Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/336

 320 HISTORY OF GREECE. and tenders of these sacred animals. 1 Among the sacerdotal order were also found the computers of genealogies, the infinitely subdivided practitioners in the art of healing, etc., 2 who enjoyed good reputation, and were sent for as surgeons to Cyrus and Darius. The Egyptian city population was thus exceedingly numerous, so that king Sethon, when called upon to resist an invasion without the aid of the military caste, might well be sup- posed to have formed an army out of " the tradesmen, the artisans, and the market-people :" 3 and Alexandria, at the com- mencement of the dynasty of the Ptolemies, acquired its numer- ous and active inhabitants at the expense of Memphis and the ancient towns of lower Egypt. The mechanical obedience and fixed habits of the mass of the Egyptian population (not priests or soldiers) was a point which made much impression upon Grecian observers ; so that Solon is said to have introduced at Athens a custom prevalent in Egypt, whereby the nomarch or chief of each nome was required to in- vestigate every man's means of living, and to punish with death those who did not furnish evidence of some recognized occupation. 4 It does not seem that the institution of caste in Egypt, though insuring unapproachable ascendency to the priests and much con- sideration to the soldiers, was attended with any such profound debasement to the rest as that which falls upon the lowest ca>te or sudras in India, no such gulf between them as that between the twice-born and the once-born in the religion of Brahma. Yet those stupendous works, which form the permanent memorials of the country, remain at the same time as proofs of the oppressive exactions of the kings, and of the reckless caprice with which the lives as well as the contributions of the people were lavished. One hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians were said to have perished in the digging of the canal, which kingNekos began but 1 Herodot. ii, 65-72 ; Dioclor. i, 83-90 ; Plutarch, Isid. ct Osir. p. 380. Ilasselquist identified nil the birds carved on the obelisk near Matareu (ITjliopolis), (Travels in Egypt, p. 99.) 1 llcrodot. ii, 82-83; iii, 1, 129. It is one of the points of distinction between Egyptians and Babylonians, that the latter had no surgeons or larpoi: they brought out the sick into the market-place, to prrfit by the ympathy and advice of the passers-by (Herodot. i, 197). 1 Herodot. ii, 1 4 1. Herodot. iii, 177.