Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/62

 38 Outlines of Eiiropean History River com- these industries, to be carried to the treasuiy of the Pharaoh as marketplace; taxes or to the market of the town for traffic. Here on the wall traffic in jg the market place itself. We can watch the cobbler offering the goods ; cir- ^ culation of baker a pair of sandals as payment for a cake, or the carpenter s preaous ^.^^ giving the fisherman a little wooden box for a fish ; while the potter's wife proffers the apothecary two bowls fresh from the potter's furnace in exchange for a jar of fragrant ointment. We see therefore that the people have no coined mo?iey to use, and that in the market place trade is actual exchange of goods. Such is the business of the common people. If we could see the large transactions in the palace, we would find there heavy rings of gold of a recognized weight, which circulated like money. Rings of copper also served the same purpose. Such rings were the forerunners of coin (p. 152). Three classes These people in the gayly painted market place on the chapel the^Pyramid wall are the common folk of Egypt in the 'Pyramid Kg^. Some ^g^ of them were free men, following their own business or in- dustry. Others were slaves working the fields on the great estates like the one which is pictured on these walls. Over both these humbler classes were the great officials of the Pharaoh's government, like the owner of this tomb whose tall form (Fig. 16) we find so often shown upon these chapel walls. We know many more of them by name, and a walk through this cemetery would enable us to make a directory of the wealthy quarter of the royal city under the kings who were buried in these pyramids of Gizeh. It would be a kind of social Blue Book of the capital of Egypt in the Pyramid Age. We know the grand viziers and the chief treasurers, the chief judges and the architects, the chamberlains and marshals of the palace, and so on. We can even visit the tomb of the architect who built the Great Pyramid of Gizeh for Khufu. The noble of We can observe with what vast satisfaction these nobles and Age ^% officials presided over this busy industrial and social life of the home j^-jg valley in the Pyramid Age. Here on this chapel wall again we see its owner seated at ease in his palanquin, a luxurious