service, part or the whole of the class was mustered; arms kept in
the arsenal were distributed among them, and they were conveyed in boats
to the scene of action. The Egyptians were not martial by temperament;
they became soldiers rather from interest than inclination.

The power of Pharaoh and his barons rested entirely upon these two
classes, the priests and the soldiers; the remainder, the commonalty and
the peasantry, were, in their hands, merely an inert mass, to be
taxed and subjected to forced labour at will. The slaves were probably
regarded as of little importance; the bulk of the people consisted of
free families who were at liberty to dispose of themselves and their
goods. Every fellah and townsman in the service of the king, or of
one of his great nobles, could leave his work and his village when
he pleased, could pass from the domain in which he was born into a
different one, and could traverse the country from one end to the other,
as the Egyptians of to-day still do.

His absence entailed neither loss of goods, nor persecution of the
relatives he left behind, and he himself had punishment to fear only
when he left the Nile Valley without permission, to reside for some time
in a foreign land.* But although this independence and liberty were in
accordance with the laws and customs of the land, yet they gave rise to
inconveniences from which it was difficult to escape in practical life.
Every Egyptian, the King excepted, was obliged, in order to get on in
life, to depend on one more powerful than himself, whom he called his
master. The feudal lord was proud to recognize Pharaoh as his master,
and he himself was master of the soldiers and priests in his own petty
state.

* The treaty between Ramses and the Prince of Khiti contains
a formal extradition clause in reference to Egyptians or
Hittites, who had quitted their native country, of course
without the permission of their sovereign. The two
contracting parties expressly stipulate that persons
extradited on one side or the other shall not be punished
for having emigrated, that their property is not to be
confiscated, nor are their families to be held responsible
for their flight. From this clause it follows that in
ordinary times unauthorized emigration brought upon the
culprit corporal punishment and the confiscation of his
goods, as well as various penalties on his family. The way
in wh