ly
absorbed them. There were always in the course of each reign several
great principalities formed, or in the process of formation, whose
chiefs might be said to hold in their hands the destinies of the
country. Pharaoh himself was obliged to treat them with deference,
and he purchased their allegiance by renewed and ever-increasing
concessions.

Their ambition was never satisfied; when they were loaded with favours,
and did not venture to ask for more for themselves, they impudently
demanded them for such of their children as they thought were poorly
provided for. Their eldest son "knew not the high favours which came
from the king. Other princes were his privy counsellers, his chosen
friends, or foremost among his friends!" he had no share in all this.
Pharaoh took good care not to reject a petition presented so humbly:
he proceeded to lavish appointments, titles, and estates on the son in
question; if necessity required it, he would even seek out a wife for
him, who might give him, together with her hand, a property equal to
that of his father. The majority of these great vassals secretly aspired
to the crown: they frequently had reason to believe that they had some
right to it, either through their mother or one of their ancestors. Had
they combined against the reigning house, they could easily have gained
the upper hand, but their mutual jealousies prevented this, and the
overthrow of a dynasty to which they owed so much would, for the most
part, have profited them but little: as soon as one of them revolted,
the remainder took arms in Pharaoh's defence, led his armies and
fought his battles. If at times their ambition and greed harassed
their suzerain, at least their power was at his service, and their
self-interested allegiance was often the means of delaying the downfall
of his house.

Two things were specially needful both for them and for Pharaoh in order
to maintain or increase their authority--the protection of the gods,
and a military organization which enabled them to mobilize the whole of
their forces at the first signal. The celestial world was the faithful
image of our own; it had its empires and its feudal organization, the
arrangement of which corresponded to that of the terrestrial world. The
gods who inhabited it were dependent upon the gifts of mortals, and the
resources of each individual deity, and consequently his power, depended
on the wealth and number of his worshippers; anything influenci