ere
transferred to boats and distributed along the river. The erection
of public buildings, which had been interrupted since the time of
Minephtah, began again with renewed activity. The captives in the recent
victories furnished the requisite labour, while the mines, the voyages
to the Somali coast, and the tributes of vassals provided the necessary
money. Syria was not lost sight of in this resumption of peaceful
occupations. The overthrow of the Khati secured Egyptian rule in this
region, and promised a long tranquillity within its borders. One temple
at least was erected in the country--that of Pa-kanana--where the
princes of Kharu were to assemble to offer worship to the Pharaoh, and
to pay each one his quota of the general tribute. The Pulasati were
employed to protect the caravan routes, and a vast reservoir was
erected near Aina to provide a store of water for the irrigation of the
neighbouring country. The Delta absorbed the greater part of the royal
subsidies; it had suffered so much from the Libyan incursions, that the
majority of the towns within it had fallen into a condition as
miserable as that in which they were at the time of the expulsion of the
Shepherds. Heliopolis, Bubastis, Thmuis, Amu, and Tanis still preserved
some remains of the buildings which had already been erected in them
by Ramses; he constructed also, at the place at present called Tel
el-Yahudiyeh, a royal palace of limestone, granite, and alabaster, of
which the type is unique amongst all the structures hitherto discovered.
Its walls and columns were not ornamented with the usual sculptures
incised in stone, but the whole of the decorations--scenes as well
as inscriptions--consisted of plaques of enamelled terra-cotta set
in cement. The forms of men and animals and the lines of hieroglyphs,
standing out in slight relief from a glazed and warm-coloured
background, constitute an immense mosaic-work of many hues. The few
remains of the work show great purity of design and an extraordinary
delicacy of tone.

[Illustration: 320.jpg SIGNS, ARMS AND INSTRUMENTS]

All the knowledge of the Egyptian painters, and all the technical skill
of their artificers in ceramic, must have been employed to compose such
harmoniously balanced decorations, with their free handling of line and
colour, and their thousands of rosettes, squares, stars, and buttons of
varicoloured pastes.*

* This temple has been known since the beginning of the
ninete