sleeves daintily plaited, is then brought to him. It is in the hot summer solstice, so he wears no other garment save this long loose flowing linen one, which he fastens round his waist by a girdle worked in variegated colours, stiff and heavy, and rustling with gold and silk embroidery. Chains, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, rings of gold chased and plain, and others of lazule, gem, or finest porcelain, complete his equipments of a gentleman at home. The chains are surpassingly beautiful; they are variously patterned; some are formed into small pendant leaves, some are long irregular beads, some are rows of sacred amulets, the scarab and the ibis and the cynocephalus the most frequent, and others are imitations of flowers which gold and gem together fashion right livingly. Elegant sandals of papyrus or of painted leather are the last to be indued; and now the finely-dressed gentleman issues from his dormitory into that temple of art and luxury where his daily life is spent. He might be one of the gods of the Edes, he is so rich in his investiture, so gorgeous in his adornments; he looks scarcely a son of this common every-day world as he treads the shining floor so haughtily, mincing his dainty feet, and seeming as though nature had been created solely for him. His slaves feel the influence of the high superiority which riches and rank have given; and they bend their necks in all lowliness, casting down their eyes with humility, and speaking below their breath for fear, lest their august master should deem they thought themselves men such as himself. Aye, aye, even in Egypt, grand, great, glorious Egypt, reigns the baleful spirit of respect for that which claims it by nought more holy than accident or arbitrary apportionment!

The breakfast or morning meal, which it is the next personal duty of our dandy to despatch, is probably light and simple, as with the Greeks, and early Romans, and all the nations of former times of whom we know any thing certain. A few vegetables, a little wheaten bread, fruits according to the season, cucumbers, melons, peaches, dates, grapes, quinces, nuts, or figs, a draught of light Teniatic wine much diluted, which he pours from an unglazed jar into an alabaster cup, the scent of the roses or bay leaves with which the amphora has been closed still lingering on the sparkling drops, complete the early repast. There is nothing of the grosser luxury of northern nations; nothing of the heavy voluptuousness of the midday meals; all is simple, light, easily prepared and easily partaken, leaving him free for what active exertion he may choose to make.

But oh! no active exertion yet! It is too delicious to lie on the painted, cushioned couch, before which is placed the round table with its gorgeous colours and well-worked carving, strown as it is with all the loveliest flowers of the Nile-gardens; it is too delicious to lie so luxuriously there, slowly sipping the cool wine, or plucking the purple grapes one by one from their curling stem, gazing on the bright river as it rushes by, bearing on its broad bosom such wealth and life; he cannot rise just yet to dispose of himself for the day. No; he will recline there some moments longer, counting the sails as they glide past, and judging from the shape and equipments of the boats on what service they speed. The merchant-gallies are easily distinguishable, by the simplicity of their fittings and the absence of all superfluity in adornment or in furniture, from those gay barks with painted sails and flower-formed prows which steal up and down the great river, bearing but one cargo of love and pleasure, bound but to one harbour of delight. Their gay streamers,

their beautiful painted hulls, their bright oars fashioned and coloured into mimic flowers, the laughter, song, and music which poured from them, made even our dandy feel a faint wish that he might for once be unconventional, for once be free and gay, according to nature and not according to society. But loud mirth was in Egypt, as in Athens, a mark of vulgarity which no well-bred gentleman would ever dream of indulging. So strictly do men think it needful to bar in yon hoyden Nature from roaming and acting at her will. Something like a faint sigh, as he hears the merry music and the loud laughter revelling on the young breeze, is followed by a glance of conscious superiority, a smile of pride as he reflects on his own patrician refinement; his high place of birth and education and riches, raising him so far above that meaner herd who might safely laugh and sing in all their rude vulgarity. Society does not revenge herself on born plebeians.

The occupations of the day must at last be commenced. It is yet very early, long before the sun has gained his strength, perhaps before he has fully risen. Our dandy has messages to send, or visits to pay, or business to attend to at his country-seat or farm, which lies on the banks of the Nile, not far from this city of Thebes in which he dwells. If he must transmit his affections or his courtly greetings before setting out, his slave brings him his painted wooden case, together with an embossed and embroidered leathern bag, very fine and soft, in which are his writing-maAnd then after due consideration, our dandy, though a good scribe, never doing any thing in a hurry, spreads before him a sheet of the best superfine "three digits broad" papyrus, and on it indites his letter in the popular or demotic characters. How highly scented is that papyrus! how delicately trimmed that reed! Who but a dandy such as ours could ever fashion lines so fine and small, so suitable for the delicate hand that traced them! With no small pride he folds up his well-written document, fastening it with a string, and inscribing it to its destina

tion.

