g the sepulchral vault and despoiling the mummy of
its valuables.

[Illustration: 399.jpg THE MOUNTAIN OF SILT WITH THE TOMBS OF THE
PRINCES]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey,
taken in 1884.

With a view to further protection, the builders multiplied blind
passages and chambers without apparent exit, but in which a portion of
the ceiling was movable, and gave access to other equally mysterious
rooms and corridors. Shafts sunk in the corners of the chambers and
again carefully closed put the sacrilegious intruder on a false scent,
for, after causing him a great loss of time and labour, they only led
down to the solid rock. At the present day the water of the Nile fills
the central chamber of the Hawara pyramid and covers the sarcophagus; it
is possible that this was foreseen, and that the builders counted on the
infiltration as an additional obstacle to depredations from without.*

* Indeed, it should be noted that in the Graeco-Roman period
the presence of water in a certain number of the pyramids
was a matter of common knowledge, and so frequently was it
met with, that it was even supposed to exist in a pyramid
into which water had never penetrated, viz. that of Kheops.
Herodotus relates that, according to the testimony of the
interpreters who acted as his guides, the waters of the Nile
were carried to the sepulchral cavern of the Pharaoh by a
subterranean channel, and shut it in on all sides, like an
island.

The hardness of the cement, which fastens the lid of the stone coffin
to the lower part, protects the body from damp, and the Pharaoh, lying
beneath several feet of water, still defies the greed of the robber or
the zeal of the archaeologist.

The absolute power of the kings kept their feudal vassals in check: far
from being suppressed, however, the seignorial families continued
not only to exist, but to enjoy continued prosperity. Everywhere, at
Elephantine, Koptos, Thinis, in Aphroditopolis, and in most of the
cities of the Said and of the Delta, there were ruling princes who
were descended from the old feudal lords or even from Pharaohs of the
Memphite period, and who were of equal, if not superior rank, to the
members of the reigning family. The princes of Siut no longer en-joyed
an authority equal to that exercised by their ancestors under the
Heracleopolitan dynasties, but they still possessed considerable
influence