CHAP. XI. THE CARE OF ANIMALS. 12.5 



ing tlie period when it was first instituted ; which, 

 su})posing it to have fallen in the middle of the 

 month, will carry it hack 2G50 years hefore our 

 era, 330 years hefore the accession of Menes. ** On 

 the 19th day of the first month (Thoth), which was 

 the feast of Hermes *, they eat honey and figs, say- 

 ing to each other, 'how sweet a thing is truth!'" 

 — a satisfactory proof that the month itself, and 

 not the first day alone t, was called after and dedi- 

 cated to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes; and another 

 festival, answering to the " Tliesmophoria of the 

 Athenians," was established to commemorate the 

 period when " the husbandmen began to sow their 

 corn, in the Egyptian month Athyr."t 



Many of the sacred festivals of the Egyptians 

 were connected with agriculture ; but these I shall 

 have occasion to notice under the head of their re- 

 ligious ceremonies. 



REARING OF ANIMALS. 



I now proceed to another point connected with 

 il-e occupations of the peasantry, — the care and 

 rearing of animals. The rich proprietors of land 

 possessed a large stock of sheep, goats, and cattle ; 

 gazelles, and other wild animals of the desert, were 

 tamed and reared with great care on their estates ; 

 and they bestowed the greatest attention to the 

 breed of horses, asses, and other beasts of burthen. 

 The pastors, it is true, were a class apart from the 

 peasantry, and one whicii was held in disrepute 



* Pint. s. 68. t Vide supra, p. 10. t Pint. s. 69. 



