[Illustration:  068.jpg THE FUNERAL STELE OF THE TOMB OF AMTEN, THE “GRAND HUNTSMAN.”]

He obliged the taxpayer not only to deliver the exact number of measures prescribed as his quota, but also compelled him to deliver good measure in each case; a dishonest crier, on the contrary, could easily favour cheating, provided that he shared in the spoil.  Amten was at once “crier” and “taxer of the colonists” to the civil administrator of the Xoite nome:  he announced the names of the peasants and the payments they made, then estimated the amount of the local tax which each, according to his income, had to pay.  He distinguished himself so pre-eminently in these delicate duties, that the civil administrator of Xois made him one of his subordinates.  He became “Chief of the Ushers,” afterwards “Master Crier,” then “Director of all the King’s flax” in the Xoifce nome—­an office which entailed on him the supervision of the culture, cutting, and general preparation of flax for the manufacture which was carried on in Pharaoh’s own domain.  It was one of the highest offices in the Provincial Administration, and Amten must have congratulated himself on his appointment.

From that moment his career became a great one, and he advanced quickly.  Up to that time he had been confined in offices; he now left them to perform more active service.  The Pharaohs, extremely jealous of their own authority, usually avoided placing at the head of the nomes in their domain, a single ruler, who would have appeared too much like a prince; they preferred having in each centre of civil administration, governors of the town or province, as well as military commanders who were jealous of one another, supervised one another, counterbalanced one another, and did not remain long enough in office to become dangerous.  Amten held all these posts successively in most of the nomes situated in the centre or to the west of the Delta.  His first appointment was to the government of the village of Pidosu, an unimportant post in itself, but one which entitled him to a staff of office, and in consequence procured for him one of the greatest indulgences of vanity that an Egyptian could enjoy.  The staff was, in fact, a symbol of command which only the nobles, and the officials associated with the nobility, could carry without transgressing custom; the assumption of it, as that of the sword with us, showed every one that the bearer was a member of a privileged class.

[Illustration:  072.jpg STATUE OF AMTEN, FOUND IN HIS TOMB]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 120 a;
     the original is in the Berlin Museum.