When the time arrived that the Storehouses of the King were required to be tapped, and food distributed to the famine-stricken people, the exterior of these buildings was left entire, and the operation of taking out the grain carried on by means of long shafts bored in the adjacent ground to a depth reaching the foundation of the Pyramid, where there were openings from which the contents could be tapped. These could be opened and shut at pleasure, as Joseph ordered that all the granaries should be closed with the exception of one, where he hoped to see his brothers when they came to buy corn in Egypt. Colonel Howard Vyse gives a description of one of these entrances, thus:—“The Pyramid of Saccara. This Pyramid was built in steps, or degrees, and was entered from a sort of well, or shaft, made in the sand on the northern side. The passage, which was long and winding, and apparently in many places forced, led to a lofty chamber, in the roof of which wood had been employed. Various forced passages wound around this chamber, and conducted to openings, or windows, which looked down into it from a considerable height.[26] These passages were much encumbered with rubbish, pieces of alabaster, and decayed wood; and in one place there was an accumulation of large blocks of polished granite, raised up by small fragments of stone sufficiently high to admit of a man’s crawling beneath them. For what purpose they were so placed we did not find out.” CHAPTER V. THE HEBREWS IN EGYPT. In the Talmud it is recorded that after Joseph’s marriage with Asenath, daughter of Potipherah the priest of On, “he built for himself a palace, elegant and complete in its details and surroundings, so elaborate that three years’ time was required for its completion.” A man so wise and so powerful as to be looked upon by the Egyptians as their king was certainly able to make a suitable provision for the anticipated advent of his beloved father, as well as for all his brothers, who came with their entire households, and possessions in flocks and herds, &c., for the famine was over the whole earth.