Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its
attendants and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment
to a score of different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost
approached the dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which
adorned each one, a living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers,
dancers, buffoons and dwarfs whiled away the tedious hours. Many were
the physicians, chaplains, soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed
was the army of officials connected with the administration of public
affairs. The mainspring of all this machinery was the writer, or, as we
call him, the scribe, across whom we come in all grades of the staff.

The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the
elementary rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the
scribe takes the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a
talented scribe rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was
removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and
was ennobled.


_V.--The Memphite Empire_


At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All
we know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the