difficult matter, and it was probably the fear of possible pecuniary complications which caused the Egyptian in so many cases to marry his sister or the woman whom he called by that name. Moreover, it was thus easier to keep the property in the husband's family.

The legal wife was one of the freest women in the world. She went about the house, and outside it, at will, and, unlike the modern Egyptian women, she wore no veil. If she pleased, she held converse with men in the village or market, and she suffered from none of the restrictions which are placed upon women in the East in modern times. When the wife became a mother her power and influence were greatly increased, and the literature of ancient Egypt contains many passages which illustrate the honour and esteem in which the "mistress of the house" was held by her children, and on scores of stelae in the Egyptian Galleries the name of the mother of the deceased is given, whilst that of his father is not mentioned. The Egyptians, like many African tribes, traced their descent through their mothers, and the views which they held concerning the affection due to the wife from her husband, and the love which a son should give to his mother, are well illustrated by two passages. In the Precepts of Ptah-hetep (B.C. 3200): "If thou wouldst be a wise man, rule thy house and love thy "wife wholly and constantly. Feed her and clothe her, love "her tenderly, and fulfil her desires as long as thou livest, for "she is an estate which conferreth great reward upon her lord. "Be not hard to her, for she will be more easily moved by "persuasion than by force. Observe what she wisheth, and that "on which her mind runneth; thereby shalt thou make her "to stay in thy house. If thou resistest her will it is ruin." In the Precepts of Khensu-Hetep (B.C. 1500) we read: When thou art grown up, and art married, and hast a house, "never forget the pains which thou didst cost thy mother, nor the care which she bestowed upon thee. Never give "her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hands to "God in heaven, and He hearken to her cry [and punish "thee]."

The life of the woman in the lower classes was a hard one. She cooked the food for her husband and children, she wove the flax into linen, attended to all matters in the house, and usually managed to have a large family. She was a mother. at the age of fifteen, or earlier, and a grandmother at thirty, by which time her body was bent, her forehead wrinkled, and her face withered. Among the upper classes the process of

physical deterioration was, of course, slower, but the results were the same.

Soon after a child was born a name was given to it, which usually had reference to some physical characteristic; thus a "Strong," and a girl

boy might be called "Nekht"

"Nefert " 0

“Beautiful," or "Netchemet" {

"Sweet."

Pious folk introduced the name of some god or goddess into.

the child's name, e.g., " Rā-hetep"

"Rā is satisfied," and loyal folk the name of the reigning king, l.g., "Pepi the strong one." Several

"Pepi-nekht" 品

members of a family often bore the same name, but in these cases each was distinguished by some "little name" (ie., petname). As a pet-name may be mentioned "Mai-sheraui," i.e., "Little Cat," or "Pussy," In well-todo families a special day was set apart for naming a child, and this name-day was usually celebrated with rejoicings.

or “Pussy," D.

For the first three years of its life a child was wholly in its mother's care, and she carried it about on her back or left shoulder (see the ivory figure No. 41 in Table-case L in the Third Egyptian Room). For the next three or four years of its life it went about naked, whether boy or girl, gentle or simple; indeed a grandson of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, went to school unclothed. The heads of children were clean-shaven, with the exception of a lock of hair on the right side of the head. Little girls sometimes wore an amulet on their breast or body in order to avert the "evil eye," and perhaps a cheap bracelet or necklace. They played with dolls, numerous examples of which have come down to us (see Standard-case C in the Fourth Egyptian Room). Like all children, Egyptian children loved toys of all kinds. As examples of these may be mentioned the cat with a movable lower jaw, the elephant and his rider, each having movable limbs, the negro being pursued by an animal, the ape drawing a chariot, the cat-headed dwarf, the lion killing its prey, the toy dog, hippopotamus, etc. The balls they played with were made of porcelain, papyrus, leather stuffed with chopped straw, etc. (See Standard-case C.)

Education. It is doubtful if the children of peasants and of the lowest classes went to school, or received any education at all; both boys and girls were probably sent to herd the

geese, to drive the sheep and goats to pasture or to the canal or river to drink, to look after the cows, to collect fuel for the fire, etc. It is unlikely that girls or women generally were taught to read and to write, but little is known about this matter. The boys of the professional and upper classes undoubtedly received a certain amount of instruction, for learning was highly esteemed throughout Egypt; but speaking generally, the learning of the country was in the hands of the scribes. The profession of the scribe was one of great dignity and importance, and the highest offices in the land were open to him. The temples and certain offices of the Government maintained schools in which scribes were trained, and pupils were, of course, promoted according to their proficiency and ability. In the temple-schools boys were trained to copy religious texts both in the hieroglyphic and hieratic characters, and they studied religious literature, exegesis, the legends of the gods, funerary texts, etc. In the schools of the Government Departments the teaching was devised to suit the requirements of the Treasury, the Public Granaries, the Crown Lands' Department, etc., and the pupils studied arithmetic, the keeping of accounts, geometry, mensuration, the writing of reports, etc. In all schools boys were

taught to be clean, diligent, obedient, respectful and wellbehaved. Lessons began early in the morning and lasted till noon, when, as a papyrus in the British Museum says: "the pupils left the school with cries of joy." The daily allowance of food for a boy was three bread-cakes and two jugs of beer, which were brought to the school-house by his mother every day. Corporal punishment was administered freely, and the back of the lazy boy who would not get up early, and that of the inattentive boy, received many stripes; in one case a very bad boy was locked up for three whole months in a strong room in one of the temples.

School exercises were written on small whitewashed boards, slices of white limestone, and papyrus with a reed, and they usually consisted of extracts from ancient texts, religious or poetical, the contents of which were intended to improve the mind and form the morals and manners of the reader and copyist. (See Standard-case C in the Third Egyptian Room.) The education given in the colleges of the Priests was of a different character. There the young men studied magical and religious texts, several Books of the Dead, the doctrines of the cosmogony, and the histories and legends of the gods. They read the ancient writings with the priests whose duty it was to instruct them,

and learned by heart their expositions of the traditions accepted in the temples. One would expect the colleges to have possessed glossaries, or dictionaries, and grammars, but it is doubtful if they did, for nothing of the kind has hitherto been discovered. History in the modern sense of the word was unknown, though some of the great kings caused Annals of their reigns to be written; and recent excavations have shown that even the King Lists which were drawn up under the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties are incomplete, and that

wig, bandlet, etc.

[Wall-case 103, Third Egyptian Room.]

XVIIIth dynasty.

they contain the names of some kings wrongly spelt. Astronomy was studied with some success by the priests, and the maps of stars which were compiled by them were undoubtedly used for practical purposes in connexion with the agriculture of the country.

Dress and ornaments.-The garments worn by the Egyptians were made of linen, for wool was regarded as