* The registers (for the most part unpublished), which are contained in European museums show us that fishermen paid in fish, gardeners in flowers and vegetables, etc., the taxes or tribute which they owed to their lords. In the great inscription of Abydos the weavers attached to the temple of Seti I. are stated to have paid their tribute in stuffs. [Illustration: 098.jpg TWO BLACKSMITHS WORKING THE BELLOWS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, Monumenti Civili, pl. 2 a. Their lot was a hard one, if we are to believe the description which ancient writers have handed down to us: “I have never seen a blacksmith on an embassy--nor a smelter sent on a mission--but what I have seen is the metal worker at his toil,--at the mouth of the furnace of his forge,--his fingers as rugged as the crocodile,--and stinking more than fish-spawn.--The artisan of any kind who handles the chisel,--does not employ so much movement as he who handles the hoe;* * The literal translation would be, “The artisan of all kinds who handles the chisel is more motionless than he who handles the hoe.” Both here, and in several other passages of this little satiric poem, I have been obliged to paraphrase the text in order to render it intelligible to the modern reader. [Illustration: 099.jpg STONE-CUTTERS FINISHING THE DRESSING OF LIMESTONE BLOCKS] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, _Monumenti civili_, pl. xlviii. 2. --but for him his fields are the timber, his business is the metal,--and at night when the other is free,--he, he works with his hands over and above what he has already done,--for at night, he works at home by the lamp.--The stone-cutter who seeks his living by working in all kinds of durable stone,--when at last he has earned something--and his two arms are worn out, he stops;--but if at sunrise he remain sitting,--his legs are tied to his back.* --The barber who shaves until the evening,--when he falls to and eats, it is without sitting down** --while running from street to street to seek custom;--if he is constant [at work] his two arms fill his belly--as the bee eats in proportion to its toil.--Shall I tell thee of the mason--how he endures misery?--Exposed to all the winds--while he builds without any garment but a belt--and while the bunch of lotus-flowers [which is fixed] on the [completed] houses--is still far out of his reach,*** * This is an allusion to the cruel manner in which the Egyptians were accustomed to bind their prisoners, as it were in a bundle, with the legs bent backward along the back and attached to the arms. The working-day commenced then, as now, at sunrise, and lasted till sunset, with a short interval of one or two hours at midday for the workmen’s dinner and siesta.