DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6359#0196
180
EGYPT AND ITS MONUMENTS.
all may, and do, with impunity, practise the most revolting
cruelties. There is, therefore, nothing inconsistent with
orientalism in this large grant of power to Joseph.
Pharaoh gives to Joseph his ring. This was an act of
investiture, such as is not entirely foreign to the usages of
Europe, in the middle ages. But here, the ring was a signet
or seal ring, delivered, precisely as it is at this day, to the
king's chief officer, for the purpose, by its impress, of attesting
his official acts as the acts of royalty. The more usual mode
in the East of authenticating a document, is not by a written
signature, but by the seal. The orientals have seals in which
their names and titles are engraved ; with this they make an
impression with thick ink on occasions where we should affix
our signatures with the pen. To give a man your seal, there-
fore, is to give him the use of that authority and power win0'1
your own signature possesses. Hence the extraordinary in-
terest manifested about seals in the laws and usages of the
East. In Eygpt, the punishment for counterfeiting a seal WaS
the loss of both hands. The seal-cutter in Persia is, at this
day, obliged to keep a register of every seal he makes, and to
affix the date at which it was cut. To make another like it>
is punished with death. If the seal be lost or stolen, the only
resource of its owner is to have another cut, with a new date>
and to inform his correspondent that all documents attested
by his former seal are null from the time of its loss, ^ha4
the ring given to Joseph was Pharaoh's signet-ring, appearS
from other passages Avhich show that it was used for sealing;
But one of the German school of critics, remarking on tlllS
to
transaction, writes:—" It is scarcely, however, necessary
mention that these objects of luxury, especially polish6^
stones, belonged to a later time." This is a striking install
EGYPT AND ITS MONUMENTS.
all may, and do, with impunity, practise the most revolting
cruelties. There is, therefore, nothing inconsistent with
orientalism in this large grant of power to Joseph.
Pharaoh gives to Joseph his ring. This was an act of
investiture, such as is not entirely foreign to the usages of
Europe, in the middle ages. But here, the ring was a signet
or seal ring, delivered, precisely as it is at this day, to the
king's chief officer, for the purpose, by its impress, of attesting
his official acts as the acts of royalty. The more usual mode
in the East of authenticating a document, is not by a written
signature, but by the seal. The orientals have seals in which
their names and titles are engraved ; with this they make an
impression with thick ink on occasions where we should affix
our signatures with the pen. To give a man your seal, there-
fore, is to give him the use of that authority and power win0'1
your own signature possesses. Hence the extraordinary in-
terest manifested about seals in the laws and usages of the
East. In Eygpt, the punishment for counterfeiting a seal WaS
the loss of both hands. The seal-cutter in Persia is, at this
day, obliged to keep a register of every seal he makes, and to
affix the date at which it was cut. To make another like it>
is punished with death. If the seal be lost or stolen, the only
resource of its owner is to have another cut, with a new date>
and to inform his correspondent that all documents attested
by his former seal are null from the time of its loss, ^ha4
the ring given to Joseph was Pharaoh's signet-ring, appearS
from other passages Avhich show that it was used for sealing;
But one of the German school of critics, remarking on tlllS
to
transaction, writes:—" It is scarcely, however, necessary
mention that these objects of luxury, especially polish6^
stones, belonged to a later time." This is a striking install