THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN.

Patea Mail, 22 May 1882, Page 3

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN.

Some recent discoveries of manuscripts have thrown a remarkable light upon the relations of husband and wife in ancient Egypt, and the Times has devoted a large i amount of space to publishing translations : 0f the most striking among these documents. Summing up the inferences •drawn , from.-a' study of these, treasures, it says Whether relating to affairs, concerning the living, or to affairs concerning the dead, they present a vivid picture of the social life of the people of Egypt; under the Ptqlenffesj and it is certainly not too much to say that it is a picture to .which no pendant can be. found in the history of any. other, highly-civilised race, whether ancient of modem.' In it we behold a world in which the balance of' domestic poweris reversed. ' The woman Owns allaM rules all; the man is a helpless dependent; : and both are the property of the priest, A : more insignificant and pitiable object than the Egyptian paterfamilias; can hardly be conceived, Asa child he was, the-property of his mother; as a married man he was the pensioner of his. wife.; as a corpse he belonged fo his Choachyte, who conld sdll him, mortgage him, or will him away at pleasure. Bpfn or unborn, married or. single.,: living or dead,, he was never his own property or his own master. To speak of him as a man and a citizen would ’ be, a figurative expression fie wks a iCrharkable investment, like a

house,'of a piece’of lalnd, or a'Govennhent annuity.” .