walls, and in cultivating and irrigating the royal wheat-fields; aiding in hewing stone in the quarries, and in all other works of servitude: but as the making of bricks requires no intelligence, and as it was not the policy of Amunophis-Pharaoh to elevate their intellects, but the contrary, lest they should prove troublesome, they have chiefly been kept to this, the most degrading of all labor." "How long is it that they have been in this condition?" I asked. "About one hundred and five or six years have elapsed since the death of Prince Joseph. But they were gradually reduced to their present state. During the latter years only of Amunophis were their tasks increased. They, nevertheless, multiplied in such numbers that the king began to apprehend danger to his crown from their multitude." "Were there men among them who sought to free their fellows?" I inquired. "Always, and to this hour. They are a proud, haughty, resolute, and stubborn race. They bend to the yoke, indeed, but with hatred of the oppressor, not with the willing submission of the Libyan or Nubian captive. The king had reason to fear from the increase of their numbers, when he found the census of this people gave more than a million of souls, while the number of his own subjects in both provinces did not exceed six millions; his own Thebans not amounting to as many as the Hebrews numbered. Upon this he became alarmed, for he was about entering into a war with the kings of Syro-Arabia, and apprehended that being of the same Syrian stock they might join themselves to his enemies. He, therefore, increased their burdens and taskmasters in order to keep them in closer subjugation; but the more he oppressed them the more they multiplied. In relating these facts, O prince, do not think I approve of cruelty even in my royal ancestor. It was, no doubt, a great wrong in the beginning inflicted upon them, in making them servants, and the subsequent series of oppressions were but the natural results of the first act. It was one unmixed evil throughout. Having committed the manifest error in the outset, of enslaving them to the crown, it now became a necessary policy to prevent their dangerous increase. He would not send them with his army into Arabia lest they should join his enemies. He, therefore, to keep down their numbers, ordered all the male infants as soon as born to be put to death by the Egyptian women." "A dreadful alternative!" I exclaimed. "Yes, and one not to be defended," answered Remeses, in a decided tone. "But Amunophis, having caught the lion by the jaws, was compelled either to destroy him, or be destroyed himself. The result of the edict was, that many perished. The Nile, it is said, was constantly bearing down upon its bosom corpses of new-born Hebrew babes." "Dreadful!" I ejaculated.