and the river Nile, was denied to them, though so generally eaten by the Egyptians. On the 9th of the month Thoth, when a religious ceremony obliged the inhabitants at large to eat a fried fish before the door of their houses, the priests were exempted from the custom, and allowed to substitute the ceremony of burning theirs at the same time. In general they abstained from most sorts of pulse, and from mutton. In their more solemn purifications, salt was excluded from their meals. Some vegetables, however, were considered lawful food, and were preferred by them for their wholesome nature. The leguminous productions and fruits of Egypt are, indeed, frequently introduced into their sculptures; and Pliny and other authors speak of such as being abundant, and possessing the most excellent qualities. The priests of Egypt were equally severe in their ablutions as in their diet, maintaining the strictest observance of numerous religious customs connected with the act. They bathed twice a day, and twice during the night. Some who pretended to a more rigid observance of religious duties, washed themselves with water which had been tasted by the ibis, supposing that this was an evidence of its purity. They also shaved the head and the whole body every third day, sparing no pains to promote cleanliness, without indulging in the luxuries of a bath. A grand ceremony of purification took place preparatory to their fasts, many of which lasted from seven to fortytwo days, and sometimes even a longer period. During this period, they practised rigid abstinence as to food, and were careful to avoid the indulgence of the passions. The self-denial of the priests extended even to their dress, that being commonly of the most simple kind. Their robes of ceremony, however, were grand and imposing, and each grade was distinguished by its peculiar costume. Areia, the daughter of Diogenes, being priestess of Arsinoe, the daughter of Philadelphus : and Eirene, the daughter of Ptolemy, priestess of Arsinoe, the daughter of Philopator: and Pyrrha, the daughter of Philinus, being canefora, or 'basket-bearer' of Berenice, the daughter of Euergetes." Diodorus also asserts, that Athyrtis, the daughter of Sesostris, was priestess to her father, and that she foretold to him the future success of his arms, by which he was stimulated to prosecute his designs of conquest. The Military Power. The caste which ranked next to the sacerdotal caste in Egypt, was the military. The first mention of an organized military force in Egypt occurs, Exod. xiv. xv., where we find that Pharaoh assembled very quickly a large army, both of cavalry and infantry, to pursue the Hebrews; and that this army perished in "the mighty waters" of the Red Sea. The alacrity with which these were collected together, shows that a large force was constantly maintained, ready to march on any emergency. This warlike force consisted, indeed, of a numerous militia, which formed a caste by itself, whose occupation was hereditary, and which enjoyed great authority and high privileges. This militia was divided into two bodies, namely, the Hermotybies, and the Calasiries, the former of which consisted, at the date of their highest power, of 160,000, and the latter of 250,000 men. Herodotus relates, that they had for their subsistence certain nomes or provinces.* This property was, in general, let out to farmers, like that of the kings and priests, who paid them a certain rent. No soldier received pay, but every man had an estate of about twelve acres, exempt from every charge, which he might cultivate if he thought proper; beyond this they were not allowed to engage in any other occupation than that of arms. Each of these great military divisions furnished a thousand men to compose the king's personal guard. These men were changed every year, and during their service, Herodotus says, they were supplied with good rations of bread, meat, and wine, in addition to their own common re venues. Very little is known concerning the internal organization, the tactics, and discipline of the Egyptian army. It would appear that the king held the privilege of commanding that army; that the right was the post of honour; and that those soldiers who quitted their post, or were disobedient, were marked with infamy, but were enabled by good conduct to regain the position they had forfeited. They were divided into regiments, or battalions, each having its standard with a peculiar emblem raised on a pike, and carried by an officer. Their arms were the It is stated by Herodotus, that women were not eligible to the priesthood, either of a male or female deity, and that men alone were admitted to this post. This remark, however, evidently applies to the office of pontiff, or at least to some of the higher sacerdotal orders, from his referring in another place to women devoted to the service of Amun, as well as from the testimony of other authorities. There appear, indeed, to have been priestesses of the gods, and of the kings and queens, each of whom bore a title indicating her peculiar office. Of the former, the Pellices, or Pallacides, of Amun, are the most remarkable, as the importance of their post abundantly proves. They are the same whom Herodotus mentions as