The first labour completed, the slaves are summoned; and after having flung over his loose linen robe a cloak of soft white wool, he goes forth into the street attended by them, and carrying, as his peculiar mark of gentility, a long cherry-wood stick which is beautifully carved and partially gilded; the same stick, or rather staff, is also used by the Babylonians; and not unfrequently it is made the index to the bearer's station and fortune. In Thebes, where the priesthood was the haute noblesse, it was the aim of every well-regulated mind to appear as priestly as he was able; hence the stick always carried in religious processions (very probably originally with some mythic intention or allusion), became afterwards a sign of high breeding in the laity, as approaching them in one outward circumstance at least with the hieratic nobility.

The sun rapidly becomes more powerful; our dandy is increasing in indolence. Then his light chariot must be brought out, for it is impossible with slaves, cherry-wood staff, umbrella-fan, and all, to face the burning heat of an Egyptian summer day. The chariot is brought, and the young noble steps slowly into the open body. The two powerful Nubian horses harnessed with straps from the head, not along the flanks, bear him like lightning through the streets, clattering noisily down the great avenues, and past the colossi, and through the squares, and by the temeni or sacred enclosures, till they bring him to his friend's house.

His host receives him with the customary compliments of the palm-leaf fan, (no contemptible offering in Mizraim), with the bowl of clear water for the ablution so necessary to health and comfort alike, with the tray of fruits and light wine and sweet cakes, with fresh bunches of flowers and lotus garlands too, if he is indeed a true lover of Khem, the god of gardens, with flatteries gravely uttered and staid courtesies soberly offered; with all the still and quiet reverence with which society, even among young "bloods," is carried on in Egypt. Our dandy, leaving his cherry-wood stick in charge of the slaves at the door, and returning with equal gravity the sober compliments so stiffly offered, talks learnedly on the merits of the new dancing men and women which some enterprising "choragos" has obtained, or else he discusses the wares of the foreign merchants, the voices of the choristers, and in a lower tone, the meaning of the public omens, the health of the Holy Bull, and the wisdom of the last procession. He then takes leave, mounts his chariot, and speeds away to his farm.

For

He first hears from the scribe, or overseer, the state of the stock and crops; whether sickness has attacked the young heifers or if the tender calves have died, whether the sheep have failed and the goats forgotten to live; however bad may be the news, the unlucky overseer must repeat it all, even if the thousand eggs sent to the public oven have been spoiled in the baking, and so no chickens are hatched this time, or if the best heifer on the farm, which had been piously destined for holy sacrifice, has fallen sick and refused its food, and hence is unfit for god or man. that which had once been consecrate by its dedication to the deities was afterwards unfit, because too holy, for human use. He next inspects the gardens, cross or glad, as the scribe's tale has been one of failure or success. He visits the vineyards and the orchards and the wine-press. If it is the vintage-time, he wishes that his wine could be procured without all those naked feet being first bathed in its ruddy drops: the custom of "treading out the grape," though so universal, displeases his aristocratic mind; and he wishes that the gods had made him a genius (in his language a prophet or a priest), and so he might invent some better and more cleanly mode of wine-making. He then selects those of the young kids which his overseer points out as most fit to browse off the superfluous buds and shoots of the growing fruit-trees; and he believes, poor harmless puppet, when he obeys the directing mind of the scribe with such solemn inanity as makes the very agent smile in secret at his master, that he himself has been the originator of such-and-such ideas, the organ of such-and-such commands. Poor dandified land-owner that he is! He knows infinitely more of precious stones, and fine linen, and handsome women, than he does of the rougher details of a farm-yard.

Having given his orders slowly and deliberately he prepares to visit the preserved and well-stocked fishery on his property. The river is to the Egyptian what the moor is to the European. There he takes his sport both singly and en battue.

The byblus boat is launched (it is so light that it can be carried on the shoulders and removed from place to place like a folding-stool); the gamekeeper attends; fish-hooks, nets, and spears are thrown into the boat; and slings and stones and curved or straight sticks show that he intends to diversify his day's sport. Worst of all, a faithless bird, taught by her captors one of their own vices, flies to the boat's-head, where she

stands to lure her unsuspecting kind into the same power as that which has enslaved herself. Faithless bird, with thy tender cries, thy voice of pity and of prayer, thy fluttering wings of entreaty, thy bending head of caressing love; false, lying, treacherous bird! thy deceitfulness hath passed into a proverb which, originated beneath the shadow of the pyramids, has come down in all its force even to us, northern barbarians of the island of the far West!

