SECTION IV.-EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. ODERN ethnologists, in general, regard the ancient Egyptians as of Asiatic origin, since they differed so much from other African races, such as the Berbers and the Negroes, in language, the shape of their skulls, and their physiognomy. The skulls of the ancient Egyptians, and of their legitimate descendants, the modern Copts, are eminently Caucasian; while the Egyptian language has analogies connecting it with the Aryan and Semitic tongues. The conclusion that the Egyptians, at least the upper and middle classes of them, were Asiatic immigrants into the Nile valley, is therefore a safe one. They are believed to have been kindred with other races of South-western Asia, such as the Canaanites, the primitive Chaldæans, and the Southern Arabs. We must accordingly conclude that Syria or Arabia was the cradle of the Egyptian nation. Some have maintained that the immigration was from the south of the Nile valley, and that the Egyptians were of Ethiopian origin; but recent research has shown conclusively that the movement of the Egyptians was from north to south. Says Mr. Birch, the latest English historian of Egypt: "The study of the monuments furnishes incontrovertible evidence that the historical series of Egyptian tempies, tombs At the first glance one can easily see that it represents Egyptian art in its degeneracy, and that art ill understood and ill executed. The utmost height to which Ethiopian civilization ever reached was a mere rude imitation, alike in science and in art, of Egyptian models." The color of the ancient Egyptians was brown, like that of the modern Copts. For this we have the authority of the monuments. The women were lighter than the men, being depicted on the monuments as yellow. The hair was usually black and straight, though sometimes it grew in short, crisp curls. Men generally shaved both hair and beard, and went about with their heads perfectly bare, or else wore wigs or a close-fitting cap. Women always wore their own hair, and plaited it in long tresses, sometimes extending down to the waist. The DRESSES OF EGYPTIAN WOMEN. hair of the wigs, and that found sometimes on the heads of mummies, is coarse. The features of the Egyptians resembled those of their Syrian neighbors. The forehead was straight, but low; the nose generally long, though sometimes slightly aquiline. The lips were over full, but the upper lip was short, and the mouth was seldom too wide. The chin was good, being well rounded, and neither receding nor extending too far. The eye was a long, narrow slit, like that of the Chinese, but placed horizontally, instead of obliquely. The eyebrow, likewise long and thin, shaded the eye. The coloring was always dark; the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard (where there was one), being black, or nearly so, and the eyes black or dark brown. The Egyptians resembled the modern Arabs in form. They were tall, with long and supple limbs, and with the head well placed upon the shoulders. Their movements were graceful, their carriage dignified. Generally, however, their frames were spare, and their hands and feet unduly large. The women were as thin as the men, and their forms were almost similar. Children, however, were sufficiently plump. The Egyptians were divided into distinct tribes. We read in the Mosaic account of Ludim, Anamim, Lebahim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim and Caphtorim as distinct 'sons of Misraim"-as separate tribes of the people who occupied the "two Egypts." 66 The Egyptians ranked high intellectually among the ancient nations. In art they exhibited wonderful power. Mr. Birch says that their architecture "was on the grandest scale, and dwarfs the Greek in comparison." The Egyptians had a high moral standard theoretically, but practically their morals were very lax. Says Brugsch, the eminent German Egyptologist: "The fortytwo laws of the Egyptian religion, contained in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead, fall short in nothing of the teachings of Christianity." The same authority further says that Moses, in compiling his code of laws, did only "translate into Hebrew the religious precepts which he found in the sacred books" of the Egyptians, among whom he had been brought up. The Egyptian women were notoriously loose in their character, exceedingly immodest and licentious. The men openly practiced impurity, and boasted of it in their writings. An inclination to luxurious living was also a defect in the Egyptian character; and drunkenness was a common vice among both sexes, all the appeals and exhortations of the priests in favor of temperance being unavailing to stem the tide of general debauchery. Sensual pleasure and amusement seemed the ends of existence among the upper classes in general. False hair was worn, dyes and cosmetics were used to produce artificial beauty, magnificent dress was worn, equipages were splendid, great banquets were frequently held, games and sports were constant, and life was passed in feasting, sport and a continual succession of enjoyments. The effect of self-indulgence is seen in the national decay of these people, and their successive subjections to hardier races, such as the Ethiopians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Macedonian Greeks. Their family affection is shown by the paintings, where husbands and wives are everywhere represented with their arms around each other's necks. The Egyptians were industrious, cheerful and gay even under hardships; but they were cruel, vindictive, treacherous, avaricious, superstitious and servile. The use of the bastinado was universal, being employed to inflict punishment for minor offenses, while superiors freely beat inferiors. The poor peasantry were forced by blows to yield to the extortions of the tax-gatherers, and slaves were impelled to labor under fear of the rod, which the taskmaster freely applied to the backs of laggards. The passions of the Egyptians often broke out in riot, insurrection and murder. They were extremely fanatical in religious belief, and ready to wipe out in blood any insult to their religion. They were at times timid, submissive and sycophantic. The lower classes prostrated themselves before their superiors, tamely submitting to blows. The great nobles were equally servile to their sovereign, addressing