126 



THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 



CHAP. XI. 



by the Egyptians, partly in consequence of the 

 nature of their occupation, and partly from the 

 feeling excited against them by the remembrance 

 of cruelties exercised upon their country by a 

 shepherd race*, which had held Egypt in sub- 

 jection during a long period ; and the swineherds 

 were looked upon witli such abhorrence, that He- 

 rodotus affirms they could not even enter a tem- 

 ple, or contract marriages with any other of their 

 countrymen, t But the denomination of pastors 

 did not extend to the farmers who bred sheep or 

 cattle ; it merely applied to those who tended the 

 flocks, or had their immediate care : and the Egyp- 

 tian artists, as if to show the contempt in which 

 these people were held, frequently represented 

 them lame or deformed, dirty and unshaven, 

 and sometimes of a most ludicrous appearance. 



No. 438. A deformed oxlierd. Tombs near the Pyramids. 



This feeling, however, was not carried to the ex- 

 tent mentioned by Josephust, who asserts that 

 " the Egyptians were prohibited to meddle with 

 the feeding of sheep ; " and the sculptures of 



* Vide Vol. II. p. 16. 

 % Joseph. Antiq. ii. 7. 5. 



f Vol. I. p. 239. 



