that he conferred very high honours upon Ba-ur-Tet. The A and it is an

word used for "pygmy" is tenk interesting fact that it survives to the present time in Amharic, or Abyssinian, under the form of denk

:

As there were pygmies in Egypt in the Archaic Period, about B.C. 4200, it is clear that there must have been intercourse between Egypt and the Sûdân before Seneferu made his great raid into that country.

Under the XIth dynasty one of the Menthu-hetep kings occupied Behen, or Wâdî Ḥalfa, and from about B.C. 2600 to B.C. 1000 this place was to all intents and purposes the boundary of Egypt on the south. The kings of the XIIth dynasty first tightened their hold upon the country, and built forts at Kalâbshah, Dakkah, Korosko, Ibrîm, and Behen, and they made strong outposts at Semnah and Kummah, about 40 miles south of Behen. The king whose name stands preeminent in connexion with the conquest of the Sûdân is Usertsen III. Under the XIIth dynasty the Súdán supplied Egypt with slaves and gold. The kings of the XVIIIth dynasty "enlarged the borders of Egypt" in the Sûdân until their territory reached to the Blue Nile. Amen-hetep III built a large temple at Şulb, wherein he himself was worshipped as a god, and he built another at Saddênga in honour of his wife Thi. Under this dynasty the Sûdân was divided into provinces, the governors of which were under the jurisdiction of an overlord, who was appointed by the king of Egypt and called the "prince of Kash" (Cush). The capital of Egypt's Nubian Kingdom was at the foot of the Fourth Cataract, and was called Napata. The country was ruled by Egyptians who brought with them into the Sûdân the language, civilization, arts, manners and customs, etc., of Egypt. The peoples and tribes south of Wâdi Ḥalfa caused the great kings of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties much trouble, and it is

very doubtful if they had any effective dominion beyond the Fourth Cataract. The "royal son of Kesh" (Cush) was, no doubt, a great official, but Kesh, or "Ethiopia," as the word is generally translated, was a geographical expression with limited signification, and that the country of his rule included the whole country which is now called Ethiopia is an unwarranted assumption. The fact is that the Second and Third Cataracts and the terrible, waterless Eastern desert, the Batn al-Hagar, proved almost insuperable barriers in the way of moving large masses of men from Egypt to the south, for the cataracts could only be passed in boats during a few weeks at the period of the inundation, and the desert between Korosko and Abû Ḥamed, and that between Wâdi Ḥalfa (or Buhen, to use the Egyptian name) and Abû Ḥamed, struck terror into the hearts of those who knew the character of the roads and the fatigues of travelling upon them. So long as the natives were friendly and rendered help, small bodies of troops might pass to the south either by river or desert, but any serious opposition on their part would invariably result in their destruction. So long as trade was brisk and both buyer and seller were content, and the nation to which each belonged could hold its own, wars were unnecessary; but as soon as the tribes of the South believed it possible to invade, conquer, and spoil Egypt, they swooped down upon it in much the same fashion as the followers of the Mahdi and Khalifa did in

recent years. Under the XVIIIth, XIXth and XXth dynasties Egypt received large quantities of gold from the Sûdân, the Blue Nile and the Eastern Desert, and her revenue from these sources must have been equivalent to many millions of pounds sterling. About B.C. 900 the priests of Amen were compelled to leave Thebes, and they took refuge at Napata and other places in Nubia. About B.C. 700 Piānkhi, a native king who reigned at

Napata (Gebel Barkal), stirred up by the news of a revolt in the Delta, invaded Egypt, captured city after city, and finally seized Memphis and Heliopolis, and so became master of all Egypt. Early in the seventh century B.C. Tirhâkâh, another Nubian king, invaded Egypt, and he advanced north to the Delta, and expelled the Assyrian governors who had been appointed over the chief cities by Esarhaddon, but finally was defeated by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, and had to retreat to the south. The attack on Egypt was renewed by another Nubian king called Tanuath-Amen, who was, however, utterly routed by the Assyrians, and he departed to his dark doom. more than one hundred years the Sûdân was left in peace so far as Egypt was concerned, and during this interval the kings of Napata made themelves masters of the country to the south.

For

About 526 Nubia was invaded by Cambyses, but the king of Napata, who was called Nåstasen, or Nåstasenen, collected an army, and having advanced northwards defeated the Persian at some place on the Third Cataract. The name of Cambyses appears in the Nubian king's annals (line 39) under the form of

Soon after the reign of this king several wars broke out between the kings of the Northern Kingdom, which extended from Napata to Philae, and the Southern Kingdom of the Sûdân, which extended from the Fourth Cataract to the Blue Nile.. Of many of these wars we have no knowledge, but it is clear from the Annals of Heru-sa-ȧtef that the struggle for supremacy in the Sûdân at the time was a After Egypt had fallen under the rule of the Persians and Macedonians, the princes of Napata continued

severe one.