20 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



ignoble and inimanly.* Large flocks and herds 

 always formed part of the possessions of wealthy 

 individuals ; the breed of horses was a principal 

 care of the grazier, and besides those required for 

 the army and private use, many were sold to fo- 

 reign traders who visited the country t ; and the 

 rearing of so many sheep in the Thebaid, where 

 mutton was unlawful foodl^, proves the object to 

 have been to supply the wool-market with good 

 fleeces, two of which, owing to the attention they 

 paid to its food, were annually supplied by each 

 animal. 



That the Egyptians should successfully unite the 

 advantages of an agricultural and a manufacturing 

 country is not surprising, when we consider that 

 in those early times the competition of other ma- 

 nufacturing countries did not interfere with their 

 market ; and though Tyre and Sidon excelled in 

 fine linen and other productions of the loom, many 

 branches of industry brought exclusive advantages 

 to the Egyptian workman. Even in the flourish- 

 ing days of the Phoenicians, Egypt exported linen 

 to other countries, and she probably enjoyed at all 

 times an entire monopoly in this, and every article 

 she manufactured, with the caravans of the interior 

 of Africa. 



Now, indeed, the case is widely different. 

 The population of Egypt is so reduced as not to 



* Vide supra. Vol. I. p. 286. 

 + 1 Kings, X. 28, 29. 



J Strabo says sheep were only sacrificed in the Nitriotic nome, 

 lib. xvii. p. o52. 



