Here is an excerpt from the account of Megasthenses: Of the great officer of state, some ... superintend the rivers, measure the land, as is done in Egypt, and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canal into their branches, so that everyone may have an equal supply of it. The same person has charge also of the huntsmen, and is entrusted with the power of rewarding or punishing them according to their deserts. They collect the taxes, and superintend the occupations connected with land; as those of the woodcutters, the carpenters, the blacksmiths, and the miners.
