ties Egypt has lost laud which
supported two millions of people."

In the assembly again rose a murmur of horror.

"And dost Thou know, O Ramses, servant of the gods, whither those
spaces have vanished where on a time were fields of wheat and barley,
or where flocks and herds pastured? Thou knowest that sands of the
desert have covered them. But has any one told thee why this came to
pass? It came to pass because there was a lack of men who with buckets
and ploughs fight the desert from morning till evening. Finally, dost
Thou know why these toilers of the gods disappeared? Whither did they
go? What swept them out of the country? Foreign wars did it. Our nobles
conquered enemies, our pharaohs immortalized their worthy names as far
away as the Euphrates River, but like beasts of burden our common men
carried food for them, they carried water, they carried other weights,
and died along the road by thousands.

"To avenge those bones scattered now throughout eastern deserts, the
western sands have swallowed our fields, and it would require immense
toil and many generations to win back that dark Egyptian earth from the
sand grave which covers it."

"Listen! listen!" cried Mefres, "some god is speaking through the lips
of Pentuer. It is true that our victorious wars are the grave of
Egypt."

Ramses could not collect his thoughts. It seemed to him that mountains
of sand were falling on his head at that moment.

"I have said," continued Pentuer, "that great labor would be needed to
dig out Egypt and restore the old-time wealth devoured by warfare. But
have we the power to carry out that project?"

Again he advanced some steps, and after him the excited listeners.
Since Egypt became Egypt, no one had displayed so searchingly the
disasters of the country, though all men knew that they had happened.

"During the nineteenth dynasty Egypt had eight millions of inhabitants.
If every man, woman, old man, and child had put down in this place one
bean, the grains would make a figure of this kind."

He indicated with his hand a court where one by the side of another lay
eight great quadrangles covered with red beans.

"That figure is sixty yards long, thirty yards wide, and as ye see,
pious fathers, the grains composing it are of the same kind, for the
people of that time were from Egyptian grandfathers and great-
grandfathers. But look now."

He went farther, and indicated another group of quadrangles of various
colors.