DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0028
12 DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.
customs not recorded before the age of the Osirtasens and
the Shepherd invasion; which last may be considered the
turning point in their history. Those customs may have
already existed, even though not represented, since the monu-
ments of that time are few; for many that we know they had
are only found once, while others are never alluded to. Every
new tomb of any size is sure to contain something unnoticed
in another; and it would be too much to expect that if all the
tombs of Thebes were now open to us, they should contain a
perfect list and illustration of all the employments or customs
of the Egyptians. "We have reason to be grateful for what
we have.
Much is of course to be learnt of the manners of a people
from their domestic usages, the style and furniture of their
houses, their mode of living, their amusements and daily
occupations, and we have therefore ample opportunities of
judging of the character and social habits of the Egyptians.
The mistake of supposing them a grave and gloomy people
will become evident when we examine those instructive autho-
rities ; and if some ancient writers have represented them
" rather sad," and others a vivacious and hasty people, we shall
not find it difficult to account for any change after Egypt
had been for ages subject to a series of calamities and the
oppressions of foreign rule. And the mixed population of
Alexandria and its neighbourhood, from whom foreigners too
often formed an estimate of their manners, could not certainly
convey any notion of the Egyptians under the Pharaohs.
It is certain that however much their priestly rulers im-
pressed upon them the propriety of abstinence and sobriety,
the Egyptians were noted for a love of conviviality, and lost
no opportunity of indulging in the most lively amusements, as
well as in the pleasures and even in the excesses of the table.
customs not recorded before the age of the Osirtasens and
the Shepherd invasion; which last may be considered the
turning point in their history. Those customs may have
already existed, even though not represented, since the monu-
ments of that time are few; for many that we know they had
are only found once, while others are never alluded to. Every
new tomb of any size is sure to contain something unnoticed
in another; and it would be too much to expect that if all the
tombs of Thebes were now open to us, they should contain a
perfect list and illustration of all the employments or customs
of the Egyptians. "We have reason to be grateful for what
we have.
Much is of course to be learnt of the manners of a people
from their domestic usages, the style and furniture of their
houses, their mode of living, their amusements and daily
occupations, and we have therefore ample opportunities of
judging of the character and social habits of the Egyptians.
The mistake of supposing them a grave and gloomy people
will become evident when we examine those instructive autho-
rities ; and if some ancient writers have represented them
" rather sad," and others a vivacious and hasty people, we shall
not find it difficult to account for any change after Egypt
had been for ages subject to a series of calamities and the
oppressions of foreign rule. And the mixed population of
Alexandria and its neighbourhood, from whom foreigners too
often formed an estimate of their manners, could not certainly
convey any notion of the Egyptians under the Pharaohs.
It is certain that however much their priestly rulers im-
pressed upon them the propriety of abstinence and sobriety,
the Egyptians were noted for a love of conviviality, and lost
no opportunity of indulging in the most lively amusements, as
well as in the pleasures and even in the excesses of the table.