We find the soil, as has been mentioned, most carefully cultivated, arts and industries zealously pursued, and intercommunication actively maintained. The river was alive with vessels (fl. 12, fig. 6, Nile barge); ports and cities were crowded with foreign visitors; embassies from distant peoples did homage to the king or brought him tribute; enemies were led before him as prisoners or as conquerors swept over the country like an inundation; great festivals brought together the popula tions of the most remote regions; and the sole will of the sovereign held for decades thousands of men to a single task. In the midst of all this apparent variety there existed an essential uniformity, while at the same time a decided effort was incessantly made by each individual to with stand the absorbing influences surrounding him and to save his individ uality from being merged in the common mass.
Agriculture and had reached a fair degree of develop ment, limited as were in those days the range of special knowledge and the means of applying it. Farm-buildings, store-houses, and stables are also pictured. The ever-cloudless sky permitted the buildings to remain roofless. The stores of grain were piled in walled enclosures. The sta bles, in which the greatest neatness prevailed, were provided with raised floors, and the cattle were ranged in extended rows. Goats and swine were numerous, though the upper class despised the latter as unclean. The Egyptians in those early days understood the hatching of eggs by artificial means.
Plate 13, drawn from the tomb-paintings, gives details of Egyptian agriculture (fig. I). We notice the simple form of the plough, the method of yoking oxen, the manner of sowing grain, and the reaper cut ting the ear from the stalk with a peculiarly shaped sickle. In the back ground the oxen tread out the grain, and in front it is being loaded on an ass. In the distance is a granary with grated air-holes. Laborers ascend the steps and pour the grain in from above, while a scribe keeps account of the number of measures. On the right is a man tilling the earth, and two are engaged in pressing wine.
variety of achievements industry had attained no insig nificant degree of perfection, but technical skill was only in its infancy. We find on the more ancient monuments representations of potters, weavers, fullers, ropeniakers, leather-workers, and glass-blowers; and on later ones appear carpenters, wheelwrights, stone-cutters, house-painters, and other artisans. They are invariably, though not always distinctly, represented in the exercise of their trades. The utensils and tools on Plate II (figs. recall in part the prehistoric period, as, in fact, the earlier periods of Egyptian history are included in the Bronze Age. (See Frontispiece, figs. 8-15, and pp. 47, 52.) On Plate 13 (fig. 2) are represented mechanics whose labors may serve as a specimen of all the others. On the left is a smithy, which must not be understood as one requiring the use of iron: for bellows two laborers alternately tread down and draw up leather bags fitted with pipes, while a third man is busy at the furnace. Next is a pottery: on one side two
helpers knead the clay with their feet; the vessels are turned on wheels, painted, placed in the furnace, and burned. At the right stone-cutters are dressing a monolith destined to serve as a pillar for a portico or a hall. In the distance men are hauling on a sledge a completed colossal figure; the leader, standing on the knees of the figure, gives the command for steady pulling, and another man at its feet pours water on the wood to diminish the heat caused by friction. 111 -any articles 'whose manufac ture is now assigned to special mechanics were in those days exclusively home-made.
Hunting and Fishing were favorite pursuits, as appears from the tomb pictures, which also show the manner in which they were carried on. Among the animals of the chase we especially find the gazelle and the hare. Ostriches were hunted with dogs, and hippopotami were slain with the harpoon. In other cases bows and arrows were the weapons of the chase. Birds were caught with a net, or by means of a curved stick which was east among the flock in the papyrus-thickets, and which, whirl ing about in its descent, effected great slaughter. Fish were caught with hooks or with two-pronged harpoons. (See Frontispiece, figs. 18, 19.) Jlrrsical assertion of Diodorus that the Egyptians were not fond of music undoubtedly refers to secular music: it was uni versally used in their worship, and we thus understand why numerous and divers kinds of instruments were found among them. The so-called sis /rum (pl. I 45) ranks prominently among these:* it was a sort of rattle, whose sound had a symbolic or more probably a magical significa tion, and therefore we frequently find it depicted in the hands of musicians. Castanets (fig. 26), often artistically carved, form the transition to regular instruments of percussion, among which the most prominent are drums (fig. 30) of different sizes and forms, which were beaten either with the hands or with sticks. (See Frontispiece, fig. 4.) Metal cymbals and tambourines also occur, the latter round or square, generally in the hands of female dancers. Of wind instruments they had small fifes, single and double wooden flutes (figs. 28, 29), and me tallic trumpets such as are mentioned in the Bible (Num. X. 2-1o). In the pyramid tombs of Memphis among other stringed instruments is pic tured the harp, as yet a simple bow with strings, to which in course of time a bridge, a sounding-board, and tnning-pegs were added. It was further developed in various forms and sizes, and the splendor of its decorations (fig. 24) shows how highly this instrument was regarded. Au ancient Egyptian lyre (fig. 27) resembling later forms is now in the museum of Berlin. Besides these, instruments in the shape of a lute occur (fig. 25), which, as well as the lyre, were played with the plectrum.