Part 21

Figures were also introduced on the blank walls in the sitting-rooms, or scenes from domestic life, surrounded by ornamental borders, and surmounted by deep cornices of flowers and various devices richly painted; and no people appear to have been more fond of using flowers on every occasion. In their domestic architecture they formed the chief ornament of the mouldings; and every visitor received a bouquet of real flowers, as a token of welcome on entering a house. It was the pipe and coffee of the modern Egyptians; and a guest at a party was not only presented with a lotus, or some other flower, but had a chaplet placed round his head, and another round his neck; which led the Roman poet to remark the "many chaplets on the foreheads" of the Egyptians at their banquets. Everywhere flowers abounded; they were formed into wreaths and festoons, they decked the stands that supported the vases in the convivial chamber, and crowned the wine-bowl as well as the servants who bore the cup from it to the assembled guests.

The villas of the Egyptians were of great extent, and contained spacious gardens, watered by canals communicating with the Nile. They had large tanks of water in different parts of the garden, which served for ornament, as well as for irrigation, when the Nile was low; and on these the master of the house occasionally amused himself and his friends by an excursion in a pleasure-boat towed by his servants. They also enjoyed the diversion of angling and spearing fish in the ponds within their grounds, and on these occasions they were generally accompanied by a friend, or one or more members of their family.

## Particular care was always bestowed upon the garden, and their great

fondness for flowers is shown by the number they always cultivated, as well as by the women of the family or the attendants presenting bouquets to the master of the house and his friends when they walked there.

The house itself was sometimes ornamented with propylæ and obelisks, like the temples themselves; it is even possible that part of the building may have been consecrated to religious purposes, as the chapels of other countries, since we find a priest engaged in presenting offerings at the door of the inner chambers; and, indeed, were it not for the presence of the women, the form of the garden, and the style of the porch, we should feel disposed to consider it a temple rather than a place of abode. The entrances of large villas were generally through folding gates, standing between lofty towers, as at the courts of temples, with a small door at each side; and others had merely folding-gates, with the jambs surmounted by a cornice. One general wall of circuit extended round the premises, but the courts of the house, the garden, the offices, and all the other parts of the villa had each their separate enclosure. The walls were usually built of crude brick, and, in damp places, or when within reach of the inundation, the lower part was strengthened by a basement of stone. They were sometimes ornamented with panels and grooved lines, generally stuccoed, and the summit was crowned either with Egyptian battlements, the usual cornice, a row of spikes in imitation of spear-heads, or with some fancy ornament.

The plans of the villas varied according to circumstances, but their general arrangement is sufficiently explained by the paintings. They were surrounded by a high wall, about the middle of which was the main or front entrance, with one central and two side gates, leading to an open walk shaded by rows of trees. Here were spacious tanks of water, facing the doors of the right and left wings of the house, between which an avenue led from the main entrance to what may be called the centre of the mansion. After passing the outer door of the right wing, you entered an open court with trees, extending quite round a nucleus of inner apartments, and having a back entrance communicating with the garden. On the right and left of this court were six or more store-rooms, a small receiving or waiting room at two of the corners, and at the other end the staircases which led to the upper stories. Both of the inner facades were furnished with a corridor, supported on columns, with similar towers and gateways. The interior of this wing consisted of twelve rooms, two outer and one center court, communicating by folding gates; and on either side of this last was the main entrance to the rooms on the ground-floor, and to the staircases leading to the upper story. At the back were three long rooms, and a gateway opening on the garden, which, besides flowers, contained a variety of trees, a summer-house, and a large tank of water.

The arrangement of the left wing was different. The front gate led to an open court, extending the whole breadth of the facade of the building, and backed by the wall of the inner part. Central and lateral doors thence communicated with another court, surrounded on three sides by a set of rooms, and behind it was a corridor, upon which several other chambers opened.

This wing had no back entrance, and standing isolated, the outer court extended entirely around it; and a succession of doorways communicated from the court with different sections of the centre of the house, where the rooms, disposed like those already described, around passages and corridors, served partly as sitting apartments, and

## partly as store-rooms.

The stables for the horses and the coach-houses for the traveling chariots and carts, were in the centre, or inner part of the building; but the farm-yard where the cattle were kept stood at some distance from the house, and corresponded to the department known by the Romans under the name of _rustica_. Though enclosed separately, it was within the general wall of circuit, which surrounded the land attached to the villa; and a canal, bringing water from the river, skirted it, and extended along the back of the grounds. It consisted of two parts; the sheds for housing the cattle, which stood at the upper end, and the yard, where rows of rings were fixed, in order to tie them while feeding in the day-time; and men always attended, and frequently fed them with the hand.

