rticularly of the wrestling-match and the Pankration; in later times
it was generally succeeded by the warlike Pyrrhic dance.

[Page Decoration]

[Page Decoration]

SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENTS.

We will now give some of the more domestic entertainments, such as
parties or dinners, given by the Egyptians. In their entertainments
they appear to have omitted nothing which could promote festivity and
the amusement of the guests. Music, songs, dancing, buffoonery, feats
of agility, or games of chance, were generally introduced; and they
welcomed them with all the luxuries which the cellar and the table
could afford.

The party, when invited to dinner, met about midday, and they arrived
successively in their chariots, in palanquins borne by their servants,
or on foot. Sometimes their attendants screened them from the sun by
holding up a shield (as is still done in Southern Africa), or by some
other contrivance; but the chariot of the king or of a princess, was
often furnished with a large parasol; and the flabella borne behind
the king, which belonged exclusively to royalty, answered the same
purpose. They were composed of feathers, and were not very unlike
those carried on state occasions behind the Pope in modern Rome.
Parasols or umbrellas were also used in Assyria, Persia, and other
Eastern countries.

When a visitor came in his car, he was attended by a number of
servants, some of whom carried a stool, to enable him to alight, and
others his writing tablet, or whatever he might want during his stay
at the house. The guests are assembled in a sitting room within, and
are entertained with music during the interval preceding the
announcement of dinner; for, like the Greeks, they considered it a
want of good breeding to sit down to table immediately on arriving,
and, as Bdelycleon, in Aristophanes, recommended his father Philocleon
to do, they praised the beauty of the rooms and the furniture, taking
care to show particular interest in those objects which were intended
for admiration. As usual in all countries, some of the party arrived
earlier than others; and the consequence, or affectation of fashion,
in the person who now drives up in his curricle, is shown by his
coming some time after the rest of the company; one of his footmen
runs forward to knock at the door, others, close behind the chariot,
are ready to take the reins, and to perform their accustomed duties;
and the one holding his sandals in his hand,