upil to draw, or to name some letter,
and beat him with a cane when he failed in his effort.

Taking farewell of the teacher and the pupils, the prince from the
school of scribes passed to the school of surveyors. There they taught
youth to draw plans of fields which were for the most part rectangular,
also to take the elevation of land by means of two laths and a square.
In this department also they explained the art of writing numbers no
less involved in hieroglyphic or demotic characters. But pure
arithmetical problems formed a higher course, and were solved by means
of bullets.

Ramses had enough of this, and only after some days would he visit the
school of medicine.

This was also a hospital, or rather great garden containing a multitude
of fragrant plants and trees. Patients passed whole days in the open
air and in sunlight, on beds where strips of stretched canvas took the
place of mattresses.

The greatest activity reigned when the prince entered. Some patients
were bathing in a pond of running water; attendants were rubbing one
man with fragrant ointments, and burning perfumes before another. There
were some whom they had put to sleep by looking at them and by
stretching out their bodies; one patient was groaning while they were
setting his sprained ankle.

To a certain woman who was grievously sick the priest was giving some
mixture from a goblet, while uttering an enchantment which had power in
connection with this remedy,

"Go, cure, go, drive that out of my heart, out of my members."
[Authentic]

Then the prince in company with a great leech went to the pharmacy,
where one of the priests was preparing cures from plants, honey, olive
oil, from the skins of serpents and lizards, from the bones and fat of
beasts. When Ramses questioned him, the man did not take his eyes from
the work. He looked continually, and ground the materials, uttering a
prayer as he did so,

"Thou hast cured Isis, Thou hast cured Isis, Thou hast cured Horus O
Isis, great enchantress, make me well, free me from all evil, from
harmful red things, from fever of the god, from fever of the goddess!"

"O Shauagat, eenagate, synie! Erukate! Kauaruchagate! Paparauka
paparaka paparura."

"What is he saying?" asked the prince.

"A secret," answered the leech, putting his finger on his lips.

When they came out to an empty court, Ramses said to the great leech,

"Tell me, holy father, what is the art of curing, and what are its