CLASSES OF SOCIETY.--Egyptian society was divided into three great
classes, or orders,--priests, soldiers, and common people; the last
embracing shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans.

The sacerdotal order consisted of high-priests, prophets, scribes, keepers
of the sacred robes and animals, sacred sculptors, masons, and embalmers.
They enjoyed freedom from taxation, and met the expenses of the temple
services with the income of the sacred lands, which embraced one third of
the soil of the country.

The priests were extremely scrupulous in the care of their persons. They
bathed twice by day and twice by night, and shaved the entire body every
third day. Their inner clothing was linen, woollen garments being thought
unclean; their diet was plain and even abstemious, in order that, as
Plutarch says, "their bodies might sit light as possible about their
souls."

Next to the priesthood in rank and honor stood the military order. Like
the priests, the soldiers formed a landed class. They held one third of
the soil of Egypt. To each soldier was given a tract of about eight acres,
exempt from all taxes. They were carefully trained in their profession,
and there was no more effective soldiery in ancient times than that which
marched beneath the standard of the Pharaohs.

THE CHIEF DEITIES.--Attached to the chief temples of the Egyptians were
colleges for the training of the sacerdotal order. These institutions were
the repositories of the wisdom of the Egyptians. This learning was open
only to the initiated few.