hewn temple which was made to commemorate the victories of Rameses II. over the Ethiopians. On the walls of the court leading into the small hall are some beautifully executed sculptures, representing the Ethiopians, after their defeat, bringing before the king large quantities of articles of value, together with gifts of wild and domesticated animals. Many of the objects depicted must have come from a considerable distance, and it is evident that in those early times Talmis was the great central market to which the products and wares of the Sûdân were brought for sale and barter. The sculptures are executed with great freedom and spirit, and when the colours upon them were fresh they must have formed one of the most striking sights in Nubia. Some years ago casts of these interesting sculptures were taken by Mr. Bonomi, at the expense of Mr. Hay, and notes on the colours were made; these two casts, painted according to Mr. Bonomi's notes, are now set up on the walls in the Fourth Egyptian Room in the British Museum (Northern Gallery), and are the only evidences extant of the former beauty of this little rock-hewn temple, for nearly every trace of colour has vanished from the walls. The scenes on the battle-field are of great interest.

Between Kalâbsha and Dendûr, on the west bank of the river, 642 miles from Cairo, there is nothing of interest to be seen; at Dendûr are the remains of a temple built by

Augustus, () Per-ãa, where this emperor is shown

making offerings to Amen, Osiris, Isis, and Sati. At on the west bank of the

, جرف حسین Garf Husen

,

river, 651 miles from Cairo, are the remains of a rock-hewn temple built by Rameses II. in honour of Ptah, Sekhet, Ta-Tenen, Hathor, and Aneq; the work is poor and of little interest, This village marks the site of the ancient Tutzis.

Dakkah, on the west bank of the river, 662 miles from Cairo, marks the site of the classical Pselcis, the

of P-selket of the hieroglyphics. About B.C. 23

the Ethiopians attacked the Roman garrisons at Philæ and Syene, and having defeated them, overran Upper Egypt. Petronius, the successor of Ælius Gallus, marching with less than 10,000 infantry and 800 horse against the rebel army of 30,000 men, compelled them to retreat to Pselcis, which he afterwards besieged and took. "Part of the insurgents were driven into the city, others fled into the uninhabited country; and such as ventured upon the passage of the river, escaped to a neighbouring island, where there were. not many crocodiles on account of the current. Among the fugitives were the generals of Candace,* queen of the Ethiopians in our time, a masculine woman, and who had lost an eye. Petronius, pursuing them in rafts and ships, took them all, and despatched them immediately to Alexandria." (Strabo, XVII., 1, 54.) From Pselcis Petronius. advanced to Premnis (Ibrîm), and afterwards to Napata, the royal seat of Candace, which he razed to the ground. As long as the Romans held Ethiopia, Pselcis was a garrison

town.

The temple at Dakkah was built by S

moll

།] “

Arg-Amen ankh tchetta mer Aset, "Arq-Amen, living for ever, beloved of Isis," having the prenomen "Amen tet ankh tảa Rā.” In the sculptures on the ruins which remain Arq-Åmen is shown standing between Menthu-Ra, lord of Thebes, and Átmu the god of Heliopolis, and sacrificing to Thoth, who promises to give him a long and prosperous life as king. Arq-Amen (Ergamenes) is called the "beautiful god,

* Candace was a title borne by all the queens of Meroë.

son of Khnemu and Osiris, born of Sati and Isis, nursed by Aneq and Nephthys," etc. According to

Plan of the Temple of Dakkah. (From Lepsius.)

Diodorus, the priests of Meroë in Ethiopia were in the habit of sending, "whensoever they please, a messenger

to the king, commanding him to put himself to death; for that such is the pleasure of the gods; . . . and so in former ages, the kings without force or compulsion of arms, but merely bewitched by a fond superstition, observed the custom; till Ergamenes (Arq-Amen), a king of Ethiopia, who reigned in the time of Ptolemy II., bred up in the Grecian discipline and philosophy, was the first that was so bold as to reject and despise such commands. For this prince. . . marched with a considerable body of men to the sanctuary, where stood the golden temple of the Ethiopians, and there cut the throats of all the priests." (Bk. III., chap. vi.) Many of the Ptolemies and some Roman emperors made additions to the temple at Dakkah.

In 1906, Mr. J. Garstang excavated the undisturbed cemetery of Kustamma, which lies about 5 miles to the north of Dakkah. About 200 graves were cleared out, and the objects discovered seem to show that a close analogy existed between the funeral customs of the Nubians and the pre-dynastic and dynastic peoples of Egypt. They suggest that the primitive type of Egyptian culture may have survived in the remoter districts of Upper Egypt until the XIIth dynasty or later.

On the east bank of the river opposite Dakkah is Kubban, called Baka in the hieroglyphics, a village which is said to mark the site of Tachompso or Metachompso, "the place of crocodiles." As Pselcis increased, so Tachompso declined, and became finally merely a suburb of that town; it was generally called Contra-Pselcis.

The name Tachompso is derived from the old Egyptian

name of the town, Ta-qemt-sa,

୧୧

or

Tachompso was the frontier town which

marked the limit on the south of the district which lay

between Egypt and Ethiopia, and derived its name, "Dodecaschoenus," from the fact that it comprised twelve schoinoi; the schoinos is said by Herodotus (ii. 6) to be equal to sixty stades, but other writers reckon fewer stades to the schoinos. The stade equals one-eighth of a mile.

During the XIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties this place was well fortified by the Egyptians, and on many blocks of stone close by are found the names of Thothmes III., Heru-em-heb, and Rameses II. It appears to have been the point from which the wretched people condemned to labour in the gold mines in the desert of the land of Akita set out; and an interesting inscription on a stone found here relates that Rameses II., having heard that much gold existed in this land, which was inaccessible on account of the absolute want of water, bored a well in the mountain, twelve cubits deep, so that henceforth men could come and go by this land. His father Seti I. had bored a well 120 cubits deep, but no water appeared in it.

of Dakkah, on the west bank of the river, are the remains of a temple which was built in Roman times upon a site where a temple had stood in the days of Thothmes III.

Opposite Miharrakah, about 675 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the river, lie the ruins of Hierasycaminus, the later limit on the south of the Dodecaschoenus.

About 20 miles from Dakkah, and 690 from Cairo, on the west bank of the river, is Wâdi Sabû'a, or the "Valley of the Lions," where there are the remains of a temple partly built of sandstone, and partly excavated in the rock; the place is so called on account of the dromos of sixteen sphinxes which led up to the temple. On the sculptures which still remain here may be seen Rameses II., the builder of the temple, "making an offering of incense to