the evil were not, however,
successful; the pillagings soon began afresh, and the reigns of the last
three Ramessides between the robbers and the authorities, were marked by
a struggle in which the latter did not always come off triumphant.

[Illustration: 089.jpg RAMSES IX.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius.

A system of repeated inspections secured the valley of Biban el-Moluk
from marauders,* but elsewhere the measures of defence employed were
unavailing, and the necropolis was given over to pillage, although both
Amenothes and Hrihor had used every effort to protect it.

* Graffiti which are evidences of these inspections have
been drawn on the walls of several royal tombs by the
inspectors. Others have been found on several of the coffins
discovered at Deir el-Bahari, e.g. on those of Seti I. and
Ramses II.; the most ancient belong to the pontificate of
Hrihor, others belong to the XXIst dynasty.

Hrihor appears to have succeeded immediately after Amenothes, and
his accession to the pontificate gave his family a still more exalted
position in the country. As his wife Nozmit was of royal blood, he
assumed titles and functions to which his father and grandfather
had made no claim. He became the "Royal Son" of Ethiopia and
commander-in-chief of the national and foreign troops; he engraved his
name upon the monuments he decorated, side by side with that of Ramses
XII.; in short, he possessed all the characteristics of a Pharaoh except
the crown and the royal protocol. A century scarcely had elapsed since
the abdication of Ramses III., and now Thebes and the whole of Egypt
owned two masters: one the embodiment of the ancient line, but a mere
nominal king; the other the representative of Amon, and the actual ruler
of the country.

What then happened when the last Ramses who bore the kingly title was
gathered to his fathers? The royal lists record the accession after his
death of a new dynasty of Tanitic origin, whose founder was Nsbindidi
or Smendes; but, on the other hand, we gather from the Theban monuments
that the crown was seized by Hrihor, who reigned over the southern
provinces contemporaneously with Smendes. Hrihor boldly assumed as
prenomen his title of "First Prophet of Amon," and his authority was
acknowledged by Ethiopia, over which he was viceroy, as well as by the
nomes forming the temporal domain of the high priests. The latter had
acquired gradually, either b