a less onerous share of them than others. The
beginning and end of the instructions of Khiti would in
themselves be sufficient to show us the advantages which the
middle classes under the XIIth dynasty believed they could
derive from adopting the profession of scribe.

** The stelae of Abydos are very useful to those who desire
to study the populations of a small town. They give us the
names of the head-men of trades of all kinds; the head-mason
Didiu, the master-mason Aa, the master-shoemaker Kahikhonti,
the head-smiths Usirtasen-Uati, Hotpu, Hot-purekhsu.

It was said among the Greeks, that even robbers were united in a
corporation like the others, and maintained an accredited superior as
their representative with the police, to discuss the somewhat delicate
questions which the practice of their trade gave occasion to. When the
members of the association had stolen any object of value, it was
to this superior that the person robbed resorted, in order to regain
possession of it: it was he who fixed the amount required for its
redemption, and returned it without fail, upon the payment of this sum.
Most of the workmen who formed a state corporation, lodged, or at least
all of them had their stalls, in the same quarter or street, under the
direction of their chief. Besides the poll and the house tax, they were
subject to a special toll, a trade licence which they paid in products
of their commerce or industry.*

* The registers (for the most part unpublished), which are
contained in European museums show us that fishermen paid in
fish, gardeners in flowers and vegetables, etc., the taxes
or tribute which they owed to their lords. In the great
inscription of Abydos the weavers attached to the temple of
Seti I. are stated to have paid their tribute in stuffs.

[Illustration: 098.jpg TWO BLACKSMITHS WORKING THE BELLOWS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, Monumenti Civili,
pl. 2 a.

Their lot was a hard one, if we are to believe the description which
ancient writers have handed down to us: "I have never seen a blacksmith
on an embassy--nor a smelter sent on a mission--but what I have seen
is the metal worker at his toil,--at the mouth of the furnace of his
forge,--his fingers as rugged as the crocodile,--and stinking more than
fish-spawn.--The artisan of any kind who handles the chisel,--does not
employ so much movement as he who