The granaries were also apart from the house, and were enclosed within a separate wall; and some of the rooms in which they housed the grain appear to have had vaulted roofs. These were filled through an aperture near the top, to which the men ascended by steps, and the grain when wanted was taken out from a door at the base.

The superintendence of the house and grounds was intrusted to stewards, who regulated the tillage of the land, received whatever was derived from the sale of the produce, overlooked the returns of the quantity of cattle or stock upon the estate, settled all the accounts, and condemned the delinquent peasants to the bastinado, or any punishment they might deserve. To one were intrusted the affairs of the house, answering to "the ruler," "overseer," or "steward of Joseph's house;" others "superintended the granaries," the vineyard, or the culture of the fields; and the extent of their duties, or the number of those employed, depended on the quantity of land, or the will of its owner.

The mode of laying out their gardens was as varied as that of the houses; but in all cases they appear to have taken particular care to command a plentiful supply of water, by means of reservoirs and canals. Indeed, in no country is artificial irrigation more required than in the valley of the Nile; and, from the circumstance of the water of the inundation not being admitted into the gardens, they depend throughout the year on the supply obtained from wells and tanks, or a neighboring canal.

The mode of irrigation adopted by the ancient Egyptians was exceedingly simple, being merely the _shadoof_, or pole and bucket of the present day; and, in many instances, men were employed to carry the water in pails, suspended by a wooden yoke they bore upon their shoulders. The same yoke was employed for carrying other things, as boxes, baskets containing game and poultry, or whatever was taken to market; and every trade seems to have used it for this purpose, from the potter and the brick-maker, to the carpenter and the shipwright.

Part of the garden was laid out in walks shaded with trees, usually planted in rows, and surrounded, at the base of the stem, with a circular ridge of earth, which, being lower at the centre than at the circumference, retained the water, and directed it more immediately towards the roots. It is difficult to say if trees were trimmed into any particular shape, or if their formal appearance in the sculpture is merely owing to a conventional mode of representing them; but, since the pomegranate, and some other fruit trees, are drawn with spreading and irregular branches, it is possible that sycamores, and others, which presented large masses of foliage, were really trained in that formal manner, though, from the hieroglyphic signifying "_tree_" having the same shape, we may conclude it was only a general character for all trees.

Some, as the pomegranates, date-trees, and _dom_-palms, are easily recognized in the sculptures, but the rest are doubtful, as are the flowering plants, with the exception of the lotus and a few others.

To the garden department belonged the care of the bees, which were kept in hives very like our own. In Egypt they required great attention; and so few are its plants at the present day, that the owners of hives often take the bees in boats to various spots upon the Nile, in quest of flowers. They are a smaller kind than our own; and though found wild in the country, they are far less numerous than wasps, hornets, and ichneumons. The wild bees live mostly under stones, or in clefts of the rock, as in many other countries; and the expression of Moses, as of the Psalmist, "honey out of the rock," shows that in Palestine their habits were the same. Honey was thought of great importance in Egypt, both for household purposes, and for an offering to the gods; that of Benha (thence surnamed _El assal_), or Athribis, in the Delta, retained its reputation to a late time; and a jar of honey from that place was one of the four presents sent by John Mekaukes, the governor of Egypt, to Mohammed.

Large gardens were usually divided into different parts; the principal sections being appropriated to the date and sycamore trees, and to the vineyard. The former may be called the orchard. The flower and kitchen gardens also occupied a considerable space, laid out in beds; and dwarf trees, herbs, and flowers, were grown in red earthen pots, exactly like our own, arranged in long rows by the walks and borders.

Besides the orchard and gardens, some of the large villas had a park or paradise, with its fish-ponds and preserves for game, as well as poultry-yards for keeping hens and geese, stalls for fattening cattle, wild goats, gazelles, and other animals originally from the desert, whose meat was reckoned among the dainties of the table.

It was in these extensive preserves that the rich amused themselves with the chase; and they also enclosed a considerable space in the desert itself with net-fences, into which the animals were driven, and shot with arrows, or hunted with dogs.