consecrated to the Theban Jove, whose sepulchres are still seen at Thebes, in a valley 3,000 feet behind the ruins of Medeenet Haboo. There was another class of priestesses of the same rank, apparently a subdivision of the same, who ful-bow, shield, sword, battle-axe, knife or dagger, filled certain duties entrusted only to the wives and daughters of priests, and not unusually to members of the same family as the Pallacides. These had also the privilege of holding the sacred sistra in religious ceremonies, before the altar, and were attached to the service of the same deity. In the Rosetta stone, direct mention is made of the priestesses of the queens. It speaks of spear, club, and sling. Their besieging engines were the battering-ram, the testudo, and the scaling-ladder. They had military music, con * The Hermotybies lived in the provinces of Busiris, Sais, Chemnis, Papremis, and the isle of Prosopitis, and half of Natho: the Calasiries inhabited those of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebenytus, Athribis, Pharbaethis, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anysis, and the isle of Myecphoris. sisting of a kind of drum, cymbals, pipe, trumpet, and other instruments. They were prepared for the fatigues of war by gymnastic exercises, such as wrestling, cudgelling, racing, sporting, and other games, of which, representations still exist on the monuments. Some authors assert, that Egypt was first furnished with cavalry after Sesostris had conquered Libya. But this directly opposes the testimony of Šcripture, from which source we learn that the Egyptians abounded in horses, and possessed numerous chariots, at the time of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, which was several ages anterior to this event. We know, indeed, from Gen. 1. 9, that the art of riding on horseback was known in Egypt in the days of the patriarch Jacob; and profane historians represent this art as an Egyptian invention, ascribing it either to Osiris himself, or to his son Orus, which intimates that they considered it to be of great antiquity. It seems to have been an object of ambition with the kings of Egypt to keep a great number of horses; for Diodorus mentions that some princes before Sesostris had a hundred stables, each for two hundred horses, on the banks of the Nile, between Thebes and Memphis and we learn from Scripture, that the Hebrew kings obtained their horses, and also their chariots, from Egypt. That great attention was paid in that country to the breed of horses, and that the Egyptians possessed a valuable breed, appears evident from their being prized in other countries, as well as from their paintings; and that horses were exclusively used for both war and luxury, is confirmed by the testimony of their paintings, and the writings of ancient historians. But notwithstanding this warlike show, the Egyptians were not a warlike people. Egypt loved peace, because it loved justice, and maintained soldiers only for its own security. Its inhabitants, content with a country which abounded in all things, had, generally speaking, no ambitious dreams of conquest. Their kings extended their reputation by sending colonies into all parts of the world, and with them, laws and politeness. They triumphed by the wisdom of their counsels, and the superiority of their knowledge; and this empire of the mind was more noble and glorious to them, than that which is achieved by deeds of arms. Nevertheless, Egypt has given birth to a few, who, not satisfied with their own possessions, carried war and desolation into that of others, as we shall see in the section of this history which describes the kingdom of Egypt. Husbandmen. A third caste among the Egyptians was the husbandmen. Agriculture has been highly esteemed in that country in all ages of the world: from the earliest recorded period, indeed, Egypt was the granary of the surrounding nations. See Gen. xli. 5. 57. It is supposed by some, as before mentioned, to have been the original country of bread corn, and it is certain that wheat is first mentioned in connexion with that country. It is no wonder, therefore, that husbandmen were highly esteemed in Egypt, and that they formed an important class in the state. The great perfection to which they had arrived, in the earliest ages, in the art of agriculture, is attested by their sculptures. From them we learn that they made use of the plough, the sickle, and other implements of husbandry, answering, in some degree, to those employed among our own husbandmen; and that the culture of the vine, which evinces a high state of agricultural knowledge, was among the Egyptians an early object of regard. To this fact Scripture alludes, Gen. xl. 9. 