History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 2 — 09 - Vol. 02, Ch. 01: The Political Constitution of Egypt, pt. 9

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, Monumenti Civili, pl.

2 a. Their lot was a hard one, if we are to believe the description which ancient writers have handed down to us: “I have never seen a blacksmith on an embassy--nor a smelter sent on a mission--but what I have seen is the metal worker at his toil,--at the mouth of the furnace of his forge,--his fingers as rugged as the crocodile,--and stinking more than fish-spawn.

--The artisan of any kind who handles the chisel,--does not employ so much movement as he who handles the hoe;* * The literal translation would be, “The artisan of all kinds who handles the chisel is more motionless than he who handles the hoe.

” Both here, and in several other passages of this little satiric poem, I have been obliged to paraphrase the text in order to render it intelligible to the modern reader.

[Illustration: 099. jpg STONE-CUTTERS FINISHING THE DRESSING OF LIMESTONE BLOCKS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, _Monumenti civili_, pl.

xlviii.

2. --but for him his fields are the timber, his business is the metal,--and at night when the other is free,--he, he works with his hands over and above what he has already done,--for at night, he works at home by the lamp.

--The stone-cutter who seeks his living by working in all kinds of durable stone,--when at last he has earned something--and his two arms are worn out, he stops;--but if at sunrise he remain sitting,--his legs are tied to his back.

* --The barber who shaves until the evening,--when he falls to and eats, it is without sitting down** --while running from street to street to seek custom;--if he is constant [at work] his two arms fill his belly--as the bee eats in proportion to its toil.

--Shall I tell thee of the mason--how he endures misery?

--Exposed to all the winds--while he builds without any garment but a belt--and while the bunch of lotus-flowers [which is fixed] on the [completed] houses--is still far out of his reach,*** * This is an allusion to the cruel manner in which the Egyptians were accustomed to bind their prisoners, as it were in a bundle, with the legs bent backward along the back and attached to the arms.

The working-day commenced then, as now, at sunrise, and lasted till sunset, with a short interval of one or two hours at midday for the workmen’s dinner and siesta.

** Literally, “He places himself on his elbow.

” The metaphor seems to me to be taken from the practice of the trade itself: the barber keeps his elbow raised when shaving and lowers it when he is eating.

*** This passage is conjecturally translated.

I suppose the Egyptian masons had a custom analogous to that of our own, and attached a bunch of lotus to the highest part of a building they had just finished: nothing, however, has come to light to confirm this conjecture.

--his two arms are worn out with work; his provisions are placed higgledy piggledy amongst his refuse,--he consumes himself, for he has no other bread than his fingers--and he becomes wearied all at once.

--He is much and dreadfully exhausted--for there is [always] a block [to be dragged] in this or that building,--a block of ten cubits by six,--there is [always] a block [to be dragged] in this or that month [as far as the] scaffolding poles [to which is fixed] the bunch of lotus-flowers on the [completed] houses.

--When the work is quite finished,--if he has bread, he returns home,--and his children have been beaten unmercifully [during his absence].

--The weaver within doors is worse off there than a woman;--squatting, his knees against his chest,--he does not breathe.

--If during the day he slackens weaving,--he is bound fast as the lotuses of the lake;--and it is by giving bread to the doorkeeper, that the latter permits him to see the light.

[Illustration: 101. jpg A WORKSHOP OF SHOEMAKERS MANUFACTURING SANDALS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion’s _Monuments de l’Êypte et de la Nubie_.

This Picture belongs to the XVIIIth dynasty; but the sandals in it are, however, quite like those to be seen on more ancient monuments.

The dyer, his fingers reeking--and their smell is that of fish-spawn;--his two eyes are oppressed with fatigue,--his hand does not stop,--and, as he spends his time in cutting out rags--he has a hatred of garments.

--The shoemaker is very unfortunate;--he moans ceaselessly,--his health is the health of the spawning fish,--and he gnaws the leather.

--The baker makes dough,--subjects the loaves to the fire;--while his head is inside the oven,--his son holds him by the legs;--if he slips from the hands of his son,--he falls there into the flames.

