THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN him to Egypt, and it is difficult not to think that these men were, y -to all intents and purposes, slaves. If this were so, we can only \;J/ /J ll regard Her-khuf's caravan as the prototype of the modern slave \' K \ d:;aler's, which always contained a large number of negroes who were forced to leave their country to perform service in Egypt.

In the account of the first and second expeditions we hear nothing of the bringing of natives to Egypt, although Her-khuf tells us that his father and himself returned laden with the products of the countries which they had visited. Her-khuf's two visits to the south had taught him that "the Soudan supplies slaves,'" and it seems to me that his third expedition was neither more nor less than a slave raazia, carried out, let us hope, without bloodshed or any of the awful scenes of violence which disgraced the middle of the nineteenth century of the Christian Era in Africa, and will ever testify to the laxity of the policy of the nations of Europe which professed to regard the slave trade as an abominable thing, and a blot on Christian civilization. There is unfortunately no doubt I that the Sudan has supplied Egypt and other oriental countries / with slave labour for thousands of years, and it seems almost as if / the natives of that country have been found fit for nothing else. The earliest razzia of which we have any mention is that of king Seneferu,which has already been referred to, but it is most unlikely that it was the first which took place under royal Egyptian auspices. The example set by Seneferu was followed by his successors, and the expedition of Her-khuf to Amam was, no doubt, only one of many which were carried out under the Vlth Dynasty.

Finally, we may note that on his arrival at Aswan, after his third expedition, Her-khuf reported to his king, Pepi II., what he had done, and that he received from his master a letter which filled him with pride and pleasure. The king says that he has read with approval the statements in the letter which Her-khuf had written about his mission, and then refers to the paragraph wherein his energetic servant reported that he had brought back a " tenk," or pygmy,'- who was one of " the dancers of the god," ' Baker, Albert Nyanza, p. 1 1.

-Gr. TTuy/xalof, i.e., a being whose length is a nvyiJij), i.e., the distance between the elbow and the knuckles. For classical accounts of the pygmies see Homer, //tad, iii. 6 ; Aristotle, Ht'st. Animals, viii. 12 ; Aelian, Hist.

Antvtals, xv. 29; Philostiatus, Icon., ii. 21 ; &c.

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