THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN as we are entitled to do, that Her-khuf journeyed some hundreds of miles to the south of the junction of the White and Blue Niles, there is no reason why he should not have come in contact with pygmies who were engaged in the ivory and skin trade, and so have been able to persuade one of them to journey with him to Egypt, Although Pepi II. was so anxious to see the pygmy whom Her-khuf had brought, it must not be imagined that pygmies were unknown in Egypt before that time, for, as objects in ivory and ebony have been found in tombs of the earliest dynasties at Abydos, it is evident that the Egyptian traders in the Sildrm must liave come in contact with them during their trading transactions in the far south, and they must have had knowledge of their physical and mental characteristics.

From the facts enumerated above we see that communication 'for administration and trade between Egypt and the Sudan was frequent under the IVth, Vth, and Vlth Dynasties, and that the authority of the king of Egypt over the Sudan was sufficiently established to make it possible for an Egyptian official to build barges and lighters, using native labour for the purpose, so far to the south of Egypt as Amam, In fact, it seems that the Sudan was, even at an early period, regarded as a continuation of Egypt, and an interesting passage in one of the texts inscribed on the walls of the pyramid of Pepi I. makes it perfectly clear that the greatest of the Sudan gods was recognized by the Egyptians as being of sufficient importance to rank with their own. The passage is found in Professor Maspero's edition of the text, lines 199 ff. ; in which, after referring to the appearance of Pepi I. as a divine being in the sky, with " his soul on him, and his words of power on both sides of him, and his book [of magical texts] at his feet," it goes on to say that Temu hath brought to Pepi the towns, and hath made him embrace the nomes and unite the lands, that is to say, the domains of Horus, and the domains of Set, and Sekhet-Aaru (i.e., the Elysian Fields), according to the decree which was uttered by Seb, the hereditary chieftain of the gods.-The text then continues, " Khensu, that is Auha, the governor of the Land of the South, and Tetun the great, the 526