ssessor was in a
position to control the fate of the empire almost as he pleased.
Osorkon must have had weighty reasons for taking a step which placed him
practically at the mercy of his son, and, indeed, events proved that but
little reliance could be placed on the loyalty of the Thebans, and that
energetic measures were imperative to keep them in the path of duty or
lead them back to it. The decadence of the ancient capital had sadly
increased since the downfall of the descendants of Hrihor.

[Illustration: 248.jpg SMALL BRONZE SPHINX OF SIAMUN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original now in the Louvre.

The few public works which they had undertaken, and which Sheshonq I.
encouraged to the best of his ability, had been suspended owing to want
of money, and the craftsmen who had depended on them for support were
suffering from poverty: the makers of small articles of a religious
or funerary character, carvers of wood or stone, joiners, painters of
mummy-cases, and workers in bronze, alone managed to eke out a bare
livelihood, thanks to commissions still given to them by officials
attached to the temples. Theban art, which in its best period had
excelled in planning its works on a gigantic scale, now gladly devoted
itself to the production of mere knick-knacks, in place of the colossal
figures of earlier days.

[Illustration: 249.jpg RUINS OF THE TEMPLE AT KHNINSU AFTER NAVILLE's
EXCAVATIONS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Naville. The
illustration shows what now remains of the portions of the
temple rebuilt in the time of Ramses II.

We have statuettes some twelve or fifteen inches high, crudely coloured,
wooden stelae, shapeless _ushabti_ redeemed from ugliness by a coating
of superb blue enamel, and, above all, those miniature sphinxes
representing queens or kings, which present with two human arms either
a table of offerings or a salver decorated with cartouches. The starving
populace, its interests and vanity alike mortified by the accession of
a northern dynasty, refused to accept the decay of its fortunes with
resignation, and this spirit of discontent was secretly fomented by the
priests or by members of the numerous families which boasted of their
descent from the Eamessides. Although hereditary claims to the throne
and the pontificate had died out or lost their force in the male line,
they were still persistently urged by the women: consecrated from
their birth to the se