mediate sale; and whenever eggs could be procured they carefully collected them, and submitted them to the management of the rearers, who thereby increased the more valuable stock of tame fowl. The same care was taken to preserve the young of gazelles, and other wild animals of the

desert, whose meat was reckoned among the dainties of the table; and by paying proper attention to their habits, they were enabled to collect many head of antelopes, which frequently formed part of the herds of the Egyptian nobles. And in order to give an idea of the pains they took in rearing these timid animals, and to show the great value of the possessions of the deceased, they are introduced with the cattle, in the sculptures of the tombs.

The fishermen mostly used the net: it was of a long form, like the common drag-net, with wooden floats on the upper, and leads on the lower, side* ; but though it was sometimes let down from a boat, those who pulled it generally stood on the shore, and landed the fish on a shelving bank. The leads were occasionally of an elongated shape, hanging from the outer cord or border of the net, but they were more usually flat, and, being folded round the cord, the opposite sides were beaten together; a satisfactory instance of which is seen in the ancient net preserved in the Berlin Museum,

No. 82.

Leads, with part of a net.

* Vide wood-cut, No. 81., opposite page.

Berlin Museum.

and this method still continues to be adopted by the modern Egyptians.

In a country where fish will not admit of being kept, the same persons who caught them were the sole venders, and the fishermen may be considered an undivided body. The class of labourers, on the contrary, consisted of several different subdivisions, according to their occupation; among whom we may, perhaps, include the workers in mud and straw, and brickmakers*, as well as those who performed various drudgeries in the field and in the town but as I shall have occasion to speak of them hereafter, I now content myself with these general remarks, and pass on to the consideration of the government and laws of the country.

THE LEGISLATIVE RIGHTS OF THE KING.

The king had the right of enacting laws †, and of managing all the affairs of religion and of the state; and so intimate was the connection of these two, that the maintenance of the one was considered essential for the very existence of the other. This notion has, indeed, always been cherished in the East; and we find Khandemir and other Moslem writers give it as a received opinion, that the state cannot exist without religion, and that "it is of minor consequence if the former perishes, provided

* Many of those who made bricks, and worked in the field, were foreign slaves, as I have already observed; and on them, no doubt, fell the most arduous portion of these laborious tasks. But it was not only the Jews who were so treated: other captives were similarly employed, as we see in the sculptures at Thebes, where the Jews never lived, and where people of other conquered nations are mentioned. Vide Chap. V., wood-cut, No. 93.

Herodot. ii 136. 177. Diodor. i. 79.

the latter survives, since it is impossible that the state can survive if religion is subverted."

We are acquainted with few of the laws of the ancient Egyptians; but the superiority of their legislature has always been acknowledged as the cause of the duration of an empire, which lasted with a very uniform succession of hereditary sovereigns, and with the same form of government, for a much longer period than the generality of ancient states. Indeed the wisdom of that people was proverbial, and was held in such consideration by other nations, that we find it taken by the Jews as the standard to which superior learning* in their own country was willingly compared; and Moses had prepared himself for the duties of a legislator by becoming versed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."+

Besides their right of enacting laws, the kings administered justice to their subjects on those questions which came under their immediate cognisance‡, and they were assisted in the management of state affairs by the advice of the most able and distinguished members of the priestly order. § With them the monarch consulted upon all questions of importance, relating to the internal administration of the country; and previous to the admission of Joseph to the confidence of Pharaoh, the opinion of his ministers was asked, as to the expediency and propriety of the measure. ||

* Of Solomon. 1 Kings, iv. 30.

Diodor. i. 71. Herodot. ii. 173.

Acts, vii. 22.

Diodor. i. 73.

Gen. xli. 38. " And Pharaoh said unto his servants (ministers), Can we find such a one as this is?" Gen. 1. 7. " The elders of his (Pharaoh's) house." And Isaiah, xix. 11. "The wise counsellors of Pharaoh."