The robbers no longer confined themselves to plundering the tombs of private persons; they attacked the royal burying-places, and their depredations were carried on for years before they were discovered. In the reign of Ramses IX., an inquiry, set on foot by Amenôthes, revealed the fact that the tomb of Sovkûmsaûf I. and his wife, Queen Nûbk-hâs, had been rifled, that those of Amenôthes I. and of Antuf IV. had been entered by tunnelling, and that some dozen other royal tombs in the cemetery of Drah abu’l Neggah were threatened.* * The principal part of this inquiry constitutes the _Abbott Papyrus_, acquired and published by the British Museum, first examined and made the subject of study by Birch, translated simultaneously into French by Maspero and by Chabas, into German by Lauth and by Erman. Other papyri relate to the same or similar occurrences, such as the Salt and Amherst Papyri published by Chabas, and also the Liverpool Papyri, of which we possess merely scattered notices in the writings of Goodwin, and particularly in those of Spiegelberg. The severe means taken to suppress the evil were not, however, successful; the pillagings soon began afresh, and the reigns of the last three Ramessides between the robbers and the authorities, were marked by a struggle in which the latter did not always come off triumphant. [Illustration: 089.jpg RAMSES IX.] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. A system of repeated inspections secured the valley of Biban el-Moluk from marauders,* but elsewhere the measures of defence employed were unavailing, and the necropolis was given over to pillage, although both Amenôthes and Hrihor had used every effort to protect it. * Graffiti which are evidences of these inspections have been drawn on the walls of several royal tombs by the inspectors. Others have been found on several of the coffins discovered at Deîr el-Baharî, e.g. on those of Seti I. and Ramses II.; the most ancient belong to the pontificate of Hrihor, others belong to the XXIst dynasty. Hrihor appears to have succeeded immediately after Amenôthes, and his accession to the pontificate gave his family a still more exalted position in the country. As his wife Nozmit was of royal blood, he assumed titles and functions to which his father and grandfather had made no claim. He became the “Royal Son” of Ethiopia and commander-in-chief of the national and foreign troops; he engraved his name upon the monuments he decorated, side by side with that of Ramses XII.; in short, he possessed all the characteristics of a Pharaoh except the crown and the royal protocol. A century scarcely had elapsed since the abdication of Ramses III., and now Thebes and the whole of Egypt owned two masters: one the embodiment of the ancient line, but a mere nominal king; the other the representative of Amon, and the actual ruler of the country.