e fief whose administration was a function of the
chief priest for life, and whose revenue furnished means in abundance
for the personal exigencies of the gods as well as the support of his
ministers.

This was nothing more than justice would prescribe. A loyal and
universal faith would not only acknowledge the whole world to be the
creation of the gods, but also their inalienable domain. It belonged to
them at the beginning; every one in the State of which the god was
the sovereign lord, all those, whether nobles or serfs, vicegerents
or kings, who claimed to have any possession in it, were but ephemeral
lease-holders of portions of which they fancied themselves the owners.
Donations to the temples were, therefore, nothing more than voluntary
restitutions, which the gods consented to accept graciously, deigning
to be well pleased with the givers, when, after all-, they might have
considered the gifts as merely displays of strict honesty, which merited
neither recognition nor thanks. They allowed, however, the best part of
their patrimony to remain in the hands of strangers, and they contented
themselves with what the pretended generosity of the faithful might see
fit to assign to them. Of their lands, some were directly cultivated by
the priests themselves; others were leased to lay people of every rank,
who took off the shoulders of the priesthood all the burden of managing
them, while rendering at the same time the profit that accrued from
them; others were let at a fixed rent according to contract. The
tribute of dates, corn, and fruit, which was rendered to the temples to
celebrate certain commemorative ceremonies in the honour of this or that
deity, were fixed charges upon certain lands, which at length usually
fell entirely into the hands of the priesthood as mortmain possessions.
These were the sources of the fixed revenues of the gods, by means of
which they and their people were able to live, if not luxuriously, at
least in a manner befitting their dignity. The offerings and sacrifices
were a kind of windfall, of which the quantity varied strangely with the
seasons; at certain times few were received, while at other times there
was a superabundance. The greatest portion of them was consumed on
the spot by the officials of the sanctuary; the part which could be
preserved without injury was added to the produce of the domain, and
constituted a kind of reserve for a rainy day, or was used to produce
more of its k