it to the place where he wished it to be set up. The undertaking ended
in a gala, and doubtless in a distribution of food and drink: the
unfortunate creatures who had been got together to execute the work
could not always have felt fitly compensated for the precious time they
had lost, by one day of drunkenness and rejoicing.

[Illustration: 136.jpg COLORED SCULPTURES IN THE PALACE]

We may ask if all these corvees were equally legal? Even if some of them
were illegal, the peasant on whom they fell could not have found the
means to escape from them, nor could he have demanded legal reparation
for the injury which they caused him. Justice, in Egypt and in the whole
Oriental world, necessarily emanates from political authority, and is
only one branch of the administration amongst others, in the hands
of the lord and his representatives. Professional magistrates were
unknown--men brought up to the study of law, whose duty it was to ensure
the observance of it, apart from any other calling--but the same men
who commanded armies, offered sacrifices, and assessed or received
taxes, investigated the disputes of ordinary citizens, or settled the
differences which arose between them and the representatives of the
lords or of the Pharaoh. In every town and village, those who held by
birth or favour the position of governor were ex-officio invested with
the right of administering justice. For a certain number of days in the
month, they sat at the gate of the town or of the building which served
as their residence, and all those in the town or neighbourhood possessed
of any title, position, or property, the superior priesthood of the
temples, scribes who had advanced or grown old in office, those
in command of the militia or the police, the heads of divisions or
corporations, the "qonbitiu," the "people of the angle," might if
they thought fit take their place beside them, and help them to decide
ordinary lawsuits. The police were mostly recruited from foreigners and
negroes, or Bedouin belonging to the Nubian tribe of the Mazaiu. The
litigants appeared at the tribunal, and waited under the superintendence
of the police until their turn came to speak: the majority of the
questions were decided in a few minutes by a judgment by which there was
no appeal; only the more serious cases necessitated a cross-examination
and prolonged discussion. All else was carried on before this
patriarchal jury as in our own courts of justice, except