THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN Sekhet-Aaru, or Elysian Fields, &c.' A rock sculpture on the Island of Sahal shows us the official Maa-Amen worshipping Rameses VI, The reigns of Rameses VII. and Rameses VIII. were unimportant, and their names do not appear in Nubia.

In the reign of Rameses IX., which lasted eighteen years, the Sudan continued to send gifts to Thebes, but the king carried out no building operations in that country. The actual ruler of Egypt at this time was Amen-hetep, the high-priest of Amen, whose power was practically unlimited, and who built for himself a great house, with wooden doors and copper bolts, and set up a statue to each of the high-priests of his god in a courtyard which he planted with trees. The position of the priests of Amen had become precarious, and poverty was staring them in the face, for their treasury was nearly depleted. As their royal masters, since Rameses III., had carried on no wars, there was no spoil from which they could maintain their god and his temples and his services, and as the prosperity which had come over the country as a result of the commercial enterprises of Rameses III. had declined, their revenues had dwindled considerably. Out of this difficulty they found a way by persuading the king to give the high-priest of Amen power to levy taxes on the people for the support of the temple and priesthood of Amen-Ra. This authority was given to the high-priest Amen-hetep in the tenth year of the reign of Rameses IX.

at a solemn assembly, whereat the god Menthu, and the names of Amen-Ra, Heru-khuti, Ptah, Thoth, and Rameses IX. were invoked as witnesses, in the following words*:—"Let the " taxing and the usufruct of the labours of the inhabitants for '* the temple of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, be placed under ''thy administration. Let the full revenues be given over to " thee according to their number. Thou shalt collect the duties. ".Thou shalt undertake the interior administration of the ' See Lepsius, Denkmdler, Ablh. iii., 229-232.

2 Mariette, Mon. Divers, pi. 72, No. 48.

See Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. iii., 235, 236 a.

* Brussch's rendering ; see Egypt under ike Pharaohs, vol. ii., p. 187. The text is given by Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. iii., Bl. 237 e.

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