he Mazaiu
formed such an integral part of the Egyptian armies that
their name came to be used in Coptic as a synonym for
soldier, under the form "matoi."

**** Later on we shall come across the Shardana of the Royal
Guard under Ramses II. (E. de Rouge, _Extrait d'un memoire
sur les attaques,_ p. 5); later still, the Ionians, Carians,
and Greek mercenaries will be found to play a decisive part
in the history of the Saite dynasties.

This motley collection of foreign mercenaries composed ordinarily the
body-guard of the king or of his barons, the permanent nucleus round
which in times of war the levies of native recruits were rallied. Every
Egyptian soldier received from the chief to whom he was attached, a
holding of land for the maintenance of himself and his family. In the
fifth century B.C. twelve _arurae_ of arable land was estimated as ample
pay for each man,* and tradition attributes to the fabulous Sesostris
the law which fixed the pay at this rate. The soldiers were not taxed,
and were exempt from forced labour during the time that they were away
from home on active service; with this exception they were liable to the
same charges as the rest of the population. Many among them possessed
no other income, and lived the precarious life of the fellah,--tilling,
reaping, drawing water, and pasturing their cattle,--in the interval
between two musters. Others possessed of private fortunes let their
holdings out at a moderate rental, which formed an addition to their
patrimonial income.**

* Herodotus, ii. 168. The arura being equal to 27.82 ares
[an are = 100 square metres], the military fief contained
27*82 x 12 = 333.84 ares. [The "arura," according to F. L.
Griffith, was a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, making about
3/5 of an acre, or 2600 square metres.--Trs.] The _chifliks_
created by Mohammed-Ali, with a view to bringing the
abandoned districts into cultivation, allotted to each
labourer who offered to reclaim it, a plot of land varying
from one to three feddans, i.e. from 4200.83 square metres
to 12602.49 square metres, according to the nature of the
soil and the necessities of each family. The military fiefs
of ancient Egypt were, therefore, nearly three times as
great in extent as these _abadiyehs_, which were considered,
in modern Egypt, sufficient to supply the wants of a whole
family of pea