§ 72. W. “What the Egyptians performed, after the deaths of every one of their kings, clearly evidences the great love they bore to them. For honour done to him that cannot possibly know it, in a grateful return of a former benefit, carries along with it a testimony of sincerity, without the least colour of dissimulation.” Booth, p. 37.
§ 73. W. The whole of Egypt being divided into a number of parts, called Nomes by the Greeks, each of these is governed by a Nomarcha, to whom the care of all its public concerns is entrusted. The land being every where divided into three portions, the first is occupied by the priesthood, who are held in the greatest respect by the inhabitants, as being devoted to the worship of the gods, and as possessing the greatest power of understanding, from the superiority of their education: and from the revenues of these lands they perform all sacrifices throughout Egypt, and support the servants of the temples as well as their own families: for they hold that the administration of the honours of the gods ought not to be fluctuating, but to be conducted always by the same persons, and in the same manner: and that those, who are above all their fellow citizens in wisdom and knowledge, ought not to be below any of them in the comforts and conveniences of life: and the priests are in the habit of associating very generally with the kings, partly as counsellors, partly as assistants, and partly as expounders and instructors: foretelling future events by means of astronomy and of augury, and reading the most useful lessons from the past, out of the records of their sacred volumes: for it is not the custom, as in Greece, for one man, or one woman, to be appointed to each priesthood, but there are many who are employed together in the sacrifices and in other ceremonies; and these transmit the same professional occupation to their descendants. The whole of the families of the priests are exempt from taxes, and they come immediately after the king in rank and authority. The second portion of the land is retained in the power of the king for his own revenue, out of which he has to provide for all military expenses, and for the support of his own splendour and dignity, as well as for the liberal remuneration of those who have distinguished themselves by their virtues and their valour: so that being amply supplied from this territory, they are not obliged to burden their subjects with oppressive taxes. The last of the three portions is assigned to the military population, who are subject to the duties attending on a state of warfare: in order that those, who are exposed to danger in battle, may be the more ready to undergo the hazards of the field, from the interest that they feel in the country as occupiers of the soil: for it would be thought absurd to commit the common safety to the care of those, who possessed nothing in the country that was worthy of preservation: and this system had the still greater advantage of acting as an encouragement to population, in order that the country might not be in want of foreign auxiliaries: and their descendants, in like manner, receiving the constitution thus transmitted to them from their forefathers, are excited by the emulation of the valiant deeds of their ancestors, and become invincible by the courage and experience which they acquire.
§ 74. There are also three other classes that enter into the political system of Egypt; those of the Shepherds, the Husbandmen, and the Artisans. The husbandmen, occupying, at a low rent, the arable land belonging to the king, and the priests, and the military, employ their whole time in cultivating it: and being educated from their infancy in agricultural pursuits, they are superior, from their experience, to the husbandmen of other countries: for they are perfectly well acquainted, partly from the knowledge derived from their ancestors, and partly from their own observation, with the nature of the soil, and its irrigation, and with the times and seasons for sowing and reaping, and for collecting all kinds of fruits. The same advantages are possessed by the shepherds, who receive the charge of the flocks from their forefathers as by inheritance, and pass their whole lives in the care of their cattle: and having derived much information from their ancestors, respecting the best modes of treatment and fattening of the different animals, they also add not a little from their own zeal and industry in their occupations: and, what is most remarkable, from their excessive refinement in these pursuits, the poulterers and geese feeders, besides the natural modes of breeding birds, which are common in other countries, have procured an infinite multitude of poultry by their own ingenuity: for they do not hatch their eggs by the incubation of the hens, but, by means of an artificial operation, derived from their own talents and invention, they are enabled to rival, if not to exceed, the activity of nature: and the arts in general are carried to a very elaborate degree of perfection by the Egyptians; for in this country no artist is allowed to meddle either with political affairs, or with any other employment, besides that which he has received from his parents, and to which he is confined by the law: so that neither the jealousy of a master, nor any public business, can ever divert him from the exclusive study of his profession: for in other countries we often observe that an artist is diverted by a variety of pursuits, and is too avaricious to confine himself to his own work; some employing themselves in husbandry, some in commerce, and some in two or three different arts at once; and in democratical countries, many are constantly frequenting popular assemblies, and doing mischief to the government, while they are receiving bribes from the leaders of parties: but among the Egyptians, if any artisan should meddle with politics, or should employ himself in any other concerns besides that in which he has been educated, a severe punishment would be inflicted on him. Such then were the institutions of the ancient Egyptians with regard to their public and private occupations.
