jewels of price, gay sashes, and wigs with conventional
adornment, came into vogue. Luxury was exhibited in the designs of the
dwellings of the wealthy; the grounds were laid out with formal courts
and alleys, palms and vines adorned them, ponds and reservoirs gave
freshness to the summer temperature, irrigation clothed the lawns with
verdure. Inside, there was richly carved furniture covered with cushions
of delicate stuffs, and adding the harmony of colour to the luxurious
scene.

The horse, which had been introduced from Asia, helped in the march of
extravagance and refinement; the chariot took the place of the
palanquin, and there was a new opportunity for adornment in the
trappings, as well as in the construction of light or heavy vehicles.

At the same time, letters made equal progress; men of wisdom devoted
themselves to the preservation of the knowledge of the past, and to the
composition of original works in history, divinity, poetry,
correspondence, and practical philosophy, for the preservation of which
a public library was established at Thebes under a competent director.
The highest perfection thus reached in the arts of peace seems to have
been coincident with an advance in sensualism; indecency in apparel was
common, polygamy increased, woman lost her former degree of purity;
cruelty and barbarism were more and more common in war; taxation bore
heavily and without pity upon the lower orders, and the wretched
fellahin were beaten by the severest of tyrants, the irresponsible
tax-gatherer; women as well as men were stripped for the indignity and
pain of the terrible bastinado; and even dead enemies were mutilated for
the purpose of preserving evidence of their numbers.

XVII.

THE DECLINE OF EGYPT UNDER THE LATER RAMESSIDES.

The troublous period which followed the death of Menephthah issued
finally in complete anarchy, Egypt broke up into nomes, or cantons, the
chiefs of which acknowledged no superior. It was as though in England,
after centuries of centralized rule, the Heptarchy had suddenly returned
and re-established itself. But even this was not the worst. The suicidal
folly of internal division naturally provokes foreign attack; and it was
not long before Aarsu, a Syrian chieftain, took advantage of the state
of affairs in Egypt to extend his own dominion over one nome after
another, until he had made almost the whole country subject to him.
Then, at last, the spirit of patriotism aw