MANNERS AND The wonderful fer tility of the Nile Valley has been famous in all ages, and. tinder normal condithms. the produce of the soil has always sufficed to support a dense population, and to leave a large surplus of commodities for export. Agriculture was the source of Egypt's wealth, and probably the most important factor in the development of her civili zation. Under these circumstances. it was nat• oral that social conditions were largely deter mined by the ownership of land. In the time of the Old and Aliddle Empires the land was, with exception of the Crown domains, in the hands of a limited number of mthle families. Neither at this time nor at any subsequent period is tlacre any trace of a free peasantry. Throughout all ancient Egyptian history the agricultural laborer was a serf, and the condition of his modern rep resentative, the Egyptian fellah, is hardly better.
The monuments of the older period. erected without exception by wealthy nobles. have little to say in regard to the existence of a middle class: but that such a class existed can hardly be thmbted. The splendid creations of the art and architecture of the Fourth and Fifth dynas ties postulate the existence of a class of artists and artisans who could plan and carry out such works. While textile fabrics might. be produced by the peasant women on large estates, other manufactures required the existence of a manu facturing class. And finally. in the cities at least. there must have been merchants who han dled the produce of the soil and articles of neces sity and of luxury. Under the New Empire the agrarian conditions were very different. 'The old noble families were exterminated or impoverished in the Hyksos wars, their lands came into the possession of the Crown. and large estates even tually fell to the share of the temples. The agricultural serfs merely changed masters, and were oppressed pretty much as before; but the new conditions favored the rise of the middle class. who now came into 11111(.11 greater promi nence, and even held important offices in the Government and in the hierarchy. The Greek accounts of the division of the people into priests, warriors, and several other classes. each con taining a number of subdivisions. must not be
taken too literally, and are far from proving that castes like those in India existed. It seems to be true that all occupations were highly spe cialized, and thus divided into a number of branches; it is also true that Egyptian conser vatism very frequently caused a son to adopt his father's occupation. But there was never any restriction in regard to the choice of an occupa tion or against the intermarriage of classes. ex cept in so far as such matters were affected by those social prejudices which have existed at all times among all peoples.
At the head of the whole social organization stood, of course, the King, who was not. merely the supreme ruler, but the direct descendant of the sun-god lie. and therefore entitled to divine After his death he was worshiped as a god. His principal wife, the Queen. was of royal birth or descent, and not infrequently the sister of her husband. Such a marriage was re garded by the Egyptians as highly advantageous, since the issue inherited a double portion of the divine blood of 11(-, The Queen shared in all the honors of her husband, and, if she survived him, still possessed high influence at Court. especially if she were the mother of his successor. From motives of policy, Egyptian kings often married foreign princes-es; Ina these ladies never stood upon the same footing as the Queen; they were all subordinate wives, hut one step higher than other ladies of the harem. In the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty an Asiatic prime sent, as a gift for the harem of Amenophis III., his eldest daughter, accompanied by three hundred and seventeen beautiful damselA, It is therefore not surprising that the Egyptian kings should have a, large posterity. Rameses 11. is said to have had two hundred children, and of these, one hun dred and eleven sons and fifty-nine daughters are mentioned in the inscriptions of their father. At the Court great state and ceremony were main tained. and when the King appeared in public on ceremonial occasions he was attended by an army of courtiers. priests, hearers of the royal fan-bearers, officers of the household, and many other officials of various grades.