Piecework.
Working by the piece saves all this trouble, and if the men are well trained, and the work is simple, it goes on automatically and takes the smallest possible amount of attention. In detached small sites men may even be left unvisited for two or three days, merely reporting each evening how far they have worked. In one case some lads were left to work at a great sarcophagus for weeks unwatched, and came some miles to report progress, and say when further attention was wanted. The pay for that was given by contract, to cut and lift a stone lid under water, for so many pounds.
In piecework it is always best to keep a record of how long each piece has taken, as the time is one element in pricing the work done.[1] The ground varies in hardness, the depth of throwing up continually changes, or the presence of large stones hinders the work; therefore any exact value by a hard and fast rule is impossible. Each piece of work done has to be judged, taking the most likely scale of payment, and then tempering the result by the amount of time occupied. The general rate of pay in Egypt is ½ piastre a cubic metre for loose surface sand, ⅔ for shallow work in harder earth, ¾ for work as deep as a man, and 1 piastre for deep pits. At this scale a poor worker will barely earn day pay and a fine worker will make from 1½ to 2 times day pay. The day pay in Upper Egypt is 2½ to 3 piastres (6d. to 7d.) a man, and 1½ to 2 (3½d. to 5d.) for a boy, of fit and proper quality.
[1] A useful notation is to use the letter of the week day, with an hour-spot by it; thus .F is 7 A.M. Friday, M· is 2 P.M. Monday, Ẇ is noon, Wednesday, and this spotted letter is noted in the accounts, for the time of beginning any piece of work.
To take a practical case. A hole is, say, 2½ metres wide, 3½ long and 2 deep, say 18 cubic metres. The rate will be at ¾, making 13½ piastres or 2s. 9d. Large stones met with, or pillars or buttresses of earth left to support objects in situ, are counted as work done, as the trouble and inconvenience of leaving them in the hole is quite equal to the removal of so much earth. If the pit above-named had taken a four-gang (two men and two boys) less than a day, it might be cut to 12 piastres or 2s. 6d.; or if much over a day, it might be raised to 16 or 3s. 3d.; reckoning that a rate much quicker or slower than the regular rate, shows that the ground or conditions were better or worse than usual. It is needful to measure with distinct and visible care, as the men are very watchful to see that they get fair measurement; and their confidence should be gained by taking trouble to be fair and punctilious in every detail, though never taking notice of any wheedling or attempt to influence the account.
Day and Piecework.
Where the earth has to be moved to any distance beyond a few yards, then more carriers are needed than one to each digger. The happiest combination then is to go on paying exactly the same rate by the metre, as if the men were working a plain pit, but to supply them with as many boys paid by the day as may be needful to shift the earth away ([Fig. 17]). Sometimes two men and two boys will have six more boys to run off the earth to fifty yards away. Any common village boys will do for this gang, and they may be enlisted by the hundred, and distributed over the work. But it is needful to allot these “locals” (as they are called) specifically to known men, so that each pick-man can answer for the time and the doings of each of his own boys. Thus there is no smudge of irresponsibility; but each boy belongs to a man, who has for his own interest to get the work out of him.
Clearing the temple, Abydos.
Fig. 17. Lines of carriers.