Our young heir is far too deeply steeped in luxury and idleness to venture on the rougher chase of the hippopotamos, or of the crocodile. He is too foppishly staid to disturb the stern serenity of his appearance by that vigorous throw of the barbed spear and the rapid cast of the noosed rope which such chase requires. Why, he would ruffle his garments, discompose his flowing hair, disarrange his flowery garlands, and make himself excessively hot and uncomfortable for no good! No; the gentle sport of angling, the tranquil cast and drag of the net, lazily and sleepily, or at most the stronger exertion of bringing down the water-fowl by means of the slings, stones, and sticks before mentioned, these are the utmost efforts of which his energies admit. And these weary him soon and long. And there he sits, while his slaves row the light boat, or keep her steady against the bank, or moor her to the strong reeds which grow up in a marine forest about him; and lying thus beneath the shadow of the awning, or within the protection of the high gunwale, he watches the stealthy steps of his trained cat and favourite ichneumon as they plunge among the game, or he lazily listens to the cries of the decoy-bird as she calls her wilder kind to come admire her nest of eggs, or come help to feed her brood of young. Perhaps if not over-stupified by luxury he makes some internal reflection on her treachery; then turns away thinking that all is good, even an ichneumon's craft, and a decoy-bird's falsehood.

The sun shines down through the tall reeds and water-plants; his glossy hair runs thick with perfumed oil; his servants bring him fruits in small baskets covered with leaves and flowers to make the purple figs and golden grapes yet more tempting; and some fan away the flies which crowd in myriads from the marsh, or lower the awning checquered with bright colours, which screens away the sun: and he lies in that byblus bark the ideal of Egyptian luxuriousness. We will not ask his thoughts as he thus rests, holding the line and rod so carelessly; we will not inquire what fair form his visions take, as he wraps his linen robe decorously graceful about him, and composes himself to sleep with the thick rushes bending over him. Be she some proud Isiac priestess, regal in her birth and glorious in her beauty, or be she some simple country maid, worshipping at the shrine of his refinement, and loving him with that intense unasking love which only women feel, and which women of every land and faith and climate do feel, be she loveliest dancer or sweetest songstress of the choir whom to love with devotion would be a stain on his gallantry, be she high or low, rich or poor, patrician or plebeian, he were no true man if she did not fill his dreaming thoughts as he rests there within his byblus bark on the dancing waters of the blue river!

The fish are caught, the birds struck down in sufficient quantities; the sun rides high, and our dandy must away to the gay banquet to which he has invited his guests this noon-day. His boatmen pull the lord of

all this wealth back to his own domain: again he traverses his well-kept farm, passing through orchards rich in fruit trees, and through gardens gay with flowers, cooled by water-tanks and fountains all about; and once again he enters that ancient cottage ornée of old Egypt, while his car is harnessing to bear him back to the grandeur of the Eternal City of the Gods.

Surely we must admire that elegant and graceful chariot. Where can we find a lighter shape? where a more gorgeous equipment? The large wheels are bound with metal; the sides are painted, gilded, and carved; the beautiful bow-case, richly ornamented, hangs with studied negligence from the rail of the frame; the harness is embossed, painted, and studded; the horses are trapped with magnificent caparisons, gay plumes float over their proud heads and mingle with their flowing manes; the bronze nails set every where in the harness and the car flash and glitter in the sun; and the whole equipage is one of beauty, elegance, and colour unequalled throughout all Mizraim. The Nubian horses too, large, black, and powerful, might well make the Cushite dandy proud as they fly with him through the broad paved roads, and make the simple peasantry compare him to some god on a rainbow-meteor, passing swiftly through the air.

After the bath, after fresh ointments are poured over his supple body and a whole alabaster vase of precious oil is lavished on his false tresses, after he is wreathed with young flowers, gay chaplets, garlands, and loose bunches all before him, after he has put on other and more costly garments, and changed the fashion of his jewellery for gems more brilliant even than those he now wears, after, in a word, he has exhausted all that Egyptian gold can buy, and all that Egpytian luxury can command, he repairs to the gorgeous chamber where his expected guests would assemble.

The furniture of this room surpasses all that we have yet seen. The linen is the finest which Egyptian looms can produce; the tapestry came from Babylon; the carpets are Lydian; the tables are of expensive foreign woods, or if of native, then brightly painted and thickly gilded; the chairs are hung with gold and scarlet and deep blue; their frame-work is a very study of elegance in design. Some are massive, covered throughout with rich drapery; others are light, with lotus buds and flowers, volutes, scrolls, and ornaments, forming the sides; some have captives, others birds, gazelles, lions, and goats, as their supports; all are rich, elegant, and splendid; all suit well with the heavy Egyptian luxury. Each smallest box is a gem for artistic beauty; each vase and cup and basket of gold, or porcelain, or the true and the false murrhine, (the last is the production of Theban workshops), is a thing to be examined for ever; while those of the "pigeon's neck" manufacture, that strange substance of such varied dyes which change in every light till you may not tell what the original hue, are sure to attract crowds of the idly curious to gaze and still gaze on the wonders of light and colour. Splendid lamps of glass and porcelain ; statues of ivory, stained wood, false emerald, and vitrified pottery; the coloured ceiling, where the eye is lost in the maze of scrolls and arabesques and many-shaped borderings; the massive columns with their painted lotus-capitals; all these, and more than we can enumerate, speak of the Mizraimite's wealth, and luxury, and