We went to a brilliant workshop on Egyptian medicine on Monday. It started with a 7 metre long time line, where 1mm represented 1 year and key events in Egyptian history were marked out along it. It was a very clear visual of both how long ago the Egyptian civilisation flourished and how long it lasted, especially when put in context with the centimeter that represented Hannah's life!
The people running it are storytellers and presented themselves as Egyptian priests as physical cures were always accompanied by spells, which were, in effect, requests for the gods to help and not hinder the patient.
After hearing about Egyptian views on religion and medicine, we proceeded to make cures for burns, cataracts and joint pain. I tried the burn one, with appropriate spell, on the burn on my hand but it hurt a lot worse than without the cure. Maybe it;s because the "hair of a ram" was in fact a white nylon wig and I have a suspicion that the "milk from a mother nursing a newborn boy" may have been the milk of a cow kept in a shed with no calf of either sex.
Finally, we heard a genuine Egyptian story, of which the end was missing from the papyrus so we heard two different possible endings. In both, though, the faithful dog drowned which made Hannah and me cry!
On Tuesday, we got the results of Hannah's guitar exam and she passed with distinction. She is immensely proud of herself and so she should be...she worked really hard.
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