talents, he relates the great care he took in its preservation. "For this purpose he constructed a stone edifice, one side of which was attached to the wall of his palace. But the architect he employed, with a dishonest view, so disposed one of the stones of the outer wall that two or even one man might easily remove it. The building being completed, the king there deposited his treasures in supposed security. Some time afterwards, the architect finding his end approaching, sent for his two sons, and told them how their future prosperity was provided for by an artifice he had adopted in building the king's treasury. He then explained all the secret of the stone; its dimensions and position; the mode of removing it; and, if they used proper caution, the certainty of participating in the royal wealth. After the death of their father, they were not long before they availed themselves of the advice he had given them; and repairing by night to the palace, they found the stone as described, and having easily removed it, they carried away a large sum of money. When the king entered the apartment he observed a sensible diminution of the gold in the vases; but as he had no suspicions of any person, and the lock and its seals were intact, he was greatly perplexed. At length, finding the same diminution continue, the thieves constantly repeating their visits, he resolved on placing traps round the vases which contained the money. They returned as usual, and one of them on going to the spot was caught in the trap. He instantly called to his brother; and explaining his

situation, he requested him without loss of time to cut off his head, as the only means of preventing detection and preserving his own life. The advice appeared good; and having overcome his scruples, he complied, replaced the stone, and ran home, carrying with him the head of his brother.

"As soon as it was light, the king entered the apartment; and seeing the body of a person without a head secured in the trap, the walls entire, and showing no place of exit or ingress, he was more astonished than ever. Still he hoped to unravel the mystery; and ordering the body to be exposed from the wall, he stationed guards on the spot, and directed them to seize and bring before him whoever should discover any symptoms of sorrow or compassion at the sight. The mother, exasperated at this treatment of her son's body, threatened the surviving brother if he did not contrive some means of removing and bringing it away, she would go herself to the king and accuse him as an accomplice in the robbery. In vain did he endeavour to excuse himself; at length, finding her determined, he had recourse to the following artifice:- He loaded some asses with skins of wine, and drove them to the place where the guards were stationed to watch the body of his brother. As soon as he approached them, he secretly drew the pegs from the mouths of two or three of the skins, and when the wine gushed out, he began to beat his head and to cry vehemently, running to and fro with pretended confusion, as if uncertain to which of the asses he should go first.

The soldiers perceiving the accident, ran with vessels; but instead of assisting him, all the wine they could save they considered themselves entitled to as their own. At first he abused them in apparent anger; then, feigning to be pacified by their endeavours to console him, he led his asses aside out of the road, put the skins in order, and began to enter into conversation with them. Affecting to be pleased with the drollery of one of them, he gave him a skin of wine; and having accepted their invitation to stay and drink with them, he sat down, and, to reward their civility, he added another. It was not long before the wine had its effect the soldiers became intoxicated and fell asleep, and as soon as night came on, he took down the body of his brother; and having shaved the right cheek of the guards, in derision, he put the body into a sack on one of his asses and drove home.

*

"When Rhampsinitus heard what had happened he was enraged beyond measure; but being resolved on discovering the robber, he is said to have had recourse to this stratagem, which to me appears very improbable. He commanded his daughter to receive every man indiscriminately, on condition he would tell her the most artful as well as the most wicked thing he had ever done; and if any one confessed the crime of which this robber had been guilty, she was to seize

* This, like the rest of the story, is very questionable. The Egyptian soldiers had no beards, and Herodotus himself allows that the Egyptians shaved, and only allowed "the hair of their head and beard to grow in mourning." ii. 36. That this last is true, is proved by the sculptures representing soldiers and other individuals.

him and prevent his escape. The daughter obeyed the orders of her father; and the thief guessing what was intended, prepared to thwart the artful scheme of the king. He cut off the arm of a body recently dead, which he concealed under his cloak during his visit to the princess; and when asked the same question as the rest, he replied that the most wicked thing he had ever done was to cut off the head of his brother who had been caught in a trap in the king's treasury, — the most artful thing, his making the guards drunk and removing the body.' She immediately endeavoured to apprehend him; but as it was dark, he held out the dead arm, and on her seizing it effected his escape. This being reported to the king, he was still more astonished at the art and audacity of the man, and issued a proclamation that if the offender would declare himself he should not only be pardoned, but rewarded handsomely. Trusting to his word, the thief presented himself before him, and Rhampsinitus, being much pleased with his address, gave him his daughter in marriage; for knowing the Egyptians to be superior in ingenuity to all other people, and finding he had surpassed even the Egyptians, he looked upon him as infinitely more clever than any other human being."

Such is the story told by Herodotus; but we must do him the justice to say he expresses his disbelief of it, as well as of the same king's visit to the lower regions, where Rhampsinitus was reported to have played at dice with the goddess Ceres, alternately winning and losing, and to have been

presented on leaving her with a napkin embroidered with gold. The period of his suppossed return was celebrated by the Egyptians as a solemn festival, and continued even to the time of Herodotus: but what the real origin or import of the ceremony may have been, the historian is unable to inform us. "The ministers," he adds, "who officiate on that occasion, wear a vest woven within the space of a day; and this is put on by one of them, whose eyes are blinded, and who is conducted to a path leading to the temple of Ceres, where he is left, and whence two wolves are said to take him to the temple, distant twenty stadia from the city, bringing him back to the same spot when the ceremony is concluded. But I leave But I leave every reader to judge for himself regarding the credibility of what I here relate."

"Till the reign of Rhampsinitus, Egypt was fortunate, as well in the tranquillity and justice it enjoyed, as in the blessings of abundance. But Cheops*, his successor, abandoned himself to every kind of depravity. He closed all the temples, forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifices, and ordered their labours to be confined to his own purposes. Having the project of building a pyramid, he compelled some to hew stones in the quarries of the Arabian mountains †, and to drag them to the bank of the Nile; others were appointed to receive them

* The Chemmis, Chembes, or Chemnis of Diodorus. This anachronism, of placing Cheops after the Trojan war, must be obvious to every one.

+ Conf. Plin. xxxvi. 17. "Pyramis amplissima ex Arabicis lapicidinis constat ;” and Strabo, lib. xvii., Των λίθων, εξ ών αι Πυραμίδες γεγονασιν .... εν τη Αραβια Τρωικόν τι καλειται πετρώδες . . . ορος.