2 
TAJfIS. 
the usurping Si-amen, and of the magnificent 
egotist Ramessu II., is still unknown to us ; and 
we can only yet imagine wdiat interest may await 
us when we reach the dwellings of the people 
who lived around the splendid temple which lies 
in the midst of the mounds. This temple, a 
thousand feet from end to end, stood up above 
the surrounding houses ; and over its long flat 
roof towered up the colossal statue of the second 
founder of the city, the great Ramessu, head, 
shoulders, and body even, above everything else, 
with stony eyes gazing across the vast plain. 
This temple was worthy of the capital of Lower 
Egypt, replete with noble statues of the older 
kings, of the most magnificent work, and domi¬ 
nated in every part by the royal splendour of the 
Smiter of Nations, the Strong Bull, the Destroyer 
of His Enemies, Ramessu, Beloved of Amon. 
But beneath the capital of Ramessu there must 
lie the older town, the town of the bearded 
Hyksos, the fishy people, the worshippers of 
Sutekh, who honoured and adorned the early 
temple; and yet, beneath that again, the town 
of Amenemhat and Usertesen, of the great kings 
who first established this as their capital, to hold 
in check the pushing Semitic invaders; the kings 
who one by one, as they mounted the throne of 
the two lands, added their statues to the figures 
of the Great Gods in the temple—statues of 
colossal size, carved in the hardest rocks, with 
severe simplicity, and yet the most brilliant 
finish. And even before them some town existed 
here,—Zoan, built seven years after Hebron,— 
of which no trace is now visible. This large sand 
island in the midst of the mud, by the side of 
the river, doubtless had a settlement on it of 
either the invaders or the defenders from the first 
days when the Semitic tribes began to take their 
footing in Egypt, and to press on its rich and 
well-cultivated plains, which formed so tempting 
a prey. 
2. To examine this district, and to excavate 
at San, I went down by boat from Fakus on the 
4tli of February, 1884, and lived at San, in tent 
or house, until the 23rd of June; only leaving 
for two short trips to neighbouring Tells during 
that time. Communication with the outer world 
was kept up by sending a man forty miles—to 
Fakus and back—every week, and only once did 
any European come down to that out of the way 
place while I was there. 
For the first fortnight I lived in a tent, close 
by the village of San ; but afterwards I moved up 
to a room that I had built on the top of the 
mounds, some sixty feet above the river level; 
and, gradually completing my house there, I had 
at last a little block of buildings of a defensible 
form, with only one outer door, and comprising 
six rooms around a courtyard; the rooms being 
about six by eight feet each, and four of them 
serving for me and the stores and finds, while the 
other two housed my overseers. From my room 
I could see the temple through the open doors, 
so as to watch the workers, with a telescope, 
when I needed to be up in the house. No 
difficulty was found in getting labourers ; within 
a week of reaching San, I had over fifty, men, 
girls and boys, and the numbers varied up to 
180. During the harvest, of course, they had to 
work in their fields, and I had but thirty children 
left; but usually there was a party of new hands 
waiting to be taken on every morning. The 
difficulty was to avoid overstocking ; as, in that 
case, so little attention could be given to each 
that they would not feel kept in hand, and would 
deteriorate, and become .laz 3 ^ The engagement 
of each man, allotting the work to him, keep¬ 
ing account of his time, and paying him, was 
attended to by myself; thus there was no 
opening for native favouritism, bakhshish, or 
oheatery. The only duty of my Arab overseers 
was to watch the men, see that they kept to 
work, obseiwe what w'as found, and make any 
little changes needed from hour to hour ; but I 
saw every labourer at least twice, and often four 
times, a day. Thus I knew every one about the 
place, and kept up a friendly intercourse with 
