"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.