into the camp and pretended that they had been sent by the chiefs of their tribe to inform Rameses II. that they had forsaken the chief of the Cheta,* and that they wished to make an alliance with his majesty and become vassals of his. They then went on to say that the chief of the Cheta was in the land of Chirebu to the north of Tunep, some distance off, and that they were afraid to come near the Egyptian king. These two men were giving false information, and they had actually been sent by the Cheta chief to find out where Rameses and his army was; the Cheta chief and his army were at that moment drawn up in battle array behind Kadesh. Shortly after these men were dismissed, an Egyptian scout came into the king's presence bringing with him two spies from the army of the chief of the Cheta; on being questioned, they informed Rameses that the chief of the Cheta was encamped behind Kadesh, and that he had succeeded in gathering together a multitude of soldiers and chariots from the countries round about. Rameses summoned his officers to his presence, and informed them of the news which he had just heard; they listened with surprise, and insisted that the newly-received information was untrue. Rameses blamed the chiefs of the intelligence department seriously for their neglect of duty, and they admitted their fault. Orders were straightway issued for the Egyptian army to march upon Kadesh, and as they were crossing an arm of the river near that city the hostile forces fell in with each other. When Rameses saw this, he "growled at them like his father Menthu, lord of Thebes," and having hastily put on his full armour, he mounted his chariot and drove into the battle. His onset was so sudden and rapid that before he knew where he was he * The Cheta have, during the last few years, been identified with the Hittites of the Bible; there is no ground for this identification beyond the slight similarity of the names. The inscriptions upon the sculptures found at Jerâbîs still remain undeciphered. found himself surrounded by the enemy, and completely isolated from his own troops. He called upon his father Åmen-Ra to help him, and then addressed himself to a slaughter of all those that came in his way, and his prowess was so great that the enemy fell in heaps, one over the other, into the waters of the Orontes. He was quite alone, and not one of his soldiers or horsemen came near him to help him. It was only with great difficulty he succeeded in cutting his way through the ranks of the enemy. At the end of the inscription he says, "Every thing that my majesty has stated, that did I in the presence of my soldiers and horsemen." This event in the battle of the Egyptians against the Cheta was made the subject of an interesting poem by Pen-ta-urt; this composition was considered worthy to be inscribed upon papyri, and upon the walls of the temples which Rameses built. A little to the south of the Great Temple is a small building of the same date, which was used in connexion with the services, and on the walls of which are some interesting scenes. It was re-opened a few years ago by Miss Edwards and her party. The village of Wâdi Ḥalfah, on the east bank of the Nile, 802 miles from Cairo, marks the site of a part of the district called Buhen in the hieroglyphic inscription, where, as at Dêrr and Ibrîm, the god Harmachis was worshipped. On the plain to the east of the village some interesting flint weapons have been found, and a few miles distant are the fossil remains of a forest. On the western bank of the river, a little further south, are the remains of a temple which, if not actually built, was certainly restored by Thothmes III. It was repaired and added to by later kings of Egypt, but it seems to have fallen into disuse soon after the Romans gained possession of Egypt. A few miles south of Wâdi Ḥalfah begins the second cata ract, a splendid view of which can be obtained from the now famous rock of Abûşîr on the west bank of the river. Nearly every traveller who has visited Abu Simbel has been to this rock and inscribed his name upon it; the result is an interesting collection of names and dates, the like of which probably exists nowhere else. A narrow gauge railway from Wâdi Ḥalfah to Sarras was laid down by the English a few years ago to carry troops and stores above the Second Cataract, and until quite recently about eighteen miles of it, passing through wild scenery, remained in situ. The other part of it had been torn up by the dervishes, who threw the iron rails into the cataract, used the sleepers to boil their kettles, and twisted lengths of the telegraph wires together to form spears. This line has again been restored by the Egyptian army. The remains of Egyptian temples, etc., at Semneh above the second cataract are of interest, but it is probable that they would not repay the traveller who was not specially concerned with archæology, for the fatigue of the journey and the expense which he must necessarily incur to reach them. |