cant
of the beautiful equality of partnership between the woman and the
man. It is in the statues which represent a husband and wife together,
seated side by side, that this likeness is most evident. There are
several of these domestic groups. One very interesting one is of early
date, and belongs to the IVth Dynasty 3750 B.C.[238] It is in painted
limestone, and shows the portrait figures of Ka-tep, "a royal kinsman"
and priestly official, and his wife Hetep-Heres, "a royal kinswoman."
The figures are small and of the same size; the faces are clearly
portraits. The one, which I take to be the woman, though I am uncertain
whether I am right, has her arm around the man, embracing him. There
is another group[239] in white limestone of very fine work, portraits
of a high official and his wife. The figures resemble each other
closely, but that of the man is a little larger, showing his rank.
The man holds the hand of the woman. This statue belongs to the XIXth
Dynasty. On the right-hand side of the North Gallery is a second group
of an earlier period.[240] The husband and wife are seated, and the
figures are of the same size, showing that their rank was equal; their
arms are intertwined, and between them, standing at their feet, is a
small figure of their son. It was before this family group I waited
longest: it pleased me by its completeness and its sincerity. Once
more I should have had difficulty in identifying which figure was the
father and which the mother, but the man wears a small beard. In all
these statue groups there is this great resemblance between the sexes.

Were the sexes, then, really alike in Egypt? I do not know. Such a
conception opens up biological considerations of the deepest
significance. It is so difficult to be certain here. Is the great
boundary line which divides the two halves of life, with the intimate
woman's problems that depend upon it, to remain for ever fixed? In sex
are we always to be faced with an irresolvable tangle of disharmonies?
Again, I do not know. Yet, looking at these seated figures of the
Egyptian husband and wife, I felt that the answer might be with them.
Do they not seem to have solved that secret which we are so painful in
our search of? The statues thus took on a kind of symbolic character,
which eloquently spoke of a union of the woman and the man that in
freedom had broken down the boundaries of sex, and, therefore, of
life that was in harmony with love and joy. And the