rifice which is essentially involved in 

 true motherhood, and from the very ear- 

 liest days the child was carefully indoc- 

 trinated with the duty of reverencing 

 and loving the mother who bore and 

 nourished him. ''Thou shalt never for- 

 get," says the wise Ani in his "Instruc- 

 tions," "what thy mother hath done for 

 thee. She bare thee and nourished thee 

 in all manner of ways. If thou forget- 

 test her, she might blame thee ; she might 

 lift up her hands to God, and he would 

 hear her complaint." 



So strong was this sentiment that on 

 the tombs of the Old Kingdom the 

 mother of the deceased is, as a rule, rep- 

 resented together with his wife, while 

 his father rarely appears. Further in 

 the funerary inscriptions of later times 

 it is the usual custom to trace the de- 

 scent of the dead man on the mother's 

 side rather than on that of the father. 

 We read of "Ned-emu-senb, born of Sat- 

 Hathor ; of Anhor, born of Neb-onet ; or 

 of Sebek-reda, born of Sent ; but who 

 were the respective fathers we are not 

 told or they are only mentioned inci- 

 dentally." Even when the father is men- 

 tioned, it is the natural thing that the 

 mother's name should accompany his. 

 Thus the Middle Kingdom statuette 

 which Sir Arthur Evans found in the pal- 

 ace cf Knossos is inscribed as that of 

 "Ab-nub, Sebek-user's son, born of the 

 lady Sat-Hathor." 



A CURIOUS SYSTEM OI' SUCCESSION 



In accordance with this view of the 

 superior importance of the maternal re- 

 lationship is the fact that in noble Egyp- 

 tian families the general, though not in- 

 variable, custom was that the heir of the 

 house was not the eldest son, but the son 

 of the eldest daughter. Under the Mid- 

 dle Kingdom this rule prevailed to such 

 an extent that the inheritance passed 

 from one family to another through heir- 

 esses. He who married an erpat, or 

 heiress, gained for his son the inheritance 

 of his father-in-law ; and these heirs on 

 the distaff side, erpate, or hereditary 

 princes, whose title is constantly dis- 

 played on their tombs, evidently formed 

 the highest aristocracy of the land. 



The principle was carried to curious 

 and, to our minds, amusing lengths. Suc- 

 cessive generations of Western nations 



Photo from Rev. James Baikie 

 NEEERTARI, THE SISTER AND EAVORITE 

 WIEE OF RAMESES II 



She is clinging to the colossal leg of her 

 husband's statue. This is a fine example of 

 later Egyptian art (see preceding picture, page 

 1002). 



1003 



