INSCRIPTIONS 65 



Or again, equally from an inscription in Upper 

 Egypt: 



"I was a wise man, my soul loved God. I was a 

 brother to the great men and a father to the humble 

 ones, and never was a mischief-maker." 

 Or again, from a priest's tomb in Sais: 

 "I honored my father, I esteemed my mother, I 

 loved my brethren, I found graves for the unburied 

 dead. I instructed little children. I took care of 

 orphans as though they were my own children. For 

 great misfortunes were upon Egypt in my time, and on 

 this city of Sais." 



Or again, from the tomb of a prince at Ben-Hassan: 

 "What I have done I will say. My goodness and 

 my kindness were ample. I never oppressed the father- 

 less, nor the widow. I did not treat cruelly the fisher- 

 men, the shepherds, or the poor laborers. There was 

 nowhere in my time hunger or want. For I cultivated 

 all my fields, far and near, in order that their inhabi- 

 tants might have food. I never preferred the great 

 and powerful to the humble and poor, but did equal 

 justice to all." 



Or lastly, from a King's tomb at Thebes : 

 " I lived in truth, and fed my soul with justice. What 

 I did to men was done in peace, and how I loved God, 

 God and my heart well know. I have given bread to 

 the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, 

 and a shelter to the strangers. I honored the gods with 

 sacrifices and the dead with offerings." 



Is it strange that among a people whose religion 



