to endow his family suitably.  His only son was already provided for, thanks to the munificence of Pharaoh; he had begun his administrative career by holding the same post of scribe, in addition to the office of provision registrar, which his father had held, and over and above these he received by royal grant, four portions of cornland with their population and stock.  Amten gave twelve portions to his other children and fifty to his mother Nibsonit, by means of which she lived comfortably in her old age, and left an annuity for maintaining worship at her tomb.  He built upon the remainder of the land a magnificent villa, of which he has considerately left us the description.  The boundary wall formed a square of 350 feet on each face, and consequently contained a superficies of 122,500 square feet.  The well-built dwelling-house, completely furnished with all the necessities of life, was surrounded by ornamental and fruit-bearing trees,—­the common palm, the nebbek, fig trees, and acacias; several ponds, neatly bordered with greenery, afforded a habitat for aquatic birds; trellised vines, according to custom, ran in front of the house, and two plots of ground, planted with vines in full bearing, amply supplied the owner with wine every year.

[Illustration:  075.jpg PLAN OF THE VILLA OF A GREAT EGYPTIAN NOBLE]

     This plan is taken from a Theban tomb of the XVIIIth
     dynasty; but it corresponds exactly with the description
     which Amten has left us of his villa.

It was there, doubtless, that Amten ended his days in peace and quietude of mind.  The tableland whereon the Sphinx has watched for so many centuries was then crowned by no pyramids, but mastabas of fine white stone rose here and there from out of the sand:  that in which the mummy of Amten was to be enclosed was situated not far from the modern village of Abusir, on the confines of the nome of the Haunch, and almost in sight of the mansion in which his declining years were spent.*

* The site of Amten’s manorial mansion is nowhere mentioned in the inscriptions; but the custom of the Egyptians to construct their tombs as near as possible to the places where they resided, leads me to consider it as almost certain that we ought to look for its site in the Memphite plain, in the vicinity of the town of Abusir, but in a northern direction, so as to keep within the territory of the Letopolite nome, where Amten governed in the name of the king.

The number of persons of obscure origin, who in this manner had risen in a few years to the highest honours, and died governors of provinces or ministers of Pharaoh, must have been considerable.  Their descendants followed in their fathers’ footsteps, until the day came when royal favour or an advantageous marriage secured them the possession of an hereditary fief, and transformed the son or grandson of a prosperous scribe into a feudal lord.  It was from people of this class, and from the children of the Pharaoh,