the countless throngs of people than
in a desert.

Eight negroes brought a litter adorned above the baldachin with ostrich
feathers; the prince took his place in it, and advanced to the capital
of Sochem, where he dwelt in a government palace.

The prince's stay in that province, which was only a few miles from
Memphis, lasted a month. All this time he passed in receiving
petitions, in accepting homage, in official receptions, and at feasts.

The feasts were of two kinds, one in the palace, at which the
aristocracy were present; the other in the outer court, where whole
oxen were roasted, loaves of bread were eaten by the hundred, and
hundreds of pitchers of beer drunk. At these appeared servants of the
prince and the lower officials of the province.

Ramses admired the munificence of the nomarch, and the affection of the
great lords around him, alert to every beck of his and ready to carry
out his orders.

Wearied at last by amusements, Ramses declared to the worthy Otoes that
he wished to become more nearly acquainted with the management of the
province, for he had received a command from his holiness the pharaoh
to study it.

His desire was satisfied. The nomarch requested the prince to sit in a
litter borne by only two men, and with a great retinue escorted him to
the temple of Hator. There the retinue remained in the antechamber, but
the nomarch commanded the bearers to carry the prince to the summit of
a pylon, which he himself ascended.

From the summit of a tower, ninety feet high, whence priests observed
the sky and communicated through colored flags with the neighboring
temples in Memphis, Atribis, and Ann, the eye surveyed in the radius of
some miles almost a whole province.

From that place, too, the worthy Otoes showed Ramses the fields and
vineyards of the pharaoh; he showed what canal they were clearing, what
sluice they were repairing; he showed furnaces for smelting copper; he
showed where the royal granaries' stood, where the lotus and papyrus
swamps were, what fields were covered with sand, and so on till he had
finished.

Ramses was charmed with the beautiful view, and thanked Otoes warmly
for the pleasure which he experienced. But when he returned to the
palace, and, according to the advice of the pharaoh, noted impressions,
he convinced himself that his knowledge of the economic conditions of
Aa had not widened.

After some days he asked explanations again of Otoes touching the
admin