aste and skill in music, but
took a delight in introducing it on every occasion. "And seeing that
the Levites were numerous, and no longer employed as formerly in
carrying the boards, veils, and vessels of the tabernacle, its abode
being fixed at Jerusalem, he appointed a great part of them to sing
and play on instruments, at the religious festivals."

Solomon, again, at the dedication of the temple, employed "120
priests, to sound with trumpets;" and Josephus pretends that no less
than 200,000 musicians were present at that ceremony, besides the same
number of singers, who were Levites.

When hired to attend at a private entertainment, the musicians either
stood in the centre, or at one side, of the festive chamber, and some
sat cross-legged on the ground, like the Turks and other Eastern
people of the present day. They were usually accompanied on these
occasions by dancers, either men or women, sometimes both; whose art
consisted in assuming all the graceful or ludicrous gestures, which
could obtain the applause, or tend to the amusement, of the assembled
guests. For music and dancing were considered as essential at their
entertainments, as among the Greeks; but it is by no means certain
that these diversions counteracted the effect of wine, as Plutarch
imagines; a sprightly air is more likely to have invited another
glass; and sobriety at a feast was not one of the objects of the
lively Egyptians.

They indulged freely in whatever tended to increase their enjoyment,
and wine flowed freely at their entertainments.

Private individuals were under no particular restrictions with regard
to its use, and it was not forbidden to women. In this they differed
widely from the Romans; for in early times no female at Rome enjoyed
the privilege, and it was unlawful for women, or, indeed, for young
men below the age of thirty, to drink wine, except at sacrifices.

Even at a later time the Romans considered it disgraceful for a woman
to drink wine; and they sometimes saluted a female relation, whom they
suspected, in order to discover if she had secretly indulged in its
use. It was afterwards allowed them on the plea of health.

That Egyptian women were not forbidden the use of wine, is evident
from the frescoes which represent their feasts; and the painters, in
illustrating this fact, have sometimes sacrificed their gallantry to a
love of caricature. Some call the servants to support them as they
sit, others with difficulty