by the nomes forming the temporal domain of the high priests.  The latter had acquired gradually, either by marriage or inheritance, fresh territory for the god, in the lands of the princes of Nekhabit, Kop-tos, Akhmim, and Abydos, besides the domains of some half-dozen feudal houses who, from force of circumstances, had become sacerdotal families; the extinction of the direct line of Ramessides now secured the High Priests the possession of Thebes itself, and of all the lands within the southern provinces which were the appanage of the crown.

[Illustration:  091.jpg HRIHOR]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion.

They thus, in one way or another, became the exclusive masters of the southern half of the Nile valley, from Elephantine to Siut; beyond Siut also they had managed to acquire suzerainty over the town of Khobit, and the territory belonging to it formed an isolated border province in the midst of the independent baronies.*

     * The extent of the principality of Thebes under the high
     priests has been determined by means of the sacerdotal
     titles of the Theban princesses.

The representative of the dynasty reigning at Tanis held the remainder of Egypt from Shit to the Mediterranean—­the half belonging to the Memphite Phtah and the Helio-politan Ra, as opposed to that assigned to Anion.  The origin of this Tanite sovereign is uncertain, but it would appear that he was of more exalted rank than his rival in the south.  The official chronicling of events was marked by the years of his reign, and the chief acts of the government were carried out in his name even in the Thebaid.* Repeated inundations had caused the ruin of part of the temple of Karnak, and it was by the order and under the auspices of this prince that all the resources of the country were employed to accomplish the much-needed restoration.**

* I have pointed out that the years of the reign mentioned in the inscriptions of the high priests and the kings of the sacerdotal line must be attributed to their suzerains, the kings of Tanis.  Hrihor alone seems to have been an exception, since to him are attributed the dates inscribed in the name of the King Siamon:  M. Daressy, however, will not admit this, and asserts that this Siamon was a Tanite sovereign who must not be identified with Hrihor, and must be placed at least two or three generations later than the last of the Ramessides.

     * The real name Nsbindidi and the first monument of the
     Manethonian Smendes were discovered in the quarries of
     Dababieh, opposite Gebelen.