Scribes

To be a scribe was the great desire of the ambitious Egyptian youth, almost any rank could be attained by a clever member of the profe ion. The most frequently-recurring phrase in the scholars' exercises of the New Empire was, "One has only to be a scribe, for the scribe takes the lead of all," and to a certain extent such an one was more his own master than the ordinary man, for he was exempt from military service and forced labour. There were numberle grades in the profe ion, from the mere registrar of his employer's cattle to the literary man like Pentaur (q.v.). The education of a scribe was not obtained at any public institution. After having learnt the rudiments of reading and writing, probably in a little school like the modern Arab "Kuttab," he was taken into his father's office or apprenticed to some other scribe. Then if he improved, if his handwriting became fine and neat, if he made himself indispensable to his master, he might become rich and influential, rising from one office to another, from being head of his department to be governor of a village, and then of more villages, of towns, or of nomes, until he became almost second to the Pharaoh himself. Such was the history of the scribe Amten, who lived under King Sneferu of the IVth Dynasty, and whose tomb, discovered near Abusir, was removed to Berlin. Scribes figure on every tomb wall, for the Egyptians seem to have been extremely methodical in every detail of management, and to have been slaves to red tape. One man writes to another on a matter of busine , and says, "I write this to you that it may serve as a witne between us, and you must keep this letter, that in future it may serve as a witne ." Thoth was the god specially prayed to by scribes, he being the inventor of writing. The scribes represented the culture and intelligence of the kingdom. In the proce ions of the gods the "chief of the scribes" took precedence of the high priest of Amen. The "royal scribe" appears to have been a most important functionary, and princes of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties have been found to bear this title. Women were admitted to the rank of scribes.