* Even after death they remained inscribed on the registers
     of the palace, and had rations served out to them every day
     as funeral offerings.

[Illustration:  052.jpg THE DWARF KHNUMHOTPU, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE ROYAL LINEN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
     Bey; the original is at Gizeh

If one had held a post in the royal household, however low the occupation, it was something to be proud of all one’s life, and after death to boast of in one’s epitaph.  The chiefs to whom this army of servants rendered obedience at times rose from the ranks; on some occasion their master had noticed them in the crowd, and had transferred them, some by a single promotion, others by slow degrees, to the highest offices of the state.  Many among them, however, belonged to old families, and held positions in the palace which their fathers and grandfathers had occupied before them, some were members of the provincial nobility, distant descendants of former royal princes and princesses, more or less nearly related to the reigning sovereign.*

* It was the former who, I believe, formed the class of rokhu suton so often mentioned on the monuments.  This title is generally supposed to have been a mark of relationship with the royal family.  M. de Rouge proved long ago that this was not so, and that functionaries might bear this title even though they were not blood relations of the Pharaohs.  It seems to me to have been used to indicate a class of courtiers whom the king condescended to “know” (rokhu) directly, without the intermediary of a chamberlain, the “persons known by the king;” the others were only his “friends” (samiru).

They had been sought out to be the companions of his education and of his pastimes, while he was still living an obscure life in the “House of the Children;” he had grown up with them and had kept them about his person as his “sole friends” and counsellors.  He lavished titles and offices upon them by the dozen, according to the confidence he felt in their capacity or to the amount of faithfulness with which he credited them.  A few of the most favoured were called “Masters of the Secret of the Royal House;” they knew all the innermost recesses of the palace, all the passwords needed in going from one part of it to another, the place where the royal treasures were kept, and the modes of access to it.  Several of them were “Masters of the Secret of all the Royal Words,” and had authority over the high courtiers of the palace, which gave them the power of banishing whom they pleased from the person of the sovereign.  Upon others devolved the task of arranging his amusements; they rejoiced the heart of his Majesty by pleasant songs, while the chiefs of the sailors and soldiers kept watch over his safety.  To these active services were attached honorary privileges which were highly esteemed, such as the right to retain their sandals