Fig. 9.
A SEALED JAR.
(From a painting
in a tomb at
Medûm.)
The contents of bags and sacks were also secured by means of the seal; a piece of cord was tied round the neck, the knot of which was immersed in a pellet of clay and “sealed” (see fig. 10). A large number of broken seals of this kind have been found in Egypt, and sealed bags containing gold dust and other materials are often figured in the ancient paintings of the tombs. To the custom of sealing bags Job alludes (xiv, 17). In the story of Hor-ded-ef we read of certain midwives who had assisted in bringing into the world a child, being rewarded by the father with “a bushel of barley,” which is straightway sent to the brewhouse to be kept under the midwives’ seal. Our modern post bags are rendered secure from being examined by unauthorised persons in exactly the same manner.
Fig. 10.
A SEALED BAG.
(From a painting in
a tomb at Medûm.)
The Ancient Egyptians, it has already been remarked, were unacquainted with the use of locks and keys, hence we find that they employed their seals for the purpose of securing the doors of their houses and storerooms. These latter, indeed, were termed
Khetemu, “sealed rooms,” and they are frequently alluded to in the ancient inscriptions:[[8]] Such storehouses in foreign lands were provision depôts for the Egyptian troops or garrisons. Government storehouses were, of course, in charge of officials who kept them under their seals. Nebuaiu (circa 1500 B.C.), for instance, proudly boasts that the treasury of the Temple of Osiris was kept “under his signet ring,” and the Vezîr Rekhmara (circa 1500 B.C.) tells us that it was his duty to “seal up all the precious things in the temple of Amen,”[[9]] and that all the bags of gold dust and other valuables were “under his signet.”[[10]] When a storeroom was opened, the official responsible for the things contained in it appeared in person and sealed it up again when the stores were taken out.
There are many passages in the papyri which tend to show how great was the care taken to prevent irresponsible hands from pilfering.[[11]] The storehouses of private people were probably in the care of the housewife, or some other woman of the household, for when scarab seals are discovered in graves, it has been noticed that they are usually found at the side of, or near to, the body of a female.[[12]] Thus it is probable that in Egypt, as in other countries, it was the matron of the household who had charge of the grain and other provisions, and her little string of seals has its direct lineal descendant in our modern housekeeper’s bunch of keys. “How happy the times,” wrote Pliny, “how truly innocent, in which no seal was ever put to anything; at the present day, on the contrary, our very food even and our drink have to be preserved from theft, through the agency of the ring.” The modern “wedding ring” originated in the custom of the man presenting his wife, on her marriage, with a seal, which she was to use for sealing up her stores of provisions, etc. At first these seals were worn suspended from a string of beads around the neck. Sometimes they were strung on a cord which was tied round the wrist, and at a later period they were secured to the finger by a piece of string or wire. This wire and seal developed into the signet-ring. Then, with the introduction of locks and keys, it was the key-ring that was given by the husband to his wife. These key-rings, however, were soon found to be too cumbersome to be worn with comfort on the finger, and so a plain band of metal was given to the bride with a key. “The key,” writes Cicero (Ph. 2. 28), “was given to the bride on entering her home, to signify that she was appointed mistress of the house (mater familias)”; it was, in fact, used by her to lock up her store-room, and in case she was divorced it was taken away from her. At the present day, if the ring is not forthcoming at a wedding, the key of the chancel door can be used instead.
Fig 11.