one was long or short, built of stone or of wood, supported on arches or boldly flung across the stream from bank to bank, we cannot even conjecture.  This bridge, close under the very walls of Zaru,[4] crossed the canal which separated the eastern frontier of Egypt from the desert regions of Arabia Petraea.  A fortified enclosure protected this canal on the Asiatic side, as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig. 42).  The maintenance of public highways, which figures as so costly an item in the expenses of modern nations, played, therefore, but a very small part in the annual disbursements of the Pharaohs, who had only to provide for the due execution of three great branches of government works,—­namely, storage, irrigation, mining and quarrying.

[Illustration:  Fig. 42.—­Canal and bridge, Zaru, Karnak.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 43.—­Cellar, with amphorae.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 44.—­Granary.]

The taxation of ancient Egypt was levied in kind, and government servants were paid after the same system.  To workmen, there were monthly distributions of corn, oil, and wine, wherewith to support their families; while from end to end of the social scale, each functionary, in exchange for his labour, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured goods, and certain quantities of copper or precious metals.  Thus it became necessary that the treasury officials should have the command of vast storehouses for the safe keeping of the various goods collected under the head of taxation.  These were classified and stored in separate quarters, each storehouse being surrounded by walls and guarded by vigilant keepers.  There was enormous stabling for cattle; there were cellars where the amphorae were piled in regular layers (fig. 43), or hung in rows upon the walls, each with the date written on the side of the jar; there were oven-shaped granaries where the corn was poured in through a trap at the top (fig. 44), and taken out through a trap at the bottom.  At Thuku, identified with Pithom by M. Naville,[5] the store-chambers (A) are rectangular and of different dimensions (fig. 45), originally divided by floors, and having no communication with each other.  Here the corn had to be not only put in but taken out through the aperture at the top.  At the Ramesseum, Thebes, thousands of ostraka and jar-stoppers found upon the spot prove that the brick-built remains at the back of the temple were the cellars of the local deity.  The ruins consist of a series of vaulted chambers, originally surmounted by a platform or terrace (fig. 46).  At Philae, Ombos, Daphnae,[6] and most of the frontier towns of the Delta, there were magazines of this description, and many more will doubtless be discovered when made the object of serious exploration.

[Illustration:  Fig. 45.—­Plan of Pithom.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 46.—­Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 47.—­Dike at Wady Gerraweh.]