有这块石头，我们便无从得知这些历史。

我们知道，古埃及是个适合于人类生活的好地方。而这主要是由于尼罗河有一个习惯，那就是它每年都要让该国发一次洪水；乍一想来，你们可能会觉得这可不是个好习惯呢。

大雨滂沱之后，雨水便会注满尼罗河、漫过河堤，将河水和泥沙泛滥到陆地深

track of it. After most of the water dried up,it left a layer of rich,dark,moist earth over the whole valley.This was a natural fertilizer,like compost that some of your families may use in your own gardens.This fertile soil made it easy to grow dates,wheat,and other good things to eat.

We know also that Egypt was ruled by a king who was called a pharaoh. The first Egyptian king whose name we know was Menes.He came from southern Egypt and conquered the north.He united the country under his rule.He also declared that he was a god.So Egyptians believed that they should obey him both because he was king and because he was a god.Menes lived around 3100 B.C.

People in Egypt were divided into classes. Children in each class usually became what their parents had been.Only a very few ever got to move up.

The highest class of people were called priests. They were not like priests or ministers of a church nowadays,however,for there was no church at that time.The priests made the religion and rules,which everyone had to obey as everybody does the laws of our land.

The priests were not only priests；they were doctors and lawyers and engineers,as well.They were the best-educated class,and they were the only people who knew how to read and write,for it was very difficult,as you

处；不过，洪水和泥沙淹没得并不是很深。

那里的人们知道河水何时泛滥。他们发明了一种日历，来记录河水泛滥的时间。大部分洪水退去之后，便会在整个河谷里留下一层肥沃而湿润的黑土。这是一种天然的肥料，就像你们当中有些家庭会在自家花园里施用的粪肥一样。这种肥沃的土壤，使得人们很容易种植枣椰、小麦以及其他好吃的粮食作物。

我们还知道，古埃及是由一个被称作“法老”的国王统治着。我们所知的第一任埃及国王，名叫美尼斯。他来自古埃及南部，然后又征服了古埃及的北部。他将整个国家统一起来，置于自己的统治之下。他还宣称自己是神。由于他既是国王、又是神，所以古埃及人便都觉得，他们理应服从他的统治才是。美尼斯生活的时代，大约是在公元前3100年。

古埃及人被划分成了不同的等级。每个等级中的孩子，长大以后通常也属于父母所在的那个等级。只有极少数人，才会上升到较高的等级中去。

其中最高的那个等级，被称为“祭司”。然而，他们与如今教会里的神父或者牧师可不一样，因为那时还没有什么教会。祭司们负责制定宗教教义和教规教条，并且人人都得服从这些教义和规定，就像如今人人都得遵守国家的法律一样。

祭司们并非仅仅是祭司；他们还是医生、律师和工程技术人员。他们是受教育程度最高的一个等级，也只有他们才能读会写，因为正如你们可能认为的那样，学

might suppose,to learn how to read and write hieroglyphics.

The next highest class to the priests were the soldiers,and below these were the lower classes—farmers,shepherds,shopkeepers,merchants,mechanics,and last of all the swineherds.

The Egyptians did not worship one God as we do. They believed in hundreds of gods and goddesses,and they had a special god for every sort of thing,who ruled over and had charge of that thing—a god of the farms,a god of the home,and so on.Some of their gods were good and some were bad,but the Egyptians prayed to them all.

Osiris was the chief god,and Isis was his wife. Osiris was the god of farming and judge of the dead.Their son,Honrs,had the head of a falcon.

Many of their gods had bodies of men with heads of animals,animals they thought sacred. The dog and the cat were sacred animals.The ibis,which is a bird like a stork,was another.Then there was the beetle,which was called a scarab.If anyone killed a sacred animal he was put to death,for the Egyptians thought it much worse to kill a sacred and holy creature than to kill even a human being.

会阅读和书写象形文字是非常困难的。

次于祭司的第二个等级，便是武士了。祭司、武士这两个等级之下，是较低的等级，其中包括农民、牧民、店主、商人、手艺人；而最卑贱的一个等级，则是猪倌。

古埃及人不像我们这样只崇拜一个神。他们崇拜着数百位神灵，男神女神都有，并且每种东西都有一个特定的、主宰和掌管这种东西的神，比如农场有农神，家中有家神，如此等等。虽说他们崇拜的神灵中，既有善良之神，也有邪恶之神，但古埃及人都一视同仁地向这些神进行祈祷。

奥西里斯是古埃及人的主神，他的妻子是伊西斯。奥西里斯是农神和阴间的判官。他们的儿子荷鲁斯还长着一个鹰头呢。

古埃及人所崇拜的许多神灵，都有着人的身体、动物的脑袋，因为他们认为那些动物都很神圣。狗和猫都是圣兽。长得像鹳的朱鹭也是一种圣兽。还有金龟子，他们称之为圣甲虫。如果有人胆敢杀死一头圣兽，他就会被处死；因为古埃及人认为，杀死一种神圣生物的罪过，甚至要比杀死一个人的罪过更大。