EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES.
FROM THE CORRESPONDANT.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANTIQUITY OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.
The most striking fact respecting the Egyptian monarchy is its antiquity. "Forty centuries look down upon you from these pyramids," were the sublime words of Bonaparte; but they do not express enough. The progress of archæological science shows that the reign of the Pharaohs began more than three thousand years before Christ. M. Bunsen gives the date as 4245 B.C., and M. Mariette 5004, but with some qualifications that should be mentioned. "Egyptian chronology," says he, "presents difficulties which no one, as yet, has surmounted.... To all dates before the time of Psammetichus I. (665 B.C.), it is impossible to give anything but approximations, which become more and more uncertain as we recede.... This uncertainty increases in proportion as we go back from the present age; so that, according to the methods of computation, there may be two thousand years' difference in assigning the date of the Egyptian monarchy."[181]
While fully admitting the reasonable qualifications of the learned director of the Egyptian antiquities, it is no less certain, from the discoveries already made, that the reign of the Pharaohs extends back about thirty centuries before the Christian era.
Another characteristic of this ancient nation, which is no less remarkable, is that it manifests all the signs of civilization from the beginning. "It is a phenomenon worthy of the most serious attention," says Champollion-Figeac, "that Egypt possessed in those remote ages all the civil, religious, and military institutions indispensable to the prosperity of a great nation, and all the enjoyments resulting from the perfection of the arts, the advantages assured by the authority of the civil and religious laws, the culture of the sciences, and a profound sentiment of the dignity and destination of man."[182]
"Egyptian civilization manifests itself to us fully developed from the earliest ages, and succeeding ones, however numerous, taught it little more,"[183] says M. Mariette.
"What is most extraordinary about this mysterious civilization is that it had no infancy.... Egypt, in this respect as in so many others, is an exception to the laws to which the Indo-European and Semitic races have accustomed us. It does not begin with myths, heroic exploits, and barbarism."[184] The author we have just quoted sought in vain, with all his mind and learning, for the cause of this strange phenomenon. "Egypt," says he, "is another China, mature and almost decrepit from its birth, and in its monuments and history there is something at once childlike and old."
This ingenious explanation excites a smile, but not conviction. Rather than admit revelation—that is to say, the intervention of the divine agency in the creation of man and the formation of primitive nations—many learned men of our day prefer to take refuge in the most singular and inadmissible theories. According to them, human society must "commence with myths and barbarism," and man himself with the savage nature of the brutes. But they are forced to acknowledge that Egypt is a decided exception to this theory.
"The gigantic labors of the Suez Canal in removing the immense accumulations of sand, so often amassed as if to preserve the past history of the world, have not revealed a single vestige of uncivilized men who, before the deluge, were scattered over the rest of the earth."[185]
To resolve the problem of ancient Egyptian civilization, we propose an explanation more conformable to the traditions and the dignity of the human race. It is true, this explanation is not new, for it was evident to the sages of pagan times a long time before it was fully unfolded by Christian philosophers. Socrates taught that "the ancients, better than we and nearer the gods, had transmitted by tradition the sublime knowledge they had received from them." Plato adds that "the earliest of mankind, issuing from the hands of the gods, must have known them as well as we know our own fathers, and that it is truly impossible not to believe the testimony of the children of the gods."
What the wise men of Greece perceived through the thick veil of paganism, we behold clearly by the light of Christianity and the Holy Scriptures. It seems to us a simple thing to believe that the Egyptian nation, the first founded, not many centuries after the deluge, must have been organized according to the principles of the national law of which the descendants of Noah had not yet lost the tradition. "If we believe in the truth of the Scriptural accounts," says an illustrious promoter of social reforms in England,[186] "we must also believe that when the families descended from Ham and Japheth began their long migrations, they bore with them the religious traditions they possessed in common with the children of Shem.
"As to those who will not accept the testimony of the book which, to give it the most unpretending of its august titles, is the most ancient and most venerable document of human history, we could reply that the reasoning still remains the same. The progress of ethnological and philological researches furnishes us with evident proofs of a continued migration of the Touranian and Aryan races towards the north and west from places necessarily undefined, but certainly from the vicinity of the nomad patriarchs. On the other hand, nothing shows that their traditions have a different source from that given in the Book of Genesis—the three divisions of Noah's family. If, then, everything seems to demonstrate the intimate connection of these primitive races with the Semitic tribes, how could the descendants of Ham and Japheth have left behind the irreligious traditions when, for the first time, they left their brethren?"
