7

appears to indicate any other feeling than that of mutual kindness, and on the part of the attendants respectful affection." Other representations, upon the monuments, show the cruelty of the taskmasters, and the use of the bastinado."

Whenever, from the excess of the supply over the demand, labor becomes so cheap that the free laborer can make for his wages only his food and clothing, there ceases to be value in property in slaves; on the contrary, the ownership is a burden, because the old, the infirm, and the infant, require care, clothing, and food, without remunerating labor. The feudal system in Middle Europe and Britain laid the foundation for the emancipation of the serfs, at this stage of society. In Egypt and the East, a more refined system of bondage was adopted in lieu of that of personal slavery, which continued the degradation of the slaves, while it relieved the masters from the obligations of ownership. This system was that of castes, by which the proprietorship of the lands and the holding of the offices of government were restricted to those and their descendants who were the former masters, while the laboring classes and their descendants were arranged in subordinate castes, ranking in dignity according to the supposed honorableness of their occupations; and that this might be a perpetual condition, the children were prohibited, under severe penalties, from attempting, under any circumstances, to improve their condition by obtaining a position in a higher caste. The transition from a state of slavery to that of an inferior caste was gradual and

1 Egypt and its Monuments, p. 144, 2d ed.

2 Egypt and its Monuments, p. 219, 220. A remarkable picture in the Tomb of Roscheré, at Thebes, gives so accurate a representation of the Jews engaged in the making of bricks, overlooked by their Egyptian taskmasters, as to cause doubts to be expressed of its authenticity. Ibid. p.

222.

3 Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, Book IV, ch. iii, sec. 1.

easy; and the fact that the laborers were chiefly foreigners and captives and their descendants, the preservation of the distinctive castes became an easy matter, the line being drawn by nature herself in the dif ferent races.1

The number of these castes in Egypt (about which there is disagreements in different authors), may be reduced to five. 1st. The sacerdotal order, or priesthood. 2d. The military. 3d. The herdsmen. 4th. The agricultural and commercial class. 5th. The artificers or laboring artisans, ranking in dignity as they are named. To the two former classes belonged, by inheritance, the lands and the enjoyment of all the honorable offices of the government. The three lower classes differed only in their occupations, and might, indeed, be properly ranked together, as Strabo has done in his classification. These were the original slaves of Egypt, and by the change have reaped no benefit. The privileged orders keep them in complete subjection; laboring without hope of advancement, "and for wages," says Volney, "barely sufficient to sustain life." "The rice and corn they gather are carried to their masters, and nothing is reserved for them but dourra or Indian millet, of which they make a coarse and tasteless bread, without leaven."

This system of castes gives, necessarily, a permanent and remarkably uniform character to a nation; and hence Egypt, to-day, would be, in her internal polity, the same as Egypt in the time of Herodotus and Diodorus, had not change of government and Mussulman rule crippled more completely her energy, and stagnated her industry. Recent travellers testify, that the cultivators of the present day retain of the fruit of their industry

1

Wallon, de l'Esclavage, &c., tom. i, p. 22.

2 Prichard, as above, p. 377, and authorities cited by him.

3 Strabo, Lib. XVII.

4 Prichard, 378; Wallon, de l'Esclavage, &c., tom. i, p. 22. Rees's Cyclopædia, Art. "Egypt."

barely enough to support existence. Their cattle and agricultural implements even, belong to the landlord.1 Over them the landlord exercises unlimited control, with power to punish for offences, and to settle all disputes, without liberty of appeal.2

While the system of castes seems thus to have removed from the Caucasian races the status of personal slavery to the negro, it brought no relief, for the slavemarket of the present day, in Cairo, offers still to the purchaser the children of Ethiopia, from whom are supplied the personal domestics of Egypt.3

There is one other class of slaves, at the present day, bought and sold in Egypt. These are the pure white Circassians, from whom the harems are supplied; and many of whose youths are purchased and educated, sometimes, for the highest offices in the state."

1 Olin's Travels in the East, vol. i, p. 40.

2 Ibid. p. 43.

3 Ibid. p. 61; Stephens's Egypt, &c., vol. i, p. 39; Types of Mankind, 251. Mr. Gliddon states the price of a negress to be about fifty dollars; Wilkes's Expl. Exped. vol. ix, p. 185.

CHAPTER III.

SLAVERY IN INDIA.

WE turn naturally from Egypt to India, for the remarkable similarity in their law of castes seems hardly to be a coincidence, but indicates, in some way, a common origin. According to Menu, all men were created, respectively, from the mouth, arm, thigh, and foot of Deity; and separate duties were allotted to each, according to their origin. The first class (from the mouth), had wisdom to rule and to sacrifice. The second (from the arm), had strength to fight and protect the others. The third (from the belly and thighs), were allotted to provide nourishment for the whole, by agriculture and traffic. The fourth (from the feet), were naturally servile, formed to labor and to serve. There were subdivisions of some of these classes, corresponding, with striking similarity, to the Egyptian castes. The first class among the Hindoos (originally Brahmans,' now Bramins), and the military, or second class, as among the Egyptians, monopolized all the priesthood, the government, and the learning. The agriculturists were mere tenants, having no interest in the land. And the fourth, or servile class, were declared by Menu, to be

'Richard's Analysis, &c., note to Book IV, ch. iii, p. 397; Rees's Cyclopædia, Article "Caste;" Institutes of Menu; Wallon, tom. i, p. 31.

2 Some have supposed Brachman to be a contraction of Abrachman, and thus seek to trace this leading caste of the Hindoos to a descent from Abraham and his wife, Kiturali. Rees's Cyclopædia, Article Brachman.

naturally slaves.

To serve a Brahman, was declared their most laudable action."

The same provision existed and exists in India as in Egypt, in reference to the immutable status of the different castes, and similar penalties inflicted for any effort to seek to migrate from the one to another. The effect of which is, that India, to-day, is comparatively the same as India three centuries before Christ, when Megasthenes accompanied Alexander in his conquest, and left a record of his impressions.1

Though the servile class, or Soudras, were declared by Menu to be naturally slaves, yet we find, in modern times, many of them that, either from the clemency of their masters or the unprofitableness of their labor, are emancipated from the control of any particular master. And while those that belong to the military and agricultural castes seem originally to have been free, yet we find, in later times, from voluntary sale or other causes, many of them have become slaves to their superior castes; there being only one restriction, according to Hindoo law, and that is, that no one shall become a slave to a master of his own or an inferior caste. In the event of a marriage between persons of different castes, the offspring followed the condition of the inferior parent.

By the Hindoo law, slaves might become such, by voluntary sale, by sale or gift of children, by sale for

'Institutes of Menu, ch. viii, v. 414; Adam, on Slavery in India, p. 13; Wallon, tom. i, p. 32.

2 Wallon, tom. i, 32, n. 5. It will be perceived that, by this means, slavery became a part of the religion of the Hindoos. Ibid. 35.

Rees's Cyclopædia, Article "Caste;" Wallon, tom. i, p. 34, 35.

4 Arrian, Strabo, and Diodorus derived all their information from Megasthenes. See Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, note to Book IV, ch. iii, p. 397.

5 Adam on Slavery in India, pp. 12, 13, and authorities cited by him; Wallon, de l'Esclavage, &c., tom. i, p. 32.

6 Wallon, tom. i, p. 34.