atch it from all points. Over the
principal gate hung the model of a ship; on the front wall were
pictures representing his holiness Ramses XII placing offerings before
the gods, or extending his protection to foreigners, among whom the
Phoenicians were distinguished by a sturdy stature and very ruddy
faces.

The windows were narrow, always open, and only in case of need shaded
by curtains of linen or by colored slats. The chambers of the innkeeper
and of travelers occupied three stories; the ground floor was devoted
to a wine shop and an eating-place. Sailors, carriers, handicraftsmen,
and in general the poorer class of travelers ate and drank in a
courtyard which had a mosaic pavement and a linen roof resting on
columns, so that all guests might be under inspection. The wealthier
and better born ate in a gallery which surrounded the courtyard. In the
courtyard the men sat on the pavement near stones which were used
instead of tables; in the galleries, which were cooler, there were
tables, stools, and armchairs, even low couches, with cushions, on
which guests might slumber.

In each gallery there was a great table on which were bread, meat,
fish, and fruits, also jugs holding several quarts of beer, wine, and
water. Negroes, men and women, bore around food to the guests, removed
empty vessels, and brought from the cellars full pitchers, while
scribes watching scrupulously over the tables noted down carefully each
piece of bread, bulb of garlic, and flagon of water. In the courtyard
two inspectors stood on an elevation with sticks in their grasp; these
men kept their eyes on the servants and the scribes on the one hand,
and on the other by the aid of the sticks they settled quarrels between
the poorer guests of various nations. Thanks to this arrangement thefts
and battles happened rarely; they were more frequent in the galleries
than the courtyard.

The Phoenician innkeeper himself, the noted Asarhadon, a man beyond
fifty, dressed in a long tunic and a muslin cape, walked among the
guests to see if each received what he had ordered.

"Eat and drink, my sons!" said he to the Greek sailors, "for such pork
and beer there is not in all the world as I have. I hear that a storm
struck your ship about Rafia? Ye should give a bounteous offering to
the gods for preserving you. In Memphis a man might not see a storm all
his life, but at sea it is easier to meet lightning than a copper uten.
I have mead, flour, incense for