The descendants of Ham, ancestors of the first Egyptians, doubtless preserved, with their religious traditions, the moral principles that guarantee the existence and perpetuity of domestic life, and the notions of the arts indispensable to its comfort. "With the human race," says Bossuet, "Noah preserved the arts; not only those necessary to life which man knew from the beginning, but those subsequently invented. The first arts which man learned, apparently from his Creator, were agriculture, the duties of pastoral life, the fabrication of clothing, and perhaps the construction of habitations. Therefore we do not see the rudiments of these arts in the East, in those regions whence the human race was dispersed. This is why everything springs from those lands, always inhabited, where the fundamental arts remained. The knowledge of God and memories of creation are there preserved."[187]
The ruins of the Tower of Babel still show to what a degree of advancement the art of building had arrived, and the details given us in the Bible about the construction of the ark display an amount of nautical knowledge which must have been transmitted to the skilful boatmen of the Nile and the bold navigators of ancient Phœnicia.
We will not extend these preliminary observations, which we think throw sufficient light on the origin of Egyptian civilization, the incontestable antiquity of which is as enigmatical as that of the Sphynx to the astonished eyes of the modern Œdipus. A truly learned man, who shows himself by his conférences in the Rue Bonaparte thoroughly conversant with the discoveries of contemporaneous Egyptology, and who is not ashamed to seek light from revelation as well as from science, has resolved the problem in the following terms: "There is not, in the first ages of the Egyptian monarchy, the least trace of the rude beginnings of a nation in its infancy. Indeed, we should not forget that this country never passed through the savage state, and that, if the truths revealed to the patriarchs were adulterated by the race of Ham, they still retained sufficient light not to remain satisfied with material enjoyments alone."[188]
Let us now endeavor to penetrate, by the light of these principles, as far as we can into the labyrinth of Egyptian antiquities.
BOOK FIRST.
THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.
I.
DOMESTIC REGULATIONS.
The institutions which are the safeguards of family life and of property are essential to society and the perpetuity of a nation, and these foundations of the social life seem to have been as firmly established among the ancient Egyptians as their own pyramids. The sacredness of the family tie was the result of unity of marriage and respect to parents, and its perpetuity was assured by the rights of primogeniture, which were universally admitted from the royal family down to that of the most humble laborer. This was the fundamental principle of family life and of society. Therefore we see Pharaoh in the Holy Scriptures resist all the plagues God sent upon Egypt for the deliverance of the Israelites; but when the first-born of the Egyptians were smitten in one night, the king yielded at once, for the whole nation felt that a blow had been given to the very source of its existence.
The Egyptian monuments of every age prove that the paternal authority was universally regarded with great respect. On a great number of stelæ collected by M. Mariette in the museum of Boulak are these words:
"Oblation in honor of the head of the house." (Here follows the name.)
"The religious laws of Egypt obliged families on certain days in the year to present offerings to deceased parents. One stela, consecrated to the memory of Entef, who lived at the beginning of the twelfth dynasty, is only a representation of one of these festivals. Entef is seated beside his wife. His sons and daughters present themselves before him. Some are saying the prescribed prayers; others bringing food and perfumes. The last scene depicted is interesting from the variety of representations. Besides parts of animals already sacrificed, the servants are bringing live animals."[189]
We may judge of the sentiments of the ancient Egyptians with regard to paternal authority by the following passages from an ancient document, the authenticity of which has never been contested:
"The son who receives his father's advice will live to be old. Beloved by God is obedience. Disobedience is hated by God. The obedience of a son to his father is a joy,... he is beloved by his father, and his renown is on the lips of the living who walk the earth. The rebellious son sees knowledge in ignorance, and virtue in vice; he daily commits all kinds of frauds with impunity, and lives thereby as if he were dead. What wise men consider death is his daily life. He keeps on his way laden with maledictions. A son docile in the service of God will be happy in consequence of his obedience...."[190]
We cannot help recognizing in this precious document the moral ideas of primitive times, the tradition of which is so faithfully preserved in the Bible. The fourth precept of the Decalogue is found here almost literally: "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the land."
Upon a mortuary stela described by M. Mariette in his Notice du Musée de Boulaq (No. 44, p. 72), Maï, the defunct, is seen receiving the homage of the members of his family. "One of the sons of Maï is called Men-Nefer. For some unknown reason, his name is erased from the list of the family, and, in fact, his whole image is hammered down. Another son likewise incurred this mark of infamy, which is only given to the proper name of the personage."
Respect to parents naturally leads to that for the aged. "The Egyptians have this custom in common with the Lacedæmonians," says Herodotus; "young men, when they meet their elders, turn aside for them to pass; at their approach they rise from their seats."
