as struck by this fact,
attributed it to a different degree of civilization in the
two halves of Egypt; I attribute it to a difference in
government. Feudal titles naturally predominate in the
South, royal administrative titles in the North.

The extent of the royal domain varied with different dynasties, and even
from reign to reign: if it sometimes decreased, owing to too frequently
repeated concessions,* its losses were generally amply compensated by
the confiscation of certain fiefs, or by their lapsing to the crown. The
domain was always of sufficient extent to oblige the Pharaoh to confide
the larger portion of it to officials of various kinds, and to farm
merely a small remainder of the "royal slaves:" in the latter case,
he reserved for himself all the profits, but at the expense of all the
annoyance and all the outlay; in the former case, he obtained without
any risk the annual dues, the amount of which was fixed on the spot,
according to the resources of the nome.

* We find, at different periods, persons who call themselves
masters of new domains or strongholds--Pahurnofir, under the
IIIrd dynasty; several princes of Hermopolis, under the VIth
and VIIth; Khnumhotpu at the begining of the XIIth. In
connection with the last named, we shall have occasion,
later on, to show in what manner and with what rapidity one
of these great _new_ fiefs was formed.

In order to understand the manner in which the government of Egypt was
conducted, we should never forget that the world was still ignorant of
the use of money, and that gold, silver, and copper, however abundant we
may suppose them to have been, were mere articles of exchange, like
the most common products of Egyptian soil. Pharaoh was not then, as the
State is with us, a treasurer who calculates the total of his receipts
and expenses in ready money, banks his revenue in specie occupying but
little space, and settles his accounts from the same source. His fiscal
receipts were in kind, and it was in kind that he remunerated his
servants for their labour: cattle, cereals, fermented drinks, oils,
stuffs, common or precious metals,--"all that the heavens give, all
that the earth produces, all that the Nile brings from its mysterious
sources,"* --constituted the coinage in which his subjects paid him their
contributions, and which he passed on to his vassals by way of salary.

* This was the most usual fo