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Entered according to Act of Congress, in J une, 1869, by J. W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgii Vol. III—No. 46. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS, 4IIP GYPTIANS live beneath a sky peculiar to themselves ; their country is watered by a river different from all other rivers ; and then they have established laws and customs, which are, for the most part, the opposite of those of the rest of hu man beings. With them the women go to market and trade ; the men stay at home and weave. Everywhere else the weavers pass the woof above, the Egypt ians pass it below. The men carry bur thens on their heads, the women carry them on their shoulders. No woman has the office of priesthood for gods of either sex ; the men only can be priests. The young men are never constrained to support their parents, if such be not their own wish; but the girls are com pelled to do so even against their will. Elsewhere the priests of the gods wear long hair, in Egypt they shave ; among other men the custom is to cut the hair when mourning commences for any near relative; the Egyptians, to show respect for the dead, let the hair and the beard which previously they shaved off, grow on their heads and un der their chins. Other men live separ ate from their animals; the Egyptians live pell mell with them. Elsewhere, wheat and barley are staples of food, but the Egyptians consider it a disgrace to live upon that diet; they use dour ah. They knead dough with their feet and clay with their hands, and they lift ma nure with both hands. Every man wears two garments ; the woman has only one. Other people fasten the rings and the cables of their sails in side ; the Egyptians fasten them out side. The Greeks write and count from left to right; the Egyptians go from right to left, and, in doing so, claim that they go to the right and the Greeks to the left. They have two kinds of let ters—the sacred and the vulgate char acters.* * The hieroglyphics and demotic charac ters. MACON, GEORGIA, MAY 14, 1870. As they are observers of ceremonies more than other men they practice the following customs : they drink from a brazen cup which they cleanse every An Egyptian Princess in her palanquin (according to Wilkinson). day; and this not some only but all of them do. They wear linen garments, and are very careful to have them al ways fresh and clean. They deem it better to be neat than to be handsome. Every three days the priests shave their whole bodies, so that no vermin may defde them while they are serving the gods. They wear nothing but linen garments and shoes of papyrus bark, and they are not permitted to use oth- ers. They wash themselves with fresh water twice each day and twice each night. They accomplish other rites in numerable, one might say, but they en- joy uncommon advantages. They nei ther wear out nor spend what belongs to them ; sacred viands are cooked for them ; every day plenty of beef and geese are sent to them; grape wine is distributed to them ; but, at the same time they cannot eat fish. No beans are planted throughout all Egypt, and if any come up, they are not eaten, cither raw or cooked. The priests can not bear the sight of them, since they Whole No. 150. look upon the vegetable as impure. Each god is served not by one priest only, but by several, one of whom is the high priest, and when he dies his son succeeds him. The Egyptians regard the hog as an impure animal. Consequently, should one of them in passing near a pig, be touched by him, he is made to go down into the river without undressing, and they bathe him in his clothing; on the other hand, the Egyptian swineherds only, among all the population, cannot enter any temple in the country. No one gives them his daughters in marri age, and no one marries their daugh ters, nor can they intermarry excepting among themselves. The Egyptians do not think it proper to sacrifice a pig to any other deities than the Moon and Bacchus;* to them only they sacrifice that animal, at the same moment, du ring the full Moon, and eat the flesh of the victim. The manner of making this sacrifice of swine is as follows: When the victim has been slaughtered, they fasten together the extremity of the tail, trie spleen, and the kidneys. These are then wrapped in all the fat found in the stomach, and are burned upon the altar. The remainder of the flesh is eaten during the same day at the close of the sacrifice: no one would taste it on any other day. At the evening repast, on the day previous to the festival of Bacchus, (Asiri,) every man, in front of his own door, having slaughtered a young pig gives it to the swineherd who had sold it to him to take away. The Egyptians celebrate the rest ot the festival as the Greeks do, in all but the music and singing. Extracts from Herodotus. ».«>• Written for Burke’s Weekly. A Chicken Without a Handle. Little Malcolm, three years old, es pying a fowl which, by some accident, had lost its tail feathers, exclaimed in great surprise: “0, mamma! There’s a chicken that hasn't any handle /” * Isis andfAsiri.