The obligations of parents towards their children were strictly enjoined in ancient Egypt, as is evident from a curious passage from Diodorus, which, at the same time, shows how the manners and laws favored the fecundity of marriage, the only source of a robust and numerous population:
"Parents are obliged to rear all their offspring in order to increase the population, which is regarded as the chief source of the prosperity of a kingdom.... They provide for the support of their children at little expense, and with incredible frugality. They give them very simple food: the stems of the papyrus which can be roasted, roots and stems of palustrine plants, sometimes raw, sometimes boiled and roasted, and as all children go unshod in that temperate climate, the parents do not estimate the expense of a child before the age of puberty to be more than twenty drachmæ (a little less than twenty francs).
"The children of the common people are taught the trade of their parents, which they are to practise for life, as we have remarked. Those who are initiated into the arts are alone charged with teaching others to read."
So simple and natural a system of education must have singularly favored the fruitfulness of marriage among the masses, and the number of children was not less among the aristocracy. We see from the simplest monuments, where the funeral honors rendered to the head of a family by all his children are painted on a wood panel, or sculptured on a slab of calcareous stone, that their number, including both sexes, amounted to eight or a dozen, or even more, and the more elaborate monuments, indicating distinguished families and the upper classes, render the same testimony as to the large number of children in each family—as in the sculpture at Thebes, which gives a list of nine male children of Rameses Meiamoun, and a greater number of daughters. In this respect the ancient Egyptian nation differed from people of modern times.[191]
The inequality that weighed so heavily upon woman among ancient nations is not found in Egypt. "Women, on the contrary," says M. Mariette, "held a prominent position in a family. The rights they inherited were not absorbed in those of their husbands, and they were transmitted intact to their children. At certain epochs, the family monuments often named the mother to the exclusion of the father. In the inscriptions of the ancient empire, conjugal affection is frequently expressed in a delicate and touching manner." And it has been remarked, and with reason, that the women who played a great rôle in the history of the ancient dynasties enjoyed in private life a liberty of action quite foreign to the manners of most Oriental nations.[192]
"It is by the social position of woman," says M. de Bonald, "that we can always determine the nature of the political institutions of a people. In Egypt, where we find the type of the social organization, the law submitted the husband to his wife in honor of Isis, which means that this dependence was inspired by religion and morals, rather than commanded by law. Neither divorce nor polygamy was known there."[193]
The elevated condition of woman in Egypt is attested by the monuments, which show her sharing with her husband in the direction of the family.[194]
Champollion-Figeac has given us curious details respecting the private customs of wealthy families, the garb and toilet of the women and children, and the peculiar characteristics of the Egyptian race:
"The head was habitually uncovered; the hair curled or plaited; a woollen mantle was sometimes worn over the tunic, and laid aside when they entered the temples. The women, besides the tunic, wore ample vestments of linen or cotton, with large sleeves, plain or striped, white, or of some uniform color. Their hair was artistically arranged. Their heads were ornamented with bandeaux, and their ears and hands with rings. A light slipper was worn on the feet. They went out with uncovered faces, accompanied by some of the numerous female servants of the house. Dressed also in ample robes of striped cloth, these servants had their hair braided and hanging down over the shoulders. They also wore a large apron, like their dress, with no jewels or other ornaments, and held themselves in a respectful posture in the presence of the lady of the house. Girls issuing from childhood were dressed like their mothers, with the exception of the ornaments of the head, and children of both sexes wore ear-rings as their only ornament (or dress) for the first five or six years.
"They were a fine race, tall in stature, generally somewhat slender, and long-lived, as is proved by the sepulchral inscriptions of those over eighty years of age. But exceptions to these general statements are found among the Egyptians as among other nations. We only make a general statement of the principal features of their physical nature, according to the monuments, in accord with historical accounts. Herodotus, who saw Egypt before its complete decadence, declares that, next to the Lybians, the Egyptians were the healthiest of people. The great number of mummies of men and women which have been opened corroborate this testimony."[195]
Bossuet, in his Discours sur l'Histoire universelle, gives a bold sketch of the physiognomy of the Egyptians, and shows the result of their manly training: "These wise Egyptians," says he, "studied the regimen that produces solid minds, robust bodies, fruitful women, and vigorous children. Consequently, the people increased in number and strength. The country was naturally healthy, but philosophy taught them that nature wishes to be aided. There is an art of forming the body as well as the mind.[196] This art, which we have lost through our indifference, was well known to the ancients, and Egypt acquired it. For this laudable end, the inhabitants had recourse to exercise and frugality.... Races on foot, horseback, and in chariots were practised with admirable skill in Egypt. There were not finer horsemen in the world than the Egyptians.
"When Diodorus tells us they rejected wrestling as giving a dangerous and factitious strength, he had reference to the excessive feats of the athletes, which Greece herself, though she crowned the victorious wrestler in her games, disapproved of as unsuitable for free persons; and Diodorus himself informs us that the Mercury of the Egyptians invented the rules as well as the art of forming the body.
