low rate of wages occasioned, at fixed periods, outbursts of discontent and trouble which ended in actual disturbances. The rations allowed to each workman, and given to him at the beginning of each month, would possibly have been sufficient for himself and his family, but, owing to the usual lack of foresight in the Egyptian, they were often consumed long before the time fixed, and the pinch soon began to be felt. The workmen, demoralised by their involuntary abstinence, were not slow to turn to the overseer; “We are perishing of hunger, and there are still eighteen days before the next month.” The latter was prodigal of fair speeches, but as his words were rarely accompanied by deeds, the workmen would not listen to him; they stopped work, left the workshop in turbulent crowds, ran with noisy demonstrations to some public place to hold a meeting--perhaps the nearest monument, at the gate of the temple of Thûtmosis III.,** behind the chapel of Mînephtah,*** or in the court of that of Seti I. * This is how I translate a fairly common expression, which means literally, “to be put on the wood.” Spiegelberg sees in this only a method of administering torture. ** Perhaps the chapel of Uazmôsû, or possibly the free space before the temple of Deîr el-Baharî. *** The site of this chapel was discovered by Prof. Petrie in the spring of 1896. It had previously been supposed to be a temple of Amenôthes III. Their overseers followed them; the police commissioners of the locality, the Mazaîû, and the scribes mingled with them and addressed themselves to some of the leaders with whom they might be acquainted. But these would not at first give them a hearing. “We will not return,” they would say to the peacemakers; “make it clear to your superiors down below there.” It must have been manifest that from their point of view their complaints were well founded, and the official, who afterwards gave an account of the affair to the authorities, was persuaded of this. “We went to hear them, and they spoke true words to us.” For the most part these strikes had no other consequence than a prolonged stoppage of work, until the distribution of rations at the beginning of the next month gave the malcontents courage to return to their tasks. Attempts were made to prevent the recurrence of these troubles by changing the method and time of payments. These were reduced to an interval of fifteen days, and at length, indeed, to one of eight. The result was very much the same as before: the workman, paid more frequently, did not on that account become more prudent, and the hours of labour lost did not decrease. The individual man, if he had had nobody to consider but himself, might have put up with the hardships of his situation, but there were almost always wife and children or sisters concerned, who clamoured for bread in their hunger, and all the while the storehouses