Note 3 — Chapter III · WOMAN IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND ASSYRIA

From the moment when the remains become sufficient to afford a full picture of Egyptian life we find the position of woman good.[3] It has, however, been described so often that a slight summary will suffice here. “The Egyptian woman of the lower and middle class,” says Maspéro, “was more respected and independent than any other woman in the world.” In no class of the community was there a trace of the dominating tendency of the male, and the resultant family life seems to have been of the happiest. In the poorer class the girl ran nude with her brothers until the age of puberty, and then put on the light and close linen smock from the breasts to the ankles. About fifteen she married, and began to rear the large family and live the busy day of her class. Her husband had heavy tasks to perform, under feudal pressure, and she and the children had often to help him to escape the bastinado by sharing his labour. In the little brick or mud hut, with its few stools and mats and utensils, she was mistress. Polygamy was allowed, but her husband was too poor to afford a second wife. She aged early under that merciless sun, but had the affection of husband and respect of children to the end. The children were her children, and took her name; and on the great religious festivals she would grease her hair, and don her sandals and bracelets and better robe, to catch the rare hour of joy like her partner in life—possibly enough, her own brother.