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. Moreover, they considered 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, are induced to engage in numerous branches of art, the result generally is, that they are unable to excel in any. Such, adds Diodorus, is the case in some countries, where artists occupy themselves in agricultural pursuits, or in commercial speculation, and frequently in two or three different arts at once. Many, again, in those communities which are governed according to democratical principles, are in the habit of frequenting popular assemblies, and, dreaming only of their own interests, receive bribes from the leaders of parties, and do incredible mischief to the state. But with the Egyptians, 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 instantly inflicted upon him; and it was with this view that the regulations, respecting their public and private occupations, were instituted by the early legislators of Egypt.

It is unnecessary to enter into any detail of the peculiar employments of the various members of the

made of them in noticing the manufactures of the country; I therefore confine myself to a few remarks on the office of the public weighers or qabbáneh, and notaries. The business of the former was to ascertain the exact weight of every object presented to them in the public street, or market *, where they temporarily erected their scales, and to adjust the sale of each commodity with the strictest

regard to justice, without favouring either the buyer or seller. All things sold by weight were submitted to this testt; and even the value of the

66

"The superintendence of weights and measures" belonged to the priests, until the Romans took away that privilege. Conf. the banquet of Xenophon, as the civil magistrate weighs bread in the market-place." + Small objects were, no doubt, weighed at the shop by the seller; but if any question arose, it was decided by the public scales; larger goods being always weighed by the qabbáneh, as in Modern Egypt.

money paid for them was settled by the same unquestionable criterion. It was owing to this custom that the money paid by the sons of Jacob for the corn they purchased, and which had been returned into their sacks, was said to be found of “full weight*;" and it is highly probable that the purity of gold and silver was subjected to the trial of fire.t

Their money, as I shall have occasion to observe, was in rings of gold and silver; and it is remarkable that the same currency is to this day employed in Sennár, and the neighbouring countries. But whether those rings had any government stamp to denote their purity, or to serve as a test of their value, I have not been able to deter

2

No. 79.

3

Rings of gold and silver.

Thebes.

Exod. xliii. 21. "Our money in full weight.' The Jews also weighed their money. Their weights were of stone; and the word weight, in Hebrew, ¡, also means a stone. Deut. xxv. 13. 15. They had certain standard weights, as the shekel of the sanctuary. Roman money was also weighed in ancient times. Liv. iv. 60. Egyptian mode of weighing and of noting down the account frequently occurs in the sculptures.

The

As with the modern Ethiopians. Conf. Zech. xiii. 9., and 1 Pet.

mine; and it is singular that none have yet been discovered in the ruins or tombs of Thebes, though so frequently represented in the sculptures.

A scribe or notary marked down the amount of the weight, whatever the commodity might be; and this document, being given or shown to the parties, completely sanctioned the bargain, and served as a pledge that justice had been done them.

The same custom is still retained by the modern Egyptians, the scales of the public qabbáneh in the large towns being a criterion to which no one can object; and the weight of meat, vegetables, honey, butter, cheese, wood, charcoal, and other objects, having been ascertained, is returned in writing on the application of the parties.

The scribes or notaries were probably public writers, like the Arab kátebs of the present day, or the scrivani of Italy, who, for a small trifle, compose and pen a petition to government, settle accounts, and write letters, or other documents, for those who are untaught, or for those who are too idle to do so for themselves. These persons, however, must not be confounded with the royal and priestly scribes, who were of a very different grade, and who ranked among the principal people of the country: though it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them from an inferior class of scribes, of the sacerdotal order.

Most of the shopkeepers, and of the master tradesmen, learned to write: but the workmen were contented to occupy their time in acquiring

* Diodor. i. 81.

from their parents or friends that art to which they were brought up; and the common people, as might be supposed, were entirely ignorant of the art of writing.

EGYPTIAN WRITING.

The characters used by the Egyptians consisted of three different kinds, the hieroglyphic*, the hieratic, and enchorial; the first and last known to all who received a good education; the hieratic confined more particularly to the priests. There is reason to believe the enchorial did not exist at a very remote period; the earliest inscriptions written in that character, hitherto discovered, not dating prior to the accession of the Ptolemies; and some of the hieratic in the time of Darius seems to be undergoing a transition to this new form. Indeed, the appearance of the letters proves them to have been derived from the hieratic, which is itself directly taken from the hieroglyphic; and it is probable that this last was the sole mode of writing known to the Egyptians in the earliest periods of their history, though the hieratic, a much earlier invention than the enchorial, dates from a very remote era.

Clement of Alexandriat says, those who are educated among the Egyptians learn three different modes of writing, one of which is the epistolary

*The hieroglyphic has been called the monumental, but it is also used in papyri, and for all the purposes for which the other two are employed.