The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-09-01
MISCELLANEOUS.
Daily Life of the Ancient Egyp-
t1ans.

|
t1ans.
With respect to the Egyptians them.
selves, it is to be remarked that those who
live in the corn country devoting them
selves, as they do, far more than any
other people in the world,to the preserva-
tion of the memory of the past actions,
are the best skilled in history of any men
that have ever met The following is
the mode of life habitual to them For
three successive days in each month they
purge the body by means of emetics and
clysters, which is done out of regard for
their health, since they have persuasion
that every disease to which men are liable
is occasioned by the substances whereon
they feed. Apart from any such precau-
tions, they are, believe, next to the Lii
byans, the healthiest people in the world
An effect of their climate, in my opinion
which has no sudden changes. Diseases
almost always attack men when they are
exposed to the change, and never more
than during changes Of the weather They
live on bread made of spelt, which they
form into loaves called in their own tongue
cyltes,is. Their drink is wine which is
obtaind from barley,as they have no vines
in their country. Many kinds of fish
they eat raw, either salted or dried in the
sun. Quails, also, and ducks and small
birds, they eat uncooked, merely first salt.
ing them. All other birds and fishes, ex-
cepting those which are set apart as sa.
cred, are eaten either roasted or boiled.
In social meetings among the rich, when
the banquet is ended servant carries
round to the several guests coffin, in
which there is wooden image of corpse
carved and painted to resemble as nearly
~ possible, about cubit or two cubits in
length. As be shows it to each guest in
turn, the servant says, "Gaze here, and
drink and be merry for when you die,
such will you be-" The Egyptians ad-
here to their own national customs, and
adopt NO foreign usages. Many of these
customs are worthy Of note among others
their song, the Linus, which is sung under
various names, not only in Egypt but in
Phenicis, in Cyprus and in other places;
and which seems to be exactly the samo
as that in use among the Greeks, and by
them called Linus. There were very
many things in Egypt which filed me
with astonishment, and this was one of
them. Whence ceuld the Egyptians have
got the Linus2 1t appears to have been
sung by them from the very earliest times
For the Linus, in Egyptian, is called
Maneros; and they told me that Maner0s
was the only son of their first king, and
that, on his uutimely death, he was hon.
ored by tho Egyptians with these dirge-
like strains, and in this way they got their
first and only melody. There is another
custom in which the Egyptians resemble
particular Greek people, namely. the
Lacedemonians. Their young men, when
they meet their elders in the streets, give
way to them, and step aside; and if an
elder come in where young men are pres
ent, these latter rise from their seats. In
a third point they differ entirely from all
the nations of Greece Instead Of speak
ing to each other when they meet in the
streets, they make an obeisance, sinking
the hand to the knee.--Ra,0'inson's HIS
tory Of Herotlctns.