THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN the Islands of the Blessed. The pygmy who could dance the divine dance, which the divine dwarf Bes danced before the god, was a being with whom to identify themselves the early kings of Egypt thought it no disgrace, for they hoped to learn from him the dance which would please Osiris when they should be obliged to pass from this world into his presence in the Other World. It is true that the role to which they were ready to lend themselves was that of a buffoon,' but in this case the role of the buffoon was also that of a god, i.e., Bes. Hence we find from the Pyramid Texts* that two of the kings of the Vlth Dynasty, Pepi I. and Mer-en-Ra,"'' or Mehti-em-sa-f, identified themselves boldly with the " tenk " or pygmy, for they hoped that by assuming this role, the gods, whose duty it was to lead them from this world into the kingdom of Osiris, would perform their task with all speed, being convinced that they were taking into the divine presence a being who would give pleasure to Osiris, and that the great god, being pleased, would pass judgment in their favour and would permit them to pass quickly into the region where the beatified dwelt. The Texts of Pepi I. and Mer-en-Ru were writen before the pygmy which Her-khuf brought from the south arrived in Memphis, but the religious importance of the pygmy was well known to their writers, and we may be certain that the pygmy brought to Memphis for Assa, a king of the Vth Dynasty, was not theonly one who was seen in Northern Egypt under the preceding dynasties.

About the meaning of the word which the Egyptians used for " pygmy " there is no doubt, for the determinative which follows the letters tnk, i.e., A|, is decisive. If the position of the country of Amam could be located with tolerable accuracy it would help materially in fixing the limits of the pygmy country to the north. According to Stanley,* the pygmy folk are scattered among the Baless, and inhabit the land situated between the Ngaiyu and Ituri Rivers, and between Ipoto and ' Maspero, op. cit. p. 435.

- The identification of the tenk in these texts was first pointed out by Erman, Zeitschrift der Deutsch. Morgenl. GeselL, 1892, p. 579.

=* See the texts of Pepi I., ed. Maspero, lines 400-404 ; and text of Mer-en-Ra, lines 570, 571.

•• Darkest Africa, vol. ii., p. 92.

524