Among the quaint frescoes of antiquity, there is one that has no word of explanation. There are many such murals in Egyptian tombs, and the cattle also figure often in the pictures on the papyri. (See Plate 9.) This fresco, however, was quite unique. Across the scene there parade fourteen cattle. The first seven are round, fat and in fine condition. They are followed by seven of the skinniest cows that ever ambled on four legs! No word of explanation is needed to clarify this scene for those who are familiar with the history of that time. There is another mural showing the chief baker of Pharaoh, followed by his servants and porters. In his hand he holds a receipt for the one hundred thousand loaves that were daily delivered to the palace of Pharaoh. These “loaves” were in the nature of large buns. The multiplicity of these paintings would require a volume to delineate carefully, but there is information here that cannot be passed over in silence. They bring to us the solution of one of those mysteries of Egyptian history, which is found in the collapse of the feudal system and the consequent complete possession of the land by the crown. We can now read from the secular evidences thus derived, that in a time of plenty a trusted lieutenant of the king built granaries to store the surplus left over from the time of plenty. Of course, to our enlightened times or in the culture of this generation, that is the height of ignorance. The proper thing to do in a time plenty is to _destroy_ the surplus and plow under the excess. We sometimes wonder what would have happened in Egypt if our modern culture had prevailed in the seven years of plenty, in the light of the famine that followed! We now find that when the whole land hungered, the lords ceded their real estate to the crown for grain to keep themselves and their families alive. The people sold themselves to Pharaoh and became slaves, on condition that he feed them as he would his cattle. When this time of famine was ended, Egypt was so absolute a monarchy that Pharaoh owned even the bodies of those who had been his subjects.