civilization. It is impossible to assume that no great famine took place in Egypt between the reign of Tcheser and the period when the inscription was made, and when we consider this fact the choice by the editor of the legend of a famine which took place under the IIIrd Dynasty to illustrate the power of Khnemu seems inexplicable.
Of the famines which must have taken place in the Dynastic period the inscriptions tell us nothing, hut the story of the seven years’ famine mentioned in the Book of Genesis shows that there is nothing improbable in a famine lasting so long in Egypt. Arab historians also mention several famines which lasted for seven years. That which took place in the years 1066-1072 nearly ruined the whole country. A cake of bread was sold for 15 dínânír (the dínâr = 10s.), a horse was sold for 20, a dog for 5, a cat for 3, and an egg for 1 dínâr. When all the animals were eaten men began to eat each other, and human flesh was sold in public. “Passengers were caught in the streets by hooks let down from the windows, drawn up, killed, and cooked.”[1] During the famine which began in 1201 people ate human flesh habitually. Parents killed and cooked their own children, and a wife was found eating her husband raw. Baby fricassee and haggis of children’s heads were ordinary articles of diet. The graves even were ransacked for food. An ox sold for 70 dínânír.[2]
