a token of respect to the court, on all occasions, both when accused before a magistrate, and when attending at the police office to prefer a complaint, or to vindicate his character from an unjust imputation.

Whether they received a passport from the magistrates, or merely enrolled their names and the other particulars required of them, does not appear, nor can we come to any conclusion on this head, either from the sculptures, the accounts of ancient writers, or even from the mode of describing persons, who were parties to the sale of estates, and other private or public contracts: but the formula much resembles that adopted in the passport offices of modern Europe.

In a deed of the time of Cleopatra Cocce and Ptolemy Alexander I., written in Greek, and relating to the sale of a piece of land at Thebes, the parties are thus described* :-" Pamonthes, aged about forty-fivet, of middle size, dark com

Papyrus of S. d'Anastasy. Vide Dr. Young on Hieroglyphical Literature, p. 65.

+ It is remarkable that, in the East, no one knows his exact age; nor do they keep any registers of births or deaths.

plexion, and handsome figure, bald, round faced and straight nosed; Snachomneus, aged about twenty, of middle size, sallow complexion, round faced and straight nosed; Semmuthis Persineï, aged about twenty-two, of middle size, sallow complexion, round faced, flat nosed, and of quiet demeanour; and Tathlyt Persineï, aged about thirty, of middle size, sallow complexion, round face and straight nose, the four being children of Petepsais, of the leather cutters of the Memnonia; and Nechutes the less, the son of Asos, aged about forty, of middle size, sallow complexion, cheerful countenance, long face and straight nose, with a scar upon the middle of his forehead." Even if the mode of registering the names, which is noticed by Diodorus, and the sculptures of Thebes, does not in reality refer to passports, it is at least very similar in spirit and intent, and may be considered the earliest indication of a custom so notoriously unpleasant to modern travellers.

During their examination, if any excesses were found to have been committed by them, in consequence of an irregular mode of life, they were sentenced to the bastinado; but a false statement*, or the proof of being engaged in unlawful pursuits, entailed upon them the punishment of a capital crime.

MURDER.

The wilful murder of a freeman, or even of a 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; while at the same time it had the effect of showing, that if the murder of a slave was deemed an offence deserving of so severe a punishment, they ought still more to shudder at the murder of one who was a compatriot and a free-born citizen.

In this law we observe a scrupulous regard to justice and humanity, and have an unquestionable proof of the great advancement made by the Egyptians in the most essential points of civilisation, affording a pleasing comment on their character; and it is a striking fact, that neither Greece* nor Romet, proud as they both were of their superiority, and of their skill in jurisprudence, had the good sense to adopt or imitate this wise regulation. Indeed, the Egyptians considered it so heinous a crime to deprive a man of life, 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 act. With the same spirit they decided, that to be present when any one

I must do the Greeks the justice to say they acknowledged the superior wisdom and equity of the Egyptians, and were in the habit of consulting them, and of visiting Egypt to study their institutions.

Masters had an absolute power of life and death over their slaves, and they generally erucified them, when convicted of a capital offence. Juv. Sat. vi. 219. Constantine abolished this punishment.

The Athenian lawgiver did, however, institute a very proper custom, that the funerals of slaves should be properly solemnised by the magistrates (demarchs). Demosth. Or. in Macart. And slaves received much better treatment at Athens than at Sparta.

inflicted a personal injury on another, without interfering, was tantamount to being a party, and was punishable according to the extent of the assault; and every one who witnessed a robbery was bound either to arrest, or, if that was out of his power, to lay an information, and to prosecute the offenders: and any neglect on this score being proved against him, the delinquent was condemned to receive a stated number of stripes, and to be kept without food for three whole days.

Although, in the case of murder, the Egyptian law was inexorable and severe, the royal prerogative might be exerted in favour of a culprit, and the punishment was sometimes commuted by a mandate from the king. Sabaco, indeed, during the fifty years of his reign, "made it a rule* not to punish his subjects with death," whether guilty of murder or any other capital offence, but, "according to the magnitude of their crimes, he condemned the culprits to raise the ground about the town to which they belonged. By these means the situ ation of the different cities became greatly elevated above the reach of the inundation, even more than in the time of Sesostris ;" and either on account of a greater proportion of criminals, or from some other cause, the mounds of Bubastist were raised considerably higher than those of any other city.

* Herodot. ii. 137.

+ The mounds of Bubastis (Tel Basta) are of very great height, and are seen from a considerable distance.

RIGHT OF FATHERS.

Among the Romans, a father had the right of life and death over his son, and could sell him as a slave to a free-born citizen; no child was therefore free until his parent had emancipated* him, in the presence of the prætor. The Greeks permitted the same right to fathers; and the Spartans even prevented a parent from nourishing his children and having submitted them to a certain court, it was there decided whether they were to be preserved, or to be left to die in a cavern of Taygetus. But far from adopting so barbarous a custom as the exposure of infants, or allowing a father any right over the life of his offspring, the Egyptians deemed the murder of a child an odious crime, that called upon the direct interposition of the laws. They did not, however, punish it as a capital offence, since it appeared inconsistent to take away life from one who had given it to the childt, but preferred inflicting such a punishment as would induce grief and repentance. With this view they ordained that the corpse of the deceased should be fastened to the neck of its parent, and that he should be obliged to pass three whole days and nights in its embrace, under the surveillance of a public guard.

But parricide was visited with the most cruel of chastisements; and conceiving, as they did, that the murder of a parent was the most unnatural of

* Unless he was in any public office.

+ Diodor. i. 77.