§ 75. For the regulation of judicial proceedings, they also took no common pains: since they held that the sentences, pronounced by the legal tribunals, had the greatest possible influence, whether beneficial or injurious, on the concerns of common life: and they saw that the punishment of offenders, and the relief of oppressed persons, were the most effectual remedies for the evils of a state: and that if the terror, that arises from the condemnation of the guilty, were to be superseded by money or by favour, there would be nothing but confusion in all ranks of society: and they attained the end they desired, by the selection of the best men out of the most considerable cities as Common Judges: taking ten from Heliopolis, and the same number from Thebes and from Memphis: and the Bench, thus assembled, did not appear to be inferior either to the Areopagites at Athens, or to the Elders among the Lacedaemonians. When these thirty had met, they proceeded to elect the most distinguished of their number as their President, with the title of Arch judge: and his place among themselves was supplied by another person, sent by the same city. The judges all received allowances from the king, sufficient for their support, and the arch judge received a manifold portion. He was distinguished by wearing round his neck a golden chain, suspending a figure adorned with precious stones, which was called Alethía, or Truth: and the trial began when the arch judge put on this image of Truth. Now the whole of the laws of the country being written in eight books, and these books being placed near the judges, it was the custom for the accuser to write down in detail the offense to be proved, and the manner in which the action was committed, and the estimated amount of the damage or the injury: the accused party then, taking the depositions of his opponents, wrote his answer to each of them, either denying the facts, or maintaining that they were not illegal; or, if they were illegal, that the damages were appreciated too highly: the accuser replied again in writing, and the accused party rejoined: and both having given in their writings to the judges, the thirty proceeded to declare their opinions among themselves; and lastly, the arch judge touched one of the contending parties, who was to be successful, with the figure of Truth which he wore.... And this was done, in order to supersede the influence of artificial eloquence, and the fascination of personal appearance, which too often pervert the distribution of justice....
§ 80. The Priests of the Egyptians are allowed to marry but one wife: other persons marry as many as they please: but they are obliged to rear all their children, since a numerous population is esteemed highly conducive to the happiness of every country and state: and none of their children are accounted illegitimate, even if the mother has been purchased as a slave: for the children are supposed to belong more particularly to the father, the mother being considered as little more than a nurse. They feed their children very lightly, and at an incredibly small expense: giving them a little meal of the coarsest and cheapest kind, the pith of the papyrus, baked under the ashes, with the roots and stalks of some marsh weeds, either raw, or boiled, or roasted: and since most of them are brought up, on account of the mildness of the climate, without shoes, and indeed without any other clothing; the whole of the expense, incurred by the parents, till they come to years of maturity, does not exceed about 20 drachmas, or 13 shillings, each. This frugality is the true reason of the great populousness of Egypt, and of the magnificence of the public works, with which the country is adorned.
§ 81. The children of the priests, however, are instructed in two descriptions of literature; the sacred and the more general: and they apply themselves with diligence to geometry and arithmetic: for the river, changing the appearance of the country very materially every year, is the cause of many and various discussions among the neighbouring proprietors: and these it would be difficult for any person to decide, without geometrical reasoning, founded upon actual observation: and for arithmetic they have frequent occasion both in their domestic economy, and in the application of geometrical theorems, besides its utility in the cultivation of astronomical studies: for the orders and motions of the stars are observed at least as industriously by the Egyptians as by any other people whatever: and they keep records of the motions of each for an incredible number of years; the study of this science having been, from the remotest times, an object of national ambition with them: they have also most punctually observed the motions and periods and stations of the planets, as well as the powers which they possess, with respect to the nativities of animals, and what good or evil influences they exert: and they frequently foretel what is to happen to a man throughout his life, and not uncommonly predict a failure of crops, or an abundance, and the occurrence of epidemic diseases among men or beasts: they foresee also earthquakes and floods, and the appearances of comets, and a variety of other things which appear impossible to the multitude. It is said also that the Chaldaeans in Babylon are derived from an Egyptian colony, and have acquired their reputation for astrology by means of the information obtained from the priests in Egypt: but the generality of the common people in Egypt learn only, from their parents or relations, that which is required for the exercise of their peculiar professions, as we have already seen: a few of them only teach them something of literature, especially those who cultivate the more refined of the arts: wrestling and music it is not their custom to practice: for they conceive that, by exercise in the palaestra, young men acquire not solid health, but a temporary increase of strength, which is by no means free from danger; and music they esteem not only useless, but even injurious, as rendering the minds of men effeminate....
