fit which would accrue to the revenue from a monopoly of them, undertook to supply the public at a moderate price, thus preventing all unauthorised persons from engaging in their manufacture. And, in order more effectually to obtain their end, the seal of the king, or of some privileged person, was stamped upon the bricks at the time they were made. This fact, though not positively mentioned by any ancient author, is inferred from finding bricks so marked, both in public and private buildings; some having the ovals of a king, and some the name and titles of a priest, or other influential person; and it is probable that those which bear no characters, belonged to individuals who had obtained a permission or license from government, to fabricate them for their own consumption.

The employment of numerous captives, who worked as slaves, enabled the government to sell the bricks at a lower price than those who had recourse solely to free labour; so that, without the neces sity of a prohibition, they speedily became an exclusive manufacture; and we find that, independent of native labourers, a great many foreigners were constantly engaged in the brick-fields at Thebes, and other parts of Egypt. The Jews, of course, were not excluded from this drudgery; and, like the captives detained in the Thebaïd, they were condemned to the same labour in Lower Egypt. They erected granaries, treasure cities, and other public buildings for the Egyptian monarch: the materials used in their construction were the work of their hands; and the constant employment of

brick-makers may be accounted for by the extensive supply required, and kept by the government for public sale.

To meet with Hebrews in the sculptures cannot reasonably be expected, since the remains in that part of Egypt where they lived have not been preserved; but it is curious to discover other foreign captives occupied in the same manner, overlooked by similar" taskmasters," and performing the very same labours as the Israelites described in the Bible; and no one can look at the paintings of Thebes, representing brick-makers, without a feeling of the highest interest. That the scene in the accompanying wood-cut † is at the capital of Upper Egypt is shown by the hieroglyphics ‡, which expressly state, that the "bricks" (tóbi) are made for a building at Thebes;" and this occurrence of the word implying bricks, similar both in modern Arabic § and ancient Coptic, gives an additional value to the picture.

66

It is scarcely fair to argue, in defiance of logic, that because the Jews made bricks, and the persons here introduced are so engaged, these must necessarily be Jews: since the Egyptians and their captives were constantly required to perform the same task; and the great quantity made at all times may be inferred from the number of buildings, which still remain, constructed of those materials: but it is worthy of remark, that more bricks bearing the

* Figs. 3 and 6 in the wood-cut, No. 93.
Vide wood-cut, next page.

At e in the wood-cut, over fig. 9.
"Tòb or toob," in Arabic,

a brick" in Coptic “ tôbi.”

15

have been discovered, than of any other period: owing to the many prisoners of Asiatic nations employed by him, independent of his Hebrew captives.

With regard to the features of foreigners frequently resembling the Jews, it is only necessary to observe, that the Egyptians adopted the same character for all the inhabitants of Syria, as may be seen in the sculptures of Karnak and other places, where those people occur, or in one of the sets of figures in Belzoni's tomb; and the brick-makers, far from having the very Jewish expression found in many of those figures, have not even the beard, so marked in the people of Syria and the prisoners of Sheshonk; and from the names of the captives throughout the tomb where they are found, it is evident they belong to a nation living far to the north of Judæa.

Houses of a small size were usually connected together, and formed the continuous sides of streets; they rarely exceeded two stories, and many of them consisted only of a ground floor, and an upper set of rooms. Nor, indeed, judging from the sculptures, do the Egyptians appear to have preferred lofty houses; and, as in modern Egyptian towns, the largest seldom had more than three stories. Those of the rich citizens frequently covered a considerable spacet, and presented to

*Herodotus also calls the Jews Syrians, ii. 159.

At Thebes, the largest houses seem to have been on the Libyan side and in that part of Diospolis between Karnak and Luqsor; but those in the immediate vicinity of the great temple stood in a more dense mass. Houses built in this manner present, of course, greater

the street either the sides of the house itself, or the walls of the court attached to it. Their plans were regular, the rooms being usually arranged round an open area, or on either side of a long passage to which an entrance-court led from the street. The court was an empty space, considerably larger than the Roman impluvium, probably paved with stone, or containing a few trees, a small tank ‡, or a fountain, in its centre §; and sometimes, though rarely, a flight of steps led to the main entrance from without. A court was frequently common

to several houses; and again, some of the large mansions stood detached, and had the advantage of several doors of entrance, on two or three different sides. They had a portico, or porch, before the front door (Janua) supported on two columns, below whose capitals were attached ¶

mounds of ruins than the larger ones which had open courts, and which covered a greater space.

* Vide wood-cut, No. 94. figs. 1. and 3.

Vide wood-cut, No. 94. fig. 2.

Perhaps sometimes a well, as in modern Egyptian houses, and in the house mentioned in 2 Sam. 17. 18.

Vide wood-cut, No. 94. fig. 1.

Vide wood-cut, No. 95. fig. 1.

Probably, as at Rome, only on certain occasions. Vide wood-cut, No. 95. fig. 2.