MANNERS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

27

a column being left standing. The sepulchral grottoes, now the only objects at Eilithyias which the traveller needs pause to examine, are found in the southern face of the mountain, about two miles northeast of the city; and are extremely numerous, though three only deserve particular attention. And, indeed, when I had beheld the private tombs of Gournou, even these, so much vaunted by travellers, appeared to lose much of their importance. Being insignificant in dimensions, their only merit consists in the scenes represented on the walls, which, however contemptible as works of art, are not without interest, regarded as illustrations of Egyptian manners.

CCCCXXV. The paintings, now much mutilated, are various; and were, perhaps, as Hamilton conjectures, intended to describe, in a pictorial narrative, the series of events, or rather occupations, of which the history of the inmate consisted, — all of a rural nature, reaping, winnowing, pulling, and unbolling flax, fishing, fowling, and the merry labours of the vintage. The third of the greater tombs, reckoning from the river, appears to have chiefly

kal diéσweipov. —Plutarch. de Iside et Osiride, p. 380.— Typhon being supposed to have had red hair, the persons selected to be immolated on these horrid altars were also red-haired. Jablonski, Pantheon Ægyptiorum, t. ii. p. 69. The red-haired girl, whose body we found among the crocodiles at Maabdé, had perhaps been one of the victims of Boubasta or Osiris, though her remains escaped the funeral pile. D'Anville, in his Epitome of Ancient Geography, alludes to these sacrifices:-" Elethyia, ou ville de Lucine, avoit un autel souillé de victimes humaines." t.iii. p. 37.

28

FEAST OF THE HARVEST HOME.

interested Hamilton; the only fault of whose elaborate and masterly description is, that it gives a far too favourable idea of these grottoes. I chiefly confine myself to the first hypogeum, in which, beginning with the artist, at the exterior extremity of the left hand wall, we find, in the second compartment, a carriage drawn by two horses, apparently waiting for the owner; with a groom on foot holding the reins and repressing the ardour of his steeds. Next occurs a company of reapers, with sickles in their hands, in a field; where, to dispel any ideas of pastoral simplicity and rural happiness, to which our ignorant admiration of remote ages and their patriarchal manners might give birth, we discover, close behind, the overseer, brandishing a whip, like a negro-driver; the wisdom of the Egyptians having been able to discover no other excitement to labour than flogging. The corn having been thrashed and winnowed in the field, as is the present practice of the Arabs, it is conveyed to the garner in large baskets, slung upon poles, and carried between two men. Women, like Ruth in the field of Boaz, are next seen, gleaning up the scattered ears into small baskets. Then follows a large chasm in the wall.

CCCCXXVI. We must now suppose the corn to be safely housed, and preparations making for the feast of the harvest-home. The President Goguet's commiseration is excited at finding no mention of game or ragouts among the descriptions of patriarchal feasts in the sacred writings; and, from this circumstance,

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

29

infers that such viands were unknown in those early ages. But the natives of Eilithyias were not quite so simple in their taste; for we see the sportsman returning from the chase, with his bow and quiver in his hand, and a well filled game-bag slung across his shoulder. Next comes the feast. Women, according to some historians, had in ancient Egypt, as at Sparta, the most complete ascendancy over their husbands, whose houses and fortunes they governed despotically. Here both sexes, though not seated together, appear to be on terms of perfect equality; the male guests, sixteen in number, being ranged on chairs, on one side of the apartment, while the women, likewise sixteen, occupy the other. The master of the house, who mingles not with his guests, occupies a throne at one end of the apartment, and beside him, on the same seat, is his wife, with her right arm about his neck. Before them are several domestics awaiting their orders, among whom are two female musicians; one, seated on the ground, playing on a harp of seven strings, which rests upon her knees; while the other touches a four-chorded crescent-shaped instrument, held awkwardly on the shoulder. In the middle of the banquetting room, on a large table, piled with provisions, we observe a bull's head, cooked with the horns on; and beside it a whole quarter of the same animal; from which it is quite clear that the Egyptians ate the relations of their god Apis, though they might not choose to devour the divinity himself. Piles of fruit of various kinds are on the table for the dessert. The men,

attended upon by two female slaves, have each a lotus * in their hand, and appear exceedingly grave ; but their more vivacious moieties, who are honoured with ten attendants, seem, in many instances, to have cast their lotuses on the ground, and are laughing and clapping their hands, delighted with the music or the song. The hair of the master and the other men is twisted into small ringlets, in the modern Nubian fashion; but that of the ladies is either arranged smooth, or covered by their head-dress. As the mistress of the feast is placed on her lord's left hand, the other ladies, arranged in front of her, are necessarily seated on the right of theirs. In the lower compartment, now extremely mutilated and imperfect, are the figures of cows, and other animals; and on the sides of the niche, where was formerly sitting statue, now broken, are various figures, some kneeling, others playing upon musical instruments, before the master of the tomb and his wife.

CCCCXXVII. But at length Thoth Psychopompos knocks at the rich man's door, to conduct his spirit to Amenti. His "domus et placens uxor" are resigned; the soul, according to its deeds, mi

* Perhaps, however, what is here and elsewhere supposed to be a lotus, may be the plant Agrostis, at present unknown, which they were accustomed to bear in their hands to the temples. "Les Egyptiens, en mémoire de l'utilité dont l'herbe, nommé Agrostis, avoit été à leurs pères, en portoient dans les mains toutes les fois qu'ils alloient aux temples faire leurs prières." - Goguet, Origine des Loir, &c. t. i. p. 163. - This was subsequent, I imagine, to the abolition of cannibalism by Osiris. - Diodorus, l. i. p. 17

POLYGAMY.

31

grates into a cat, a hog, a vulture, or an ibis, to accomplish in successive transmigrations the revolution of the Great Year; while the body, that it may be entire at its owner's return, is delivered over to the embalmers. We see the mummy swathed, bandaged, and stretched upon a couch, with various female mourners, - hired ones, perhaps, — weeping round it on their knees. The yellow chest, in which it is to be borne to its long home, being brought in, and the mummy placed in it, is laid on a lion-shaped bier; the funeral procession moves along. In a small sledge drawn by men, a seated figure, the heir, perhaps, of the deceased, precedes the mummy-chest; they arrive at the sacred river. The coffin, the mourners, the attendants, embark in boats, drawn along the shore by a cow, -the cord being fastened to her horns, several men assisting. In a compartment adjoining, a man, with a globe on his head, is seated on an urn, and two figures, probably of priests, are pouring libations over him. Near them, towards the left, another person is delineated cutting up an animal, possibly for the funeral feast; for the old Egyptians, like the Irish, invariably made merry at a wake. Proceeding into the third tomb, we observe, in the niche, a man sitting between two women, who have been supposed to be his wives; but did the old Egyptians allow of polygamy?*

Hugo Grotius imagines it was permitted to all but the priests: Apud Egyptios soli sacerdotes unius fœmina conjugio utebantur. — De Jure Belli ac Pacis, l. ii. c. 2. § 10. And he grounds his assertion on the authority of Herodian, l. ii., and Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 51.