[225] This is, of course, a survival of the old matriarchal custom.
[226] Hobhouse, op. cit., Vol. L. pp. 5-186. Herodotus (Bk. II. p. 42) states that many Egyptians, like the Greeks, had adopted monogamy.
[227] Burgsch, Hist., Vol. I. p. 262, quoted by Simcox.
[228] Simcox, Vol. I. p. 198-199. I take this opportunity of acknowledging the help I have received from this writer's careful and interesting chapter on "Domestic Relationships and Family Law" among the Egyptians.
[229] Maspero, Hist. (German tr.), p. 41; see Simcox, op. cit., p. 199.
[230] This tablet is in the British Museum, London. S. Egyptian Gallery, Bay 29, No. 1027.
[231] Simcox, Vol. I. pp. 218, 219.
[232] Petah Hotep was a high official in the reign of Assa, a king of the IVth Dynasty, about 3360 B.C. His precepts consist of aphorisms of high moral worth; there is a late copy in the British Museum. I have followed the translation given in the Guide to the Egyptian Collection p. 77.
[233] This passage in other translations reads: "she is a field profitable to its owner."
[234] The Maxims of Ani are preserved in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. The work inculcates the highest standard of practical morality and gives a lofty ideal of the duty of the Egyptians in all the relations of life.