Wilful murder was punished with death,(326) whatever might be the condition of the murdered person, whether he was free-born or otherwise. In this the humanity and equity of the Egyptians were superior to that of the Romans, who gave the master an absolute power of life and death over his slave. The emperor Adrian, indeed, abolished this law; from an opinion, that an abuse of this nature ought to be reformed, let its antiquity or authority be ever so great. Perjury was also punished with death,(327) because that crime attacks both the gods, whose majesty is trampled upon by invoking their name to a false oath, and men, by breaking the strongest tie of human society, _viz._ sincerity and veracity. The false accuser was condemned to undergo the punishment which the person accused was to have suffered, had the accusation been proved.(328) He who had neglected or refused to save a man’s life when attacked, if it was in his power to assist him, was punished as rigorously as the assassin:(329) but if the unfortunate person could not be succoured, the offender was at least to be impeached; and penalties were decreed for any neglect of this kind. Thus the subjects were a guard and protection to one another; and the whole body of the community united against the designs of the bad. No man was allowed to be useless to the state;(330) but every one was obliged to enter his name and place of abode in a public register, that remained in the hands of the magistrate, and to describe his profession, and his means of support. If he gave a false account of himself, he was immediately put to death. To prevent borrowing of money, the parent of sloth, frauds, and chicane, king Asychis made a very judicious law.(331) The wisest and best regulated states, as Athens and Rome, ever found insuperable difficulties, in contriving a just medium, to restrain, on one hand, the cruelty of the creditor in the exaction of his loan; and on the other, the knavery of the debtor, who refused or neglected to pay his debts. Now Egypt took a wise course on this occasion; and, without doing any injury to the personal liberty of its inhabitants, or ruining their families, pursued the debtor with incessant fears of infamy in case he were dishonest. No man was permitted to borrow money without pawning to the creditor the body of his father, which every Egyptian embalmed with great care; and kept reverentially in his house, (as will be observed in the sequel,) and therefore might be easily moved from one place to another. But it was equally impious and infamous not to redeem soon so precious a pledge; and he who died without having discharged this duty, was deprived of the customary honours paid to the dead.(332)