_khonû_ or central administration.

*** This seems, at any rate, an obvious inference from the
almost total absence of feudal titles on the most ancient
monuments of the Delta. Erman, who was 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--Pahûrnofir, under the
IIIrd dynasty; several princes of Hermopolis, under the VIth
and VIIth; Khnûmhotpû 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.