monarch. The concubines were members of the family and were in rank next to the wives and children of their lord. Without doubt Sarah was intended for such a station. Among the gifts which Abraham received from Pharaoh, male and female slaves are mentioned, in chap. 12: 16. "Domestic slavery," says Taylor,* seems to have been established in Egypt from the earliest ages, and we find from the monuments that the mistress of a mansion was very rigid in enforcing her authority over the female domestics. We see these unfortunate beings trembling and cringing before their superiors, beaten with rods by the overseers, and sometimes threatened with a formidable whip wielded by the lady of the mansion herself. Hagar was one of the female slaves obtained by Abraham at this time." See upon slavery among the Egyptians, Wilkinson: "The Ethiopians were obliged to supply the Egyptians with slaves, which the Egyptians sometimes exacted even from the conquered countries of Asia." Genesis 13: 10. In Gen. 13: 10, the author says the plain of the Jordan was everywhere well watered, "as the garden of the Lord (Paradise), like the land of Egypt." Less wonderful is it here that the author understands the natural condition of Egypt than that just this same land presents itself to him directly as a means of comparison. Exodus 20: 25. In Ex. 20: 25 it is said: "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted it." The preparation of hewn stone is represented in a tomb at Thebes+ Vol. I. p. 388. * p. 7. some workmen stand there smoothing the surfaces of a stone with chisels of different forms; others are examining to see whether it is perfectly square. The great skill of the Egyptians, in the preparation of hewn stone, is one of the principal causes of the durability of the Egyptian monuments.* The Festival of the Golden Calf, etc. Exod. xxxii. and Lev. 17: 7. A succession of allusions to Egypt are found in the 32d chapter of Exodus. That the representation of Jehovah under the image of the golden calf is only explainable on the supposition of Egyptian influence, and that it stands in connection with the worship of Apis, has been fully discussed in the Contributions.† In the same work, it was also shown that striking analogy is found in the descriptions of the feasts of the gods among the Egyptians, for the manner in which the festival of the golden calf was celebrated by the Israelites, as exhibited in the following passages: verse 6—“ And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.” Verse 17: "And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp." Verse 18, where Moses says: "The noise of song I hear.' And in verse 19: "And he saw the calf and the dancing." The most ancient popular rites of the Egyptians were, according to Creuzer, of the nature of orgies, and the fundamental character of their religion was Bacchanalian. Sensual songs were sung, with the accompaniment of noisy instruments. Of the yearly journey to Bubastis, Herodotus says: "Throughout the whole journey, some of the women strike the cymbal, whilst men play the flute, and the rest of the women and men sing and clap with their hands; * Rosellini II. 2. p. 159. Symbol. I. S. 448, 9. † Th. 2. S. 155 ft. § B. 2. c. 60. and when they, in their journey, come near a town, they bring the boat near the shore and conduct as follows: some of the women do as I have already described, some jeer at the women of the town, with loud voices, and some dance," while others commit other unseemly acts. Especially is it said concerning the feast of Apis,* "But when Cambyses came to Memphis, Apis (whom the Greeks call Epaphos) was shown to the Egyptians, and as he appeared, the Egyptians forthwith put on their most costly garments and exulted."+ Just as here, in a manner throughout inimitable by one of later times, the circumstances, tendencies and feelings of the people who had grown up under Egyptian influences, are exhibited with incontrovertible truth. So are they, also, in the passage Lev. 17:7, already explained at large in a former work.‡ It is there said, in reference to the rebellious Israelites: "They shall no longer offer their sacrifices to he-goats (), after which they have lusted." The opposition which exists between a he-goat and a god, was removed in the Egyptian religion and in it only. "The he-goat, and also Pan, were, in the language of Egypt, named Mendes," says Herodotus, and almost all the Greeks follow him. This identity of names between the god and the he-goat is explained by the pantheistic element in the Egyptian conception of the world. The he-goat was not barely a symbol of Mendes, for whom the Greeks, looking away from the other great differences, because of the form of the he-goat and his wantonness, substituted Pan, but the physical presentation, the incarnation of this god, and was therefore considered holy and as worthy of divine honor. The service of the he-goat, as a deity, was very anciently performed in Egypt, and he was the participant of * B. 3. c. 27. See also upon the sacred dance among the Egyptians, Wilk. II. p. 340. In den Beiträgen, Th. 2. S. 118 ff. § B. 2. c. 46. * very high honor among them, so that we must necessarily expect the idolatrous inclination of the Israelites awakened after a short slumber, to be also directed specially to this deity. We turn back to Exodus xxxii. Aaron demands, according to verse 2, of the children of Israel, the golden rings which are in the ears of their wives, their sons, and their daughters, in order to fashion from them the calf. "The golden ornaments found in Egypt," says Wilkinson,t consist of rings, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, ear-rings and numerous trinkets belonging to the toilet; many of these are of the times of Osirtasen I. and Thothmes III., contemporaries of Joseph and Moses." The same author shows that ear-rings were commonly worn in Egypt. Rings of gold were so common in Egypt, according to Rosellini, that they took, to a certain extent, the place of coin, and many times were used in trade. According to verse 20, Moses took the calf that they made and burned it and beat it (namely, the elements of the calf, externally gold and internally wood, which had escaped the fire) until it was fine as powder. In Deut. 9: 21, Moses says of the same transaction: "And burned it with fire, and beat it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was as fine as dust." Wilkinson says, certain persons were employed in the towns of Egypt, to pound various substances, in large stone mortars, with heavy metal pestles. When the substance was well pounded, it was taken out and passed through a sieve, and the larger particles were again returned to the mortar, until the whole was sufficiently fine. In verse 32, Moses asks of God: "And now if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy * Compare Creuzer, Th. III. S. 325. + Wilk., Vol. III. § Vol. II. p. 280. p. 225. ‡ Vol. III. p. 371-1. || Vol. III. p. 181 and Drawing. 218 book which thou hast written." These words imply the customary employment of lists and rolls, which have existed in scarcely any other land so generally as they did in Egypt. The monuments often exhibit this frequency. Thus there is represented in a tomb at Gurnah a levying of Egyptian soldiers. The men, conducted by their commander, go before a scribe in order to be enrolled.* Prohibition of Marriage between near Relatives. Lev. xviii. The law concerning unlawful intercourse, in Lev. xviii, in which marriages between near relatives occupies the first place, is in verse 3 accompanied by the words: "After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do." Truly, among no people of antiquity was the moral feeling, with reference to marriage among relatives, so blunted, as among the Egyptians. The marriage with the sister, so strongly forbidden by Moses, was considered among them as unconditionally allowable. Diodorust says: "It is, contrary to the common custom, lawful among the Egyptians to marry a sister, since such a union, in the case of Isis, was so fortunate in its consequences." Pausanias says of Philadelphus, who married his sister by birth: "He in this did that which was by no means lawful among the Macedonians, but entirely in accordance with the law of the Egyptians, over whom he ruled." Philos relates of the Egyptian lawgiver, that he gave permission to all to marry their sisters, those who are sisters by birth, not less than step-sisters, those of like age and older, not less than the younger. "By the sculptures in Upper and Lower Egypt," remarks Wilkinson, "it is fully authenticated, that this law was in force in the earliest times." * Rosellini, II. 3. p. 218. Compare also Herod. B. 2. c. 177. + B. I. c. 27. § De Special Legg. p. 780. ‡ Att. 1. 7. |