mphite dynasties gradually takes
new life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands
out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else.
He is god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the
great-god," connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the
Pharaohs are blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being
infused into the royal infant at birth.

The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered
her a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of
private citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having
no bond of union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of
birth had destined to be their ruler.

Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its
attendants and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment
to a score of different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost
approached the dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which
adorned each one, a living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers,
dancers, buffoons and dwarfs whiled away the tedious hours. Many were
the physicians, chaplains, soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed
was the army of officials connected with the administration of public
affairs. The mainspring of all this machinery was the writer, or, as we
call him, the scribe, across whom we come in all grades of the staff.

The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the
elementary rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the
scribe takes the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a
talented scribe rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was
removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and
was ennobled.

_V.--The Memphite Empire_

At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and