The "Kneeling Scribe" of the Gizeh collection (fig.

193) belongs to the lowest middle-class rank, such as it is at the present day.

Had he not been dead more than six thousand years, I could protest that I had not long ago met him face to face, in one of the little towns of Upper Egypt.

He has just brought a roll of papyrus, or a tablet covered with writing, for his master's approval.

Kneeling in the prescribed attitude of an inferior, his hands crossed, his shoulders rounded, his head slightly bent forward, he waits till the great man shall have read it through.