on, thy eldest son, shall be the heir to all my
property present and to come." The only difference to the earlier
custom was the prominence given to the eldest child (a son) in the
contract.

This gift by the husband of his property to the wife, which made her a
joint partner with him in all the family transactions, while at the
same time she retained complete control over her own property, clearly
placed the woman and her children in the same position of security as
she had held during the mother-age; and added to this she gained the
individual protection and support of the father in the family
relationship. Doubtless it was this freedom and right over property,
which explains the frequent cases in which the Egyptian women
conducted business transactions, and also their active participation
in the administration of the social organisation. Equal partners with
their husbands in the administration of the home, they became partners
with men in the wider administration of the State. It was in such wise
way that the Egyptians arranged the difficult problem of the fusion of
mother-right with father-right.

One result of these marriage contracts, giving apparently great power
to the wife, arose out of the mortgage on the husband's property as
security for the wife's settlement; her consent became necessary to
all his acts. Thus it is usual for the husband's deeds to be endorsed
by the wife, while he did not endorse hers. In some cases the wife's
consent seems to have been necessary even in the case of the initial
mortgage, when the only possible explanation is that the wife was
regarded as co-proprietor with the husband, and therefore had to be
party to any act disposing of the joint estate.[213]

Such a custom was apparently so wholly in favour of the wife,
reversing the customary position of the man and the woman in the
marriage partnership, that in the light of these contracts we
understand the statement of Diodorus, when he says that "among the
Egyptians the woman rules over the man"; though plainly he has not
understood their true significance, when he goes on to say that "it
is stipulated between married couples, by the terms of the
dowry-contract that the man shall obey the woman."[214]

If the view is accepted, as I think it must be, that these contracts
were made to add the advantages of father-right to the natural
privileges of mother-right, and thus to secure the enjoyment of the
family property to all its mem