the
Iberians into kings, priests, soldiers, husbandmen and menials.

At one time it was the universal opinion that in Egypt there were at
least two great castes, priests and warriors, the functions of which
were transmitted from father to son, the minor professions grouped under
the great castes being also subject to hereditary transmission. This
opinion was held by Otfried Muller,[25] Meiners of Gottingen, and
others. Doubts were first suggested by Rossellini, and after Champollion
had deciphered the hieroglyphic inscriptions, J.J. Ampere[26] boldly
announced that there were in Egypt no castes strictly so called; that in
particular the professions of priest, soldier, judge, &c., were not
hereditary; and that the division of Egyptian society was merely that
which is generally found in certain stages of social growth between the
liberal professions and the mechanical arts and trades. No difference of
colour, or indeed of any feature, has been observed in the monumental
pictures of the different Egyptian castes. From an inspection of
numerous tombs, sarcophagi, and funeral stones, which frequently
enumerate the names and professions of several kinsfolk of the deceased,
Ampere concluded that sacerdotal and military functions were sometimes
united in the same person, and might even be combined with civil
functions; that intermarriage might certainly take place between the
sacred and military orders; and that the members of the same natural
family did frequently adopt the different occupations which had been
supposed to be the exclusive property of the castes. The tombs of Beni
Hassan show in a striking manner the Egyptian tendency to accumulate,
rather than to separate, employments. Occasionally families were set
apart for the worship of a particular divinity. An interesting "section"
of Egyptian society is afforded by a granite monument preserved in the
museum at Naples. Nine figures in bas-relief represent the deceased, his
father, three brothers, a paternal uncle, and the father and two
brothers of his wife. Another side contains the mother, wife, wife's
mother and maternal aunts. The deceased is described as a military
officer and superintendent of buildings; his elder brother as a priest
and architect; his third brother as a provincial governor, and his
father as a priest of Ammon. The family of the wife is exclusively
sacerdotal. Egyptian caste, therefore, permitted two brothers to be of
different castes, and one per