holding a man by the legs and plunging him head first in the water to
his neck, to his breast, and at last to his waist. Near them stood an
overseer with a cane; he wore a stained tunic and a wig made of
sheepskin.

A little farther on some men held a woman by the arms, while she
screamed in a voice which was heaven-piercing.

Beating with a stick was as general in the happy kingdom of the pharaoh
as eating and sleeping. They beat children and grown people, earth-
tillers, artisans, warriors, officers, and officials. All living
persons were caned save only priests and the highest officials there
was no one to cane them. Hence the prince looked calmly enough on an
earth-worker beaten with a cane; but to plunge a man into water roused
his attention.

"Ho! ho!" laughed the boatman, meanwhile, "but are they giving him
drink! He will grow so thick that his wife must lengthen his belt for
him."

The prince commanded to row to the mound. Meanwhile they had taken the
man from the river, let him cough out water, and seized him a second
time by the legs, in spite of the unearthly screams of his wife, who
fell to biting the men who had seized her.

"Stop!" cried Ramses to those who were dragging the earth-tiller.

"Do your duty!" cried he of the sheepskin wig, in nasal tones. "Who art
thou, insolent, who darest."

At that moment the prince gave him a blow on the forehead with his
cane, which luckily was light. Still the owner of the stained tunic
dropped to the earth, and feeling his wig and head, looked with misty
eyes at the attacker.

"I divine," said he in a natural voice, "that I have the honor to
converse with a notable person. May good humor always accompany thee,
lord, and bile never spread through thy bones."

"What art Thou doing to this man?" interrupted Ramses.

"Thou inquirest," returned the man, speaking again in nasal tones,
"like a foreigner unacquainted with the customs of the country and the
people, to whom he speaks too freely. Know, then, that I am the
collector of his worthiness Dagon, the first banker in Memphis. And if
Thou hast not grown pale yet, know that the worthy Dagon is the agent
and the friend of the erpatr, may he live through eternity! and that
Thou hast committed violence on the lands of Prince Ramses; to this my
people will testify."

"Then know this," interrupted the prince; but he stopped suddenly. "By
what right art Thou torturing in this way one of the prince's earth-
tiller