"We must similarly modify the statement of the same author respecting music. That which the Egyptians despised, according to him, as tending to lessen courage, was doubtless soft, effeminate music, which only excites to pleasure and false tenderness. For the Egyptians, so far from despising music of an elevated character, whose noble accords exalt the mind and heart, ascribed its invention, according to Diodorus himself, to their Mercury, as well as the gravest of musical instruments.[197]
"Among the varied exercises which formed a part of the military education, and are sculptured on the numerous monuments, are found complete gymnastic rules. Nothing could be more varied than the attitudes and positions of the wrestlers, attacking, defending themselves, receding and advancing by turns, bending down or turning over, rising up again, and triumphing over the opponents by dint of strength, art, and skill. In these exercises the wrestlers only wore a large girdle, that supported and favored their efforts."
A fortunate discovery by M. Mariette enables us to complete the portrait of the Egyptian race. A statue found in the Necropolis of Sakkarah, near Memphis, represents a person standing wearing a plain wig,[198] the arms close to the body. He is walking, with the left leg advanced. "This fine monument," says M. Mariette, "is at once a perfect model of the Fellah of the middle provinces of Egypt and a specimen of the works of art in the ancient kingdom. The person represented is tall and slender, with a small hand, the eyes wide open, the nose short and full, the lips somewhat thick, but pleasant in expression, and the cheeks plump. The breadth of the shoulders is remarkable. The breast is full, but, like the race itself, the hips are small, and the lean and muscular limbs seem formed for racing."
II.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE.
The Egyptians, the first to organize a truly civilized society, were divided into distinct classes, in which the occupations of the different families were hereditary. The two dominant classes were the sacerdotal and military. Inferior to them were the agriculturists, shepherds, merchants, artisans, and boatmen, on whom devolved the cultivation of the land, the care of the flocks, commerce, the trades, the means of communication and transportation on the Nile, and the canals that covered the land.[199]
To understand the strength and permanence of this organization, we must revert to its origin. The social institutions of ancient nations in the beginning depended essentially on the family—the foundation of all society. The children were naturally inclined to follow the occupations of their parents. The necessity of providing for their own livelihood as soon as they were able, and the facility of working under the direction of their fathers, induced them to embrace the occupation to which they had been accustomed from infancy. It was thus that not only agriculture, but all the arts, trades, and sciences, became hereditary in the family. Once having a means of subsistence, it was natural to endeavor to preserve it. Identity of interests drew together those who followed the same trades, which led to the formation of corporations united by ties of blood and similarity of pursuits.
The Egyptians were probably the first nation to systematically apply these principles. "They were not allowed," says Bossuet, "to be useless to the country. The law assigned every one his employment, which was transmitted from father to son. They could not have two professions, or change the one they had; but then every employment was honored. There must be some pursuits and some people of a more elevated condition, as eyes are needed in the body, but their brilliancy does not make them despise the feet or the baser parts. Thus, among the Egyptians, the priests and warriors were particularly honored; but all trades, even the lowest, were esteemed. It was considered culpable to despise citizens whose labors, whatever they might be, contributed to the public welfare. By this means all the arts were brought to perfection. The honor which tended to develop them was everywhere manifested, and that was done better to which they had been accustomed and in which they had been experienced from childhood.
"But there was one pursuit common to all—the study of the civil laws and the requirements of religion. Ignorance of religion and of the regulations of the land was inexcusable in any rank. Each profession had its own district. No inconvenience resulted from this, as the country was not extensive, and with so much system the indolent had nowhere to hide themselves."[200]
We recognize the genius of Bossuet in the clear outlines he has drawn of the plan of organized labor, suited to the state of things, as well as the fundamental principles of all society. The respect for family life and tradition, the maintenance of social harmony and the grades of society, the protection of honored labor, are all remembered in this admirable sketch of the political economy of the ancient Egyptians.
But we must not, nevertheless, conclude that professions were rigorously hereditary and the castes unchangeable. Ampère proves the contrary by means of the sepulchral inscriptions discovered in the tombs contemporary with the ancient dynasties. They show, in fact, that a great number of marriages were contracted between persons of different classes. "What destroys the hypotheses of exclusive professions," says that learned academician, "to which each family, and consequently each caste, was supposed to be devoted, is, finding one member of a family in the sacerdotal state, another pursuing the military life, and the remainder engaged in some civil profession."[201]
It is true the monuments, a funereal distinction of the upper classes, never mention the laborer or the artisan; but it is reasonable to believe that, among a people so regularly organized, the different classes were governed by the same laws and customs. In large families, like those of primitive times generally, liberty of vocation easily harmonized with hereditary professions. One alone—that of the swineherd—was rigorously hereditary. Those who pursued this employment were obliged to marry among themselves, on account of the invincible repugnance felt for the unclean animals they had charge of. Herodotus says the Egyptian swineherd alone, of all the nation, could not enter into any temple in the country. No one would marry their daughters or give their children to them in marriage. They could only marry among themselves.
