resent day.

The Egyptians washed after, as well as before, dinner; an invariable
custom throughout the East, as among the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and
others; and Herodotus speaks of a golden basin, belonging to Amasis,
which was used by the King, and "the guests who were in the habit of
eating at his table."

An absorbent seems also to have been adopted for scouring the hands;
and a powder of ground lupins, the _doqaq_ of modern Egypt, is no
doubt an old invention, handed down to the present inhabitants.

Soap was not unknown to the ancients, and a small quantity has been
found at Pompeii. Pliny, who mentions it as an invention of the Gauls,
says it was made of fat and ashes; and Aretaeus, the physician of
Cappadocia, tells us that the Greeks borrowed their knowledge of its
medicinal properties from the Romans. But there is no evidence of soap
having been used by the Egyptians; and if by accident they discovered
something of the kind, while engaged with mixtures of natron or
potash, and other ingredients, it is probable that it was only an
absorbent, without oil or grease, and on a par with steatite, or the
argillaceous earths, with which, no doubt, they were long acquainted.

The Egyptians, a scrupulously religious people, were never remiss in
expressing their gratitude for the blessings they enjoyed, and in
returning thanks to the gods for that peculiar protection they were
thought to extend to them and to their country, above all the nations
of the earth.

They, therefore, never sat down to meals without saying grace; and
Josephus says that when the seventy-two elders were invited by Ptolemy
Philadelphus to sup at the palace, Nicanor requested Eleazer to say
grace for his countrymen, instead of those Egyptians to whom that duty
was committed on other occasions.

It was also a custom of the Egyptians, during or after their repasts,
to introduce a wooden image of Osiris, from one foot and a half to
three feet in height, in the form of a human mummy, standing erect, or
lying on a bier, and to show it to each of the guests, warning him of
his mortality, and the transitory nature of human pleasures. He was
reminded that some day he would be like that figure; that men ought
"to love one another, and avoid those evils which tend to make them
consider life too long, when in reality it is too short;" and while
enjoying the blessings of this world, to bear in mind that their
existence was precarious, and that death, w