” These are the miseries inherent to the trades themselves: the levying of the tax added to the catalogue a long sequel of vexations and annoyances, which were renewed several times in the year at regular intervals.

[Illustration: 101. jpg THE BAKER MAKING HIS BREAD AND PLACING IT IN THE OVEN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the painted picture in one of the small antechambers of the tomb of Ramses III.

, at Bab- el-Molûk. Even at the present day, the fellah does not pay his contributions except under protest and by compulsion, but the determination not to meet obligations except beneath the stick, was proverbial from ancient times: whoever paid his dues before he had received a merciless beating would be overwhelmed with reproaches by his family, and jeered at without pity by his neighbours.

The time when the tax fell due, came upon the nomes as a terrible crisis which affected the whole population.

For several days there was nothing to be heard but protestations, threats, beating, cries of pain from the tax-payers, and piercing lamentations from women and children.

The performance over, calm was re-established, and the good people, binding up their wounds, resumed their round of daily life until the next tax-gathering.

The towns of this period presented nearly the same confined and mysterious appearance as those of the present day.

* * I have had occasion to make “soundings” or excavations at various points in very ancient towns and villages, at Thebes, Abydos and Mataniyeh, and I give here a _résumé_ of my observations.

Professor Petrie has brought to light and regularly explored several cities of the XIIth and XVIIIth dynasties, situated at the entrance to the Fayûm. I have borrowed many points in my description from the various works which he has published on the subject, _Kahun, Gurob and Hawara,_ 1890; and _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, 1891. [Illustration: 103. jpg THE HOUSE OF A GREAT EGYPTIAN LORD] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by Boussac, _Le Tombeau d’Anna_ in the _Mémoires de la Mission Française_.

The house was situated at Thebes, and belonged to the XVIIIth dynasty.

The remains of the houses brought to light by Mariette at Abydos belong to the same type, and date back to the XIIth dynasty.

By means of these, Mariette was enabled to reconstruct an ancient Egyptian house at the Paris Exhibition of 1877. The picture of the tomb of Anna reproduces in most respects, we may therefore assume, the appearance of a nobleman’s dwelling at all periods.

At the side of the main building we see two corn granaries with conical roofs, and a great storehouse for provisions.

They were grouped around one or more temples, each of which was surrounded by its own brick enclosing wall, with its enormous gateways: the gods dwelt there in real castles, or, if this word appears too ambitious, redouts, in which the population could take refuge in cases of sudden attack, and where they could be in safety.

[Illustration: 104. jpg PLAN OF A PART OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF KAHUN] From a plan made and published by Professor Flinders Petrie, _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl.

xiv.

The towns, which had all been built at one period by some king or prince, were on a tolerably regular ground plan; the streets were paved and fairly wide; they crossed each other at right angles, and were bordered with buildings on the same line of frontage.

The cities of ancient origin, which had increased with the chance growth of centuries, presented a totally different aspect.

[Illustration: 105. jpg STELE OF SÎTÛ, REPRESENTING THE FRONT OF A HOUSE] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

The monument is the stele of Sîtû (IVth dynasty), in the Gîzeh Museum.

A network of lanes and blind alleys, narrow, dark, damp, and badly built, spread itself out between the houses, apparently at random: here and there was an arm of a canal, all but dried up, or a muddy pool where the cattle came to drink, and from which the women fetched the water for their households; then followed an open space of irregular shape, shaded by acacias or sycamores, where the country-folk of the suburbs held their market on certain days, twice or thrice a month; then came waste ground covered with filth and refuse, over which the dogs of the neighbourhood fought with hawks and vultures.

The residence of the prince or royal governor, and the houses of rich private persons, covered a considerable area, and generally presented to the street a long extent of bare walls, crenellated like those of a fortress: the only ornament admitted on them consisted of angular grooves, each surmounted by two open lotus flowers having their stems intertwined.

[Illustration: 106. jpg A STREET IN THE HIGHER QUARTER OF MODERN SIÛT] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, taken in 1884, by Emil Brugsch-Bey.

