THE MENTHU-HETEPS IN THE SUDAN his authority over the dark-skinned folk who had settled in his country, and in a short time he was master of that portion of the Nile Valley which lies between Thebes and the modern village of Korosko. The evidence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the period suggests that certain tribes, which are to-day known by the name of Barabara, had been so bold as to plunder the Government caravans, and to invade Egyptian- territory, and loot unprotected villages. Menthu-lietep proceeded to the First Cataract, where he reopened the granite quarries, and on the Island of Konosso are to be found rough reliefs on the rocks, in which we see the deities Khnemu, Menu, Menthu, Net (Neith), and Satet standing by his cartouche, and in the accompanying inscriptions they declare that they have placed the whole country under his sandals. In one place the god Menu stands upon fifteen bows, each of which represents a Sudani tribe, and they indicate the fifteen barbarian countries which Menu has given into the king's hands.

During the reign of Menthu-hetep II. we hear nothing of the Siidan, and this king appears to have devoted his energies to quarry work in the Wadi Hammamat.' By his orders a well was dug ten cubits square, and the magnitude of his operations may be gauged by the fact that his chief official, Amen-em-hat, had under him several thousands of men, including three thousand boatmen.

By the time his successor Menthu-hetep HI. came to the throne,-the tribes pf the south appear to have begun again to cause trouble, and this king found it necessary to deal with them in the ordinary way. Among the ruins of a temple at Gebelen in Upper Egypt, near Shekh Musa, M. G. Daressy '* found the remains of a bas-relief whereon this king is represented in the act of slaying Nubians, Asiatics, and Libyans. At this period such a scene is no mere conventional ornament of a temple wall, but is a representation v/hich must have some direct relation to the events which it commemorates. Owing to her geographical situation For the inscriptions concerning him, see Lepsius, Z)«/C7«rt7r, ii. 149.

2 The correct reading of his prenomen, Neb-hep-Ra, was first pointed out by Mr. F. LI. Griffith.

Recueil de Travatix, torn, xiv., p. 26, No. 32.