and sanctioned by competent legislators; and by the practice of justice towards their subjects, they secured to themselves that good will which was due from children to a parent; whence it followed that not only the college of priests but the whole Egyptian nation was as anxious for the welfare of the king as for that of their own wives and children, or whatever was most dear to them. And this, as Diodorus observes, was the main cause of the duration of the Egyptian state, which not only lasted long, but enjoyed the greatest prosperity, waging successful wars on distant nations, and enabled by immense riches, resulting from foreign conquest, to display a magnificence, in its provinces and cities, unequalled by that of any other country. Love and respect were not merely shown to the sovereign during his lifetime, but were continued to his memory after his demise; and the manner in which his funeral obsequies were celebrated tended to show, that, though their benefactor was no more, they retained a grateful sense of his goodness, and admiration for his virtues. And what, says the historian, can convey a greater testimony of sincerity, free from all colour of dissimulation, than the cordial acknowledgment of a benefit, when the person who conferred it no longer lives to witness the honour done to his memory? On the death of every Egyptian king, a general mourning was instituted throughout the country for seventy-two days*, hymns commemorating his virtues were sung, the temples were closed, sacrifices were no longer offered, and no feasts or festivals were celebrated during the whole of that period. The people tore their garments t, and, covering their heads with dust and mud, formed a procession of 200 or 300 persons of both sexes, who met twice a day in public to sing the funeral dirge. A general fast was also observed, and they neither allowed themselves to taste meat or wheat bread, and abstained, moreover, from wine and every kind of luxury. *Conf. the custom of the Jews, and Gen. 1. 3. "The Egyptians mourned for Jacob threescore and ten days," for " so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed." A common custom to the present day in rage and grief. Conf. the Scriptures, passim. They have different modes of rending their garments, according to the degree of anger, the excess of grief, or the display of feeling requisite upon each occasion; and thus when bewailing the loss of a parent, the rent is proportionably greater than when mourning the death of an acquaintance. In the mean time, the funeral was prepared, and on the last day the body was placed in state within the vestibule of the tomb, and an account was then given of the life and conduct of the deceased. It was permitted to any one present to offer himself as an accuser, and the voice of the people might prevent a sovereign enjoying the customary funeral obsequies; a worldly ordeal, the dread of which tended to stimulate the Egyptian monarchs to the practice of their duty far more than any feeling inculcated by respect for the laws or the love of virtue. FIRST CASTE: THE PRIESTS. The Egyptians, as I have already observed, were divided into four principal castes: the sacerdotal order, the peasants *, the townsmen, and the common people. Next to the king, the priests held the first rank, and from them were chosen his confidential and responsible advisers †, the judges, and all the principal officers of state. They associated with the monarch, whom they assisted in the performance of his public duties, and to whom they explained, from the sacred books, those moral lessons which were laid down for his conduct, and which he was required to observe; and by their * I have included the military under this general denomination on the authority of Diodorus; but I suppose a great distinction existed in the subdivisions of the caste, and the military order, which was one of them, must have held a rank far above the others. + "The wise counsellors of Pharaoh." Isaiah, xix. 11. Diodorus, i. 73. as great experience, their knowledge of the past, and their skill in augury and astronomy, they were supposed to presage future events, and to foresee an impending calamity, or the success of any undertaking. It was not one man or one woman, Diodorus observes, who was appointed to the priesthood, but many were employed together in performing sacrifices and other ceremonies; and each college of priests was distinguished according to the deity to whose service it belonged, or according to the peculiar office held by its members. The principal classes into which the sacerdotal order was divided have been already enumerated; there were also many minor priests of various deities, as well as the scribes and priests of the kings *, and numerous other divisions of the caste. Nor should we omit the priestesses of the gods, or of the kings and queens, each of whom bore a title indicating her peculiar office. Of the former, the Pellices, or Pallacides, of Amun, are the most remarkable, as the importance of their post sufficiently proves; and if we are not correctly informed of the real extent and nature of their duties, yet, since females of the noblest families, and princesses, as well as the queens themselves, esteemed it an honour to perform them, we may conclude the post was one of the highest to which they could aspire in the service of religion. They are the same whom Herodotus mentions. * Conf. the Rosetta stone and the sculptures, as well as the papyri mentioned by Dr. Young, Hierog. Lit. p. 72. as γυναίκας ιρηιας *, consecrated to the Theban Jove, whose sepulchres, said by Diodorus to have been about ten stadia from the tomb of Osymandyas †, are still seen at Thebes, in a valley 3000 feet behind the ruins of Medeenet Haboo: and this fact strongly confirms, and is confirmed by, the evidence of the sculptures, which show them to have been females of the highest rank, since all the occupants of those tombs were either the wives or daughters of kings. Besides this class of priestesses, was another of similar rank, apparently a subdivision of the same, who fulfilled certain duties entrusted only to the wives and daughters of priests, and not unusually to members of the same family as the Pallacides. They had also the privilege of holding the sacred sistra in religious ceremonies, before the altar and on other occasions, and were attached to the service of the same deity. ‡ The ridiculous story of their prostitution could only have originated in the depraved notions and ignorance of the Greeks, fond of the marvellous, and notorious as they were for a superficial acquaintance with the customs of foreign nations; and it is unnecessary to request a sensible person to consider, whether it is more probable that women, who devoted themselves to the service of religion, among the most pious people of antiquity S, and who held the rank and consequence *Herod. ii. 54. + Diod. i. 47. See wood-cut, p. 260. |