- EGYPTIAN CUSTOMS 305
upon their shoulders, while the men carry them upon their heads. They eat their food out of doors in the streets. A woman cannot serve the priestly office, either for god or goddess, but men are priests to both ; sons need not support their parents unless they choose, but daughters must, whether they choose or no.
In other countries the priests have long hair, in Egypt their heads are shaven ; elsewhere it is cus- tomary, in mourning, for near relations to cut their hair close ; the Egyptians, who wear no hair at any other time, when they lose a relative, let their beards and the hair of their heads grow long. All other men pass their lives separate from animals ; the Egyp- tians have animals always living with them : others make barley and wheat their food ; it is a disgrace to do so in Egypt, where the grain they live on is spelt, which some call zea. Dough they knead with their feet, but they mix mud, and even take up dirt, with their hands. Their men wear two garments apiece, their women but one. They put on the rings and fas- ten the ropes to sails inside, others put them outside. When they write or calculate, instead of going, like the Greeks, from left to right, they move their hand from right to left ; and they insist, notwithstanding, that it is they who go to the right, and the Greeks who go to the left. They have two quite different kinds of writ- ing, one of which is called sacred, the other common.
They are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men, and use the following ceremonies : They drink out of brazen cups, which they scour every day : there is no exception to this practice. They Λvear linen garments, which they are specially careful to have always fresh washed. Their dress is entirely of linen, and their shoes of the papyrus plant :
