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I and 2); the remains of the List made for Rameses II are preserved in the British Museum (Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 6, No. 592).

A number of valuable books dealing with Medicine have come down to us, and of these one of the most interesting is the papyrus in the British Museum, No. 10,059. It contains copies of a number of prescriptions which date from the reign of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, about B.C. 3730 and several of the time of Amen-hetep III (B.C. 1450). The largest work on medicine is contained in the Ebers Papyrus at Leipzig, and there are medical papyri in the Museums of Paris, Leyden, Berlin, and California (Hearst Medical Papyrus).

[graphic][subsumed]

Marble Sundial. Ptolemaic Period.

[Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 29, No. 976.]

In all these we find that magic was considered to be as efficacious as drugs; many of the prescriptions are to all intents and purposes magical formulas, and several suggest charlatanism. Oil, honey, and tinctures or decoctions of simple herbs were largely used, and the long list of names of plants, herbs, seeds, etc., in the Ebers Papyrus proves that, though the Egyptians had little idea of scientific Botany, they had a very wide knowledge of the properties of plants, etc. Anatomy was studied in a practical manner, especially for the purposes of embalming and bone setting, but as no treatises on the subject have come down to us, it is impossible to say

whether the Egyptians deserved the great reputations which they enjoyed as physicians. It is tolerably certain that they made no experiments in dissection, for the body was sacred to Osiris, and might not be dismembered, at all events in the later times. The commonest diseases among the Egyptians seem to have been ophthalmia, fever, maladies of the stomach, ulcers, "Nile boils," epilepsy and anæmia.

1

Biographical inscriptions form a very important section of the Literature, and they throw much light, not only on the social condition of the people, but also on the history of the country. Thus, the inscription of the official Ptah-shepses, who was born under the IVth dynasty, besides enumerating the various high offices which he held, proves that he lived through the reigns of eight or nine kings, and thus fixes the order of the succession of several of them (see Egyptian Vestibule, No. 32). The official Antef lived under three kings, whose names he gives, and thus fixes the order of their succession (Bay 4, No. 99). (Plate XXII.) The stele 1 of Erṭā-Antef-Ţāṭāu says that the deceased was “Governor of the South" in the reign of Usertsen I, and thus we know that an Egyptian viceroy governed the Sûdân as early as B.C. 2433 (Bay 4, No. 196). The stele of Sa-Menthu describes how he went to the Sûdân to bring back gold for the king of Egypt, and tells us that he made men, women, and children to work in digging out the quartz, and in crushing the ore and washing the gold from it (Bay 6, No. 145). From the biographies of the great Egyptian officials much of the history of Egypt can be pieced together.

The Egyptians did not write history in the modern sense of the word. Some of the kings, e.g., Thothmes III, inscribed annals on the walls of their temples, and many others set up inscriptions to commemorate great events. Thus Usertsen III set up at Semnah in the sixteenth year of his reign a stele to mark the frontier of Egypt on the south, and to proclaim his conquest of the Northern Sûdân. Amen-hetep III, B.C. 1450, set up a stele at Semnah to record his conquest of the country of Abhat, and the slaughter of a number of Blacks (Bay 6, No. 411). Rameses II caused copies of his account of his fight against the Kheta, or Hittites, to be cut on stelae, and set up in various places throughout the kingdom, e.g., at Amârah and Abû-Simbel. Some of the Nubian kings also

1 The word stele, from the Greek orλn, means literally an upright stone, or pillar, or column, which was set up over a grave, like our tombstone, or in a public place as a memorial of some public event.

caused good detailed accounts of their wars to be cut upon stelae, which were set up in their capital, and in many cases these are the sole authorities for the history of the period. Thus Piankhi (B.C. 740) gives a really fine account of his invasion and conquest of Egypt, even taking the trouble to describe the military operations connected with the siege of great cities like Memphis, his love for horses, and his devotions at Thebes and Heliopolis. Heru-sa-ȧtef, another Nubian king, gives on his stele a careful summary of his expeditions to various parts of the Sûdân, and lists of the tribute which he received. Casts of both monuments are exhibited in the Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 18, No. 815, and Central Saloon, No. 793. The Stele of Nastasen (B.C. 525) at Berlin is another good example of this class of monument, and the text, which seems to mention Cambyses, is of great interest. Finally may be mentioned the stele of the Decree of Ptolemy I (B.C. 325), granting certain properties to the temple of Buto (see the Cast in Bay 28, No. 950). The finest general account of the reign of a king is that given by Rameses III (B.C. 1200) in the Harris Papyrus No. 1, in the British Museum (No. 9999); but even in this more care is devoted to the glorification of the king than to the facts of history. The inscription of Menephthah (B.C. 1250), which is cut on the back of a stele of Amen-hetep III in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, though containing useful historical indications

and mentioning the name of the Israelites A

(line 27), cannot be regarded as a serious statement of fact, and must be classed with the panegyric written by the court scribe Penta-urt on the exploits of Kameses II.

