Beneath the Ambition of a Thief

to beg—he therefore introduced the still practised "division of the spoils" between himself and those who became his willing tools. We have before us the food and the pebbles—the one the prime factor of life, the other the agent of distribution—each awaiting the performance of its office. Food is more heavy to move, pebbles less so, especially when their number is certified on a strip of papyrus—similar in effect to the silver certificates of to-day. Let it be supposed that when the Pharaoh, had, by means of the pebbles, taxed out of his fellaheen the corn that he wanted for himself and his retainers—such as public works, civil service, army and navy, etc.—these pebbles then became the currency of Egypt, by means of which symbols his subjects might distribute the remainder of the food among themselves more readily than by direct barter. It has pleased the moneychangers of the age to pass into slang, for the use of those unacquainted with the methods of commerce, that "Barter would be