weaver within doors is worse off there than a woman; squatting, his knees against his chest,—he does not breathe. If during the day he slackens weaving, he is bound fast to the lotuses of the lake; and it is by giving bread to the doorkeeper, that the latter permits him to see the light. The dyer, his fingers reeking—and their smell is that of fish-spawn;—his two eyes are oppressed with fatigue, his hand does not stop,—and, as he spends his time in cutting out rags—he has a hatred of garments. The shoemaker is very unfortunate; he moans ceaselessly, his health is the health of the spawning fish, and he gnaws the leather. The baker makes dough, subjects the loaves to the fire; while his head is inside the oven, his son holds him by the legs; if he slips from the hands of his son, he falls there into the flames.”[147] The matriarchal tendencies of the Egyptian Government also account for the fact that children, as a rule, were not only allowed to live but were better treated than they were among other peoples. Even the first Egyptians, although semi-savages like those inhabiting Africa and America, were different in their attitude toward women to such an extent that the Greeks were led into believing that in Egypt the woman was supreme. The husband entered the house of the wife instead of the wife entering his[148] and this led to the children recognizing the parental relation through the mother alone. To this matriarchal tendency may also be attributed the activity of Maskonit, the god who appeared at the child’s cradle at the very moment of its birth, and Raninit, who gave him his name and saw that he was properly nursed. With two such deities in the list of gods, obviously the creations of women and hardly those of semi-savage men, it was evident that the women were using their best supernatural means to protect childhood. Significant, too, may be the fact that these protecting deities were goddesses, for, as may be seen from the story of the ill-fated prince,[149]—there was always a chance that either the crocodile, the serpent, or the dog, might get the infant. In the possibility of death by either of the three, there was the memory of days when mothers were either less careful or had not much authority. [Illustration: GROUP OF M’AYPTAH, THE PRIEST OF PTAH, WITH HIS FAMILY (REPRODUCED FROM “LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT”)]