III.
DIVISION OF LANDED PROPERTY.
The law concerning the landed property contributed no less than the hereditary professions to preserve a distinction of classes and the social gradations. "All the land," says Diodorus, speaking of the institutions of ancient Egypt, "is divided into three parts. The first and largest belongs to the priesthood, who are greatly respected by the native population on account of their religious functions as well as for their thorough education. Their revenues are expended for the sacrifices, the maintenance of their subordinates, and their own wants. The Egyptians think the religious ceremonies should not be changed, that they should always be performed by the same functionaries, and that these sovereign counsellors should be above want. In fact, the priests are the chief counsellors of the king, whom they aid by their labors, their advice, and their knowledge. By means of astrology and the inspection of the sacrificial victims, they foretell the future, and they relate useful examples of deeds taken from the sacred books. It is not here as in Greece, where a single man or woman has charge of the sacerdotal functions. In Egypt, those who are occupied in the sacrifices and conduct the worship of the gods are numerous, and they transmit their profession to their descendants. They are exempted from taxes, and they rank next to the king in position and privileges.
"The second part of the land belongs to the king, the revenues of which are employed for the expenses of war and the maintenance of the court. The king rewards merit from his own income, without having recourse to the purse of any private individual.
"The remaining portion of the land belongs to the soldiers and all those who are under command of the military leaders. Strongly attached to their country, on account of the wealth they possess, they brave all the dangers of war to defend it. It is, in fact, absurd to entrust the safety of a nation to men who have no interest in the common welfare. What is especially remarkable, the soldiers, living thus at their ease, increase the population to such a degree that the government is able to dispense with foreign troops. And the children, encouraged by the example of their fathers, eagerly embrace the military life, and are invincible by their bravery and experience."[202]
Diodorus, as is known, was a contemporary of Julius Cæsar and Augustus.
In addition to what Diodorus says of the military class, we will add the following extracts from Herodotus: "Twelve acres of excellent land were given, under the first kings, to each head of a family." (He is speaking of the same class.) And a little further on: "Each soldier possesses twelve acres of land, exempt from taxation."
This distribution of the landed property is similar to that in France in feudal times, and which still exists, to a degree, in England, where the clergy and aristocracy possess the greater part of the land.
The two first classes were exempt from taxation, but the priests were at all the expense of public worship, and, although the royal treasury provided for the expenses of war, the soldiers evidently had to provide, not only their own supplies, and equipment, but also for the expenses of military organization; and, like our ancient noblesse, they alone had the glorious privilege of paying a tribute of blood.
We have not a sufficiently clear knowledge of Egyptian civilization to state the law of succession with certainty, or how the preservation of the patrimony of each family was preserved.
Modern publicists, confounding stability with immovableness, have thought the power of bequeathing property did not exist under the ancient laws of the East. This opinion seems incompatible with the nature of the paternal authority, which was carried to a sovereign degree in the families of primitive times. Does not the Bible represent the patriarch Jacob on his death-bed disinheriting Reuben, the oldest of his twelve sons, and giving his inheritance to Judah? And this scene, so well related in Holy Scripture, took place in Egypt itself. It is true, the descendants of Abraham had preserved the traditions of the patriarchal life more perfectly than the Egyptians, but the latter, as we have seen, also professed great respect for the paternal authority, the rights of which must have harmonized with the requirements of the principle of hereditary professions. A passage from Diodorus seems to decide the question in this sense: "The legislator regarded property as belonging to those who had acquired it by their labor, by transmission, or by gift." However this may be, it is certain that all the land, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, belonged originally to the king, the priesthood, and the military class. This division of the landed property must have greatly contributed to the stability which is so distinctive a characteristic of the Egyptian nation. The hereditary transmission of the land in the sacerdotal and military classes effectually assured a solid basis for their preponderance, and at the same time guaranteed the independence and dignity of the aristocratic classes. They were thus fully enabled to second the king in the government, administration, and defence of the country.
IV.
ORGANIZATION OF LABOR.
Ancient Egypt, from an agricultural point of view, is in some respects worthy of attention. Certain modern writers have supposed the members of the military class cultivated their own lands, as the legionaries of ancient Rome, but this supposition is irreconcilable with the testimony of the ancient historians who visited Egypt. Herodotus says they were "not allowed to practise any mechanical art, but were skilled in the art of war, which they transmit from father to son." This point is settled by the following passage from Diodorus: "The agriculturists pass their lives in cultivating the lands, which are leased them at a moderate price by the king, priests, and warriors."
