nistic age,
but as yet it is very difficult to prove its occurrence. The native
contracts with the wife gave to her child all the husband's property,
and divorce or separation was provided for, entailing forfeiture of the
dowry. The "native law" of Roman times allowed a man to take his
daughter away from her husband if the last quarrelled with him.

Slavery is traceable from an early date. Private ownership of slaves,
captured in war and given by the king to their captor or otherwise, is
certainly seen at the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Sales of slaves
occur in the XXVth Dynasty, and contracts of servitude are found in the
XXVIth Dynasty and in the reign of Darius, appearing as if the consent
of the slave was then required. Presumably at this late period there
were eunuchs in Egypt, though adequate evidence of their existence there
is not yet forthcoming. They must have originated among a more cruel
people. That circumcision (though perhaps not till puberty) was
regularly practised is proved by the mummies (agreeing with the
testimony of Herodotus and the indications of the early tomb sculptures)
until an edict of Hadrian forbade it: after that, only priests were
circumcised.

See A. H. Gardiner, _The Inscription of Mes_ (from Sethe's
_Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Agyptens_, iv.); J.
H. Breasted, _Ancient Records_, Egypt, passim, esp. i. S 190, 535 et
seqq., 773, ii. 54, 671, iii. 45, 367, iv. 416, 499, 795; F. Ll.
Griffith, _Catalogue of the John Rylands Demotic Papyri_; B. P.
Grenfell and J. P. Mahaffy, _Revenue Laws of Philadelphus_ (Oxford,
1896); B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, _Tebtunis Papyri_, part i.
(London, 1902); Bouche-Leclercq, _Histoire des Lagides_, tome iv.
(Paris, 1907).

_Science._--The Egyptians sought little after knowledge for its own
sake: they might indulge in religious speculation, but their science was
no more than the knowledge of practical methods. Undoubtedly the
Egyptians acquired great skill in the application of simple means to the
fulfilment of the most difficult tasks. But the books that have come
down to us prove how greatly their written theoretical knowledge fell
short of their practical accomplishment. The explanation of the fact may
partly be that the mechanical and other discoveries of the most
ingenious minds among them, when not in constant requisition by later
generations, were misunderstood or forgotten, and even in other cases
we