DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5066#0039
10 CHARACTER OF THE EGYPTIANS ch. I.
—o-old, silver, copper, and iron—were melted and
wrought into works of art or tools ; wood, leather,
glass, flax, and even rushes were all in daily use, and
on the potter's wheel vessels were formed from the
Nile mud and baked in the furnace. Sculptors and
painters too found profitable work among the wealthy
patrons of art at the court of the Pharaohs.
The noble class (suten rekh) of the Egyptian
people derived their origin chiefly from the royal
house; to them were committed the offices of the
court. They held as their hereditary possessions vil-
lages and tracts of land, with the labouring people
thereto belonging, bands of servants, and numerous
herds of cattle. To their memory, after their decease,
were dedicated those splendid tombs the remains of
which are on the Libyan desert or in the caverns of
the Egyptian hills.
Ambition and arrogant pride formed a remarkable
feature in the spirit of the old dwellers on the Nile ; yet
in the schools the poor scribe's child sat on the same
bench beside the offspring of the rich, and the masters-
knew how by timely words to goad on the laggards by
holding out to them the rewards which awaited rich
and poor alike. Many a monument consecrated to the
memory of some nobleman gone to his lone home, who
during life had held high rank at the court of Pharaoh,
is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription,
' His ancestors were unknown people.' Above all
things they esteemed justice, and virtue had the highest
value in their eyes. The law which ordered them—
' to pray to the gods, to honour the dead ; to give
bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to
the naked'—reveals to us one of the finest qualities of
old Egyptian character—pity towards the unfortunate.
The forty-two commandments of their religion, which
—o-old, silver, copper, and iron—were melted and
wrought into works of art or tools ; wood, leather,
glass, flax, and even rushes were all in daily use, and
on the potter's wheel vessels were formed from the
Nile mud and baked in the furnace. Sculptors and
painters too found profitable work among the wealthy
patrons of art at the court of the Pharaohs.
The noble class (suten rekh) of the Egyptian
people derived their origin chiefly from the royal
house; to them were committed the offices of the
court. They held as their hereditary possessions vil-
lages and tracts of land, with the labouring people
thereto belonging, bands of servants, and numerous
herds of cattle. To their memory, after their decease,
were dedicated those splendid tombs the remains of
which are on the Libyan desert or in the caverns of
the Egyptian hills.
Ambition and arrogant pride formed a remarkable
feature in the spirit of the old dwellers on the Nile ; yet
in the schools the poor scribe's child sat on the same
bench beside the offspring of the rich, and the masters-
knew how by timely words to goad on the laggards by
holding out to them the rewards which awaited rich
and poor alike. Many a monument consecrated to the
memory of some nobleman gone to his lone home, who
during life had held high rank at the court of Pharaoh,
is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription,
' His ancestors were unknown people.' Above all
things they esteemed justice, and virtue had the highest
value in their eyes. The law which ordered them—
' to pray to the gods, to honour the dead ; to give
bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to
the naked'—reveals to us one of the finest qualities of
old Egyptian character—pity towards the unfortunate.
The forty-two commandments of their religion, which