As to the sacerdotal class, absorbed in the religious observances, the administration, the study of the laws and the sciences, it was impossible for its members to engage in the cultivation of the land, which, as we have seen, they leased. Notwithstanding great research, no information has been obtained about the economic condition of the agricultural class. We only know, from the extract quoted from Diodorus, that the land was leased at a moderate price. The stability which prevailed in Egypt, and the principle of hereditary professions, induce us to believe that private estates generally had a kind of entail, so the same family of husbandmen lived from generation to generation on the same land. This principle of stability was eminently favorable to the moral and material welfare of the family, as well as to the progress of agriculture. Reared from childhood amid rural occupations, they acquired more experience in them than any other nation. They perfectly understood the nature of the soil, the art of irrigation, and the time for sowing and harvesting, a knowledge they acquired partly from their ancestors and partly by their own experience. The same observation may be applied to the shepherds, who inherited the care of their flocks, and passed their whole lives in rearing them; thus perfecting the knowledge acquired from their fathers.
The other industrial classes were no less prosperous. They also inherited their occupations. A celebrated publicist states that "the Egyptian artisans held no property."[203]
To prove the truth of such an assertion, it must be shown that they were reduced to a state of slavery: which is formally contradicted by Diodorus, as we shall see presently, and it is not confirmed by any of the recently discovered monuments. It may be safely affirmed that the artisans of ancient Egypt, with the exception of those attached to the temples or public works, had a complete right over their trades and the fruit of their labors. The possession of land was denied them, but there is reason to believe they could own their dwellings and the little gardens that surrounded them.
Champollion-Figeac, who rivalled his brother in the sciences and the profound knowledge of the arts and pursuits of ancient Egypt, represents the people of that country with their "plates of glazed earthenware, their rush-baskets, and their shoes of papyrus." "The lower classes," says he in another place, "generally wore a short linen tunic called a calasiris, confined by a girdle around the hips, and sometimes with short sleeves trimmed with fringe at the end."
V.
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE LABORING CLASSES.
Notwithstanding the light which the wonderful discoveries of modern science have thrown on the history of ancient Egypt, we still lack precise information respecting the internal organization of the corporations occupied in manual labor. We only know from Diodorus that they belonged to the class of citizens—that is, they were free men. "There are in the kingdom," says he, after having spoken of the two dominant classes, "three classes of citizens: shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans."
Labor among the ancients was not always a mark of servitude. In retracing the origin of the ancient nations, as far as the light of history diffuses its rays, we find agriculture and the industrial pursuits carried on everywhere by free labor.
The monarchical and aristocratical government contributed not a little to the maintenance of stability in the artisan families, by preserving them from the fruitless agitations into which the working-classes are fatally drawn under democratic governments. Diodorus shows this admirably in the following passage, to which we invite the attention of the reader:
"It must be considered that the arts have greatly developed among the Egyptians, and arrived at a high degree of perfection. It is the only country in which a workman is not permitted to fill any public office, or employ himself in any other way than that assigned him by law or by inheritance. By this restriction, the workman is not diverted from his occupations either by the jealousy of his masters[204] or by political affairs. Among other nations, on the contrary, the artisan is almost wholly absorbed in the idea of making a fortune, some by agriculture, others through commerce, and some carry on several trades at once. And in democratic countries, most of them frequent the popular assemblies and increase disorder by selling their votes, whereas an Egyptian artisan who should take a part in public affairs, or worked at several trades at once, would incur a large fine. Such are the social divisions and political constitutions the ancient Egyptians transmitted from father to son."
What a contrast between the artisan of the old Greek republics, "frequenting public assemblies and extending disorder by selling their votes," and the workman of the Egyptian monarchy, peacefully pursuing the occupation of his fathers, happy and contented amid political agitations which must have been very rare under a régime in which traditional customs were religiously observed! Thus, with the exception of enforced labor on the public works, we are not unwilling to admit the fidelity of the picture Champollion-Figeac has drawn of the condition of the laboring classes in ancient Egypt: "The extraordinary fertility of the soil, the beneficent climate, the wise laws perfected by experience and sanctioned by time, the active and benevolent administration, constantly occupied in promoting and sustaining public order in the country as well as the city, the inevitable influence of religion upon a people naturally religious and impressionable—the most religious of men, according to Herodotus—allow us to believe that the masses in ancient Egypt were happy, and that, occupied and laborious, modest in their manners and wishes, they found in labor a source of durable pleasure."
By this wise social organization, which kept each one in his place, the artisan remained faithfully devoted to his pursuits, as the husbandman to his labor. They both fully enjoyed the stability so necessary to success. But, as we shall see, the liberty and well-being of the workmen of all classes were affected by the frightful labors imposed on them in the public works.
