tomb at Thebes. A party, assembled at the house of a friend, are regaled with the sound of music, and the customary introduction of refreshments; and no attention which the host could show his visiters appears to be neglected on the occasion. The wine has circulated freely, and as they are indulging in amusing converse, a young man, perhaps from inadvertence, perhaps from the effect of intemperance, reclining with his whole weight against a column in the centre of the apartment, throws it down upon the assembled guests; who are seen, with uplifted hands endeavouring to protect themselves, and escape from its fall.*

Many similar instances of a talent for caricature are observable in the compositions of Egyptian artists, who executed the paintings of the tombs ; and the ladies are not spared. We are led to infer, that they were not deficient in the talent of conversation; and the numerous subjects they proposed, are shown to have been examined with great animation. Among these, the question of dress was not forgotten, and the patterns or the value of trinkets were discussed with proportionate interest. The maker of an ear-ring, or the shop where it was purchased, were anxiously inquired; each compared the workmanship, the style, and the materials of those she wore, coveted her neighbour's, or preferred her own; and women of every class vied with each other in the display of "jewels

* I regret exceedingly having mislaid the copy I made of this amusing subject.

of silver, and jewels of gold *," in the texture of their "raiment," the neatness of their sandals, and the arrangement or beauty of their plaited hair. †

Agreeable conversation was considered the principal charm of accomplished society: and as Athenæus says of the ancient Greeks‡, "it was more requisite and becoming to gratify the company by pleasing conversation than with variety of dishes;" and affairs of great moment were probably discussed at the festive meeting, as in the heroic ages described by Homer. §

In the mean time, the kitchen presented an animated scene; and the cook, with many assistants, was engaged in making ready for dinner: an ox, kid ||, wild goat, gazelle, or oryx, and a quantity of geese,

*Exod. xii. 35. Vide infrà, on the dress of women.

The Egyptian women appear to have been very proud of their hair, and locks of it, when very long, were sometimes cut off and wrapped up separately, to be buried in their tomb after death. Conf. 1 Cor. xi. 15. and 1 Pet. iii. 3.

Athen. x. 5.

§ Hom. Il. i. 70.

*

ducks, widgeons, quails, or other birds, were obtained for the occasion. Mutton, it is supposed, was unlawful food to the inhabitants of the Thebaïd and Plutarch affirms that "no Egyptians, except the Lycopolites, eat the flesh of sheep;" while Strabo confines the sacrifice of this animal to the nome of Nitriotis. † But though we do not find from the sculptures that sheep were killed for the altar or the table, it is evident they abounded in Egypt, and even at Thebes, being frequently represented in the tombs; and large flocks are shown to have been kept, especially in the vicinity of Memphis. Sometimes they amounted to more than 2000 and in a tomb below the Pyramids, 974 rams are brought to be registered by his scribes, as part of the stock of the deceased; implying an equal number of ewes, independent of lambs, which in the benign climate of Egypt were twice produced within the space of one year. ‡ +

Beef and goose constituted the principal part of the animal food throughout Egypt; and by a prudent foresight, in a country possessing neither extensive pasture lands, nor great abundance of cattle, the cow was held sacred, and consequently forbidden to be eaten. § And thus the risk of

* Plut. de Isid. s. 72. He also says (s. 5.), "The priests abstain from mutton and swine's flesh."

+ Strabo, 17. Παρα μόνοις τουτοις θύεται εν Αιγύπτῳ προβατον,” This is still the case if well fed. Diodorus says, "The sheep in Egypt bear lambs twice, and are twice shorn." Lib. i. 36. and 87.

Plutarch (s. 31.) says, red oxen were lawful for sacrifice, but not so if they had a single white hair. Conf. Numbers, xix. 2. "Bring thee a red heifer without spot."— Vide Herod. ii. 38. 41. For the table the Egyptians killed oxen with black or red spots.

exhausting, or at least greatly lessening, their stock was effectually prevented, and a constant supply maintained for the consumption of the people.

That a considerable quantity of meat was served up at those repasts, to which strangers were invited, is evident from the sculptures, and agreeable with the customs of Eastern nations, whose azooma, or feast, prides itself in the quantity and variety of dishes, in the unsparing profusion of viands, and, whenever wine is permitted, in the freedom of the bowl. An endless succession of vegetables was also required on all occasions, and, when dining in private, dishes of that kind were in greater request than joints, even at the tables of the rich: we are therefore not surprised to find the Israelites, who, by their long residence there, had acquired similar habits, regretting them equally with the meat and fish*, which they " did eat in Egypt freely;" and the advantages of a leguminous diet are still acknowledged by the inhabitants of modern Egypt. This, in a hot climate, is far more conducive to health than the constant introduction of meat, which is principally used to flavour the vegetables cooked with it; and if at an Eastern feast a greater quantity of meat is introduced, the object is rather to do honour to the guests, who, in most countries, and all ages, have been welcomed by an encouragement of excess, and a display of such things as show a desire on the part of the host to spare no expense in their entertainment.

* Numbers, xi. 4, 5.

The same custom prevailed with the ancient Egyptians; and their mode of eating was very similar to that now adopted in Cairo, and throughout the East, each person sitting round a table, and dipping his bread into a dish placed in the centre, removed on a sign made by the host, and succeeded by others, whose rotation depends on established rule, and whose number is predetermined according to the size of the party, or quality of the guests.

Among the lower orders, vegetables constituted a very great part of their ordinary food, and they gladly availed themselves of the variety and abundance of esculent roots growing spontaneously, in the lands irrigated by the rising Nile, as soon as its waters had subsided; some of which were eaten in a crude state, and others roasted in the ashes, boiled, or stewed: their chief aliment, and that of their children, consisting of milk and cheese*, roots †, leguminous, cucurbitaceous, and other plants, and ordinary fruits of the country. Herodotus describes the food of the workmen, who built the Pyramids, to have been the "raphanus or figli, onions, and garlic;" yet, if these were among the number they used, and, perhaps, the sole provisions supplied at the government expense, we are not to suppose they were limited to them: and it is probable that lentils, of which it is inferred from Strabo they had an abundance on this

* Diod. i. 87.

+ Ibid. 80.

Herod. ii. 125. So called by the modern Egyptians, the raphanus sativus, var. a. edulis of Linnæus, mistaken by the learned Larcher for horse-radish, which is not an Egyptian plant.