d of to
the undertakers, they stripped the mummies also, and smashed the
bodies in their efforts to secure the jewels; then, putting the remains
together again, they rearranged the mummies afresh so cleverly that
they can no longer be distinguished by their outward appearance from the
originals, and the first wrappings must be removed before the fraud can
be discovered. From time to time one of these rogues would allow himself
to be taken for the purpose of denouncing his comrades, and avenging
himself for the injustice of which he was the victim in the division
of the spoil; he was laid hold of by the Mazaiu, and brought before the
tribunal of justice. The lands situated on the left bank of the
Nile belonged partly to the king and partly to the god Amon, and any
infraction of the law in regard to the necropolis was almost certain
to come within the jurisdiction of one or other of them. The commission
appointed, therefore, to determine the damage done in any case, included
in many instances the high priest or his delegates, as well as the
officers of the Pharaoh. The office of this commission was to examine
into the state of the tombs, to interrogate the witnesses and the
accused, applying the torture if necessary: when they had got at the
facts, the tribunal of the notables condemned to impalement some half
a dozen of the poor wretches, and caused some score of others to be
whipped.* But, when two or three months had elapsed, the remembrance of
the punishment began to die away, and the depredations began afresh. The
low rate of wages occasioned, at fixed periods, outbursts of discontent
and trouble which ended in actual disturbances. The rations allowed to
each workman, and given to him at the beginning of each month, would
possibly have been sufficient for himself and his family, but, owing to
the usual lack of foresight in the Egyptian, they were often consumed
long before the time fixed, and the pinch soon began to be felt. The
workmen, demoralised by their involuntary abstinence, were not slow to
turn to the overseer; "We are perishing of hunger, and there are still
eighteen days before the next month." The latter was prodigal of fair
speeches, but as his words were rarely accompanied by deeds, the
workmen would not listen to him; they stopped work, left the workshop in
turbulent crowds, ran with noisy demonstrations to some public place to
hold a meeting--perhaps the nearest monument, at the gate of the temple
of T