The legal =wife= was one of the freest women in the world. She went about the house, and outside it, at will, and, unlike the modern Egyptian women, she wore no =veil=. If she pleased, she held converse with men in the village or market, and she suffered from none of the restrictions which are placed upon women in the East in modern times. When the wife became a =mother= her power and influence were greatly increased, and the literature of ancient Egypt contains many passages which illustrate the honour and esteem in which the “mistress of the house” was held by her children, and on scores of stelae in the Egyptian Galleries the name of the mother of the deceased is given, whilst that of his father is not mentioned. The Egyptians, like many African tribes, traced their descent through their mothers, and the views which they held concerning the affection due to the wife from her husband, and the love which a son should give to his mother, are well illustrated by two passages. In the =Precepts of Ptaḥ-ḥetep= (B.C. 3200): “If thou wouldst be a wise man, rule thy house and love thy wife wholly and constantly. Feed her and clothe her, love her tenderly, and fulfil her desires as long as thou livest, for she is an estate which conferreth great reward upon her lord. Be not hard to her, for she will be more easily moved by persuasion than by force. Observe what she wisheth, and that on which her mind runneth; thereby shalt thou make her to stay in thy house. If thou resistest her will it is ruin.” In the =Precepts of Khensu-ḥetep= (B.C. 1500) we read: “When thou art grown up, and art married, and hast a house, never forget the pains which thou didst cost thy mother, nor the care which she bestowed upon thee. Never give her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hands to God in heaven, and He hearken to her cry [and punish thee].” The life of the woman in the lower classes was a hard one. She cooked the food for her husband and children, she wove the flax into linen, attended to all matters in the house, and usually managed to have a large family. She was a mother at the age of fifteen, or earlier, and a grandmother at thirty, by which time her body was bent, her forehead wrinkled, and her face withered. Among the upper classes the process of physical deterioration was, of course, slower, but the results were the same.