g boards into the
interior of the house. They were exactly similar to those in the
modern houses of Cairo; and some few were double, facing in opposite
directions.

The houses were built of crude brick, stuccoed and painted, with all
the combinations of bright color in which the Egyptians delighted; and
a highly decorated mansion had numerous courts, and architectural
details derived from the temples. Over the door was sometimes a
sentence, as "the good house;" or the name of a king, under whom the
owner probably held some office; many other symbols of good omen were
also put up, as at the entrances of modern Egyptian houses; and a
visit to some temple gave as good a claim to a record as the
pilgrimage to Mecca, at the present day. Poor people were satisfied
with very simple tenements; their wants being easily supplied, both as
to lodging and food; and their house consisted of four walls, with a
flat roof of palm-branches laid across a split date-tree as a beam,
and covered with mats plastered over with a thick coating of mud. It
had one door and a few small windows closed by wooden shutters. As it
scarcely ever rained, the mud roof was not washed into the sitting
room; and this cottage rather answered as a shelter from the sun, and
as a closet for their goods, than for the ordinary purpose of a house
in other countries. Indeed at night the owners slept on the roof,
during the greater part of the year; and as most of their work was
done out of doors, they might easily be persuaded that a house was far
less necessary for them than a tomb. To convince the rich of this
ultra-philosophical sentiment was not so easy; at least the practice
differed from the theory; and though it was promulgated among all the
Egyptians, it did not prevent the priests and other grandees from
living in very luxurious abodes, or enjoying the good things of this
world; and a display of wealth was found to be useful in maintaining
their power, and in securing the obedience of a credulous people. The
worldly possessions of the priests were therefore very extensive, and
if they imposed on themselves occasional habits of abstemiousness,
avoided certain kinds of unwholesome food, and performed many
mysterious observances, they were amply repaid by the improvement of
their health, and by the influence they thereby acquired. Superior
intelligence enabled them to put their own construction on regulations
emanating from their sacred body, with the conveni