more distant regions
ready prepared, we cannot say, but he claimed and retained for himself
the payment for all that the Pharaoh deigned to order of him.**

* Letter of Burnaburiash to Amenothes IV.

** Letter from the King of Alasia to Amenothes III., where,
whilst pretending to have nothing else in view than making a
present to his royal brother, he proposes to make an
exchange of some bronze for the products of Egypt,
especially for gold.

From such instances we can well understand the jealous, watch which
these sovereigns exercised, lest any individual connected with
corporations of workmen should leave the kingdom and establish himself
in another country without special permission. Any emigrant who opened
a workshop and initiated his new compatriots in the technique or
professional secrets of his craft, was regarded by the authorities as
the most dangerous of all evil-doers. By thus introducing his trade into
a rival state, he deprived his own people of a good customer, and thus
rendered himself liable to the penalties inflicted on those who were
guilty of treason. His savings were confiscated, his house razed to the
ground, and his whole family--parents, wives, and children--treated
as partakers in his crime. As for himself, if justice succeeded in
overtaking him, he was punished with death, or at least with mutilation,
such as the loss of eyes and ears, or amputation of the feet. This
severity did not prevent the frequent occurrence of such cases, and
it was found necessary to deal with them by the insertion of a special
extradition clause in treaties of peace and other alliances. The two
contracting parties decided against conceding the right of habitation
to skilled workmen who should take refuge with either party on the
territory of the other, and they agreed to seize such workmen forthwith,
and mutually restore them, but under the express condition that neither
they nor any of their belongings should incur any penalty for the
desertion of their country. It would be curious to know if all the
arrangements agreed to by the kings of those times were sanctioned,
as in the above instance, by properly drawn up agreements. Certain
expressions occur in their correspondence which seem to prove that this
was the case, and that the relations between them, of which we can catch
traces, resulted not merely from a state of things which, according
to their ideas, did not necessitate any dipl