Within these walls domestic life was entirely secluded, and as it were confined to its own resources; the pleasure of watching passers-by was sacrificed to the advantage of not being seen from outside.

The entrance alone denoted at times the importance of the great man who concealed himself within the enclosure.

Two or three steps led up to the door, which sometimes had a columned portico, ornamented with statues, lending an air of importance to the building.

The houses of the citizens were small, and built of brick; they contained, however, some half-dozen rooms, either vaulted, or having flat roofs, and communicating with each other usually by arched doorways.

[Illustration: 107. jpg A HALL WITH COLUMNS IN ONE OF THE XIIth DYNASTY HOUSES AT GUROB]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Professor Petrie, _Elahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl.

xvi.

3. A few houses boasted of two or three stories; all possessed a terrace, on which the Egyptians of old, like those of to-day, passed most of their time, attending to household cares or gossiping with their neighbours over the party wall or across the street.

The hearth was hollowed out in the ground, usually against a wall, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the ceiling: they made their fires of sticks, wood charcoal, and the dung of oxen and asses.

In the houses of the rich we meet with state apartments, lighted in the centre by a square opening, and supported by rows of wooden columns; the shafts, which were octagonal, measured ten inches in diameter, and were fixed into flat circular stone bases.

[Illustration: 108a.

jpg WOODEN HEAD-REST] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a head-rest in my possession obtained at Gebelên (XIth dynasty): the foot of the head- rest is usually solid, and cut out of a single piece of wood.

[Illustration: 108b.

jpg PIGEON ON WHEELS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Petrie, _Hawara, Biahmu, and Arsinoe_, pl.

xiii.

21. The original, of rough wood, is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

The family crowded themselves together into two or three rooms in winter, and slept on the roof in the open air in summer, in spite of risk from affections of the stomach and eyes; the remainder of the dwelling was used for stables or warehouses.

The store-chambers were often built in pairs; they were of brick, carefully limewashed internally, and usually assumed the form of an elongated cone, in imitation of the Government storehouses.

For the valuables which constituted the wealth of each household--wedges of gold or silver, precious stones, ornaments for men or women--there were places of concealment, in which the possessors attempted to hide them from robbers or from the tax-collectors.

But the latter, accustomed to the craft of the citizens, evinced a peculiar aptitude for ferreting out the hoard: they tapped the walls, lifted and pierced the roofs, dug down into the soil below the foundations, and often brought to light, not only the treasure of the owner, but all the surroundings of the grave and human corruption.

It was actually the custom, among the lower and middle classes, to bury in the middle of the house children who had died at the breast.

The little body was placed in an old tool or linen box, without any attempt at embalming, and its favourite playthings and amulets were buried with it: two or three infants are often found occupying the same coffin.

The playthings were of an artless but very varied character;

dolls of limestone, enamelled pottery or wood, with movable arms and wigs of artificial hair; pigs, crocodiles, ducks, and pigeons on wheels, pottery boats, miniature sets of household furniture, skin balls filled with hay, marbles, and stone bowls.

However, strange it may appear, we have to fancy the small boys of ancient Egypt as playing at bowls like ours, or impudently whipping their tops along the streets without respect for the legs of the passers-by.

[Illustration: 109. jpg APPARATUS FOR STRIKING A LIGHT] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published in Fl.

Petrie, _Illahun, Kdhun and Gurob,_ pl.

vii.

The bow is represented in the centre; on the left, at the top, is the nut; below it the fire-stick, which was attached to the end of the stock; at the bottom and right, two pieces of wood with round carbonized holes, which took fire from the friction of the rapidly rotating stick.

Some care was employed upon the decoration of the chambers.

The rough-casting of mud often preserves its original grey colour;

sometimes, however, it was limewashed, and coloured red or yellow, or decorated with pictures of jars, provisions, and the interiors as well as the exteriors of houses.

[Illustration: 110. jpg MITRAL PAINTINGS IN THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE AT KAHUN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile in Petrie’s _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl.

xvi.

