heir
possession. In consequence of this the owner of the lost goods always
applied by letter to the chief for their recovery; and having stated
their quality and quantity, the day and hour when they were stolen,
and other requisite particulars, the goods were identified, and, on
payment of one quarter of their value, they were restored to the
applicant in the same state as when taken from his house.

For being fully persuaded of the impracticability of putting an entire
check to robbery, either by the dread of punishment, or by any method
that could be adopted by the most vigilant police, they considered it
more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice
should be made in order to secure the restitution of the remainder,
than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen, and
discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss.

And that the Egyptians, like the Indians, and we may say the modern
inhabitants of the Nile, were very expert in the art of stealing, we
have abundant testimony from ancient authors.

It may be asked, what redress could be obtained, if goods were stolen
by thieves who failed to enter their names on the books of the chief;
but it is evident that there could be few of those private
speculators, since by their interfering with the interests of all the
_profession_, the detection of such egotistical persons would have
been certain; and thus all others were effectually prevented from
robbing, save those of the privileged class.

The salary of the chief was not merely derived from his own demands
upon the goods stolen, or from any voluntary contribution of the
robbers themselves, but was probably a fixed remuneration granted by
the government, as one of the chiefs of the police; nor is it to be
supposed that he was any other than a respectable citizen, and a man
of integrity and honor. The same may be said of the modern "_shekh_ of
the thieves," at Cairo, where this very ancient office is still
retained.

The great confidence reposed in the public weighers rendered it
necessary to enact suitable laws in order to bind them to their duty;
and considering how much public property was at their mercy, and how
easily bribes might be taken from a dishonest tradesman, the Egyptians
inflicted a severe punishment as well on the weighers as on the
shopkeepers, who were found to have false weights and measures, or to
have defrauded the customer in any other way; a