n serpent: it did not occur to them to console
the shipwrecked with the charm of a lengthy gossip, but they swallowed
them with a healthy appetite. Putting aside entirely the marvellous
element in the story, what strikes us is the frequency of the relations
which it points to between Egypt and Puanit. The appearance of an
Egyptian vessel excites no astonishment on its coasts: the inhabitants
have already seen many such, and at such regular intervals, that they
are able to predict the exact date of their arrival. The distance
between the two countries, it is true, was not considerable, and a
voyage of two months was sufficient to accomplish it. While the new
Egypt was expanding outwards in all directions, the old country did not
cease to add to its riches. The two centuries during which the XIIth
dynasty continued to rule were a period of profound peace; the monuments
show us the country in full possession of all its resources and its
arts, and its inhabitants both cheerful and contented. More than ever do
the great lords and royal officers expatiate in their epitaphs upon
the strict justice which they have rendered to their vassals and
subordinates, upon the kindness which they have shown to the fellahin,
on the paternal solicitude with which, in the years of insufficient
inundations or of bad harvests, they have striven to come forward and
assist them, and upon the unheard-of disinterestedness which kept them
from raising the taxes during the times of average Niles, or of unusual
plenty. Gifts to the gods poured in from one end of the country to the
other, and the great building works, which had been at a standstill
since the end of the VIth dynasty, were recommenced simultaneously on
all sides. There was much to be done in the way of repairing the ruins,
of which the number had accumulated during the two preceding centuries.
Not that the most audacious kings had ventured to lay their hands on
the sanctuaries: they emptied the sacred treasuries, and partially
confiscated their revenues, but when once their cupidity was satisfied,
they respected the fabrics, and even went so far as to restore a
few inscriptions, or, when needed, to replace a few stones. These
magnificent buildings required careful supervision: in spite of their
being constructed of the most durable materials--sand-stone, granite,
limestone,--in spite of their enormous size, or of the strengthening
of their foundations by a bed of sand and by three or four