BOOK SECOND.
THE POLITICAL, LEGAL, AND ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS.
I.
ROYALTY.
The keystone of the social edifice in the ancient kingdom of Egypt may be regarded as royalty. The crown was hereditary in the male line in the order of primogeniture—brother succeeding to brother without surviving children. In case of no son, the daughter succeeded her father, and he whom she espoused was the queen's husband, but not the king.
The king, through the different members of his family, presided in all the branches of the government and public administration, thus giving perfect unity and complete monarchical power. "In fact," says Champollion, "the dignities of the different orders were reserved for the king's sons by the laws of the country. The oldest son of Sesostris bore the titles of Fan-bearer of the king's left hand, Royal Secretary, Basilico-grammatist, and Commander-in-chief of the Army. The second son was also Fan-bearer of the king's left hand, Royal Secretary, and Commander-in-chief of the Royal Guard. The third son added to the two first titles that of Commander-in-chief of the Cavalry. The same qualifications were also given to other princes, and seem to have belonged to all the royal generations, as well as several sacerdotal and civil titles, such as prophets (a class of priests) of different gods, high-priest of Ammon, and supreme head of different civil functions." Thus the king concentrated in his family the most important offices in the army, the civil administration, and the priesthood.
Finally, the better to consecrate the principle that all power and dignity had their source in the throne, the principal leaders in the army and administration received the title of the king's cousin, relative, or friend.[205]
Such was the real nature of the royal power in the eyes of ancient Egypt.
"The Egyptians were generally considered the most grateful of men toward their benefactors. They considered the best guarantee of society to be a reciprocal interchange of services and gratitude. It is true, men are more inclined to be useful to others when a real benefit is to be derived from the gratitude of the obliged. It was from these motives the Egyptians respected and adored their kings as if they were gods. The sovereign authority, divinely conferred, according to their belief, with will and power to diffuse benefits, was to them a godlike attribute."[206]
While giving the consecration of a divine character to the royal authority, the wise legislators of old Egypt did not the less take the precautions, suggested by a profound knowledge of human nature, of restricting the monarchical power within just limits, of inspiring the king with virtuous inclinations, and of preventing him from evil-doing. "In the first place, the kings of Egypt did not lead as free and independent a life as the kings of other nations. They could not act according to their own will. Everything was regulated by law, not only their public, but their daily private life. They were served, not by bondsmen or slaves, but by the sons of the chief priests, reared with the greatest care, and more than twenty years of age. The king, thus served day and night by real models of virtue, would never be countenanced in any blamable action. For a sovereign would not be worse than any other man if he had not around him those who flattered his desires. The precise duties of the king for every hour of the day and night were fixed by law, and not left to his own inclinations. His first act in the morning was to read the letters sent from every direction, that he might be thoroughly informed of all that had occurred in the kingdom, and act in consequence. Then, after bathing, putting on magnificent garments, and assuming the insignia of royalty, he offered a sacrifice to the gods. The victims were led to the altar; the high-priest, according to custom, stood near the king, and, in presence of the people, prayed the gods aloud to preserve the king in health and all other blessings as long as he fulfilled the laws. At the same time, the high-priest was obliged to enumerate the virtues of the king, and dwell on his piety towards the gods and his meekness towards man, representing him as temperate, just, magnanimous, opposed to lying, loving to do good, the complete master of his passions, inflicting on the guilty the least punishment merited, and recompensing good actions beyond their value. After the addition of similar praises, the priest ended by an imprecation against all faults committed through ignorance; for the king, being irresponsible, imputed all his faults to his ministers and counsellors, on whom was invoked the merited chastisement. The high-priest acted thus in order to inspire the king with a fear of the gods, and habituate him to a pious and exemplary life, not by a bitter exhortation, but by attractive praises of the practice of virtue. Finally, the king inspected the entrails of the victim, and declared the favorable auspices. The hierogrammatist read some sentences and useful accounts of celebrated men from the sacred books, that the sovereign might select an example by which to regulate his actions. There was a fixed time not only for audiences, but for exercise, the bath, and, in short, for every act of life. The king was accustomed to live on simple food. He was allowed veal and goose for meat. He could only drink a certain quantity of wine that would neither produce repletion nor intoxication. In a word, the prescribed regimen was so regular that it might be supposed ordained not by legislators, but by the best physicians, aiming only at the preservation of health.
