Volume I Part 6 (2/2)

[Illustration: FIG 20--Colossi of Amenophis III (statues of Memnon) at Thebes]

The absolute and dreaded le word, was sufficient to depopulate a province and to fill quarries and workshops with thousands of n who, in spite of his mortality, was looked up to by his people as one so near akin to the Gods as to be hardly distinguishable fro before wholory and ic, froy was everywhere Seated in the form of colossal statues in front of the temples, in bas-reliefs upon pylons, upon the walls of porticos and pillared halls, he was represented so his troops to battle or bringing them home victorious The supreme efforts of architect and sculptor were directed to constructing for their prince a tonificence and durability, or to i him by a statue which should raise its head as much above its rivals as the royal power surpassed the power and dignity of ordinary ypt was, in this sense, ait was the direct expression of the sentiments and ideas of the society which had to create it from its foundations

[Illustration: FIG 21--Scribe registering h Drawn by Bourgoin)]

After the king came the priests, the soldiers, and the scribes or royal functionaries, each receiving authority directly fro the execution of his orders These three groups foryptian society The soil was entirely in their hands They possessed a them the whole valley of the Nile, with the exception of the royal doriculturists were mere serfs attached to the soil They cultivated, for a payed classes

They changed masters with the lands upon which they lived, which they were not allowed to quit without the permission of the local authorities

Their position did not greatly differ froyptian soil for the benefit of the effendis, beys, and pachas or for that of the sovereign, who is still the greatest landowner in the country

[Illustration: FIG 22--Boatmen Toh Drawn by Bourgoin)]

The shepherds, the fishermen and boatmen of the Nile, the artisans and shopkeepers of the cities were in a siains in the same way as the peasant upon the share of the harvest which custom reserved for his use As a natural consequence of their life in a city and of the character of their occupations, small traders and artisans enjoyedthan the agriculturists, although legal rights were the same in both cases The burden of forced labour must have pressed less heavily upon the latter class, and they ether

In consequence of abelieved that the Egyptians had castes, like the Hindoos

This notion has been dispelled by orous separation of classes according to their social functions, the enforced heredity of professions, and the prohibition of interroups, never obtained a footing in Egypt We often find, in Egyptian writings, two le family attached one to the civil service and the other to the ar the son of a priest Nay, it often happens that the offices of soldier and priest, of priest and civil servant, or of civil servant and soldier, are united in the person of a single individual In fa to these aristocratic classes there was, in all probability, more heredity of occupation; in the ordinary course the paternal employ approaching to an absolute rule The various trades were foruilds, rather than castes in the strict sense of the word Froreat natural talents, fortunate circun could raise a nities of the state In the latter days of the monarchy we have an exas of the population, finally raised himself to the throne[63] Such events were of frequent occurrence in all those oriental n was the supres have taken place in Turkey and Persia to the surprise of none but Europeans When the h above his fellow men that his subjects seem mere human dust about his feet, his caprice is quite sufficient to raise the nificant of its atoms to a level with the most illustrious

[63] HERODOTUS, ii 172 For an earlier epoch, see the history of a certain Ahmes, son of Abouna, as it is narrated upon his sepulchral inscription, which dates frohteenth dynasty (DE ROUGe, _Memoire sur l'Inscription d'Ahsch, _Histoire d'egypte_, t i p 80) Starting as a private soldier for the war against the Shepherds, undertaken for the re-conquest of Avaris, he was noticed by the king for his frequent acts of gallantry, and proh admiral

[Illustration: FIG 23--Cattle Drovers From the tomb of Ra-ka-pou, Sakkarah, 5th dynasty (Boulak Drawn by Bourgoin)]

[Illustration: FIG 24--Bakers Frooin)]

[Illustration: FIG 25--Women at a loom From a tomb at Beni-Hassan

(Cha birds Frooin)]

The priests of the highest rank, the generals and officers of the arreat civil functionaries, while they made no effort to rival the splendour of the royal creations, consecrated steles, ies of the deity, and chapels, at their own expense It was upon their tombs, however, that most of their care was lavished These toreat interest to the historian The to that can fairly be called sculpture All that we know of the style and methods of that art in those early tioverning classes were in the habit of preparing during their lifetime in the necropolis of Memphis We may say the saypt of the great kings belonging to the twelfth dynasty has been preserved for us upon the toovernors of the _nomes_ in which they were buried It is to the burial chambers at Gizeh, at Sakkarah, at Meidouo for complete types of sepulchral architecture at those epochs; to the statues in the recesses of their massive walls and to the bas-reliefs in their narrow chayptian civilization which ree; by these monuments we are enabled to build up piece by piece a trustworthy representation of the Egyptian people both in their labours and in their pleasures Finally it is froyptian artists have been obtained, the works in which they approached most nearly to the ideal which they pursued for so many centuries

[Illustration: FIG 27--Shepherds in the fields Froh Drawn by Bourgoin)]

[Illustration: FIG 28--Winnowing corn Frooin)]

Thanks to these reat lords and rich burghers of Egypt, thanks also to the climate and to the desert sand which has preserved theypt appears to us more comprehensive and varied than that of any other nation of which we shall have to treat; than that of assyria for instance, which represents little but scenes of battle and conquest A faithful yptian society, it has preserved for us an exhaustive record of the never-ceasing activity which created and preserved the wealth of the country; it has not even neglected the gaht for his well earned repose The king indeed, preserved his first place by the is which he raised, by the size of his tomb, and by the number and dimensions of the reproductions of his features; reproductions which show him in the various aspects demanded by the complex nature of the civilization over which he presided But in the large nuroups, and scenes which have come down to us, we have illustrations of all classes that helped in the work of national develop, cross-legged, upon his mat, fro his shallop through the brakes of papyrus, to the directors of the great public works and the princes of the blood who governed conquered provinces or guarded the frontiers of the country at the head of ever faithful arht 6-1/3 inches