144

EGYPT AND ITS MONUMENTS.

earliest written record we have of our race; and indeed we
are aware of its prevalence, in a greater or less degree, among
all early nations. In some instances, in the Bible, the word
servant may, and we think does, mean some humble friend,
or dependent, or disciple performing servile offices; but the
mass of those called servants in Scripture were absolute and
perpetual slaves. They generally were either captives taken
in war, or were foreigners that had been purchased. They,
with their descendants, were considered the property of their
masters, and, as such, might be exchanged or sold; nay,
among some nations, a power of life and death over his unfor-
tunate slave was confided to his master. Abraham's servants
were, we apprehend, slaves: but the revolting circumstances
attending slavery in some of its exhibitions, were generally
unknown among the early orientals. The slaves were rather
deemed, and treated, as humble members of the family j
though to this there were doubtless, in some instances, cruel
exceptions. Whatever may have been the case, however, as
to the extent of a master's power, servitude of some kind, and
a right of alienation, are distinctly declared. The monuments
show us the existence of slavery. " From them we find"
(says Taylor) " that the mistress of a mansion was very rigid
in enforcing her authority over her female domestics. We see
these unfortunate beings trembling and cringing before their
superiors, beaten with rods by the overseers, and sometimes
threatened Avith a formidable whip, wielded by the lady of
the mansion herself." In other cases, the relation subsisting
between the mistress and her slaves appears to be of a gentler
and more affectionate character. In a tomb at Thebes is a
representation, copied by Wilkinson, of a lady enjoying the
bath, who is waited on by four female servants, where nothing