[9] A careful examination of these tablets has yet to be made; at present we are without any information as to their probable uses. The authors of the _Description_ thought it likely that they were meant to receive metal trophies of some kind. They might have been covered with a painted decoration, or they might have been intended to be cut into barred windows and left unfinished. In the photographs the stone of which they are made seems to be different in grain from the rest of the walls. It is difficult to admit that such a building as this was never utilized. We may well believe that it was never built for permanent occupation, but we must not therefore conclude that chambers so well lighted and so richly decorated were without their proper and well-defined uses. The floors of the first and second stories have disappeared, but that they once existed is proved by the staircase, part of which is still in place. The floors were of wood; the stairs of stone. The general economy of the building shows that it was intended that every room, from the ground-floor to the topmost story, should be used when occasion arose. It is possible that they were employed as reception rooms for the princes and vassal chiefs who came together several times a year for the celebration of funerary rites. In chambers richly decorated like these, and, doubtless, richly furnished also, people of rank could meet together and await at their ease their turn to take part in the ceremonies.[10] [10] EBERS, _L'Égypte, du Caire à Philæ_, pp. 317-318. Although the pavilion of Medinet-Abou may, then, have no right to the name of palace, the foregoing observations have justified their position in this chapter by helping us to understand some of the conditions imposed upon the Egyptian architect when he had to meet civil wants. Some of our readers may have expected to find, in this chapter, a description of a more famous monument, of that _Labyrinth_ of which Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo wrote in such enthusiastic terms.[11] [11] HERODOTUS, ii. 148; DIODORUS SICULUS, i. 64; STRABO, xvii. 37. [Illustration: Chipiez del Hibon sc. THEBES THE PAVILION OF MEDINET-ABOU Restored by Ch Chipiez]