EGYPT AND BABYLON.
1G2
worn by the men, and probably few women were without Among the articles obtained from the tombs are " rings, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, earrings, and numerous trinkets belonging to the toilet." * Most of these articles were common to the two sexes but ear-rings were affected especially, if not exclusively, by the women. them.
;
Egyptian men of the upper
class carried, as a matter of Hence the " rod " of Aaron was walking-sticks." f naturally brought into the presence "of Pharaoh (ch. vii. 10) ; and the magicians had also " rods in their hands (ib. ver. " cast down " before Pharaoh, as Aaron had 12), which they cast his. These " rods," or rather " sticks," are continually represented on the monuments no Egyptian lord is without one t at an entertainment there was an attendant whose especial duty it was to receive the sticks of the male guests on their arrival, and restore them at their departure. The Egyptians employed "furnaces" (ch. ix. 8) for various purposes, " (ch. viii. 3) for the baking of their bread, " " kneading-troughs (ibid,) for the formation of the dough, and " hand-mills " (ch. xi. 5) for the grinding of the corn into " Their " were flour. mills," says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, of of simple and rude construction. consisted two They circular stones, nearly flat, the lower one fixed, while the other turned on a pivot, or shaft, rising from the centre of that beneath it and the grain, descending through an aperture in the upper stone, immediately above the pivot, gradually underwent the process of grinding as it passed. It was turned by a woman, seated and holding a handle fixed The stone of which the perpendicularly near the edge. hand-mills were made was usually a hard grit." Sir Gardner adds in a note that he draws these conclusions from the fragments of the old stones discovered among the ancient remains. The same writer witnesses to the use by the ancient Egyptians of furnaces, ovens, and kneading troughs.lF One curious custom of an Egyptian household obtains incidental mention in the account of the first plague, viz.,
course,
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* Wilkinson,
"Ancient Egyptians."
vol. ii., p. 236. 28; vol. Hi., p. 447. J Birch, Kgypt from the Earliest Times," p. 45: "The Egyptian lord . carried a warn! or walking-stick as a sign of dignity or aut Ibid., vol.
"
.
ii.,
p.
.
thority."
Wilkinson,
"
Ancient Egyptians,"
p. .%. i Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians." II
Ibid., vol.
vol.
i.,
pi. xi., fig. 10.
i.,
vol.
ii.,
pp. 34, 192.