The overseer speaks thus to the labourers at the building: “The stick is in my hand, be not idle.”
Some of the captives thus set to labour by Thothmes belonged to a people called the Aperiu; and in the days of Rameses II. they are mentioned as still in a condition of servitude, quarrying and transporting stone for the great fortress of the city of Paramessu or Tanis.
Diodorus tells us that Rameses II. put up an inscription in each of his buildings, saying that it had been erected by captives, and that not a single native Egyptian was employed on the work. Again, this king manufactured bricks for sale, and, by employing the labour of captives, was enabled to under-sell other makers. The use of crude bricks baked in the sun was universal throughout the country for private and for many public buildings, and the dry climate of Egypt was peculiarly suited to those simple materials. They had the recommendation of cheapness, and those made three thousand years ago, whether with or without straw, are even now as firm and fit for use as when first put up. When made of the Nile mud or alluvial deposit they required straw to prevent their cracking; but those formed of clay taken from the torrent beds on the edge of the desert held together without straw; and crude brick walls frequently had the additional security of a layer of reeds or sticks placed at intervals to act as binders.
[_Authorities and Sources_:--Brugsch’s “Egypt under the Pharaohs.” Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians.” Birch’s “Egypt” (Series, Ancient History from the Monuments). G. Rawlinson’s “Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament.” E. A. Wallis Budge, “Dwellers on the Nile.” M. E. Harkness, “Egyptian Life and History.”]
7. _Buried Cities of the East--Preliminary._
If the buried cities of the East had been altogether destroyed and lost, and we possessed only a brief record of their disappearance, the subject might not possess much interest for us, and there would be no material for writing a book. But we are now witnessing a resurrection of some of them, and are recovering a story of the past, such as revived Egyptian mummies might be able to tell. Nay, not only Egyptians who walked about--
“In Thebes’s streets three thousand years ago, When the Memnonium was in all its glory,”