110 go, they always carry a bunch of leaves with writing on them under their arms and their iron styli in their hands, thus they are easily recognised; there are seven or eight private secretaries to the king, who are respectable men and always in the king’s presence, with their styli in their hands and their ream of leaves under their arms; each of them has a number of blank leaves, which bear the king’s signature at the top. When he wants to do something which requires an official act, he tells each of them what his purpose is and they start writing, starting under the king’s signature and then they give the order to the person concerned; they are old; highly respected, and deeply trusted men. When any of these clerks get up in the morning, and want to write something, the first time they take the stylus in their hand they cut a small piece off that leaf with a blade, which is at one end of the stylus, and they write the name of their gods on the edge of the leaf and worship the rising sun with their arms raised. Then they tear up what they have written and throw it away. Having done this, they begin to write. This king has a thousand women who he permanently sustains, who live at court and sweep the palace floors. This is just for show, for fifty would be more than enough to sweep. They are noble women of good caste and they sweep twice a day, and each of them carries a broom and a brass bowl with cow dung diluted in water. Once they have swept everything, they use their hands to place a thin layer of dung over the houses, which dries quickly. Not all of the women work, but they take it in turns. And when the king moves from one house to another, or goes to the temple, he walks there and these women go ahead of him, carrying their brooms and bowls and brushing dung over the path where he will tread. These thousand women make a great celebration when the king begins to reign again, after his year of mourning and fasting has passed. They all gather together, both young and old in the king’s palace itself. They are very well attired with necklaces of precious stones andfinely crafted gold beads. They wear gold anklets and many bracelets and
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