11; and ancient writers affirm, that the Egyptians claimed for Osiris the honour of being the first who cultivated the vine, and extracted wine from its fruit. Athenæus, Strabo, Pliny, and Clement of Alexandria, specify districts where the vine was cultivated. Their vintage scenes, which still exist in the subterraneous temples, and sepulchral caverns of that country, exhibit the Egyptians treading the grapes with their feet, and depositing the expressed juice in jars buried nearly to their mouths in the ground. This, with the other principal products of Egypt, described in the physical history of Egypt, tends to show how skilful the husbandmen of Egypt were in the art of agriculture. In confirmation of this fact, we may mention, moreover, that they had various breeds of large cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; and that they reared a quantity of poultry, chiefly by artificial means, the eggs being hatched in ovens. Diodorus states, that the husbandmen were hired to till the estates of the kings, priests, and soldiers. This is confirmed by the Scripture account of the cession of all the landed property to the government on the occasion of the famine: hence we may conclude, that the husbandman had no rights in the soil, the richer peasants farming the land from the proprietor, while the poor were hired as labourers for the cultivation of the ground. The wages paid them were trifling, whence some infer that the farmer received the land on moderate terms. The cattle, in general, appears also to have belonged to the land-owner; but those employed in the plough, and for other agricultural purposes, were usually the property of the farmer. In extensive domains, the peasants appear sometimes to have acted as superintendents of the herdsmen, and to have been obliged to give an account to the steward of the number and condition of the cattle on the estate. From the testimony of Diodorus, it is evident that the farmers were not only permitted to choose the grain they intended to cultivate, but were justly deemed the only persons of sufficient experience to form a judicious opinion upon the subject; and so skilful were they, says this historian, about these matters, that they far excelled the agriculturists of every other nation. They carefully considered the nature of the soil, the proper succession of crops, and the mode of tilling and irrigating the fields; and by constant observation, and the lessons received from their parents, were acquainted with the exact season for sowing and reaping, and with all the peculiarities of each species of grain. Gardeners were employed by the wealthy in cultivating trees and flowers in the ground attached to their houses; and the vineyard, orchard, and tanks, which served as ornaments, as well as for the purposes of irrigation, were under their superintendence. The peasants appear to have been divided into hundreds, each with a peculiar banner, which they followed when they presented themselves before the magistrate for the census, which is supposed to have originated in that country, and which was taken at stated periods. On these occasions, they were obliged to give an account of their conduct; and if they were found delinquent, they were punished with the stick, their common mode of punishment, as it is at the present day in Persia and China. In this caste, some authors place the huntsmen as another subdivision, and the boatmen as another; who, like others that composed the subdivisions of each caste, were of different grades. Thus, some belonged to the private sailing or pleasure boats of the grandees, others to those of burden; and the rank of each depended on the station he held. The office of steersman seems to have been the most important, and to have ranked above all the other grades; but, probably, in war, the pilots of ships bore the highest station. Artificers, etc. A fourth caste among the Egyptians was the artificers and tradesmen, and public weighers, etc., who resided in the towns. That the Egyptians excelled in science and art is evident from their monuments, paintings, and sculptures, whereon they are depicted. It is also proved by Scripture, which speaks of the "wisdom of Egypt" with reference to art; and by the fact that Egypt was deemed by other nations the fountain of arts and sciences, and that their philosophers were wont to resort thither to collect some of the " droppings of Egyptian wisdom." There is a passage in the work of Agatharchides on the Red Sea, [see page 11,] which describes their manner of working gold mines, and smelting the metal. The Egyptians were also acquainted with the art of gilding, and the art of fabricating glass was early known among them. A kind of ancient porcelain sometimes covered with enamel and varnish, is found in considerable quantities in that country. Their pottery, as exhibited in their ancient sculptures, was often of the most elegant form, and much of their furniture is not surpassed by the most refined manufactures of the present day. Specimens of their chairs and couches, which are given in Rosellini's great work, are very beautiful in their forms. Linen cloth, plain or embroidered, white or dyed, was an article of Egyptian manufacture held in high repute among foreign nations. See Ezek. xxvii. 