484 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



pyramids 1 ." In most regions a general fusion of native and 

 foreign peoples results in conformity to a new type different from 

 the old ; but in Egypt the foreign elements, even without com- 

 mingling, tend to conform, i.e. converge towards the old Retus 

 prototype. It is clear therefore that the Retus themselves are the 

 outcome of their environment, and to that extent true aborigines, 

 and not Kushite immigrants from Asia at the close of the New 

 Stone Age. Nor is it likely that any fresh discoveries can now be 

 made which will invalidate this conclusion. 



Yet, except the priestly and military castes, on whom the king 

 relied for support, the whole of the population, 

 Condition. whether nominally free or slaves, were doomed to a 

 life of incessant toil, relieved from monotony by the 

 irregular visits of the taxgatherer, when there were meanings and 

 weeping throughout the land. " Shall I tell thee of the mason, 

 how he endures misery? exposed to all the winds, while he builds 

 without any garment but a belt, and while the bunch of lotus 

 flowers [which is fixed] on the [completed] houses, is still far out 

 of his reach, his two arms are worn out with work, his provisions 

 are placed higgledy-piggledy amongst his refuse... when the work 

 is quite finished, if he has bread he returns home, and his children 

 have been beaten unmercifully [during his absence].... The shoe- 

 maker moans ceaselessly, and he gnaws the leather. The baker 

 ...subjects the loaves to the fire... while his head is inside the oven 

 his son holds him by the legs if he slips he falls there into the 

 flames' 2 ." 



" The determination not to pay the taxes except under the 

 stick was proverbial from ancient times. Whoever paid his dues 

 before he had received a merciless beating would be overwhelmed 

 with reproaches by his family, and jeered at without pity by his 

 neighbours... When the tax fell due... for several days there was 

 nothing to be heard but protestations, threats, beatings, cries of 

 pain from the taxpayers, and piercing lamentations from women 

 and children. The performance over, calm was reestablished, 

 and the good people, binding up their wounds, resumed their 



1 Laing, Hitman Origins, p. 399. 



2 Sellier Papyrus, quoted by Maspero, p. 313. 



