men could successfully hold, as long as hunger and thirst did not enter into the question.  As the ordinary springs and wells would not have been sufficient to supply the needs of the colony, they had transformed the bottom of the valley into an artificial lake.  A dam thrown across it prevented the escape of the waters, which filled the reservoir more or less completely according to the season.  It never became empty, and several species of shellfish flourished in it—­among others, a kind of large mussel which the inhabitants generally used as food, which with dates, milk, oil, coarse bread, a few vegetables, and from time to time a fowl or a joint of meat, made up their scanty fare.  Other things were of the same primitive character.  The tools found in the village are all of flint:  knives, scrapers, saws, hammers, and heads of lances and arrows.  A few vases brought from Egypt are distinguished by the fineness of the material and the purity of the design; but the pottery in common use was made on the spot from coarse clay without care, and regardless of beauty.  As for jewellery, the villagers had beads of glass or blue enamel, and necklaces of strung cowrie-shells.  In the mines, as in their own houses, the workmen employed stone tools only, with handles of wood, or of plaited willow twigs, but their chisels or hammers were more than sufficient to cut the yellow sandstone, coarse-grained and very friable as it was, in the midst of which they worked.*

* E. H. Palmer, however, from his observations, is of opinion that the work in the tunnels of the mines was executed entirely by means of bronze chisels and tools; the flint implements serving only to incise the scenes which cover the surfaces of the rocks.

The tunnels running straight into the mountain were low and wide, and were supported at intervals by pillars of sandstone left in situ.  These tunnels led into chambers of various sizes, whence they followed the lead of the veins of precious mineral.  The turquoise sparkled on every side—­on the ceiling and on the walls—­and the miners, profiting by the slightest fissures, cut round it, and then with forcible blows detached the blocks, and reduced them to small fragments, which they crushed, and carefully sifted so as not to lose a particle of the gem.  The oxides of copper and of manganese which they met with here and elsewhere in moderate quantities, were used in the manufacture of those beautiful blue enamels of various shades which the Egyptians esteemed so highly.  The few hundreds of men of which the permanent population was composed, provided for the daily exigencies of industry and commerce.  Royal inspectors arrived from time to time to examine into their condition, to rekindle their zeal, and to collect the product of their toil.  When Pharaoh had need of a greater quantity than usual of minerals or turquoises, he sent thither one of his officers, with a select body of carriers, mining experts, and