"It seems strange for a king not to be at liberty to choose his daily food, and still more so that he could not pronounce a judgment or take a decision, or punish any one through passion or caprice, or any other unjust reason, but be forced to act according to the laws fixed for each particular case. As it was an established custom, the king could not take offence, and he was not discontented with his lot. On the contrary, he considered his a very happy life, while other men, abandoned without restraint to their natural passions, were exposed to many inconveniences and dangers. He thought himself fortunate in often seeing other men violate their consciences by persisting in bad designs, influenced by love, hatred, or some other passion, while he himself, emulous of living after the example of the wisest of men, could only fall into venial errors. Animated with such just sentiments, the king conciliated the affection of his people as that of his family. Not only the priesthood, but all the Egyptian nation were less solicitous about their own families and possessions than about the safety of the king.[207] All the kings mentioned followed this political régime for a long time, and led a happy life under these laws. Besides, they conquered many nations, acquired great wealth, adorned the country with wonderful works and monuments, and the cities with rich and varied ornaments."[208]
We have thought proper to quote this long passage from Diodorus, because it clearly shows how the Egyptians regarded the duties and attributes of royalty. A limited knowledge of their sentiments makes us feel that Diodorus must have faithfully described the regulations maintained by the priests from the beginning of this ancient monarchy. Until the latest times, that is, till the Roman conquest, the prince, called to the throne by his birth, was enthroned and consecrated in a general assembly of the priesthood convoked at Memphis, "in order to observe the legal ceremonies prescribed for the coronation."[209]
When we examine the sacerdotal order, the influence it exercised over the king, in keeping him within the limits of moderation and justice, will be perceived.
The veneration of the Egyptians for their kings led them from the first to render them divine honors. "Egypt," says M. Mariette, "had a genuine worship for its kings, whom they styled beneficent gods, and regarded as the 'Sons of the Sun.'"
"The ureus (the asp) ornamented the brows of all the kings. It is also found adorning the foreheads of some of the gods. 'The asp does not grow old,' says Plutarch (Isis and Osiris), 'and, though without organs of locomotion, it moves with great facility.' The Egyptians considered it as the emblem of the eternal youth of the sun and its course in the heavens."
The sentiment of loyalty was carried so far among the Egyptians that it was considered a duty to obey their kings even in the caprices of their fantasy and pride. They respected those who were bad while they lived, reserving the right of judging them after their death.
"What took place at the death of their kings was not one of the least proofs of their attachment to them, for the honors rendered to the dead are an incontestable proof of sincerity of affection. When one of the kings died, all the inhabitants mourned, rent their garments, closed the temples, abstained from sacrifices, and celebrated no festivals for seventy-two days. Every one passed the prescribed number of days in affliction and mourning, as for the death of a cherished child. During this time preparations were made for a magnificent funeral, and on the last day they placed the chest containing the body of the deceased at the entrance of the tomb. They then proceeded, according to the law, to pass judgment on all the king had done during his life. Every one had the right of making his accusation. The priests pronounced a panegyric, relating the praiseworthy deeds of the king. Thousands of auditors applauded it if the king's life had been without reproach; if otherwise, they expressed their disapproval by murmurs. Many kings, through the opposition of the people, were deprived of suitable burial. This led their successors to deal justly, not only for reasons already mentioned, but for fear their bodies might be treated ignominiously after death, and their memory be for ever cursed."[210]
"There are still to be seen in Egypt," says Champollion-Figeac, "testimonies significant of this custom. The names of some sovereigns are carefully effaced from the monuments they had erected during their reign. They are carefully hammered down even on their tombs." Among the names of the kings thus condemned after death, Champollion mentions that of Pharaoh Mandouéi, of the eighteenth dynasty. Wherever this name stood, on all representations of the king, or on the edifices he had erected, it is carefully effaced and hammered, though expressed by the image of the god Mandou, whose name he bore. The systematic suppression of this king's name on all the public monuments can only be explained as the result of one of those severe judgments passed by the Egyptian nation upon wicked kings after their death.[211]
"There was in Egypt," says Bossuet, "a kind of judgment, quite extraordinary, which no one escaped.... This custom of judging kings after their death appeared so sacred to the people of God, that they always practised it. We see in the Scriptures that wicked kings were deprived of burial among their ancestors, and we learn from Josephus that this custom was still kept up in the time of the Asmoneans. It led kings to remember that, if above human judgment during their lives, they must be subjected thereto when death reduced them to the level of ordinary mortals."[212]
Notwithstanding so many wise precautions, the kings of Egypt did not always pursue the course so clearly marked out by the national traditions and the interests of the nation. More than one Pharaoh, intoxicated by sovereign authority, made his subjects experience the heavy hand of tyranny. The numerous changes of dynasties (thirty-one are reckoned before the conquest by Alexander the Great) also show that the nation more than once succeeded in overthrowing the despotic government of those that abused their power. But, through all changes of dynasties, and in spite of the struggles of rival families, the Egyptians always remained faithful to the monarchical principle, indissolubly attached to its institutions, customs, and manners. "At no time," says Herodotus, "have the Egyptians been able to live without kings."