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Φυρῶσι. The monuments (e.g. the bakery of Rameses III, Erman, E. p. 191; but the work was also done by hand) show us dough being kneaded with the feet, as is still done in the south; Strabo, 823, also confirms the statement as to clay and dough. Dung is still collected for burning in Egypt, and in other eastern countries where wood is scarce.

τὰ αἰδοῖα. H. says (with Strabo, 824, and Diodorus), probably rightly (cf.App. IX.4), that all Egyptians were circumcised, Josephus (c. Ap. ii. 13) says only the priests. H. (104. 2, 3 nn.) is certainly wrong in saying that only the Egyptians with the Ethiopians and Colchians, who had learned it from them, practised the rite ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς; it was widespread among both Semitic and non-Semitic tribes. Its primitive nature is shown by the use of ‘flint knives’ (Exod. iv. 25; Josh. v. 2, R. V.). Some scholars hold (with H.) that it was introduced on sanitary grounds (καθαρειότητος ἕνεκα); but no doubt originally it was a religious rite, by which a male was initiated as a full member of the nation or clan (cf. Encyc. Biblica, s. v.). The Egyptian evidence, which is comparatively scanty, is well sum marized in Hastings (Enc. Rel. iii. 670-6); the majority of scholars seem to interpret it as showing that the rite was general in Egypt; some, however, think it refers only to the priests. It is curious that only once do the monuments lay any stress on circumcision, i.e. in describing the repulse of the uncircumcised ‘peoples of the sea’ by Merenptah; even here the interpretation is disputed.

e)/xei = φορέει; in 81. 1 the two garments worn by men are described as a linen κιθών round the legs, and a woollen over-cloak. Roughly speaking, this is confirmed by the monuments, but only for members of the lower classes. H. is much too absolute. So far as men are concerned, he omits the cape introduced under the New Empire, and he quite fails to notice that the κιθών round the legs was often worn double (Erman, E. pp. 205-7). As to the Egyptian women, it is true that they, down to the eighteenth dynasty, wore only one close-fitting dress; but in H.'s day two, and sometimes three, garments were worn. The servants and the women in the fields, however, wore only one (Erman, E. pp. 212-16). It is from these that H. generalizes.

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