7. The art of making leather was known to them: their musical instruments, also, especially the harp, were early brought to great perfection. According to Diodorus, all trades vied with each other in improving their own particular branch, no pains being spared to bring it to perfection. To promote this object more effectually, it was enacted that no artisan should follow any other trade or employment but that which had been defined by law, and followed by his ancestors. No tradesman was permitted to meddle with political affairs, or to hold any civil office in the state, lest his thoughts should be distracted by the inconsistency of his pursuits, or by the jealousy and displeasure of the master in whose service he was employed. They foresaw that without such a law constant interruptions would take place, in consequence of the necessity or the desire of becoming conspicuous in a public station; that their proper occupations would be neglected, and that many would be led by vanity and self-sufficiency to interfere in matters which were out of their sphere. They considered, moreover, that to follow more than one occupation would be detrimental to their own interests, and to those of the community at large; and that, when men, from a motive of avarice, engage in numerous branches of art, the general result is, that they are unable to excel in any. If any artisan meddled with political affairs, or engaged in any other employment than the one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was immediately inflicted upon him. Shepherds, etc. The last class or caste among the Egyptians included pastors, or herdsmen, poulterers, fishermen, labourers, servants, and common people. The former of these appears to have been held in peculiar contempt among them: hence it is not surprising that Pharaoh should have treated the Jews with that contempt which it was customary for every Egyptian to feel towards shepherds, or that Joseph should have warned his brethren, on their arrival in Egypt, that every shepherd was an abomination in their sight. Herodotus tells us, that the swineherds, in particular, were not permitted to enter the Egyptian temples, nor would any man give them his daughter in marriage. In the Mendesian nome, however, according to this author, goatherds were much honoured. How much all orders of shepherds were in general despised, is proved by their sculptures, both of Upper and Lower Egypt, whereon they are universally represented as dirty and unshaven; and at Beni-Hassan and the tombs near the pyramids of Geezeh they are caricatured as a deformed and unsightly race. LAWS. We learn from Herodotus that the kings of Egypt possessed the right of enacting laws, and of managing all the affairs of religion and state. We are acquainted, however, with very few of the laws of the ancient Egyptians; but the superiority of their legislature has been acknowledged in all ages as the cause of the duration of their empire-an empire which lasted with a uniform succession of hereditary sovereigns, and with the same form of government, for a much longer period than, perhaps, any other ancient state. Besides the right of enacting laws, the kings administered justice to their people on those subjects which came under their immediate cognizance, in which they were assisted by the most able and distinguished members of the priestly order. These were, indeed, consulted upon all questions of importance relating to the internal administration of the country. Thus, previous to the admission of Joseph to the confidence of Pharaoh, they were asked, "Can we find such a || one as this is?" Gen. xli. 38; and the prophet Isaiah speaks of "the wise counsellors of Pharaoh," Isa. xix. 11. 66 The edicts of the Egyptian monarchs appear to have been issued in the form of a firman, or written order, as in all oriental countries. These edicts appear sometimes to have been issued by delegates. Thus, after Pharaoh had set Joseph over all the land of Egypt," it is said, "And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand," Gen. xli. 42; which, Vossius says, was given both in token of the dignity to which he preferred Joseph, and that he might seal letters and patents in the king's name. Causes of ordinary occurrence were decided by those who held the office of judges, thirty of whom were selected out of the principal cities to form a body for the distribution of justice throughout the kingdom. These were elected by the king, and they were chosen for their known honesty; and over them was placed one, distinguished for his knowledge and love of the laws, and had in universal esteem, with the title of arch-judge. These judges had revenues assigned them, to the intent, that being freed from domestic cares, they might devote their time to the execution of the laws. Thus maintained by the king's generosity, they administered to the people, gratuitously, that justice to which they have a natural right, and which ought to be open alike to the rich and the poor. royal court was held, and performed many of the same duties as the senates of other ancient states. Diodorus, indeed, mentions the_thirty judges and their president, represented at Thebes in the sculptures of the tomb of Osymandas. The laws of the Egyptians had the credit of having been dictated by the gods themselves; and Thoth, (Hermes, or Mercury,) was said to have framed them for the benefit of mankind. Those which are handed down to us by Diodorus, and other ancient writers, are briefly these:— Wilful Murder.