e wall when Mr Theodore Davis discovered the tomb a few
years ago. The plundering of the royal tombs is a typical instance of
the lawlessness of the times. The corruption, too, which followed on the
disorder was appalling; and wherever the King went he was confronted by
deceit, embezzlement, bribery, extortion, and official tyranny. Every
Government officer was attempting to obtain money from his subordinates
by illegal means; and _bakshish_--that bogie of the Nile Valley--cast
its shadow upon all men.

Horemheb stood this as long as he could; but at last, regarding justice
as more necessary than tact, we are told that "his Majesty seized a
writing-palette and scroll, and put into writing all that his Majesty
the King had said to himself." It is not possible to record here more
than a few of the good laws which he then made, but the following
examples will serve to show how near to his heart were the interests of
his people.

It was the custom for the tax-collectors to place that portion of a
farmer's harvest, which they had taken, upon the farmer's own boat, in
order to convey it to the public granary. These boats often failed to be
returned to their owners when finished with, and were ultimately sold by
the officials for their own profit. Horemheb, therefore, made the
following law:--

"If the poor man has made for himself a boat with its
sail, and, in order to serve the State, has loaded it
with the Government dues, and has been robbed of the
boat, the poor man stands bereft of his property and
stripped of his many labours. This is wrong, and the
Pharaoh will suppress it by his excellent measures. If
there be a poor man who pays the taxes to the two
deputies, and he be robbed of his property and his boat,
my majesty commands: that every officer who collects the
taxes and takes the boat of any citizen, this law shall
be executed against him, and his nose shall be cut off,
and he shall be sent in exile to Tharu. Furthermore,
concerning the tax of timber, my majesty commands that
if any officer find a poor man without a boat, then he
shall bring him a craft belonging to another man in which
to carry the timber; and in return for this let the
former man do the loading of the timber for the latter."

The tax-collectors were wont to commandeer the services of all the
slaves in the town, and to detain them for six or seven days, "so t