Ornaments.—Like all peoples whose taste for ornament is that of nature rather than of cultivation, the Egyptians were excessively fond of finery. They used rouge, pomades, and perfumery, as well as jewelry of gold, precious stones, and colored glass, and they wore rings in the ear, on the finger, arm, and ankle, and hands about the neck and forehead (p1. xi, figs. 31-39). Mummies have been found with the hands loaded with rings. Even a sort of seal-ring was worn by the men. Many articles of jewelry, in the form of the snake, the eye, etc., had a symbolical signif icance, and were often worn as amulets (figs. 39-41). The scarabeells, or sacred beetle (fig. 44), was the most important of these.
Insignia. —But more important than its ornaments were those parts of the dress which served as indications of office and rank. The Egyptians were to a certain extent the inventors of the uniform, which was with them a highly-developed adjunct of social culture, while its modern use is but a faint reflection of earlier displays.
Naturally, the Pharaohs and their wives ranked first in the use of distinctive apparel. As they were the representatives of the highest divinities, their dress combined the distinguishing costumes of royalty and the priesthood. The royal apparel, which was remarkable for splendor and ornament, and particularly the head-dress, were enriched with special emblems which distinguished the sovereign in every official act. As mas ter over life and death the king always bore the uraws or asp on his fore head (figs. 1, 2), and sometimes also on his garments or even on his beard. His simplest head-dress was a diadem (fig. 6), which was also adorned with the urcens and had ribbons hanging from the back. A more frequent form was a high cap in two styles—red for Lower Egypt (fig. 5), white for the upper kingdom—and shaped like that on the royal head on the harp in Figure 24. After the union of the two kingdoms these crowns were combined into the so-called pshoz/ (fig. 2).
Various symbolic insignia were added to this head-dress, or even sub stituted for it, according to the royal or sacerdotal functions in connection with which it was used (fig. 1 t). The whip and shepherd's crook (figs. 7, S)served as sceptres, and recalled the early practice of agriculture and cattle-raising by the Egyptians. All the members of the royal family wore the umus on special occasions (figs. 3, 4). A mallet-shaped sceptre, called pat, designated the male relatives of the king and the chief court officials. The queen was distinguished by a golden head-ornament in the shape of a vulture (fig. 3) and by a sceptre with a curved and lily shaped end (fig. 9; pl. to, fig. 2).
The royal servants—prominent among \\thorn were the fan-bearers (p1. 1o, fig. 6)—wore costumes of various kinds, but we can no longer deter mine precisely the grades of those officials who inunediately surrounded the Pharaohs. Rich head-bands (p1. it, fig. and long staves with a hook below the point are frequently seen. The judges, who belonged to the priestly class, wore a feather on the head (p1. fig. 7), symbolizing
justice; the chief judge bore on his breast a plate inscribed with hiero glyphics having a similar signification.
The vestments of the priests—and in a less degree those of the priest esses—were still more varied and more strictly regulated according to place, rank, and ceremony. As the Egyptian political system was partly hieratic and partly monarchical, a considerable but indefinite power was lodged in the hands of the priests, who constituted the learned class. In a contrasted rather than inferior position stood the warrior class, who doubtless owed their origin to the forcible conquest of the country, and their importance to the necessity of defending it against foreign and domestic foes.' The king united the power of both classes in his person, and thus mediated between them, though his influence, apart from that which he derived from his royal attributes, varied with his personal quali ties. The soldiers wore as their class-mark a ring ornamented with the scaralxens (A/. II, fig. 39). The body-guard of the king (Al. 1o, fig. 8) was distinct from the warrior caste, and seems to have been composed of foreigners.
his hot and dry climate the Egyptian considered his house merely as a place for storing his property and for shelter at night. During the hot day he preferred the shady trees of his carefully cultivated gardens. As a consequence, private houses, quite unlike the temples and tombs, were very light and simple in construction, consisting merely of lattice-work and tiles made from the clay deposits of the Nile. A walled enclosure marked the separate property of the individual householder; the larger portion of it was occupied by an open court, which served for pur poses of business and for family intercourse; in the rear a few rooms were constructed, the lower ones probably being bed-rooms and store-rooms, and the upper ones dwelling-rooms (Al. 107); a roof not being necessary, these latter took the shape of an open gallery, where in the cool of the evening the family assembled. (See Frontispiece, figs. I, 5.) While it is true that none of the private dwellings of the Egyptians have been preserved, a wooden model (Al. 12, fig. 3), found in a tomb at Thebes, gives a fair idea of their primitive arrangement. A low door, elevated a little above the ground, perhaps on account of the Nile over flow, leads to the inner yard, whence stairs ascend to the gallery, one end of which is closed on the sides and roofed. Oblong openings in the front wall, which no doubt could be closed, took the place of windows. Diodo rus speaks of four- and five-storied houses. Naturally, the size and style depended on the means of the owner. Pictures of later structures (fig. 4) show dwellings built of more durable materials, with handsomely fur nished apartments and vestibules (Jig. 5) with architectural ornaments. Statues of the gods or of the kings were erected in the vestibules, but the character of the people and of the epoch leads to the conclusion that these had a religious rather than an esthetical purpose.