Next let us see if that most ancient of all known civilized lands, Egypt, can produce from her store of monumental records any evidence for our purpose. Professor Brugsch[200], in his _History of Egypt under the Pharaohs_, gives from inscriptions a list of the prices of various commodities about 1000 B.C.: a slave cost 3 _ten_ 1 _ket_ of silver; an ox 1 _ket_ of silver (= 8 _ten_ of copper); a goat cost 2 _ten_ of copper; 1 pair of fowls (geese?) cost ⅓ _ten_ of copper; 1 _hotep_ of wheat cost 2 _ten_ of copper; 1 _tena_ of corn of Upper Egypt cost 5-7 _ten_ of copper; 1 _hotep_ of spelt 2 _ten_ of copper; 1 _hin_ of honey 8 _ket_ of copper; 50 acres of arable land 5 _ten_ of silver. Of course there must be more or less uncertainty about some of these statements owing to the imperfect knowledge which we as yet possess. At first sight the reader naturally wonders how it is possible to calculate the value of the ox as here given, which is only 1 ket of silver, that is, the Egyptian ox of 1000 _B.C._ was only worth 140 grains of _silver_, whilst an ox hitherto has been worth about the same amount in _gold_. At first sight this is enough to stagger us, but a moment’s reflection makes the matter very intelligible. We have already noticed (p. 59) that at a certain stage in the history of the metals silver was far scarcer than gold, and that its rarity combined with its beauty no doubt made it to be eagerly sought and held in great esteem. We saw that the Arabs of the Soudan down to the present day prefer silver to gold; whilst in the earlier part of the present century when Japan was opened to European commerce the Japanese eagerly exchanged gold for silver at the rate of one to three, and even less, as they possessed no native silver, and were charmed with the beauty of the little known metal[201]. Marco Polo also tells us that “in the province of Carajan (the modern Yunnan) gold is so plenty that they give a saggio of gold for only six of the same weight of silver;” and of the province of Zardandan, five days west of Carajan, he says, “I can tell you they give one weight of gold for only five of silver[202].”