So many and various were the duties of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal, that it is hardly matter for surprise if we find that he employed a large staff of assistants to help him. Among these the [Egyptian **] “Deputy of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal,”[65] appears to have been the most important. When his chief was absent from the capital on one of the official tours of inspection through the country, this _adenu_ or “deputy” was left in charge of the central office, and the duty naturally devolved upon him of looking after the permanent staff of the Treasury Department. This staff consisted of:—
(1) A [Egyptian **] “Chief Overseer of the Courtyard of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal,”[66] an official who was, I believe, deputed to personally supervise everything that went in or out of the _Bêt el mal_ or Treasury. There was also
(2) A [Egyptian **] or “Overseer of the Courtyard of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal.”[67]
(3) A [Egyptian **] or “Overseer of the Courtyard of the Office of the Keeper of the (Royal) Seal.”[68]
(4) Several [Egyptian **] “Assistants.”[69]
(5) A [Egyptian **] “Chief Scribe,”[70] and several
(6) [Egyptian **] “Scribes,”[71] who had their own
[Egyptian **] or “men servants?” These scribes of the Chancellor were very important officials: they were intrusted with official seals, and allowed to transact on their own responsibility important business affairs connected with the State. They appear generally with the title [Egyptian **] “Scribe in Charge of the Seal,” or, more literally, “he who writes with an Official Seal.” They are found under this title only towards the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, and their services were retained by the bureaucratic kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty, but no mention occurs of them in later times. They were employed in writing official documents, in keeping accounts, and in fixing prices to be paid for wages of labourers. From inscriptions that have been preserved, it would seem that each town[72] had its own “Scribe in Charge of the Seal,” and we read of a “Scribe in Charge of the Seal of the labour bureau” in a Thirteenth Dynasty papyrus.[73]
Besides the foregoing officials, who were doubtless paid by the Government, the Chancellor had also his private staff to manage his own estates and affairs. Among these may be mentioned[74] a _mer per_, or “Steward;”[75] a _mer shenti_, or “Superintendent of the Granary;”[76] a _sesh sha_, or “letter writer;”[77] and an _ari aa_, or “doorkeeper.”[78]