§ 83. W. The customs of the Egyptians with regard to their sacred animals are exceedingly surprising, and worthy to be examined; for they venerate some of these animals in an extraordinary degree, not only while they are living, but even after their death: for example, cats, and ichneumons, and dogs; and besides these, the hawk and the ibis; furthermore, wolves and crocodiles, and other beasts of prey.... Now each kind of the animals, that are held sacred, has a piece of ground appropriated to them, affording a rent sufficient for the care and the food that they require: the Egyptians are also in the habit of making vows to some of their divinities on behalf of their children; and if they recover from the disease, they shave off their hair, and counterpoising it with silver or with gold, they give the money to the priests, who have the care of these animals: the priests expend this money in articles of food; and cutting up the meat for the hawks, call out to them with a loud voice, and throw it to them as they fly near: and for the oats and the ichneumons they soften the bread in milk, and lay it before them with the proper calls and signals; or give them some of the fishes of the Nile cut in pieces: and in the same manner they furnish to every other kind of animal its appropriate food: nor do they attempt to perform these services with any degree of privacy, or to avoid the sight of the multitude; but on the contrary they value themselves, as being the ministers of the highest honours of the Gods, and travel through the cities and the country with their appropriate standards: showing obviously at a distance to what deities they are attached; and receiving the universal respect and homage of those who meet them: and when any one of these animals dies, they roll it up in fine linen, and bewail themselves, and beat their breasts, as they carry it to be embalmed: and then they embalm it with resins, and with substances fit to perfume and to preserve it, and bury it in the sacred vaults: and if any one voluntarily destroys one of these animals, he suffers death: with the exception of the cat and the ibis; for if a person kills either of these, even involuntarily, he infallibly loses his life, a multitude immediately collecting and tearing him in pieces, often without any form of trial; so that, for fear of such a calamity, if any one finds one of these animals dead, he stands at a distance, and calls out with a loud voice, lamenting, and protesting that the animal has been found dead. This superstitious regard to the sacred animals is so thoroughly rooted in their minds, and every one of them has his passions so strongly bent upon their honour, that at the time when Ptolemy had not yet been called a king by the Romans, and the people were using every possible effort to flatter the Italians, who were visiting the country as strangers, and studious to avoid every thing that could excite disputes, or lead to war, on account of their dread of the consequences; a Roman having killed a cat, and a crowd being collected about his residence, neither the magistrates, who were sent by the king to appease their rage, nor the general terror of the Roman name, were able to save the offender from vengeance, although he had done it unintentionally: and this we relate, not from the testimony of others, but from what we ourselves had an opportunity of seeing, upon our journey to Egypt.
§ 84. If these things appear to many incredible and almost fabulous, what remains to be told will be thought still more extraordinary. In the time of a great famine in Egypt, it is related that many of the inhabitants were compelled by hunger to devour each other, but that nobody was even accused of having touched the flesh of any of the sacred animals. Indeed whenever a dog has died in a house, the whole of the persons, residing in it, shave their whole bodies, and go into mourning: and what is still more remarkable, if there was either wine or corn, or any other provisions, in the house, in which the animal died, they would not dare to make any use of it whatever: and if they lose these animals, while they are absent upon any military expedition, they carry back their cats and their hawks in sorrow to Egypt: this they will do even if they are themselves in want of the means of returning with convenience. The manner in which they treat their Apis in Memphis, and Mneuis in Heliopolis, and the Goat in Mendes, and the Crocodile in the Lake Moeris, and the Lion that is kept at Leontopolis, with many other things of the same kind, is easily narrated, but not easily credited, except by an eye witness: for all these animals are kept in sacred inclosures, and attended by many of the most respectable persons, who supply them with the most delicate food; fine flour or prepared corn, boiled in milk, and all kinds of cakes mixed with honey, and geese, either boiled or roasted, are continually provided for them; and for those which are carnivorous, various birds are caught, and given to them alive: and their whole establishments are arranged on a very expensive scale, for they are furnished with warm baths, and anointed with the finest ointments, and the choicest perfumes are burned before them: they have also rich carpets and ornamented furniture, and care is taken to provide them with female companions of the greatest beauty, who are also fed in the most luxurious manner: and when they die, they are lamented like favourite children, and are buried not according to the means of their attendants only, but often much more magnificently: for after the death of Alexander, when Ptolemy the son of Lagus had lately become King of Egypt, the Apis at Memphis happened to die of old age; and the person, who had the care of him, not only spent the whole of the allowances, which were very considerable, upon the funeral, but borrowed also fifty talents, or twelve thousand pounds, more of Ptolemy, to defray the expense: and within our own memory it has happened, that the guardians of these animals have spent not less than a hundred talents at their funeral.
