other twice-born father, the Sapinda would take one-half Possibly, the rule of equal division among sons of equal caste did not at first apply to Brahmaus, who, as the eldest sons of God, would perhaps observe the custom of primogeniture among themselves. On the other hand it was laid down in the Judicial Committee in 18G9, contrary to the collected opinions of the Pundits of the Sudder Court, that, in default of lawful children, the illegitimate children of the Sudra caste inherit their putative father s estate, and, even if there be lawful children, are entitled to maintenance out of the estate. It had previously been decided by Sir Edward Ryan in 1857 that the illegitimate children of a Rajput, or of any other member of a superior caste, have no right of inheritance even under will, but a mere right to maintenance, provided the children are docile. It seems then that the Kslntriya and Vaisya castes, though
is one sense non-existent, still control Hindu succession.[1]With regard to Persia the Zend A vesta speaks of a fourfold division of the ancient inhabitants of Iran into priests, warriors, agriculturists and artificers ; and also of a sevenfold division corresponding to the ssven amschespands, or servants of Ormuzd. This was no invention of Zoroaster, but a tradition from the golden age of Jemshid or Diemschid. The priestly caste of Magi was divided into Herbeds or disciples, Mobeds or masters, and Destur Mobeds or complete masters. The last-named were alone entitled to read the liturgies of Ormuzd ; they alone predicted the future and carried the sacred costi, or girdle, havan, or cup, and barsom, or bunch of twigs. The Zend word baresma is supposed to be connected with Brahma, or sacred element, of which the symbol was a bunch of kusa grass, generally called veda. The Persian and Hindu religions are further connected by the ceremony called Homa in the one and Soma in the other. Haug, in his Tract on the Origin of Brahmanism (quoted by Muir, ubi supra), maintains that the division in the Zend Avesta of the followers of Ahura Mazda into Atharvas, Rathaesvas, and Vastryawas precisely equivalent to the three superior Indian castes. He also asserts that only the sons of priests (Atharvas) could become priests, a rule still in force among the Parsis. The Book of Daniel rather suggests that the Magi were an elective body ; and as regards the secular classes there does not seem to be a trace of hereditary employment or religious subordination. There is a legend in the Dabistan of a great conqueror, Mahabad, who divided the Abyssinians into the usual four castes ; and Strabo mentions a similar classification of the Iberians into kings, priests, soldiers, husbandmen, and menials.
At one time it was the universal opinion that in Egypt there were at least two great castes, priests and warriors, the functions of which were transmitted from father to son, the minor professions grouped under the great castes being also subject to hereditary transmission. This opinion was held by Otfried Miiller,[2] Meiners of Gottingen, arid others. Doubts were first suggested by Rossellini, and after Champollion had deciphered the hieroglyphic inscriptions, J. J. Ampere[3] boldly announced that there were in Egypt no castes strictly so called ; that in particular the professions of priest, _ soldier, judge, etc., were not hereditary; and that the division of Egyptian society was merely that which is generally found in certain stages of social growth between the liberal professions and the mechanical arts and trades. No difference of colour, or indeed of any feature, has been observed in the monumental pictures of the different Egyptian castes. From an inspection of numerous tombs, sarcophagi, and funeral stones, which frequently enumerate the names and professions of several kinsfolk of the deceased, Ampere has concluded that sacerdotal and military functions were sometimes united in the same person, and might even be combined with civil functions; that intermarriage might certainly take place between the sacred and military orders ; and that the members of the same natural family did frequently adopt the different occupations which had been supposed to be the exclusive property of the castes. The tombs of Beni Hassan show in a striking manner the Egyptian tendency to accumulate, rather than to separate, employments. Occasionally families were set apart for the worship of a particular divinity. An interesting "sec tion" of Egyptian society is afforded by a granite monu ment preserved in the Museum at Naples. Nine figures in bas-relief represent the deceased, his father, three brothers, a paternal uncle, and the fathsr and two brothers of his wife. Another side contains the mother, wife, wife s mother, and maternal aunts. The deceased is described as a military officer and superintendent of buildings ; his elder brother as a priest and architect ; his third brother as a provincial governor, and his father as a priest of Ammon. The family of the wife is exclusively sacerdotal. Egyptian caste, therefore, permitted two brothers to be of different castes, and one person to be of more castes than one, and of different castes from those to which his father or wife belonged. The lower employments, commerce, agriculture, even medicine, are never mentioned on the tombs. The ab solute statements about caste in Egypt, circulated by such writers as Reyuier and De Goguet, have, no doubt, been founded on passages in Herodotus (ii. 143, 1G4.), who men tions seven classes, and makes war an hereditary profession ; in Diodorus Siculus (i. 2-8), who mentions five classes and an hereditary priesthood ; and in Plato, who, anxious to illustrate the principle of compulsory division of labour, on which his republic was based, speaks in the Timceus of a total separation of the six classes, priests, soldiers, husbandmen, artisans, hunters, and shepherds. Heeren (ii. 594) does not hesitate to ascribe the formation of Egyp tian caste to the meeting of different races. According to the chronology constructed by Bunscn the division into castes began in the period 10,000-9000, and was completed along with the introduction of animal worship and the improvement of writing under the third dynasty in the Gth or 7th century of the Old Empire. The Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, on the authority of Diccearchus, in the Second Book of Hdlas, mentions a king, Sesonchosis, who, about 3712 B.C., "enacted that no one should abandon his father s trade, for this he considered as leading to avarice." Bunsen conjectures that this may refer to Sesostoris, the lawgiver of Manetho s third or Memphite dynasty, the eighth from Menes, who introduced writing, building with hewn stone, and medicine ; possibly, also, to Sesostris, who, Aristotle says (Polit., vii. 1), introduced caste to Crete. He further observes that in Egypt there was never a conquered indigenous race. There was one nation with one language and one religion ; the public panegyrics embraced the whole people ; every Egyptian was the child and friend of the gods. The kings were generally warriors, and latterly adopted into the sacredotal caste. Intermarriage was the rule, except between the swine herds and all other classes. " Every shepherd is an abomi nation unto the Egyptians" (Gen. xlvi. 34).
(w. c. s.)
mathematician, was born at Montpellier in 1G88, and entered the order of the Jesuits in 1703. At first he was a student of literature, but he afterwards devoted himself
entirely to mathematics and natural philosophy. He
