[Uarda Complete by Georg Ebers]@TWC D-Link bookUarda Complete CHAPTER II 3/15
He could obtain the degree of "Scribe" and qualify for public office by a second examination. Near to these schools of learning there stood also a school of art, in which instruction was given to students who desired to devote themselves to architecture, sculpture, or painting; in these also the learner might choose his master. Every teacher in these institutions belonged to the priesthood of the House of Seti.
It consisted of more than eight hundred members, divided into five classes, and conducted by three so-called Prophets. The first prophet was the high-priest of the House of Seti, and at the same time the superior of all the thousands of upper and under servants of the divinities which belonged to the City of the Dead of Thebes. The temple of Seti proper was a massive structure of limestone.
A row of Sphinxes led from the Nile to the surrounding wall, and to the first vast pro-pylon, which formed the entrance to a broad fore-court, enclosed on the two sides by colonnades, and beyond which stood a second gate-way.
When he had passed through this door, which stood between two towers, in shape like truncated pyramids, the stranger came to a second court resembling the first, closed at the farther end by a noble row of pillars, which formed part of the central temple itself. The innermost and last was dimly lighted by a few lamps. Behind the temple of Seti stood large square structures of brick of the Nile mud, which however had a handsome and decorative effect, as the humble material of which they were constructed was plastered with lime, and that again was painted with colored pictures and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The internal arrangement of all these houses was the same.
In the midst was an open court, on to which opened the doors of the rooms of the priests and philosophers.
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