r menial offices. They were also engaged, as
in ancient Greece, in weaving, spinning, needlework, embroidery, and
other sedentary occupations within doors.

The Egyptian ladies in like manner employed much of their time with
the needle; and the sculptures represent many females weaving and
using the spindle. But they were not kept in the same secluded manner
as those of ancient Greece, who, besides being confined to certain
apartments in the house, most remote from the hall of entrance, and
generally in the uppermost part of the building, were not even allowed
to go out of doors without a veil, as in many Oriental countries at
the present day.

The Egyptians treated their women very differently, as the accounts of
ancient authors and the sculptures sufficiently prove. At some of the
public festivals women were expected to attend--not alone, like the
Moslem women at a mosque, but in company with their husbands or
relations; and Josephus states that on an occasion of this kind, "when
it was the custom for women to go to the public solemnity, the wife of
Potiphar, having pleaded ill health in order to be allowed to stay at
home, was excused from attending," and availed herself of the absence
of her husband to talk with Joseph.

That it was the custom of the Egyptians to have only one wife, is
shown by Herodotus and the monuments, which present so many scenes
illustrative of their domestic life; and Diodorus is wrong in
supposing that the laity were allowed to marry any number, while the
priests were limited to one.

But a very objectionable custom, which is not only noticed by
Diodorus, but is fully authenticated by the sculptures both of Upper
and Lower Egypt, existed among them from the earliest times, the
origin and policy of which it is not easy to explain--the marriage of
brother and sister--which Diodorus supposes to have been owing to, and
sanctioned by, that of Isis and Osiris; but as this was purely an
allegorical fable, and these ideal personages never lived on earth,
his conjecture is of little weight; nor does any ancient writer offer
a satisfactory explanation of so strange a custom.

Though the Egyptians confined themselves to one wife, they, like the
Jews and other Eastern nations, both of ancient and modern times,
scrupled not to admit other inmates to their _hareem_, most of whom
appear to have been foreigners, either taken in war, or brought to
Egypt to be sold as slaves. They became members of the