the poems of Homer, the learning by heart and reciting of which inspired him with patriotic pride. Of the marriage contracts of the Egyptians we are entirely ignorant, nor do we even find the ceremony represented in the paintings of their tombs. We may, however, conclude that they were regulated by the customs usual among civilized nations; and, if the authority of Diodorus can be credited, women were indulged with greater privileges in Egypt than in any other country. He even affirms that part of the agreement entered into at the time of marriage was, that the wife should have control over her husband, and that no objection should be made to her _commands_, whatever they might be; but, though we have sufficient to convince us of the superior treatment of women among the Egyptians, as well from ancient authors as from the sculptures that remain, it may fairly be doubted if those indulgences were carried to the extent mentioned by the historian, or that command extended beyond the management of the house, and the regulation of domestic affairs. It is, however, remarkable that the royal authority and supreme direction of affairs were entrusted without reserve to women, as in those states of modern Europe where the Salic law has not been introduced; and we not only find examples in Egyptian history of queens succeeding to the throne, but Manetho informs us that the law, according this important privilege to the other sex, dated as early as the reign of Binothris, the third monarch of the second dynasty. In primitive ages the duties of women were very different from those of later and more civilized periods, and varied of course according to the habits of each people. Among pastoral tribes they drew water, kept the sheep, and superintended the herds as well as flocks. As with the Arabs of the present day, they prepared both the furniture and the woolen stuffs of which the tents themselves were made, ground the corn, and performed other menial offices. They were also engaged, as in ancient Greece, in weaving, spinning, needlework, embroidery, and other sedentary occupations within doors. The Egyptian ladies in like manner employed much of their time with the needle; and the sculptures represent many females weaving and using the spindle. But they were not kept in the same secluded manner as those of ancient Greece, who, besides being confined to certain apartments in the house, most remote from the hall of entrance, and generally in the uppermost part of the building, were not even allowed to go out of doors without a veil, as in many Oriental countries at the present day.