This monarch, instead of putting robbers to death, instituted a novel mode of punishing them, by cutting off their noses and banishing them to the confines of the desert, where a town was built, called Rhinocolura, from the peculiar nature of their punishment; and thus, by removing the bad, and preventing their corrupting the good, he benefited society, without depriving the criminals of life; at the same time that he punished them severely for their crimes, by obliging them to live by their labors, and derive a precarious sustenance from quails, or whatever they could catch, in that barren region. Commutation of punishment was the foundation of this part of the convict system of Egypt, and Rhinocolura was their Norfolk Island, where a sea of sand separated the worst felons from those guilty of smaller crimes; who were transported to the mines in the desert, and condemned to work for various terms, according to their offence. The Egyptians had a singular custom respecting theft and burglary. Those who followed the _profession_ of thief gave in their names to the chief of the robbers; and agreed that he should be informed of every thing they might thenceforward steal, the moment it was in their possession. In consequence of this the owner of the lost goods always applied by letter to the chief for their recovery; and having stated their quality and quantity, the day and hour when they were stolen, and other requisite particulars, the goods were identified, and, on payment of one quarter of their value, they were restored to the applicant in the same state as when taken from his house. For being fully persuaded of the impracticability of putting an entire check to robbery, either by the dread of punishment, or by any method that could be adopted by the most vigilant police, they considered it more for the advantage of the community that a certain sacrifice should be made in order to secure the restitution of the remainder, than that the law, by taking on itself to protect the citizen, and discover the offender, should be the indirect cause of greater loss. And that the Egyptians, like the Indians, and we may say the modern inhabitants of the Nile, were very expert in the art of stealing, we have abundant testimony from ancient authors. It may be asked, what redress could be obtained, if goods were stolen by thieves who failed to enter their names on the books of the chief; but it is evident that there could be few of those private speculators, since by their interfering with the interests of all the _profession_, the detection of such egotistical persons would have been certain; and thus all others were effectually prevented from robbing, save those of the privileged class.