The Historical Romances of the Egyptians are represented by the narrative of the Capture of the town of Joppa (Harris Papyrus, No. 500), and by the Dispute between Seqenen-Ra, King of Thebes, and Apepi, King of Avaris (Sallier Papyrus, I, No. 10,185). Books of Magic are numerous, and of these may be mentioned Papyrus Salt, No. 825, and Harris Papyrus, No. 10,051. Several Mythological Legends are extant, viz., of the Resurrection of Osiris and the birth of Horus (on a stele in Paris); of the Creation of the World, Gods, and Men (British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,188); of the Wars of Heru-Beḥutet, or Horus, the War-god of Edfû (on the temple of Edfû); of the Destruction of Mankind (in the tomb of Seti I); of how Unas killed and ate the Gods (in the Pyramid of Unȧs); of the Poisoning of Ra the Sun-god

(papyrus at Turin); of the Death of Horus by a scorpion's sting, and his resurrection through Thoth (text on the Metternich Stele); and of the Wanderings of Isis, with her son Horus and the Seven Scorpion-goddesses, in the Delta (text on the Metternich Stele). The History of Osiris, and of his murder by Set, has not yet been found in Egyptian texts in a complete form, but there are frequent allusions to this history in the inscriptions of all periods, and it is clear that we have a tolerably accurate version of it in the narrative written by Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride).

Among the Legal Documents in the British Museum may be mentioned the papyri containing accounts of the prosecution of the robbers who broke into and plundered the royal tombs under the XXth dynasty (Papyri Abbott, Nos. 10,221 and 10,052), and the process against a man who was charged with stealing a quantity of silver (Nos. 10,053, 10,054). Songs and Poetry are represented by the Love Songs contained in the Harris Papyrus, No. 500; the Song of Antuf, which was sung to the accompaniment of the harp (Harris Papyrus, No. 500); and the Song of the Harper, written on the wall of a tomb at Thebes, in which the hearers are enjoined to be happy, to anoint and scent themselves, and to rejoice with music and song, until the day cometh when they must depart to the land "which loveth silence." The mutability of things, and the fleetingness of the world are also dwelt upon. The works enumerated in the above paragraphs are written in hieroglyphics and hieratic. The literature written in demotic is considerable, and it consists of books of magic, tales and stories, collections of moral aphorisms, legal documents, marriage contracts, etc.

CHAPTER IV.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. MARRIAGE. POLYGAMY. HONOUR PAID TO THE MOTHER. THE CHILD AND ITS NAME. TOYS. EDUCATION. DRESS. FOOD. AMUSEMENTS. DWELLING HOUSES AND FURNITURE. AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE BREEDING. TRADE. HANDICRAFTS.

Manners and Customs.-The views of the Egyptians about marriage closely resemble those held by many African tribes, for they married their sisters and nieces, and sometimes indulged in polygamy. It is probable that the views as to marriage which obtained generally in Egypt were less rigid than those of Western nations. According to an ancient legend Osiris married his sister Isis, who became by him the mother of Horus, and he was also the father of Anubis by his other sister Nephthys. Generally speaking, the Egyptian was the husband of one wife, who was the mistress of his house and the mother of his children, whether she was his sister, or his niece, or a stranger. Kings and noblemen married several wives, and became fathers of children by many of the women of their households. The Ptolemies, curiously enough, seeing that they were Greeks, married their sisters and nieces, like the Egyptians. Marriage in Egypt was, no doubt, arranged in the way common to the East, ie., it was practically a business transaction, great care being taken to provide for the maintenance of the woman in the event of misbehaviour either on her part or that of her husband. Whether any religious ceremony was performed at the marriage is unknown. Girls were married before they were fourteen years of age. The legitimate wife of a man is called "Nebt pa,"

,

i.e., "lady of the house,"1 and she might

of course, be "his beloved sister"; frequently, however, the latter title is a euphemism for "mistress," or "concubine." To divorce or eject the "lady of the house" was a very

1 The Muḥammadan speaks of his wife as his "house," and the determinative to the Egyptian word shows that the ancient Egyptian held the same idea about his wife as the modern Arab.

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