DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5066#0053
24 THE COURT OFFICIALS ch. ii.
countless host of scribes, while the duties of personal
attendance upon the king were performed by inferior
officials controlled by the high steward. The boy
distinguished by early intelligence, and who gave good
promise for the future, was associated with the king's
children as their companion in play and lessons, while
a guardian of noble family superintended the ' house of
the king's children,' on whom devolved heavy respon-
sibility for the bodily health, for the education and
discipline of the royal children.
The queen and the other ladies of the royal family
were for the most part honoured with the sacred dignity
of ' prophetess of the goddesses Hathor and Nit;' they
lived in the ' women's houses,' guarded by free men
chosen by the king, and it was permitted to the princesses
to ally themselves in marriage with some of the great
nobles.
The duty of attending to the buildings and all kinds
of work in stone belonged to skilled persons of the
noble class. In the caverns of the mountain of Turah,
opposite to Memphis, they quarried limestone for build-
ing the royal pyramids and tombs, and for the artistic
work of the sarcophagi and columns ; or they resorted
to the southern region, to hew out the hard granite
from the Eed Mountain, behind the city of Aswan, and
constructed rafts for the conveyance of the vast masses
of stone to the lower country in the favourable season
of the inundation. The dreaded band of taskmasters
was set over the wretched people, who were urged to
speedy work more by the punishment of the stick than
by words of warning.
The inhabitants of the country in the extensive
environs of the towns, or in the villages of the open
plain, were kept in order by governors of nomes. The
■judges enforced strict obedience to the written law, and
countless host of scribes, while the duties of personal
attendance upon the king were performed by inferior
officials controlled by the high steward. The boy
distinguished by early intelligence, and who gave good
promise for the future, was associated with the king's
children as their companion in play and lessons, while
a guardian of noble family superintended the ' house of
the king's children,' on whom devolved heavy respon-
sibility for the bodily health, for the education and
discipline of the royal children.
The queen and the other ladies of the royal family
were for the most part honoured with the sacred dignity
of ' prophetess of the goddesses Hathor and Nit;' they
lived in the ' women's houses,' guarded by free men
chosen by the king, and it was permitted to the princesses
to ally themselves in marriage with some of the great
nobles.
The duty of attending to the buildings and all kinds
of work in stone belonged to skilled persons of the
noble class. In the caverns of the mountain of Turah,
opposite to Memphis, they quarried limestone for build-
ing the royal pyramids and tombs, and for the artistic
work of the sarcophagi and columns ; or they resorted
to the southern region, to hew out the hard granite
from the Eed Mountain, behind the city of Aswan, and
constructed rafts for the conveyance of the vast masses
of stone to the lower country in the favourable season
of the inundation. The dreaded band of taskmasters
was set over the wretched people, who were urged to
speedy work more by the punishment of the stick than
by words of warning.
The inhabitants of the country in the extensive
environs of the towns, or in the villages of the open
plain, were kept in order by governors of nomes. The
■judges enforced strict obedience to the written law, and