ARMY. 1 5 



temples were closed ; lamentations filled the air : and 

 the people fasted, abstaining from flesh and wine, 

 cooked food, ointments, baths, and the company of 

 their wives. 



The Army appears to have been severely disciplined. 

 To run twenty miles before breakfast was part of the 

 ordinary drill. The amusements of the soldiers were 

 athletic sports and martial games. Yet they were 

 not merely fighting men : they were also farmers ; 

 each warrior received from the state twelve acres of 

 choice land : these gave him a solid interest in the 

 prosperity of the fatherland and in the maintenance of 

 civil peace. 



The most powerful of the three estates was un- 

 doubtedly the Church. In the priesthood were in- 

 cluded not only the ministers of religion, but also the 

 whole civil service and the liberal professions. Priests 

 were the royal chroniclers and keepers of the records, 

 the engravers of inscriptions, physicians of the sick 

 and embalmers of the dead ; lawyers and lawgivers, 

 sculptors and musicians. Most of the skilled labour 

 of the country was under their control. In their hands 

 were the linen manufactories and the quarries between 

 the Cataracts. Even those posts in the army which 

 required a knowledge of arithmetic and penmanship 

 were supplied by them : every general was attended 

 by young priest scribes, with papyrus rolls in their 

 hands and reed pencils behind their ears. The clergy 

 preserved the monopoly of the arts which they had 

 invented ; the whole intellectual life of Egypt was in 

 them. It was they who, with their Nilometers, took 

 the measure of the waters, proclaimed good harvests 

 to the people, or bade them prepare for hungry days. 

 It was they who studied the diseases of the country, 



