TITHE-GIVING AMONGST ANCIENT PAGAN NATIONS. 125 



applied to enliauce the importance of their cult, or to repair 

 and enlarge their temples." 



This repeated mention by Professor Maspero of a tenth of 

 the spoils is noteworthy ; though he does not say that the 

 people generally, in Egypt, paid tithes to the temples. 



Upon my inquiry as to this point from several Egyptolo- 

 gists, Professor Sayce wrote to me, " Though gifts were made 

 to the Egyptian temples on a large scale, there does not seem 

 to have been any tithe." 



Professor Flinders Petrie also wrote, " I do not remember 



any tithing allusions The Egyptian system of 



priestly revenues was by estates, and not by taxes or tithes." 



Again, in a short conversation I had on the subject with 

 Dr. Budge, superintendent of Egyptian and Assyrian antiqui- 

 ties in the British Museum, he seemed to doubt, concerning 

 Egypt, Avhether the gifts to the temples represented a definite 

 proportion of income. He thought they amounted to more 

 than a tenth, and seemed convinced that, in constantly and 

 regularly recurring festivals, it was obligatory by custom, if 

 not by law, to make offerings to the priests. 



1 inquired of Professor Mahafty, who replied — '"in Egypt 

 one-sixth seems to have been the old airojxoipa, or God's 

 portion, levied upon all property not specially exempted." 

 For confirmation of this, in Ptolemaic times, he referred me 

 to the " Revenue laws of Ptolemy," published by Mr. Grenfell, 

 but the Professor adds that he cannot possibly imagine this 

 sixth to have been an invention of the Ptolemies, and there- 

 fore believes it to have been an old Egyptian tax. 



If, then, it be asked, Avhether the Egyptians recognised it 

 as a duty to offer a portion of their property to the gods, it 

 would seem that the Pharaoh and his officials, with many, it 

 not all, of the people, annually offered the first-fruits of their 

 crops to the temples, which they permanently endowed for 

 the education and support of the priests, as well as for 

 temple repairs and enlargements, together with the furniture 

 and accessories of worship. They offered also a portion of 

 their spoils taken in Avar, and on various other occasions 

 made further offerings of the most varied kinds. If it 

 be further asked as to what proportion these offerings bore 

 to the offerers' incomes, it seems to have been not less than 

 a tenth, and in some epochs certainly reached a sixth. 



We now pass from the valley of the Nile to that of the 

 Euphrates, and pursue our inquiry among the ancient Baby- 

 lonians. 