6. The bed was not on legs, but consisted of a low framework, like the “angarebs” of the modern Nubians, or of mats which were folded up in the daytime, but upon which they lay in their clothes during the night, the head being supported by a head-rest of pottery, limestone, or wood: the remaining articles of furniture consisted of one or two roughly hewn seats of stone, a few lion-legged chairs or stools, boxes and trunks of varying sizes for linen and implements, kohl, or perfume, pots of ababaster or porcelain, and lastly, the fire-stick with the bow by which it was set in motion, and some roughly made pots and pans of clay or bronze.

[Illustration: 111. jpg WOMAN GRINDING GRAIN] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Béchard (cf.

Mariette, _Alburn photographique du Musée de Boulaq_, pl.

20; Maspero, _Guide du Visiteur_, P- 220, Nos.

1012, 1013).

Men rarely entered their houses except to eat and sleep; their employments or handicrafts were such as to require them for the most part to work out-of-doors.

The middle-class families owned, almost always, one or two slaves--either purchased or born in the house--who did all the hard work: they looked after the cattle, watched over the children, acted as cooks, and fetched water from the nearest pool or well.

Among the poor the drudgery of the household fell entirely upon the woman.

She spun, wove, cut out and mended garments, fetched fresh water and provisions, cooked the dinner, and made the daily bread.

She spread some handfuls of grain upon an oblong slab of stone, slightly hollowed on its upper surface, and proceeded to crush them with a smaller stone like a painter’s muller, which she moistened from time to time.

For an hour and more she laboured with her arms, shoulders, loins, in fact, all her body; but an indifferent result followed from the great exertion.

The flour, made to undergo several grindings in this rustic mortar, was coarse, uneven, mixed with bran, or whole grains, which had escaped the pestle, and contaminated with dust and abraded particles of the stone.

She kneaded it with a little water, blended with it, as a sort of yeast, a piece of stale dough of the day before, and made from the mass round cakes, about half an inch thick and some four inches in diameter, which she placed upon a flat flint, covering them with hot ashes.

The bread, imperfectly raised, often badly cooked, borrowed, from the organic fuel under which it was buried, a special odour, and a taste to which strangers did not readily accustom themselves.

The impurities which it contained were sufficient in the long run to ruin the strongest teeth; eating it was an action of grinding rather than chewing, and old men were not unfrequently met with whose teeth had been gradually worn away to the level of the gums, like those of an aged ass or ox.

* * The description of the woman grinding grain and kneading dough is founded on statues in the Gîzeh Museum.

All the European museums possess numerous specimens of the bread in question, and the effect which it produces in the long run on the teeth of those who habitually used it as an article of diet, has been observed in mummies of the most important personages.

Movement and animation were not lacking at certain hours of the day, particularly during the morning, in the markets and in the neighbourhood of the temples and government buildings: there was but little traffic anywhere else; the streets were silent, and the town dull and sleepy.

It woke up completely only three or four times a year, at seasons of solemn assemblies “of heaven and earth:” the houses were then opened and their inhabitants streamed forth, the lively crowd thronging the squares and crossways.

To begin with, there was New Year’s Day, quickly followed by the Festival of the Bead, the “Ûagaît. ” On the night of the 17th of Thot, the priests kindled before the statues in the sanctuaries and sepulchral chapels, the fire for the use of the gods and doubles during the twelve ensuing months.

Almost at the same moment the whole country was lit up from one end to the other: there was scarcely a family, however poor, who did not place in front of their door a new lamp in which burned an oil saturated with salt, and who did not spend the whole night in feasting and gossiping.

* * The night of the 17th Thot--which, according to our computation, would be the night of the 16th to the 17th --was, as may be seen from the Great Inscription of Siût, appointed for the ceremony of “lighting the fire” before the statues of the dead and of the gods.

As at the “Feast of Lamps” The festivals of the living gods attracted considerable crowds, who came not only from the nearest nomes, but also from great distances in caravans and in boats laden with merchandise, for religious sentiment did not exclude commercial interests, and the pilgrimage ended in a fair.

[Illustration: 114. jpg TWO WOMEN WEAVING LINEN AT A HORIZANTAL LOOM]