All his pastimes were not so playful.  The Egyptians by nature were not cruel, and we have very few records either in history or tradition of bloodthirsty Pharaohs; but the life of an ordinary individual was of so little value in their eyes, that they never hesitated to sacrifice it, even for a caprice.  A sorcerer had no sooner boasted before Kheops of being able to raise the dead, than the king proposed that he should try the experiment on a prisoner whose head was to be forthwith cut off.  The anger of Pharaoh was quickly excited, and once aroused, became an all-consuming fire; the Egyptians were wont to say, in describing its intensity, “His Majesty became as furious as a panther.”  The wild beast often revealed itself in the half-civilized man.

The royal family was very numerous.  The women were principally chosen from the relatives of court officials of high rank, or from the daughters of the great feudal lords; there were, however, many strangers among them, daughters or sisters of petty Libyan, Nubian, or Asiatic kings; they were brought into Pharaoh’s house as hostages for the submission of their respective peoples.  They did not all enjoy the same treatment or consideration, and their original position decided their status in the harem, unless the amorous caprice of their master should otherwise decide.  Most of them remained merely concubines for life, others were raised to the rank of “royal spouses,” and at least one received the title and privileges of “great spouse,” or queen.  This was rarely accorded to a stranger, but almost always to a princess born in the purple, a daughter of Ra, if possible a sister of the Pharaoh, and who, inheriting in the same degree and in equal proportion the flesh and blood of the Sun-god, had, more than others, the right to share the bed and throne of her brother.*

     * It would seem that Queen Mirisonkhu, wife of Khephren, was
     the daughter of Kheops, and consequently her husband’s
     sister.

[Illustration:  039.jpg PHARAOH GIVES SOLEMN AUDIENCE TO ONE OF HIS MINISTERS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Lepsius.  The king is Amenothes
     III. (XVIIIth. dynasty).

She had her own house, and a train of servants and followers as large as those of the king; while the women of inferior rank were more or less shut up in the parts of the palace assigned to them, she came and went at pleasure, and appeared in public with or without her husband.  The preamble of official documents in which she is mentioned, solemnly recognizes her as the living follower of Horus, the associate of the Lord of the Vulture and the Uraeus, the very gentle, the very praiseworthy, she who sees her Horus, or Horus and Sit, face to face.  Her union with the god-king rendered her a goddess, and entailed upon her the fulfilment of all the duties which a goddess owed to a god.  They were varied and important.  The woman, indeed, was supposed to combine in herself