-The wilful murder of a freeman or slave was punished with death; from the conviction that men ought to be restrained from the commission of sin, not on account of any distinction of station in life, but from the light in which they viewed the crime itself. So heinous did the Egyptians consider this crime to be, that to be the accidental witness of an attempt to murder, without endeavouring to prevent it, was a capital offence, which could only be palliated by bringing proofs of inability to With the same spirit they decided, that to be present when any one inflicted a personal injury on another without interfering, was tantamount to being a party, and he was punishable according to the extent of the assault. act. But, though the laws were thus inexorable towards the murderer, the royal prerogative might be exerted in favour of the culprit, and the punishment was sometimes commuted by the king. Herodotus says, indeed, that Sabaco, during his To guard against surprise, affairs were transacted by writing in the assemblies of these judges. That eloquence was justly dreaded which daz-reign, "made it a rule not to punish his subjects zles the mind, and moves the passions. Truth could not be expressed with too much plainness, as that alone was to have the sway in judgments, and because, in that alone, the rich and the poor, the powerful and weak, the learned and the ignorant, were to find relief and security. with death," whether guilty of murder or any other crime; but, "according to the magnitude of their crimes, he condemned the culprits to raise the ground about the town to which they belonged, to preserve it from the Nile's inundations." Infanticide.-Unlike the Greeks and Romans, among whom fathers had the right of life and death over their offspring, the Egyptians justly deemed the murder of a child an odious crime that called for the direct interposition of the laws. They did not, however, punish it as a capital offence, deeming it inconsistent to take away life from one who had given it to the child, but pre The two leading principles of the duty of these judges were, first, that those who had been wronged should be benefited by the interposition of the laws and, secondly, that no favour or respect of persons should be permitted. The very spirit of their laws was, indeed, to give protection and assistance to the oppressed; every thing that tended to promote an unbiassed judgment was peculiarly commended by the Egyp-ferred inflicting such a punishment as would intian sages. The president of these judges wore a collar of gold, set with precious stones, on which hung a figure represented as blind, this being called the emblem of Truth. This was a representation of the goddess who was worshipped under the double character of Truth and Justice, and whose name, Thmei, is supposed by some to resemble the Hebrew Thummim, a word, according to the Septuagint translation, implying truth, Exod. xxviii. 30, and bearing a further analogy in its plural termination. When the president put this collar on, it was understood as a signal to enter upon business. He touched the party with it who was to gain the cause, which was the form of passing sentence. But it must not be supposed that the president and thirty judges, here described, were the only house of judicature in Egypt. Each capital of a nome, it is probable, had its own court for the trial of minor and local offences; and it is possible that this assembly resided wherever the duce grief and repentance. To this end, the corpse of the deceased infant was fastened to the neck of its parent, and he was obliged to pass three whole days and nights in its embrace, under the surveillance of a public guard. Parricide.-This crime was visited with the most cruel punishment. Conceiving that the murder of a parent was the most unnatural of all crimes, they endeavoured to prevent its occurrence by marked severity. The criminal was sentenced to be lacerated with sharpened reeds, and after being thrown on thorns, he was burned to death. Perjury.-Truth, or justice, was considered to be the cardinal virtue among the Egyptians, inasmuch as it relates to others; whereas, prudence, temperance, and fortitude being relative qualities, benefit only the individual who possesses them. Hence it was, that truth was earnestly inculcated among them, and any departure from it was not only considered disgraceful, but when it entailed an injury on another person, was punishable by law. Those who spoke evil of the dead were visited with a severe punishment; and the false accuser was doomed to undergo the punishment which the person accused would have suffered had the accusation been proved. To maintain a falsehood by an oath was deemed the blackest crime, because it attacked both the gods, whose majesty is trampled upon by invoking their name to a false oath, and men, by breaking the strongest ties of human society, namely, sincerity and veracity. The crime was uniformly punished with death. Theft.