were reckoned fit or unfit for food. We find the ancient Egyptians refusing to eat with strangers; and a similar prac-tice is still prevalent in some places of the east. In the same countries too, travellers have remarked a practice illustrative of that distinction which Joseph shewed to his favourite brother Benjamin. Those at a feast, whom they intend to honour, are presented with a greater quantity of food, and a greater variety of dishes.

The astonishment which the sons of Jacob expressed at the order in which they were placed, and the manner in which they were treated in Egypt, may be supposed to have arisen from the simple and artless habits to which they had been accustomed. They were then but in the pastoral state of society, occasionally living in tents; and like the Arabs of the desert, habituated to sit at meals with little distinction, and few ceremonies. In very ancient times men were acquainted with the use of wine and

strong drink; and we may presume, that the Egyptians also possessed the means of enlivening their banquets. In early times, their exhilerating liquor was made from barley, and had the name of Tythus; but in the age of Augustus, the wine of Egypt was famed by the poets; and the banks of the lake Mareotis were celebrated for grapes; but they appear to have been less than those of the land of Canaan, which was highly extolled as rich and fertile. When the children of Israel, in their journey toward that country, sent a party of their multitude to discover the nature and circumstances of the land, they went to the brook Eshcol; and having cast down a cluster of grapes, they bore it upon a staff, between two men, which appears to have excited astonishment among the people.*

a Strabo, Geograph. fol. edit. Amstelodami, A.D. 1707. lib. 10, p. 1151.; Harm. Observ. vol. i, p. 346, &c.; Tennant's Ind. recreat. vol. i, 254; Virg. Geog. i, v. 91.; Hor lib. 1, ode 37; Cenesis, ch. xliii, v. 32, &c. Numbers, ch. xiii, v. 23, &c.; and Diodorus Siculus.

The attire of the ancient Egyptians has not been distinctly recorded; and we are chiefly left to collect our information from the writings of other nations, and from the manners of other people, to whom the habits of the Egyptians appear to have had a considerable resemblance. In times of rudeness and simplicity, the people at large must have appeared in plain apparel; but in the courts and palaces of kings, the whole attire was splendid and sumptuous, and they delighted also in changes of raiment. The accounts of ancient history, as well as the continued practice of the east, sufficiently assure us, that, suitably to the warmth of the climate, the clothing was loose; and, in conformity to the ideas of grandeur, the garments of the rich were full and flowing. Much attention appears to have been paid to the hair, that great ornament of female beauty; and the manner in which the

b

head was attired must then have been of greater consequence in that country, as the unnatural restraints of seclusion and excessive jealousy appear at that time to have been unpractised in the eastern world.

Among the wandering Arabs, or Beduins of the desert, to whom we must look for ancient customs, no veils are worn by the women, and no undue restraints are imposed. The origin of female seclusion, and cruel confinement, must chiefly be sought for in the commands of Mohammed, who appears to have pointed that keen jealousy which more readily appears in the ardent temperament of warm climates and sultry regions. The suspected fidelity of his favourite wife Ayesha roused the dark and jealous affections of his soul; and while he smothered the emotions of re

venge, and pretended a belief of her purity, he exercised the vigilance of jealousy himself, and instituted regulations which bound in fetters the degraded fe

males of the Mohammedan states. These jealousies easily prevailed in corrupt minds, where sentiments of religion were inculcated, which place the supreme happiness, both of time and eternity, in sensual indulgence and voluptuous pursuits.*

We have found that polygamy was allowed in Egypt; and though we are not made acquainted with the solemnities which constituted marriage, yet we have reason to believe, that the parents of the bride received from the bridegroom presents and valuable considerations, for the loss which was sustained in parting with their daughter, and for the expence which had been incurred in rearing and maintaining her. The practice to which we have alluded prevails among the Beduin Arabs; is found in the interior of Africa; was grievously made apparent

a Robertson's Historical disquisitions, London, A. D. 1794, 8vo, p. 416, 417; the preface to Mignot's History of the Ottomans, Lond. 1787.**