ley, peas and
wheat, jugs of wine, beer, milk and honey, game and stuffs, many pieces
white or colored. The officials took these products, kept a portion for
themselves, but the choicest and most costly they put up higher, for
the throne. The platform where stood the symbol of the pharaoh's power
was covered with products which formed as it were a small mountain.

"Ye see, worthy men," said Pentuer, "that in those times, when earth-
tillers were satisfied and wealthy, the treasury of his holiness could
hardly find place for the gifts of his subjects. But see what is
happening in our day."

At a new signal a second part of the curtain fell, and another tableau
appeared, similar to the preceding in general outline.

"Here are our laborers of the present," said Pentuer, and in his voice
indignation was evident. "Their bodies are skin and bones, they look
like sick persons, they are filthy and have forgotten to anoint
themselves with olive oil, but their backs are wounded from beating.

"Neither oxen nor asses are near them, for what need is there of those
beasts if ploughs are drawn by women and children? Picks and shovels
are wooden, they spoil easily and that increases men's labor. They have
no clothes whatever; only women wear coarse shirts, and not even in a
dream do they look at embroidery, though their grandfathers and
grandmothers wore it."

"Look now at the food of the earth-tillers. At times barley and dried
fish, lotus seed always, rarely a wheat cake, never flesh, beer, or
wine.

"Ask them where their utensils and furniture are. They have none,
unless a pitcher for water; nothing could find room in the dens which
they inhabit.

"Pardon me now for that to which I turn your attention: Over there a
number of children are lying on the ground; that means that they are
dead. It is wonderful how many children of laborers die from toil and
hunger. And those that die are the happiest, for they who survive go
under the club of the overseer, or are sold to the Phoenician as lambs
to the slaughter."

Emotion stopped his voice; he rested awhile, and then continued amid
the angry silence of the priesthood,

"And now look at the officials, how animated they are in rouge, how
beautiful their clothes are! Their wives wear gold bracelets and
earrings, and such fine garments that princes might envy them. Among
laborers not an ox or an ass is now visible, but to make up officials
journey on horseback or in litters. They