THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN 1 them to construct a connected history of the country, but none of the surveys and explorations which have been made by ancient and modern travellers has resulted in the finding of any ruins which are not the remains of temples, forts, palaces, monasteries, &c., in fact, the work of foreigners. We may now consider briefly the principal J foreign influences which have made themselves felt in the Sudan.

Of the influences which, in ancient times, were exercised upon the inhabitants of the Sudan, the strongest and most lasting was undoubtedly the Egyptian. It is impossible to assign a date to the period when the people who lived in the Valley of the Nile to the north of Syene began to trade systematically with the Sudani tribes, but we are justified in assuming that frequent intercourse went on between Egypt and the Sudan from time immemorial.

AfterTRe~union of the Egyptian kingdoms of the south and north under one authority by Mena, or Menes, we may also assume that this intercourse developed, and that the vigorous kings of the first three dynasties took care to make their power felt by the peoples to the south of Egypt. Semerkha, a king of the 1st Dynasty, and Tcheser, a king of the Ilird Dynasty, carried on wars against the tribes in the Peninsula of Sinai with great success, and it is quite certain that such monarchs could have subdued the peoples of the Northern Sudan, had there been the least necessity for doing so. It is very probable that they did make them pay tribute at fixed intervals, and although there is no proof of this, still, probabilities must be considered. It is interiesting to note that the Egyptians themselves always appear to have had some idea that they were connected with the people of the land of Punt,' which they considered to be peopled by " Nehesu," or " Blacks," and some modern authorities have no \ - hesitation in saying that the ancient Egyptians and the inhabitants of Punt belonged to the same race." Now Punt is clearly the 2 See Naville, Deir el Bahari, pt. iii., p. 1 1, Miiller says {Asicn tind Europa, p. 1 13), " Unsere hypothetische Meinung ist die, dass die Bewohner von Punt zu derselben Rasse gehcirten, wie die a!ten Agypter selbst, dass sie als Verdranger der dunklen Rasse gemeinsam mit diesen einwanderten und die Fiihlung niit dem agyptischen Volksstamm friihzeitig verloren, auch mehr Negerblut in sich aufnahmen als dieser. Ja es scheint, dass sie den Agyptern niiher standen als die ebenfalls Agypter, wie es vor ihrer hoheren Entwicklung beschafFen sein musste."

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