34 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



sions of the monuments he describes hi Egypt, are 

 far from satisfactory. Nor is the schoene accu- 

 rately defined ; and Strabo *, on the authority of 

 Artemidorus, states that the length of the schoene 

 varied among the Egyptians. 



CULTIVATION OF THE LANDS. 



Of the nomes, or provinces, of Egypt I have al- 

 ready treated t ; and have shown that the nomarchs, 

 who were similar to *' the officers appointed over 

 the land " by Pharaoh t, and answered to the bei/s 

 of the present system, superintended all the agri- 

 cultural regulations, established for the interests 

 of the peasant, or connected with the claims of 

 government. I do not believe that the govern- 

 ment interfered directly with the peasant respect- 

 ing the nature of the })roduce he cultivated, or 

 that any of the vexations of later times existed 

 under the Pharaohs. The peasants were natu- 

 rally supposed to have obtained, from actual observ- 

 ation, the most accurate knowledge on all subjects 

 connected with husbandry ; and, as Diodorus ob- 

 serves §, " being from their infancy brought up to 

 agricultural pursuits, they far excelled the hus- 

 bandmen of other countries, and had become ac- 

 quainted with the capabilities of the land, the mode 

 of irrigation, the exact season for sowing and reap- 

 ing, as well as all the most useful secrets connected 

 with the harvest, which they had derived from 



* Strabo, xvii. p. 553. f Vol. II. p. 72. 75. 



X Gen. xli. .31. ^ Dioclor. i. 72. 



