relic, though almost pulled to pieces by the fingers of the numerous visitors who had amused themselves with counting. (45) The ordinary dress of the people was very slight, as befits a warm climate (see Fig. 169). The women wore one single linen garment, which reached from the neck to the ankles. It was very thin, sometimes loose, and sometimes so tight that it only allowed a short step to be taken in walking. The men wore a loose and shorter garment of the same material, though coarser, which reached only to the knees, except in the case of grand persons, when this garment was as long as that of the women. Beneath this outer garment the men wore a yet shorter apron or petticoat tied round the waist. Of these two the outer garment was often so thin that the apron was seen through it; and it was thrown aside when they were engaged in labour; and then the apron was their only piece of dress except the shoes or sandals. Over these ordinary garments a cloak was worn in colder weather, and robes by the king, queen, priests, and officers of state (see Fig. 170). The robe was sometimes made of skin. Nothing was worn upon the head except the marks of royal and priestly rank, such as the striped linen shawl, the crown, and the helmet in time of war. The ordinary dwelling was a small plot of ground enclosed between four walls (see a model, Fig. 171). No roof was needed as a shelter against Fig. 171. rain or cold. The walls and the palm trees which surrounded the house afforded shade, and the inmates slept under the open sky. In the corner, however, of some of these dwellings was one and sometimes a second small dark covered room to which the inmates could retire for greater privacy or for greater shelter from wind or sand or cold or sunshine. The mildness and dryness of the climate, which thus allowed the people to sleep in the open air and to move about with little or no clothing, brought on a sad looseness of morals. The corruption perhaps began in Lower Egypt. The sacred tie of marriage was neglected, and the women, not being held in honour, could not teach their children to aim at rectitude. After the loss of domestic virtue the nation could not hope to enjoy either public liberty or real happiness. The seeds of its decay were certainly sown. The priesthood alone held out against the general corruption. The priests were forbidden by law from marrying more than lib. i. 80. one wife. Other men had as many as they chose, and all children were held equally legitimate whatever woman was the mother. Diod. Sic. Egypt. pl. 31, 32. (46) The priesthood was divided into four orders, the Soteno, the Nouto, the Othphto, and the Bachano. The first two wore crowns, and were probably at Inscript. first distinguished as belonging, one to Upper Egypt and the other to Lower Egypt. The Soteno wore the Mitre or tall cap with a ball on the top, known as the crown of Upper Egypt. This was made of linen. The Nouto wore the flat ring or Plate of Gold with a tall piece before and behind. This was known as the crown of Lower Egypt. These two priestly crowns when united form the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt (see Fig. 172); and the king usually bore the double priestly title, perhaps Fig. 172. the one of linen and the other of gold, were copied by the Israelites, and worn one over the other by the Jewish high priest in the service of the temple. The Othphto, whose name means Dedicated, were probably those under monastic vows and vows of celibacy, a body of priests whom we find in later days confined within the temple walls, and only allowed to speak to a visitor through an iron grating. hired servants. The Bachano were the (47) Among the causes of Egypt's wealth we must mention the distinction of its industrious classes into castes, which, whether upheld for economical or religious reasons, was the adoption of that well-known principle the division of labour. Not only were the priests, the soldiers, and Plato, in Timæo. artizans habitually separated, but every particular trade and manufacture was carried on by its own craftsmen, and none changed from one trade to another or carried on several. This gave them a skill in manufactures and trade that was quite unknown to the neighbouring nations. The names which Egypt has given us for the native products of the soil, such as ammonia from the Oasis of Ammon, syenite from the city of Syene, natron and nitre from Mount Nitria, and alabaster from the city of Alabastron, topaz and sapphire stones from the islands of Topazion and Sapirene in the Red Sea, emerald from Mount Smaragdus, prove not so much the native richness of the country as that the people were the first who had skill enough to discover and make use of these products. Inscript. (48) They made use of the cubit measure divided into six hand-breadths, or twenty-four fingers; and also of Egypt. the royal cubit, which consisted of this lesser cubit 2nd Series. and a hand-breadth over. The royal cubit contained twenty English inches and two-thirds. The Jews made use of the same measures for length of a cubit pl. 46. Ezekiel, ch. xl. 5. and a hand-breadth. Longer distances the Egyptians Herodotus, measured by the schoenus of about six miles in lib. ii. 168. length. Land was measured by the aroura or half acre, which, if square, measured a hundred cubits on each side. That measures nearly the same were in use from the earliest times we learn from the size of the pyramids. Exactly such was the cubit used in making the five smaller pyramids of Gezeh; while in the four largest it was about half an inch longer. The side of the base in the pyramid of Chofo measures four hundred royal cubits; in that of Nef-Chofo, the largest pyramid, it measures five hundred lesser cubits. In the others also the side of the base is always of an even number of royal cubits; Vyse's Pyramids. |