Ancient Inhabitants and their Customs.—It has now been ascertained that the ancient Egyptians were more nearly allied to the Caucasian than to the negro type. Their faces appear to have been oval in shape, and narrower in the men than in the women. The forehead was well-shaped, but small and retiring; the eyes were almond-shaped and mostly black ; the hair was long, crisp, and gener ally black ; the skin of the men was dark brown, chiefly from exposure ; that of the women was olive-coloured or even lighter. The Egyptians, for the most part, were accustomed to shave their heads, indeed, except among the soldiers, the practice was probably almost universal. They generally wore skull caps. Otherwise they wore their own hair, or wigs falling to the shoulders in numerous curls, or done up in the form of a bag. They also shaved their faces ; kings, however, and other great personages, had beards about three inches long and one inch broad, which were plaited. The crown of Upper Egypt was a short cap, with a tall point behind, which was worn over the other. The king often had the figure of an asp, the emblem of royalty, tied just above his fore head.* The common royal dress was a kilt which reached to the ankles ; over it was worn a shirt, coming down to the knees, with wide sleeves, as far as the elbows : both these were generally of fine white linen. Sandals were worn on the feet, and on the person, armlets, bracelets, and necklaces. The upper and middle classes usually went bare foot ; in other respects their dress was much the same as that of the king's, but of course inferior in costliness. The priests sometimes wore a leopard's skin tied over the shoulders, or like a shirt with the forelegs for the sleeves. The queen had a parti cular head-dress, which was in the form of a vulture with expanded wings. The beak projected over the forehead, the wings fell on either side, and the tail hung down behind. She sometimes wore the urmus or asp. The royal princes were distin guished by a side-lock of hair elaborately plaited. The women wore their hair curled or plaited, reaching about halfway from the shoulders to the waist.
It is hardly needful to observe that the ancient Egyptians had attained to high degrees of civiliza tion and mental culture. This is evidenced by many facts. For instance, the variation of the compass may even now be ascertained by observ ing the lateral direction of the pyramids, on account of their being placed so accurately north and south. This argues considerable acquaintance with astro nomy. Again, we know that they were familiar with the duodecimal, as well as the decimal, scale of notation, and must, therefore, have made some progress in the study of mathematics. There is proof that the art of painting upon plaster and panel was practised by them more than zoo° years before Christ ; and the sculptures furnish represen tations of inkstands that contained two colours, black and red ; the latter being introduced at the beginning of a subject, and for the division of cer tain sentences, spewing this custom to be as old as that of holding the pen behind the ear, which is often portrayed in the paintings of the tombs. Alabaster was a material much used for vases, and as ointment was generally kept in an alabaster box, the Greeks and Romans applied the name alabas tress to all vases made for that purpose, and one of them found at Thebes, and now in the museum at Alnwick Castle, contains some ointment perfectly preserved, though from the Queen's name in the hieroglyphics it must be more than 3000 years old. In architecture they were very successful, as the magnificent temples yet remaining hear evident wit ness, though in ruins. The Doric order is supposed to have been derived from columns found at Benee Hasan, and the arch is at least as old as the 16th century B.C. In medical science," we know from the evidence furnished by mummies t found at Thebes, that the art of stopping teeth with gold, and proba bly cement, was known to the ancient Egyptians, and Cuvier found incontestable proof that the frac tured bone of an ibis had been set by them while the bird was alive. Their knowledge of glass blowing has been alluded to, and a glass bead in scribed with the name of a queen of the 18th dynasty, proves it to be as old as poo years' ago. The Egyptians were in the habit of eating much bread at table, and fancy rolls or seed cakes were in abundance at every feast. Those who could afford it ate wheaten bread, the poor alone being content with a coarser kind made of doora flour or millet. They ate with their fingers, though they occasionally used spopns. The table was some times covered with a cloth, and in great entertain ments among the rich each guest was furnished with a napkin. They sat upon a carpet or mat upon the ground, or else on stools or chairs round the table, and did not recline at meat like the Greeks and Romans. They were particularly fond of music and dancing. The most austere and scrupulous priest could not give a feast without a good band of musicians and dancers, as well as plenty of wine, costly perfumes and ointments, and a profusion of lotus and other flowers. Tumblers, jugglers, and various persons skilled in feats of agility, were hired for the occasion, and the guests played at games of chance, at mora, and the game of latrunculi, resembling draughts. The latter was the favourite game of all ranks, and Rameses III. is more than once represented playing it in the palace at Thebes. The number of pieces for play ing the game is not exactly known. They were of different colours on the opposite sides of the board, and were not flat as with us, but about an inch and a half or two inches high, and were moved like chessmen, with the thumb and finger. Sacred music was much used in Egypt, and the harp, lyre, flute, tambourine, cymbals, etc., were admitted in
