which represents the arrival in Egypt of a family of thirtyseven persons belonging to the Āāmu, a Semitic race, who appear to have come thither to settle. The first person in the scene is the Egyptian "royal scribe, Nefer-ḥetep," who holds in his hands a piece of writing which states that in the sixth year of Usertsen II. thirty-seven people of the Āāmu brought to Chnemu-hetep, the son of a feudal lord, paint for the eyes called

ሰ በ

mest'emet.

Behind the scribe stands an Egyptian superintendent, and behind him the Aāmu chief Abesha, "the prince of the foreign country," together with his fellow-countrymen and women, who have come with him; in addition to the eye-paint, they bring a goat as a present for Chnemu-ḥetep. The men of the Āāmu wear beards, and carry bows and arrows; both men and women are dressed in garments of many colours. The home of the Āāmu lay to the east of Palestine. In this picture some have seen a representation of the arrival of Jacob's sons in Egypt to buy corn; there is no evidence for the support of this theory. That the Āāmu were shepherds or Hyksos is another theory that has been put forth. The paintings in Chnemu-ḥetep's tomb are if anything more beautiful than those in that of Åmeni, and they represent with wonderful fidelity the spearing of fish, the netting of birds, the hunting of wild animals, etc., etc.

In the other tombs are most interesting scenes connected with the daily occupations and amusements of the ancient Egyptians. It is much to be hoped that Mr. Newberry will be enabled to continue the work of copying them, for year by year they are slowly but surely disappearing.

RODA.

Rôḍa, 182 miles from Cairo, and the seat of a large sugar manufactory, lies on the west bank of the river, just opposite Shekh 'Abâdeh, or Antinoë, a town built by Hadrian, and

named by him after Antinous,* who was drowned here in the Nile. To the south of Antinoë lies the convent of Abu Honnês (Father John), and in the districts in the immediate neighbourhood are the remains of several Coptic buildings which date back to the fifth century of our era. A little to the south-west of Rôḍa, lying inland, are the remains of the

city of Hermopolis Magna, called in Egyptian

or

e'

Chemennu, in Coptic Shmûn, culori,

and in Arabic Eshmûnên; the tradition which attributes the building of this city to Eshmûn, son of Mișr, is worthless. The Greeks called it Hermopolis, because the Egyptians there worshipped Thoth,, the scribe of the' gods, who was named by the Greeks Hermes. A little distance from the town is the spot where large numbers of the ibis, a bird sacred to Thoth, were buried.

MELAWÎ.

Melâwî, 188 miles from Cairo, is situated on the west bank of the river.

HAGGI KANDÎL.

Haggi Kandil, 195 miles from Cairo, lies on the east bank of the river, about five miles from the ruins of the city built by Chut-en-aten, mm & man, or Amenophis IV., the

famous "heretic" king of the XVIIIth dynasty, whose

Amenophis IV. was the son of Amenophis III., by a Mesopotamian princess called Thi, who came from the land of Mitani. When the young prince Amenophis IV. grew up,

* A Bithynian youth, a favourite of the Emperor Hadrian.

it was found that he had conceived a rooted dislike to the worship of Åmen-Rã, the king of the gods and great lord of Thebes, and that he preferred the worship of the disk of the sun to that of Åmen-Rā; as a sign of his opinions he called himself "beloved of the sun's disk," instead of the usual and time-honoured "beloved of Amen." The native Egyptian priesthood disliked the foreign queen, and the sight of her son with his protruding chin, thick lips, and other characteristic features of the negro race, found no favour in their sight; that such a man should openly despise the worship of Amen-Ra was a thing intolerable to the priesthood, and angry words and acts were, on their part, the result. In answer to their objections the king ordered the name of Åmen-Rā to be chiselled out of all the monuments, even from his father's names. Rebellion then broke out, and Chut-en-åten thought it best to leave Thebes, and to found a new city for himself at a place between Memphis and Thebes, now called Tell el-Amarna. The famous architect Bek, whose father, Men, served under Amenophis III., designed the temple buildings, and in a very short time a splendid town with beautiful granite sculptures sprang out of the desert. As an insult to the priests and people of Thebes, he built a sandstone and granite temple at Thebes in honour of the god Harmachis. When Chut-en-åten's new town, Chut-åten, "the splendour of the sun's disk," was finished, his mother Thi came to live there; and here the king passed his life quietly with his mother, wife, and seven daughters. He died leaving no male issue, and each of the husbands of his daughters became king. In 1887 a number of important cuneiform tablets, which confirmed in a remarkable manner many facts connected with this period of Egyptian history, were found at Tell el-Amarna (see page 167). The tombs in the rocks near Tell el-Amarna are of considerable interest. In 1892 Mr. Petrie uncovered a painted fresco pavement about 51 by 16 feet.

GEBEL ABU FADAH.

Seventeen miles south of Haggi Ķandîl, 212 miles from Cairo, on the east side of the river, is the range of low mountains about twelve miles long known by this name. Towards the southern end of this range there are some crocodile mummy pits.

MANFALUT.

Manfalût, 223 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile, occupies the site of an ancient Egyptian town; Leo Africanus says that the town was destroyed by the Romans, and adds that it was rebuilt under Muḥammadan rule. In his time he says that huge columns and buildings inscribed with hieroglyphs were still visible. The Coptic name Manbalot, "place of the sack,"* is the original of its Arabic name to-day.

ASYÛT.

Asyûț, 249 miles from Cairo, is the capital of the province of the same name, and the seat of the InspectorGeneral of Upper Egypt; it stands on the site of the ancient Egyptian city called Seut, whence the

Arabic name Siût or Asyût, and the Coptic cswort. The Greeks called the city Lycopolis, or "wolf city," probably because the jackal-headed Anubis was worshipped there. Asyût is a large city, with spacious bazaars and fine mosques; it is famous for its red pottery and for its market, held every Sunday, to which wares from Arabia and Upper Egypt are brought. The American Missionaries have a large establishment, and the practical, useful education of the natives by these devoted men is carried on here, as well as at Cairo, on a large scale. The Arabic geographers

described it as a town of considerable size, beauty, and importance, and before the abandonment of the Sûdân by the Khedive, all caravans from that region stopped there. In the hills to the west of the town are a number of ancient Egyptian tombs, which date back as far as the XIIIth dynasty. A large number have been destroyed during the present century for the sake of the limestone which forms the walls. When M. Denon stayed here he said that the number of hieroglyphic inscriptions which cover the tombs was so great that many months would be required to read, and many years to copy them. The disfigurement of the tombs dates from the time when the Christians took up their abode in them.

Fifteen miles farther south is the Coptic town of Abu Tîg, the name of which appears to be derived from AПOOнKн, a "granary;" and 14 miles beyond, 279 miles АПОӨНКН, from Cairo, is Kâu el-Kebîr (the Kwo of the Copts), which marks the site of Antaeopolis, the capital of the Antaeopolite nome in Upper Egypt. The temple which formerly existed here was dedicated to Antaeus, the Libyan wrestler, who fought with Hercules. In the plain close by it was thought that the battle between Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, and Set or Typhon, the murderer of Osiris, took place; Typhon was overcome, and fled away in the form of a crocodile. In Christian times Antaeopolis was the seat of a bishop.

Tahṭah, 291 miles from Cairo, contains some interesting mosques, and is the home of a large number of Copts, in consequence of which, probably, the town is kept clean.

SUHAK (SOHAG), AND THE WHITE AND RED
MONASTERIES.

Sûhâk, 317 miles from Cairo, is the capital of the province of Girgeh; near it are the White and Red Monasteries.

Q