hall of six columns in two rows, the front being open to the air, while at the back was a door which gave entrance to the _bêt el mâl_ or treasury. [Illustration: Fig. 15. THE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE SEAL. (From a painting in a tomb at Beni Hasan.)] About the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty a great change appears to have taken place in the political constitution of Egypt; we no longer hear of the Chieftains of Nomes or Provinces, and it seems that the Government, for a short time at least, became much more strictly centralized than it had ever been before. With this centralization of the administration several new offices were created, the provincial “Keepers of the (Royal) Seal” appear to have been suppressed, and _adenus_, “wakîls” or “deputies” of the Chief Keeper, appointed in their stead. The Treasury Department, however, was still presided over by a single[57] “Keeper of the Royal Seal,” who henceforth was one of the most important and powerful personages in the realm;[58] he became, in fact, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,[59] an Lord Chancellor, Keeper of the Seal. Unfortunately we have no long inscription recording this great official’s duties, as we have in the case of the Vezîr,[60] so it is only by gathering a fact here and there from many sources that we can obtain any idea of his multifarious duties. That he had charge of the Government stores, and supervised everything connected with the _bêt el mâl_ or Treasury, is certain;[61] he had also to be responsible for the payment of all Government bills. If any important public monument had to be erected,[62] or if any government business was to be undertaken, it was his duty, together with his staff of assistants, to make all necessary arrangements regarding the payment of the employés, which must have been a most onerous task, when we remember that the Egyptians possessed no coined money until after the time of Alexander the Great. The supervision of the taxation of the country appears also to have been placed in the Chancellor’s hands, and it was his custom, as it still is with the heads of the departments of the various services of the Khedive’s administration, to make an annual tour of inspection throughout the length and breadth of the country.[63] In time of war a number of his officers accompanied the military expeditions, and when a town was plundered by the royal troops, they took possession of the spoil, some of which was kept for the Treasury, while the rest was given to the temples as an offering to the gods.[64]