-A singular custom prevailed in Egypt respecting theft and burglary. Those who followed the profession of a thief, gave in their names to the chief of the robbers, and agreed that he should be informed of every thing they might thenceforward purloin. The owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery, and having stated their quality, etc., when the goods were identified, they were restored to the applicant on payment of one quarter of their value. The license given by the government to thieves arose from the persuasion that an entire check to robbery was impracticable, either by the dread of punishment or by any method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police hence, they considered it more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made in order to secure the restitution of the remainder, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen and discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss. Debt. The laws of the Egyptians respecting debt underwent great changes, according as society advanced, and as pecuniary transactions became more complicated. In the reign of Bocchoris, about 812 B. C., the law of debt gave rise to many disputes and much oppression. To prevent this, Bocchoris enacted, that no agreement should be binding unless it was acknowledged by a written contract; and if any one took an oath that the money had not been lent him, no debt should be recognised, and the claims of the suing party should immediately cease. This principle was acted upon, in order that great regard might be preserved for the name and nature of an oath ; while, at the same time, by substituting the proof of a written document, they avoided the necessity of having frequent recourse to an oath, thereby preserving its sanctity. In all cases usury was condemned by the Egyptian legislature; and when money was borrowed, even with a written agreement, it was forbidden to allow the interest to increase to more than double the original sum. Creditors could not seize the debtor's person: their claims were confined to the goods in his possession, and such as were really his own, and which were comprehended under the produce of his labour, or goods received from another individual to whom they lawfully belonged. This law was borrowed from the Egyptian code by Solon; and it was, as Diodorus remarks, much more consistent with justice and common sense than that which allowed the creditor to seize the person, while it forbade him to take his property. To prevent the accumulation of debt, and to protect the interests of the creditor, a remarkable law was enacted, according to Herodotus, by Asychis, who lived about the same time as Bocchoris. By this law it was pronounced illegal for any one to borrow money without pawning to the creditor the dead body of his father, which every Egyptian embalmed with care, and reverentially preserved in his own house, and therefore it might be easily moved from one place to another. It was deemed impious not to redeem so sacred a pledge, and he who died without having discharged this duty, was deprived of the customary honours paid to the dead; nor could he inter his children, or any of his family, as long as the debt remained unpaid; the creditor being in actual possession of the debtor's family tomb. The cause which gave rise to this severe enactment appears to have been luxury. At an early age, a fondness for display, and the usual allurements of luxury, were introduced into Egypt among the rich; but at this period, the evil appears to have descended among the less wealthy, who envied, and sought to imitate those above them. The result of such attempts was, the accumulation of debt to such an extent as demanded the interference of the legislature; this severe measure was therefore one of absolute necessity, adopted in order to check a growing and a fatal evil. Punitive laws.-The object of the Egyptian laws was to preserve life, and to reclaim the offender. Death took away every chance of repentance, deprived the country of the offender's services, and hurried him out of the world when least prepared to meet the ordeal of a future state: hence, the Egyptians deemed it unnecessary to sacrifice the life of an offender except in the case of murder, and a few other crimes which appeared highly injurious to the community. The customary mode of punishment for capital crimes was the gibbet. Criminals charged with such were kept "bound" in prison till their fate was decided, whether it depended on the will of the sovereign, or the decision of the judges. Their prisons were under the superintendence, and within the house of the chief of the police. See Gen. xxxix. 20; and xl. 3-22. The laws of the Egyptians, however, do not appear to have sanctioned the gibbet, or the exposure of the body of an offender. The conduct of Rhampsinitus, in the case of the robbery of his treasure,* is mentioned by Herodotus as a singular mode of discovering an accomplice, and not as an ordinary mode of punishment. Some of the punitive laws of the Egyptians were very simple; the character of them, indeed, was consonant with the notions of a primitive age. These laws were directed against the offending member. Thus, adulterators of money, falsifiers of weights and measures, forgers of seals or signatures, and scribes who altered any signed document by erasures or additions, without the authority of the parties, were condemned to lose both their hands; and those who betrayed secret designs to the enemy, had their tongues cut out. Thefts, breach of trust, and petty frauds, were The historian relates that he caught the thief in a trap which he had placed round the vases in which his treasures were preserved. |