Ist Dynasty, and had they done this, they would have made the authority
of Khnemu over the Nile coaeval with Dynastic civilization. It is
impossible to assume that no great famine took place in Egypt between
the reign of Tcheser and the period when the inscription was made, and
when we consider this fact the choice by the editor of the legend of a
famine which took place under the IIIrd Dynasty to illustrate the power
of Khnemu seems inexplicable.

Of the famines which must have taken place in the Dynastic period the
inscriptions tell us nothing, but the story of the seven years' famine
mentioned in the Book of Genesis shows that there is nothing improbable
in a famine lasting so long in Egypt. Arab historians also mention
several famines which lasted for seven years. That which took place in
the years 1066-1072 nearly ruined the whole country. A cake of bread
was sold for 15 dinanir, (the dinar = 10s.), a horse was sold for 20, a
dog for 5, a cat for 3, and an egg for 1 dinar. When all the animals
were eaten men began to eat each other, and human flesh was sold in
public. "Passengers were caught in the streets by hooks let down from
the windows, drawn up, killed, and cooked."[FN#45] During the famine
which began in 1201 people ate human flesh habitually. Parents killed
and cooked their own children, and a wife was found eating her husband
raw. Baby fricassee and haggis of children's heads were ordinary
articles of diet. The graves even were ransacked for food. An ox sold
for 70 dinanir. [FN#46]



[FN#45] Lane Poole, Middle Ages, p. 146.

[FN#46] Ibid., p. 216.