§ 85. Besides these ceremonies, there are many other customs at the death of the sacred bull named Apis; for after he has been splendidly interred, the priests seek for a calf who is marked as nearly as possible in the same manner: and having found him, they release the public from their mourning, and the appointed persons carry the calf first to Nilopolis, where they feed him for forty days; and then embarking him on board of a yacht with a gilded cabin, they conduct him as a god to the sacred grove of Vulcan, at Memphis. In these forty days only, he is allowed to be seen by women, who perform certain evolutions before him, which are probably more amusing to his attendants than to himself: and at no other time are women allowed to see him. The reason of the honours paid to him is said to be, that at the death of Osiris, his soul transmigrated into this animal, and that it is continually transferred to his successors, when he dies: others however inform us, that when Osiris was killed by Typhon, his limbs were collected by Isis, and thrown into a wooden cow, covered with cotton cloths, and that the city was thence called Busiris. [It seems however that this must have been a Grecian fiction, for in Egyptian BUSIRIS must have meant the tomb of Osiris, and not the cow.] For the deification of the other animals, as well as of their kings, a variety of reasons are assigned[; all as uninteresting as they are absurd; except the story of a hawk having brought, to the priest at Thebes, a book of laws and religious observances, tied up with purple; and that hence the Hierogrammates, or sacred scribes, were distinguished by a purple sash, and by wearing a hawk’s feather on their heads: that the crocodile is said to be venerated as the watchman of the Nile, preventing the predatory excursions, which would be undertaken, if the thieves could swim across the river in safety; and that the diversity of deities, worshipped in neighbouring parts of the country, is supposed by some to have originated in a political contrivance of the government, to keep the people in subjection, by preventing their too intimate union].
§ 91. The customs of the Egyptians, with regard to their funerals, are not the least wonderful of their peculiar institutions. For when any one dies among them, the whole of his family and all his friends cover their heads with clay, and go about the city lamenting, until the body is buried; partaking neither of baths, nor of wine, nor of any abundant food, nor putting on rich clothing. The funerals are conducted upon three different scales, the most expensive, the moderate, and the humblest: the first costs a talent of silver [£250]; the second twenty minae [£60]; the third is extremely cheap. Now the persons, that undertake this office, are artists, who exercise the profession from generation to generation: and they bring to the friends of the deceased an estimate of the expenses of the funeral, and ask them in what manner they wish that it should be performed. When the agreement is made, the operations are commenced by the proper persons: and first the scribe marks out how the dissection is to be performed, upon the left side of the body; the dissector then cuts it with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and immediately betakes himself to flight, and is pursued and beaten, as if he had committed an inhuman action; the embalmers, on the contrary, are held in all honour and respect, associating with the priests, and having free access to the temples, as sacred persons: these embalmers commence their office by removing such parts as are most susceptible of decay, and, washing the rest with palm wine, and spices, apply various kinds of resins for more than thirty days, and then impregnate the whole with myrrh and cinnamon, and other substances calculated not only to preserve it, but to communicate to it an agreeable smell: and finally they return the body to the relations, so perfectly preserved in every part, that even the hairs of the eyelids and eyebrows remain undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is unchanged, and the features are capable of being recognised: so that the Egyptians, very commonly, keeping the bodies of their ancestors in magnificent apartments, are able to see the very faces of those, who have died several generations before them: each of whom being distinguishable, not only by his height, and the outline of his figure, but even by the character of his countenance, they enjoy a wonderful gratification, as if they lived in the society of those whom they see before them. [It is indeed related by Damascenus, Orat. 1, that they placed them on seats at their tables, as if they wished to eat and drink in their society: and Lucian, in his Essay on Grief, declares, that he has been an eye witness of the custom. Wessel. It is not however probable that such a practice should have been continued in the times of the Ptolemies: although Lucian, who had an appointment in Egypt under Marcus Aurelius, may be considered as pretty good authority, when he speaks seriously.]