r needed
strengthening, a pylon displaying cracks claimed attention, some
unsafe colonnade, or a colossus which had been injured by the fall of
a cornice, required shoring up--so that no sooner had the corvee for
repairs completed their work in one part, than they had to begin again
elsewhere.

[Illustration: 082.jpg THE TWO STELE-PILLARS AT KARNAK]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The revenues of Amon must, indeed, have been enormous to have borne the
continual drain occasioned by restoration, and the resources of the god
would soon have been exhausted had not foreign wars continued to furnish
him during several centuries with all or more than he needed.

The gods had suffered severely in the troublous times which had followed
the reign of Seti II., and it required all the generosity of Ramses III.
to compensate them for the losses they had sustained during the anarchy
under Arisu. The spoil taken from the Libyans, from the Peoples of the
Sea, and from the Hittites had flowed into the sacred treasuries, while
the able administration of the sovereign had done the rest, so that on
the accession of Ramses IV. the temples were in a more prosperous state
than ever.* They held as their own property 169 towns, nine of which
were in Syria and Ethiopia; they possessed 113,433 slaves of both sexes,
493,386 head of cattle, 1,071,780 arurse of land, 514 vineyards and
orchards, 88 barks and sea-going vessels, 336 kilograms of gold both in
ingots and wrought, 2,993,964 grammes of silver, besides quantities of
copper and precious stones, and hundreds of storehouses in which they
kept corn, oil, wine, honey, and preserved meats--the produce of their
domains. Two examples will suffice to show the extent of this latter
item: the live geese reached the number of 680,714, and the salt or
smoked fish that of 494,800.** Amon claimed the giant share of this
enormous total, and three-fourths of it or more were reserved for his
use, namely---86,486 slaves, 421,362 head of cattle, 898,168 _arurse_
of cornland, 433 vineyards and orchards, and 56 Egyptian towns. The nine
foreign towns all belonged to him, and one of them contained the temple
in which he was worshipped by the Syrians whenever they came to pay
their tribute to the king's representatives: it was but just that his
patrimony should surpass that of his compeers, since the conquering
Pharaohs owed their success to him, who, without the co-operation of the
o