Agriculture, manufacture and trade were carried on in Egypt in the very earliest days. Upon the ancient monuments we find repre sentations of the mechanical arts, where we see the blow-pipe, bellows, siphons, press, balance, lever, saw, adze, chisel, forceps, syringe, har poon, razors; we have also glazed pottery, the potter's wheel and the lciln; and dated specimens of glass of the time of (Thothmes III, 1445 a.c.). Gold-beating, damascening, engraving, casting, inlaying, enameling, wire drawing and other processes were practised. Weapons and other instruments of war, shields, cuirasses of quilted leather, helmets, spears, clubs, maces, daggers, bows, battle-axes, pole-axes, hatchets and fal chions are shown. The testudo, ladders, torches and lanterns were also in use. In agriculture the plow, hoe, sickle and other implements were employed. The processes of growing and pre paring flax and making it into thread, string, ropes and cloth, as well as the looms em ployed, are all depicted. Mats and baskets were beautifully made, either of the halfa grass or palm leaves, or of the outer rind of the papyrus plant, which was used in malcing paper. Cof fins or wooden sarcophagi were chiefly of sycamore or cedar, covered with stucco and richly painted. The ordinary boats of the Nile were planks of the acacia and had two rud ders or large oars, with a sail of cloth frequently painted or worked in colored patterns. Many, of the vessels of burden were of great size. The boats made of papyrus were mostly punts for fishing, or .for gliding through the canals of the Delta. Implements for painting ladles, bells, crucibles and surgical instruments have also been found. The commerce of the Egyptians with neighboring nations enriched the country with slaves, cattle, gems, metals, rare animals and objects of curiosity. The Egyptians ex pended enormous wealth on the tombs and fur niture of the dead, and the paintings acquaint us fully with the various ceremonies followed. In embalming they excelled. Each administra tive department had its own troop of laborers under its own overseer, who kept minute tally of work performed, rations distributed and of absentees. The troop, not the individual, was the unit All artisans as well as the slaves were regarded superciliously by the scribes and held in lower repute than the agriculturists, though the products of their skill still command admiration. Weavers working with papyrus reeds or with linen thread, produced baskets, boats, mats, or the finest linen cloths; joiners though handicapped by lack of good raw material, nevertheless produced creditable work by the use of instruments most simple in their character. Potters through all periods repro duced patterns tenaciously and with little varia tion, but atoned for the rudeness of much of their work by the fineness of their products in faience, the glazing of stone objects being es pecially noteworthy. Metal workers used gold, silver, bronze, iron and tin, the source whence tin was derived being problematical. A bronze is mentioned which was an alloy of six metals. Objects in bronze and iron have been found among the remains of the Old Empire, though the earliest bronze statue is one of Rameses II. The sources of most metals were the mines of Nubia and Sinai. In value silver exceeded gold and a mixture of the two is frequently mentioned. The processes of agriculture are well portrayed on the walls of the tombs. The plow was simply a sharpened stick dragged through the ground by oxen; the hoe a broad blade fastened to a handle, a second cord mid way of each preventing too great a strain. The seed once scattered was trampled in by ani mals. Harvesting was done by a short sickle; the grain was carried in sheaves to the thresh ing floor, where the hoofs of cattle performed the required labor. Winnowing was done with shovel and wind and the grain was stored in conical receptacles open at the top, to which the bearers mounted on ladders. Supplement ary irrigation was by a well sweep similar to the modern shadouf. These labors were so essential a part of Egyptian life that the future life was portrayed under exactly the same cir cumstances, happiness consisting essentially in the degree in which personal performance could be avoided. Cattle of all sorts, asses, sheep, pigs and goats existed in great herds and were tended by slaves and peasants whose occupa tions in marshy districts so far removed them from civilization that they were regarded with detestation. Their disrepute is the more re markable in view of the evident pride with which landed proprietors enumerated their flocks.
The schools, abookhouse° or ahouse of in struction° presided over by a scribe, was an institution of the Old Empire, which received all classes alike and prepared them for the technical education of the special bureau. In the New Empire both branches were combined in the departmental schools. Orthography, cali graphy, style and the formula of etiquette comprised the known curriculum; the rest was learned by practice. Many corrected school exercises have survived, containing various specimens of literature; tales, religious and magical texts, poems, codes of rules, or tion° of ancient sages for the proper regulation of daily life and statements of the unlovely condition of soldiers and laborers as contrasted with the beauty of the scribe's life, at once inciting to industry on the part of the pupil and to profound respect for the teacher. These papyri are of great value in affording a knowl edge of orthography, language and literature. The tombs of the Old and Middle Empires represent the various operations of large landed estates in all their complexity. Such private ownership of the soil, of large tracts and even of whole villages, seems to have been a survival from the time when the princes of the nomor were at the head of the independent districts which collectively constituted Egypt. A de cided change is seen in the New Empire when the title to all land except that attached to temples was vested in the king and when it was worked for the state by slaves or let out at an annual rate per cent. The change came about during the Hyksos period or in the transition to the revived native dynasties. The biblical account of Joseph is of interest in this connection. The dwellings of the common peo ple probably resembled those of the fellakin of to-day, being mud hovels, whose destruction accounts for the formation of the tells which mark city sites. The dwellings of nobles and kings were more pretentious, but no remains have survived. The only models by which to judge are some ancient sarchophagi of house like form and some mural representations. Rec ord has survived of a palace which stood 300 cubits square.
.4 Family The position occupied by woman was quite extraordinary. In the house hold there was generally only one wife, though there might be several concubines or female slaves. Actual polygamy was infrequent, though the royal harem often contained 200 women. Private persons also maintained harems, the number of inmates depending on the financial ability of the individual. Inheritance and geneal ogy were reckoned by the mother, not the father, and while a man's possessions might descend to his sons, the line might also pass through the daughter to her sons. Sometimes marriages were contracted upon these considera tions. It was a father's ambition to hand down his official position to his sons, and the title of ahereditary prince° is often met with. The practice of marriage with a sister is met with in early periods, but under the Ptolemies it was quite the rule, and the marriage contracts speci fied the amounts which the husband engaged to give annually to his wife for family purposes.
There is a constant development 'observable in the dress of the upper classes. Royalty set the fashions, and they were followed at. intervals by those standing on the various social levels. There was a distinction between king and noble, and between noble and plebeian. The simple apron bound about the loins was always the essential garment. To this the king added a lion's tail, and the noble a panther's skin during the period of the bld Empire. Dur ing the Middle Empire the apron took a pointed triangular shape and became longer ; next comes a double apron, a short one beneath, opaque, and a long and transparent one outside. The priest continued to wear the short apron, how ever, while the king had advanced to a mode of dress which covered the whole body and was complex in structure. That which before was holiday attire became the garb of every day. The dress of women was more uniform. It consisted at first of a close-fitting garment which extended from the breasts to the ankles, and was fastened by straps over the shoulders. Only in the latest periods were sleeved or sleeveless mantles worn. Transparent cloth was used for female wear, as for the outer apron of males, but without the inner garment. The dress of peasants consisted simply of the apron, which in some cases amounted only to a band with pendant ends. These simple articles were made of papyrus mats, leather or cloth.