LIST OF VALUES AND PRICES, ABOUT B.C. 1000.

1 Ten 1 Ket 1 Ten

10 Ket.

Preliminary Note.1

9-0959 grammes 154 grains nearly (or oz. Troy).

1537 grains (above

Ratio of silver to copper, 1:80.

1 Slave cost 3 Ten, 1 Ket, silver.

lb. Troy).

1 Pair of Fowls (Geese ?) cost Ten, copper.

500 Fish, of a particular kind, cost 1 Ket, silver (= 8 Ten, copper).

800 Fish, of another kind, cost 1 Ket, silver.

100 Fish, of a third kind, 1 99

1 Tena of Corn of Upper Egypt cost 5-7 Ten, copper.

1 Hotep of Wheat cost 2 Ten, copper.

11 Hin of Oil cost 17 Ten, copper.

50 Acres (Set) of arable land cost 5 Ten, silver.

1 Garden land cost 2 Ten, silver.

1 Knife cost 3 Ten, copper.

1 Metal Vessel, weighing 20 Ten, cost 40 Ten, copper.

1 Apron of fine stuff cost 3 Ten, copper.

The above values are derived from inscriptions, and there can be no doubt as to the accuracy of their interpretation.

In the table of Egyptian Measures and Weights, given in the Records of the Past (vol. ii. p. 164), the Kat (Ket) is estimated at 140 grains, and the Ten at 1,400 grains. The Ten is roughly called a Pound, and the Kat or Ket an Ounce or Didrachm; but these terms by no means correspond to their actual values. The equivalents of the measures of capacity named in the following list are unknown.-ED.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY.

THE PRIEST HIRHOR AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

1100-966 B.C.

THE king of Upper and Lower Egypt, the chief priest of Amon

SI-AMON (SON OF AMON) HIRHOR.'

Thus did the ambitious priest of Amon, the head of the Theban clergy, style himself officially, when he took possession of the throne of Egypt, or, to speak more correctly, of that of the Thebaid in particular. Ramessu XIII., his lord, had before his own fall honoured the first servant of the god Amon in a distinguished manner, inasmuch as he had entrusted him with the highest and most important offices of the government. Hirhor calls himself, in the representations of his person by the side of the king, an hereditary prince, the fanbearer on the right of the king, King's son of Kush, chief architect of the king, chief general of the army in Upper and Lower Egypt, administrator of the granaries,' as Joseph was of old at the court of Pharaoh. Such high employments, which in the course of time were held by one and the same person, either together

or in succession, must have essentially facilitated his project, when once formed, to overthrow the sovereign. His position and inviolability as the chief priest of Amon secured to the proud Hirhor, on the other hand, no inconsiderable following among the most powerful of all the priestly societies in the whole country, which gave a steady support to his secret plans. If in Upper Egypt it was the inhabitants of the Theban nome and the priests of Amon who took part with the new king, so, on the other hand, in Lower Egypt he had won over a moderate but not to be despised number of the priestly societies of the holy fathers of the Ramses-city of Zoan-Tanis, who stood in close connection with the imperial city of Thebes owing to their common worship of Amon. The letters and documents of the first Ramessids which have come down to us leave not the slightest doubt upon this point. And yet the plans of Hirhor were not destined to attain complete success. While Ramessu XIII. and his successors, according to all probability, ate the bread of banishment in the Great Oasis, they had raised up in silence an enemy to the priest-kings, whose power and importance might be brought to aid their cause.

On the east, in the vast plains of Mesopotamia, the great empire of the Khita had been succeeded by a new race of rulers, which is known to us in history under the name of the Assyrian Empire. The Egyptian monuments of the time give to the successors of the Khita the short name which with the assistance of the cuneiform inscriptions we understand as Mat,

and they designate the king of the Mat, that is 'the peoples,' as the 'great king of the Mat, the great king of kings.' Even though, in a representation which is more pompous than historically true, Hirhor conferred on himself the honorary title of conqueror of the Ruthen, to which in all probability he had no right, it may be assumed that the power of the Assyrians, these Mat, developed a strength which must at any rate have restrained the priest-king, in the internal decay of the Egyptian empire, from thinking of conquests on the East.

The successors of the priest-king, whom the reader will find named in the Genealogical Table (IV.), were far from securing a firm position in the country. Their most determined enemies were the banished race of the Ramessids, who succeeded in forming alliances with Assyria. A great grandson of that Ramessu XIII. who was overthrown by Hirhor, according to our reckoning Ramessu XVI., married an unnamed daughter of the great king of the Assyrians,' whose name is distinctly transmitted to us. The monuments call him Pallasharnes. The name in its first part reminds us of the second portion of the Assyrian royal names, Ninip-Pallasar and Teglath-phalasar (about 1100 B.C.), as they have been read by interpreters of the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions.

The consequences of such a connection of the banished but legitimate royal race of the Egyptians with the powerful dynasty of Niniveh quickly appeared. The Assyrians marched against Egypt.

At that time Pinotem I., a grandson of Hirhor,

ruled the land as king and high priest. His residence was at Tanis, already familiar to us as the strong frontier fortress in the Delta towards the east. In the twentyfifth year of his reign, disturbances had broken out in the Thebaid in favour of the banished Ramessids. Pinotem I., who had to await the attack of the great king of Assyria, Nimrod, and his army, remained in Tanis. His son, Men-kheper-ra, was sent with full powers to Thebes, to check the insurrection. After succeeding in doing this, though how far must remain uncertain, he is named as the successor of his father in the high priesthood of Amon. His first act was to recal the Egyptians banished to the Oasis, namely, the Ramessids and their adherents. This was apparently done with the consent of the god Amon, whose oracle had approved the proposal of Men-kheper-ra.

This fact is transmitted to us by an inscription, in which, in spite of many lacunæ, we can clearly under stand the general connection. I give now for the first time the translation of this important document, after having had the opportunity of again comparing it with the original at Thebes :

(1) In the year 25, the month Epiphi, the 29th day, at the same time as the feast of the god Amon-ra, the king of the gods, at his [beautiful] monthly feast of Ape [of the south]. . . . . (2) Neshir-hor in their multitude. It was the Majesty of this noble god Amon[-ra, the king of the gods] . . . . (3) Thebes. He showed the way to the scribes, the land-surveyors, and people. . . . . (4) In the year 25, in the first month of the year

ra, the lord of Thebes. . . .

Amon

(5) . . . . the high priest of Amon-ra, the king of the gods, the general in chief of the army, Men-kheper-ra, the son of the king Miamun Pinotem.

at his feet.