1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 175 



many agricultural occupations, among them the culture of 

 flax and manufacture of linen ; fishing and catching wild 

 fowl in nets. Ladies are represented entertaining company 

 and playing the harp. These tombs are dated, and have many 

 inscriptions. In the epitaph of one of the rulers he is made 

 to say : " The hungry did not exist in my time even when 

 there were years of scarcity ; I ploughed all the fields and 

 found food for the people, and I gave them what it pro- 

 duced ; I gave equally to the widow, as to her who had a 

 husband. I did not prefer the great to the humble. He 

 who sowed was master of his crop, and I kept back nothing 

 for myself from the produce of the lands." 



This was good morality in the year 2500 before Christ, 

 and would be now. It was some centuries after these tombs 

 were made that we have the Bible record of Joseph and his 

 brethren going from the arid plains of Palestine in time of 

 scarcity to buy corn in the rich valley of the Nile. The 

 seasons of scarcity in Egypt must have been caused by 

 incomplete inundations of the valley, and are referred to as 

 possible though of very rare occurrence. 



The present race of Egyptians has the characteristics of 

 the people whose forms and faces are sculptured and painted 

 on the walls of temples and tombs, though crossed with the 

 Arabian conquerer and then by the Turk. The purer and 

 more ancient blood will always tell in a crossing of races, 

 and this is noticeable in the frequent occurrence of the 

 Egyptian type. They are a handsome race, with fine, oval 

 faces and tawny complexion, rather of a bronze color; their 

 hair is straight and black, eyes bright, straight noses, rather 

 large mouths, and fine white teeth; they have very little 

 beard. The work at the shadoof develops muscle, and 

 they have fine forms and elastic and springing action. 

 The women, from childhood, bring water in huge jars from 

 the Nile, and this gives them a splendid development and 

 graceful movement. They are patient, industrious, and as 

 poor as any people on earth. Their houses are little huts, 

 the walls of which are all made of the Nile mud baked by 

 the sun. They need no roofs except for shade, and they get 

 that by laying sorghum stalks across the walls. They sit 

 and sleep on the ground floor ; they have no doors or 