divers religious services of which music constituted an important element. Sacred dancing was also common in religious ceremonies, as it seems to have been among the Jews (Ps. cxlix. 3). Moses found the children of Israel dancing before the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 19), in imitation probably of rites they had often witnessed in Egypt. The dinner hour was usually the middle of the day, as Joseph's brethren dined with him at noon. The fine linen of Egypt was greatly celebrated ; and that this was not without cause is proved by a piece found near Memphis and by the paintings (cf. Gen. xli. 42 ; a Chron. i. 16, etc.) The looms of Egypt were also famed for their fine cotton and woollen fabrics, and many of these were worked with patterns in brilliant colours, sometimes being wrought with the needle, sometimes woven in the piece. Some of the stripes were of gold thread, alternating with red ones as a border. Specimens of their embroidery are to be seen in the Louvre, and the many dresses painted on the monuments of the ISth century shew that the most varied patterns were used by the Egyptians more than 3000 years ago, as they were subsequently by the Babylonians, who became noted for their needle-work. Sir G. Wilkinson states that the secret of dyeing cloths of various colours by means of mordents was known to the Egyptians, as proved by the manner in which Pliny has described the process, though he does not seem to have un derstood it. They were equally fond of variety of patterns on the walls and ceilings of their houses and tombs, and some of the oldest ceilings shew that the chevron, the chequer, the scroll, and the guilloche, though ascribed to the Greeks, were adopted in Egypt more than 2000 years before our era. A gradual progress may be observed in their choice of fancy ornament. Beginning with simple imitations of real objects, as the lotus and other flowers, they adopted, by degrees, conventional re presentations of them, or purely imaginary devices ; and it is remarkable that the oldest Greek and Etruscan vases have a similarly close imitation of the lotus and other real objects. The same pat terns common on Greek vases had long before been introduced on those in Egypt ; whole ceil ings are covered with them, and the vases them selves had often the same elegant forms we admire in the cilix and others afterwards made in Greece. They were of gold and silver, en graved and embossed ; those made of porcelain were rich in colour, and some of the former were inlaid or studded with precious stones, or enamelled in brilliant colours. Among their most beautiful achievements in the art of glass-blowing were their richly-coloured bottles with waving lines and their small inlaid mosaics. In these last, the fineness of the work is so great that it must have required a strong magnifying power to put the parts together, especially the more minute details, such as feathers, the hair, etc. ' They were composed,' says Sir G. Wilkinson, `of the finest threads or rods of glass (attenuated by drawing them when heated to a great length), which, having been se lected according to their colour, were placed up right side by side, as in an ordinary mosaic, in sufficient number to form a portion of the intended picture. Others were then added until the whole had been composed ; and when they had all been cemented together by a proper heat, the work was completed. Slices were then sawn off transversely, as in our Tunbridge ware ; and each section pre sented the same picture on its upper and under side.' The more wealthy Egyptians had their large town houses and spacious villas, in which the flower-garden and pleasure-grounds were not the least prominent features. Avenues of trees shaded the walks, and a great abundance of violets, roses, and other flowers, was always to be had, even in winter, owing to the nature of their climate and the skill of their gardeners. A part also was assigned to vines and fruit-trees, the former were trained on trelliswork, the latter were standards. It is a curious fact that they were in the habit of employing monkeys, trained for the purpose, to climb the upper branches of the sycamore trees, and to gather the figs from them. The houses generally consisted of a ground floor and one upper storey ; few were higher. They were often place l round an open court, in the centre of which was a fountain or small garden. Large houses had some times a porch with a flight of steps before the street door, over which latter was painted the name of the owner. The wealthy landed proprietors were grandees of the priestly and military classes (Mr. Birch and M. Ampere may be said to have proved the non-existence of castes, in the Indian sense, in Egypt) ; but those who tended cattle were looked down upon by the rest of the community. ' Every shepherd was an abomination to the both from his occupation and from the memory of the Shepherd kings who had oppressed Egypt.* This contempt is often shewn in the paintings, by their being drawn unshaven, and squalid, and dressed in the same covering of mats that were thrown over the beasts they tended. None would intermarry with swineherds. It was the custom for the men to milk, as it is still among some Arab tribes, who think it disgraceful for a woman to milk any animal. Potters were very numerous, and the wheel, the baking of cups, and the other processes of their art were prominent on the monu ments. It is singular, as affording illustration of Scripture language, that the same idea of fashioning the clay was also applied to man's formation ; and the gods Ptah and Num, the creative agencies, are represented sitting at the potter's wheel turning the clay for the human creation.