Gardens are frequently represented in the tombs of Thebes and other parts of Egypt, many of which are remarkable for their extent. The one here introduced is shown to have been surrounded by an embattled wall, with a canal of water passing in front of it, connected with the river. Between the canal and the wall, and parallel to them both, was a shady avenue of various trees; and about the centre was the entrance, through a lofty door, whose lintel and jambs were decorated with hieroglyphic inscriptions, containing the name of the owner of the grounds, who in this instance was the king himself. In the gateway were rooms for the porter, and other persons employed about the garden, and, probably, the receiving room for visitors, whose abrupt admission might be unwelcome; and at the back a gate opened into the vineyard. The vines were trained on a trellis-work, supported by transverse rafters resting on pillars; and a wall, extending round it, separated this part from the rest of the garden. At the upper end were suites of rooms on three different stories, looking upon green trees, and affording a pleasant retreat in the heat of summer. On the outside of the vineyard wall were placed rows of palms, which occurred again with the _dom_ and other trees, along the whole length of the exterior wall; four tanks of water, bordered by a grass plot, where geese were kept, and the delicate flower of the lotus was encouraged to grow, served for the irrigation of the grounds; and small _kiosks_ or summer-houses, shaded with trees, stood near the water, and overlooked beds of flowers. The spaces containing the tanks, and the adjoining portions of the garden, were each enclosed by their respective walls, and a small subdivision on either side, between the large and small tanks, seems to have been reserved for the growth of particular trees, which either required peculiar care, or bore a fruit of superior quality.

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[Illustration: Painted by Edwin Long, A.R.A. Engraved & Printed by Illman Brothers EGYPTIAN FEAST. FOR THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY]

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EGYPTIAN WEALTH.

That the riches of the country were immense is proved by the appearance of the furniture and domestic utensils, and by the great quantity of jewels of gold and silver, precious stones, and other objects of luxury in use among them in the earliest times; their treasures became proverbial throughout the neighboring states, and a love of pomp and splendor continued to be the ruling passion of the Egyptians till the latest period of their existence as an independent state.

The wealth of Egypt was principally derived from taxes, foreign tribute, monopolies, commerce, mines, and above all from the productions of a fruitful soil. The wants of the poorer classes were easily satisfied; the abundance of grain, herbs and esculent plants, afforded an ample supply to the inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, at a trifling expense, and with little labor; and so much corn was produced in this fertile country, that after sufficing for the consumption of a very extensive population, it offered a great surplus for the foreign market; and afforded considerable profit to the government, being exported to other countries, or sold to the traders who visited Egypt for commercial purposes.

The gold mines of the Bisharee desert were in those times very productive; and, though we have no positive notice of their first discovery, there is reason to believe they were worked at the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy. The total of the annual produce of the gold and silver mines (which Diodorus, on the authority of Hecatæus, says, was recorded in the tomb of Osymandyas at Thebes, apparently a king of the 19th dynasty) is stated to have been 3,200 myriads, or 32 millions of _minæ_--a weight of that country, called by the Egyptians _mn_ or _mna_, 60 of which were equal to one talent. The whole sum amounted to 665 millions of our money; but it was evidently exaggerated.

The position of the silver mines is unknown; but the gold mines of Allaga, and other quartz "diggings," have been discovered, as well as those of copper, lead, iron and emeralds, all of which are in the desert near the Red Sea; and the sulphur, which abounds in the same districts, was not neglected by the ancient Egyptians.

The abundance of gold and silver in Egypt and other ancient countries, and the sums reported to have been spent, accord well with the reputed productiveness of the mines in those days; and, as the subject has become one of peculiar interest, it may be well to inquire respecting the quantity and the use of the precious metals in ancient times. They were then mostly confined to the treasures of princes, and of some rich individuals; the proportion employed for commercial purposes was small, copper sufficing for most purchases in the home market; and nearly all the gold and silver money (as yet uncoined) was in the hands of the wealthy few. The manufacture of jewelry, and other ornamental objects took up a small portion of the great mass; but it required the wealth and privilege of royalty to indulge in a grand display of gold and silver vases, or similar objects of size and value.

The mines of those days, from which was derived the wealth of Egypt, Lydia, Persia, and other countries, afforded a large supply of the precious metals; and if most of them are now exhausted or barely retain evidences of the treasures they once gave forth, there can be no doubt of their former productiveness; and it is reasonable to suppose that gold and silver abounded in early times in those parts of the world which were first inhabited, as they did in countries more recently peopled. They may never have afforded at any period the immense riches of a California or an Australia, yet there is evidence of their having been sufficiently distributed over various parts of the old world.

