Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/334

 318 HISTORY OF GREECE. tion. 1 It seems more the statement of a reflecting man, pusbm<* out the principle of hereditary occupations to its consequences ; (and the comments which the historian so abundantly interweaves with his narrative show that such was the character of the authorities which he followed) ; while the list given by Herod- otus comprises that which struck his observation. It seems that a certain proportion of the soil of the delta consisted of marsh land, including pieces of habitable ground, but impenetrable to an in- vading enemy, and favorable only to the growth of papyrus and other aquatic plants : other portions of the delta, as well as the upper valley, in parts where it widened to the eastward, were too wet for the culture of grain, though producing the richest herb- age, and eminently suitable to the race of Egyptian herdsmen, who thus divided the soil with the husbandmen. 2 Herdsmen generally were held reputable, but the race of swineherds were hated and despised, from the extreme antipathy of all other Egyp- tians to the pig, which animal yet could not be altogether pro- scribed, because there were certain peculiar occasions on which it was imperative to offer him in sacrifice to Selene or Dionysus. Herodotus acquaints us that the swineherds were interdicted from all the temples, and that they always intermarried among themselves, other Egyptians disdaining such an alliance, a statement which indirectly intimates that there was no standing objection against intermarriage of the remaining castes with each other. The caste or race of interpreters began only with the reign of Psammetichus, from the admission of Greek settlers, then for the first time tolerated in the country. Though they were half Greeks, the historian does not note them as of inferior account, except as compared with the two ascendant castes of soldiers and priests ; moreover, the creation of a new caste shows that there was no consecrated or unchangeable total number. ' ])iodor. i, 74. About the Egyptian castes generally, see Heeren, Idccn fiber den Vcrkehr dcr Alton Welt, part ii, 2, pp. 572-595. 2 See the citation from Maillot's Travels in Egypt, in Heeren, Idcen, p. 590; also Volney's Travels, vol. i, ch. 6, p. 77. The expression of Herodotus ot nepl TJJV anetpoftevrjv AlyvirTov MKEovai indicates that the portion of the soil used as pasture was not inconsiderable. The inhabitants of the marsh land wore the mos* warlike part of the population (Thucyd. i, 110).