lted
suddenly, wishing, first of all, to look at the regiment from a
distance. The men were naked, each with a white cap on his head, and
girt about the hips with stuff like that of which the cap was made. In
the ranks Ramses could distinguish easily the brown Egyptian, the
negro, the yellow Asiatic, the white inhabitants of Libya, and also the
Mediterranean islands.

In the first rank stood workers with pickaxes, in the second those with
mattocks, in the third those with shovels. The fourth rank was composed
of carriers, of whom each had a pole and two buckets; the fifth was
also of carriers, but with large boxes borne by two men. These last
carried earth freshly dug.

In front of the ranks, some yards distant, stood the overseers; each
held a long stick in his hand, and either a large wooden circle or a
square measure.

When the prince approached them, they cried in a chorus,

"Live Thou through eternity!" and kneeling, they struck the earth with
their foreheads. The heir commanded them to rise, and surveyed them
again with attention.

They were healthy, strong persons, not looking in the least like men
who had lived two months on begging.

Sofra with his retinue approached the prince. But Ramses, feigning not
to see him, turned to one of the overseers,

"Are ye earth-tillers from Sochem?" inquired he.

The overseer fell at full length with his face to the earth.

The prince shrugged his shoulders, and called out to the laborers,

"Are ye from Sochem?"

"We are earth workers from Sochem," answered they, in chorus.

"Have ye received pay?"

"We have received pay; we are sated and happy servants of his
holiness," answered the chorus, giving out each word with emphasis.

"Turn around!" commanded the prince.

They turned. It is true that each had frequent and deep scars from the
club, but no fresh stripes on their bodies.

"They are deceiving me," thought the heir.

He commanded the laborers to go to their barracks, and, without
greeting the nomarch or taking leave of him, he returned to the palace.

"Wilt thou, too, tell me," said he to Tutmosis on the road, "that those
men are laborers from Sochem?"

"But they say that they are, they themselves give answer," replied the
courtier.

Ramses gave command to bring his horse, and he rode to the army
encamped beyond the city. He reviewed the regiments all day. About
noon, on the field of exercise, appeared, at command of the nomarch,
some tens of car