Woodcut 446. Scribe with his inkstand on the table; one pen is put behind his ear. 447. Artists painting on a board, and colouring a statue 448. Section of one of the southern grottoes of Beni Hassan 449. Columns of the northern grottoes of Beni Hassan 450. Five of the Egyptian orders of columns 450a The remaining three of the orders of columns 451. Heads of enemies, once supporting something now removed 456. Standing figure of a king painted to represent granite 457. Bellows 458. Siphons used as early as 1430 B.C. 459. Men's dresses 460. Dress of the king 461. Head-dresses 462, 463. Wigs 464. Women carrying children 465. Sandals 466. Sandals and shoes 467. Dresses of women 468. Head-dress of a lady Page 469. Hands of a wooden figure of a woman, with many rings 470. Rings, signets, bracelets, and earrings 473. Boxes, or bottles, for holding the kohl for staining the eyelids 474. Needles, pins, and earrings 475. Metal mirrors. (Metal, and even glass, mirrors were also used at Rome, but these differed from some of the Roman “specula” used as ornaments for rooms; from which the Venetians borrowed their mirrors, with figures upon them) 478. Priests and other persons of rank walking with sticks CHAPTER X. Vignette Page mitichus II. Woodcut P. Tomb of Sakkára, arched with stone, of the time of Psam 483. Services performed to the dead 484. Members of the family present when the services were performed 358 485. A woman embracing, and weeping before, her husband's mummy 486. Conveying the mummies on sledges to the closets in which they were kept 358 359 492. The mummy's head seen at an open panel of the coffin 493. A peculiar attendant at a funeral 495. A stone scarabæus with silver wings 496. Different forms of mummy-cases Vignette Q. Interior of a mummy-pit, and a woman seeking for ornaments 494. Certain personages present at funerals; and grease poured before the sledge 373 395 398 400 H. Khonfud, or clod-crushing machine used after the land is ploughed. Heliopolis-Cairo in the distance. CHAPTER VI. DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE HUSBANDMEN EGYPTIANS AGRICULTURE THE — THE THIRD CLASS PRODUCTIONS OF EGYPT - HARVEST FESTIVALS OF THE PEASANTS-GARDENERS, HUNTSMEN, BOATMEN OF THE NILE. THE high estimation in which the priestly and military professions were held in Egypt placed them far above the rest of the community; but the other classes had also their degrees of consequence, and individuals enjoyed a position and importance in proportion to their respectability, their talents, or their wealth. According to Herodotus, the whole Egyptian community was divided into seven tribes, one of which was the sacerdotal, another of the soldiers, and the remaining five of the herdsmen, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, and boatmen. Diodorus VOL. II. B states that, like the Athenians, they were distributed into three classes—the priests; the peasants or husbandmen, from whom the soldiers were levied; and the artizans, who were employed in handicraft and other similar occupations, and in common offices among the people—but in another place he extends the number to five, and reckons the pastors, husbandmen, and artificers, independent of the soldiers and priests. Strabo limits them to three, the military, husbandmen, and priests; and Plato divides them into six bodies, the priests, artificers, shepherds, huntsmen, husbandmen, and soldiers; each peculiar art or occupation, he observes, being confined to a certain subdivision of the caste, and every one being engaged in his own branch without interfering with the occupation of another. Hence it appears that the first class consisted of the priests; the second of the soldiers; the third of the husbandmen, gardeners, huntsmen, boatmen of the Nile, and others; the fourth of artificers, tradesmen and shopkeepers, carpenters, boatbuilders, masons, and probably potters, public weighers, and notaries; and in the fifth may be reckoned pastors, poulterers, fowlers, fishermen, labourers, and, generally speaking, the common people. Many of these were again subdivided, as the artificers and tradesmen, according to their peculiar trade or occupation; and as the pastors, into oxherds, shepherds, goatherds, and swineherds; which last were, according to Herodotus, the lowest grade, not only of the class, but of the whole community, since no one would either marry their daughters or establish any family connexion with them. So degrading was the occupation of tending swine, that they were looked upon as impure, and were even forbidden to enter a temple without previously undergoing a purification; and the prejudices of the Indians against this class of persons almost justify our belief in the statement of the historian. Without stopping to inquire into the relative rank of the different subdivisions of the third class, the importance of agriculture in a country like Egypt, where the richness and productiveness of the soil have always been proverbial, suffices to claim the first place for the husbandmen. The abundant supply of grain and other produce gave to Egypt advantages which no other country possessed. Not only was her dense population supplied with a profusion of the necessaries of life, but the sale of the surplus conferred considerable benefits on the peasant, in addition to the profits which thence accrued to the state; for Egypt was a granary where, from the earliest times, all people felt sure of finding a plenteous store of corn ;* and some idea may be formed of the immense quantity produced there, from the circumstance of "seven plenteous years" affording, from the superabundance of the crops, a sufficiency of corn to supply the whole population during seven years of dearth, as well as "all countries" which sent to Egypt "to buy" it, when Pharaoh by the advice of Joseph† laid up the annual surplus for that purpose. The right of exportation, and the sale of superfluous produce to foreigners, belonged exclusively to the government, as is distinctly shown by the sale of corn to the Israelites from the royal stores, and the collection having been made by Pharaoh only; and it is probable that even the rich landowners were in the habit of selling to government whatever quantity remained on hand at the approach of each successive harvest; while the agricultural labourers, from their frugal mode of living, required very little wheat and barley, and were generally contented, as at the present day, with bread made of the Doorat flour; children, and even grown persons, according to Diodorus, often living on roots and esculent herbs, as the papyrus, lotus, and others, either raw, toasted, or boiled. The Government did not interfere directly with the peasants respecting the nature of the produce they intended to cultivate; and the vexations of later times were unknown under the Pharaohs. They were thought to have the best opportunities of obtaining, from actual observation, an accurate knowledge on all subjects connected with husbandry; and, as Diodorus observes, "being from their infancy brought up to agricultural + Gen. xli, 29. * Gen. xii. 2, and xlii. 2. The Holcus Sorghum. |
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