him as a god, and ascribing to him their continued existence in this life. Though successful in their early wars, when their disciplined troops attacked un disciplined hordes, they were defeated whenever they encountered a brave and skillful enemy. Their readiness to break engagements when their fulfillment was inconvenient, made them unreliable allies; and for this reason the Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of Egypt as a "bruised reed, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it." The government of Egypt was a theocratic monarchy, the king being the earthly representative of the Deity. His body was considered sacred, and he was worshiped as a god. His title of Phrah, or Pharaoh, signifying the Sun, ranked him as the emblem DRESS OF THE EGYPTIAN KING. of Helios, or Phrah, or Ra, the Sun-god. His right and duty was to preside over the sacrifices and to pour out libations to the gods. He was thus the head of the national religion, as well as the civil and political head of the state. The kingly office was hereditary, but the monarch was not an absolute ruler; and the political system was a combination of theocracy, monarchy and hierarchy, the king's power being more or less curtailed by the power of the priesthood, or hierarchical class. In this respect Egypt differed from an Asiatic despotism, where the sovereign was unlimited lord and master over his subjects. An Egyptian Pharaoh did not possess un limited power over the lives and property of his people but his authority was strictly defined and limited by law, and nothing was left to passion or caprice. The monarch, however, possessed the right to make new laws. The king's public duties and personal habits were minutely defined by religious regulations, the sacred books prescribing his food, drink, dress and the employment of his time, thus allowing him less individual freedom than was enjoyed by the humblest and most degraded of his subjects. He was not permitted to give way to excessive indulgence of any kind. No slave or hireling was permitted to hold office about his per son, for fear that he might be contaminated by such unworthy presence, but those of the highest rank only were accorded the privilege of attending him and ministering to his wants. The ritual of every morning's worship constantly refreshed his memory with a knowledge of the virtues of former kings, and reminded him of his own kingly and personal duties. After his death his body was placed in an open court, where any and every one of his subjects might bring accusations against him; and if his conduct in life. was proven to have been unworthy his exalted station, he was forever excluded from the tombs of his ancestors. The ancient Egyptians were divided into classes or castes, distinguished by their ranks and occupations; the priests forming the highest caste, the warriors the second caste, and husbandmen, gardeners, boatmen and herdsmen the lowest caste. The priesthood possessed great authority in the state and were the "power behind the throne." So far as the sovereign was concerned they used their power wisely and well. Their habits of life were simple and moderate. Their diet was plain in quality and limited in quantity, and they abstained from fish, mutton, swine's flesh, beans, peas, garlic, leeks and onions, which were articles of food among the common people. They ranked next to the sacerdotal, or priestly bathed twice a day and twice during the order, numbered about four hundred thounight, some of the more strict in water sand persons. When not engaged in militasted by their sacred birds, the ibis, to tary service, either in foreign wars, in make sure of being purged of all unclean- garrisons or at the royal court, these were ness. Their abstinence, purity and humil- settled on their lands, which were located ity, and their reputation for learning, en- principally on the east side of the Nile or in abled the priests to hold the people in relig- the Delta, which portions of the country ious, political and mental subjection. By By were the most exposed to hostile invasion their knowledge of physical science they by a foreign foe. Each soldier was allotted could frighten and terrorize the superstitious about six and a half acres of land, exempt and ignorant lower classes by optical illu- from all taxation or tribute; and from the sions and other tricks. By their power to proceeds of this land he defrayed the extry the dead they could decide the fate of penses of his arms and equipments. The any man, from the king to the swineherd, soldier, however, could not engage in any by refusing him a passport to the outer art or trade. The lands of the priests and world. The priests prescribed the religious soldiers were considered privileged property, ritual of every Egyptian, from the king to the meanest of his subjects. They cul- The Egyptian priesthood embraced an order including many professions and occupations. They alone were acquainted with the arts of reading and writing, and with medicine and the other sciences. tivated the science of medicine from the earliest ages. The universal practice of embalming was exercised by the physicians, thus enabling them to study the effects of various diseases by examining the body after death. Asiatic monarchs sent to Egypt for their physicians, and the fertile soil of the Nile valley furnished drugs for the whole ancient civilized world. Even in our own time the characters used by druggists to denote drams and ounces are the Egyptian ciphers adopted by the Arabs. The soldiers, or military caste, which while all other lands were regarded as the king's property, and were rented by him to farmers, who paid a yearly rent of onefifth of the produce. Below the priests and warriors were the various unprivileged castes, embracing husbandmen, gardeners, boatmen, artisans of various kinds, and herdsmen, comprising shepherds, goatherds and swineherds. These latter were intensely despised as the most degraded of human creatures, and were not allowed to enter the temples. All castes below the priesthood and the warrior class were deprived of all political rights and disqualified from ownership in land. The two privileged castes, the priests and warriors, are believed to have been the descendants of the Asiatic conquerors and immigrants into Egypt, while the lower classes were the descendants of the Ethiopian abo |