the Granaries,” or “Directors of the Armoury.”  There was no law against pluralists, and more than one of them boasts on his tomb of having held simultaneously five or six offices.  These storehouses participated like all the other dependencies of the crown, in that duality which characterized the person of the Pharaoh.  They would be called in common parlance, the Storehouse or the Double White Storehouse, the Storehouse or the Double Gold Storehouse, the Double Warehouse, the Double Granary.

[Illustration:  061.jpg MEASURING THE WHEAT AND DEPOSITING IT IN THE GRANARIES]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene on the tomb of Amoni at Beni-Hasan.  On the right, near the door, is a heap of grain, from which the measurer fills his measure in order to empty it into the sack which one of the porters holds open.  In the centre is a train of slaves ascending the stairs which lead to the loft above the granaries; one of them empties his sack into a hole above the granary in the presence of the overseer.  The inscriptions in ink on the outer wall of the receptacles, which have already been filled, indicate the number of measures which each one of them contains.

The large towns, as well as the capital, possessed their double storehouses and their store-chambers, into which were gathered the products of the neighbourhood, but where a complete staff of employes was not always required:  in such towns we meet with “localities” in which the commodities were housed merely temporarily.  The least perishable part of the provincial dues was forwarded by boat to the royal residence,* and swelled the central treasury.

* The boats employed for this purpose formed a flotilla, and their commanders constituted a regularly organized transport corps, who are frequently to be found represented on the monuments of the New Empire, carrying tribute to the residence of the king or of the prince, whose retainers they were.

The remainder was used on the spot for paying workman’s wages, and for the needs of the Administration.  We see from the inscriptions, that the staffs of officials who administered affairs in the provinces was similar to that in the royal city.  Starting from the top, and going down to the bottom of the scale, each functionary supervised those beneath him, while, as a body, they were all responsible for their depot.  Any irregularity in the entries entailed the bastinado; peculators were punished by imprisonment, mutilation, or death, according to the gravity of the offence.  Those whom illness or old age rendered unfit for work, were pensioned for the remainder of their life.

[Illustration:  063.jpg PLAN OF A PRINCELY STOREHOUSE FOR PROVISIONS]