All classes in Egypt delighted in the sports of the field, especially in the hunting of wild animals, in which the arrow was most frequently used.  Sometimes the animals were caught in nets, in enclosed places near water-brooks.  The Egyptians also had numerous fish-ponds, since they were as fond of angling as they were of hunting.  Hunting in Egypt was an amusement, not an occupation as among nomadic people.  Not only was hunting for pleasure a great amusement among Egyptians, but also among Babylonians and Persians, who coursed the plains with dogs.  They used the noose or lasso also to catch antelopes and wild cattle, which were hunted with lions; the bow used in the chase was similar to that employed in war.  All the subjects of the chase were sculptured on the monuments with great spirit and fidelity, especially the stag, the ibex, the porcupine, the wolf, the hare, the lion, the fox, and the giraffe.  The camel is not found among the Egyptian sculptures, nor the bear.  Of the birds found in their sculptures were vultures, eagles, kites, hawks, owls, ravens, larks, swallows, turtle-doves, quails, ostriches, storks, plovers, snipes, geese, and ducks, many of which were taken in nets.  The Nile and Lake Birket el Keroun furnished fish in great abundance.  The profits of the fisheries were enormous, and were farmed out by the government.

The Egyptians were very fond of ornaments in dress, especially the women.  They paid great attention to their sandals; they wore their hair long and plaited, bound round with an ornamented fillet fastened by a lotus bud; they wore ear-rings and a profusion of rings on the fingers and bracelets for the arms, made of gold and set with precious stones.  The scarabaeus, or sacred beetle, was the adornment of rings and necklaces; even the men wore necklaces and rings and chains.  Both men and women stained the eyelids and brows.  Pins and needles were among the articles of the toilet, usually made of bronze; also metallic mirrors finely polished.  The men carried canes or walking-sticks,—­the wands of Moses and Aaron.

As the Egyptians paid great attention to health, physicians were held in great repute; and none were permitted to practise but in some particular branch, such as diseases of the eye, the ear, the head, the teeth, and the internal maladies.  They were paid by government, and were skilled in the knowledge of drugs.  The art of curing diseases originated, according to Pliny, in Egypt.  Connected with the healing art was the practice of embalming dead bodies, which was carried to great perfection.

In elegance of life the Greeks and Romans, however, far surpassed any of the nations of antiquity, if not in luxury itself, which was confined to the palaces of kings.  In social refinements the Greeks were not behind any modern nation, as one infers from reading Becker’s Charicles.  Among the Greeks was the network of trades and professions, as in Paris and London, and a complicated social life in which