For though Herodotus (iii., 106) says that the extremities of the earth possess the greatest treasures; these extremities may approach or become the centre, _i.e._, of civilization, when they arrive at that eminence which all great countries in their turn seem to have a chance of reaching; and Britain, the country of the greatly coveted tin, once looked upon as separated from the rest of mankind, is now one of the commercial centres of the world. The day, too, has come when Australia and California are rivals for a similar distinction; and England, the rendezvous of America in her contests with Europe, has yielded its turn to younger competitors.

The greatest quantity of gold and silver in early times was derived from the East; and Asia and Egypt possessed abundance of those metals. The trade of Colchis, and the treasures of the Arimaspes and Massagetæ, coming from the Ural (or from the Altai) mountains, supplied much gold at a very early period, and Indian commerce sent a large supply to western Asia. Spain, the Isle of Thasos, and other places, were resorted to by the Phoenicians, particularly for silver; and Spain, for its mines, became the "El Dorado" of those adventurous traders.

The mines of the Eastern desert, the tributes from Ethiopia and Central Africa, as well as from Asia, enriched Egypt with gold and silver; but it was long before Greece (where in heroic times the precious metals were scarcely known) obtained a moderate supply of silver from her own mines; and gold only became abundant there after the Persian war.

Thrace and Macedonia produced gold, as well as other countries, but confined it to their own use, as Ireland employed the produce of its mines; and as early Italy did, when its various small states were still free from the Roman yoke; and though the localities from which silver was obtained in more ancient times are less known, it is certain that it was used at a very remote period; and (as before stated) it was commonly employed in Abraham's time for mercantile transactions.

Gold is mentioned on the Egyptian monuments of the 4th dynasty, and silver was probably of the same early time; but gold was evidently known in Egypt before silver, which is consistent with reason, gold being more easily obtained than silver, and frequently near the surface or in streams.

The relative value and quantity of the precious metals in the earliest times, in Egypt and Western Asia, are not known; and even if a greater amount of gold were found mentioned in a tribute, this could be no proof of the silver being more rare, as it might merely be intended to show the richness of the gifts. In the tribute brought to Thothmes III. by the Southern Ethiopians and three Asiatic people, the former present scarcely any silver, but great quantities of gold in rings, ingots, and dust. The Asiatic people of Pount bring two baskets of gold rings, and one of gold dust in bags, a much smaller amount of gold than the Ethiopians, and no silver; those of Kufa, or Kaf, more silver than gold, and a considerable quantity of both made into vases of handsome and varied shapes; and the Rot-[=n]-n (apparently living on the Euphrates) present rather more gold than silver, a large basket of gold and a smaller one of silver rings, two small silver and several large gold vases, which are of the most elegant shape, as well as colored glass or porcelain cups, and much incense and bitumen. The great Asiatic tribute to the same king at Karnak, speaks in one place of 100 ingots (or pounds weight?) of gold and silver, and afterwards of 401 of silver; but the imperfect preservation of that record prevents our ascertaining how much gold was brought, or the relative proportions of the two metals.

M. Leon Faucher, indeed, suggested that the value of silver in some countries originally equaled, if it did not exceed, that of gold ... and the laws of Menes state that gold was worth two and a half times more than silver.... Everywhere, except in India, between the fifth and sixth century B.C., the relative value of gold and silver was 6 or 8 to 1, as it was in China and Japan at the end of the last century. In Greece it was, according to Herodotus, as 13 to 1; afterwards, in Plato's and Xenophon's time, and more than 100 years after the death of Alexander, as 10 to 1, owing to the quantity of gold brought in through the Persian war; when the value of both fell so much, that in the time of Demosthenes it was five times less than at the death of Solon.

Though it may not be possible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the quantity of gold and silver taken from the mines, employed in objects of art and luxury, or in circulation as money in Egypt and other countries, we shall introduce a few facts derived from the accounts of ancient authors, relating to the amount of wealth amassed, and the purposes to which those precious metals were applied. We shall also show some of the fluctuations that have taken place in the supply of them at various periods; and shall endeavor to establish a comparison between the quantity said to have been in use in ancient and modern times.

When we read of the enormous wealth amassed by the Egyptian and Asiatic kings, or the plunder by Alexander and the Romans, we wonder how so much could have been obtained; for, even allowing for considerable exaggeration in the accounts of early times, there is no reason to disbelieve the private fortunes of individuals at Rome, and the sums squandered by them, or even the amount of some of the tributes levied in the East. Of ancient cities, Babylon is

## particularly cited by Herodotus and others for its immense wealth.