THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN " unto him. And the dead body of the vile king of the Nubians " was tied to the bows of the boat of His Majesty, who returned " to Thebes.'" This formed an object lesson, the significance of which was not likely to be misunderstood by the natives as they watched the royal barge . float down the river. This expedition was directed specially against the people of Khent-hen-nefer, a name which, according to Brugsch,- comprehended all " the " countries of the African continent, and therefore included the " countries and peoples situated to the west of the Nile as far " as the Libyan north coast ; " it is, however, far more likely that the region to which Thothmes I. went was situated in the country which is to-day known as the Western Sudan.

There was nothing to be gained by traversing the desert to the west of the Nile, and as the Egyptians were a practical folk and undertook expeditions into remote countries, not for settlement but for what they could gain, they naturally attacked the regions which abounded in slaves and wild animals and cattle.

To commemorate his expedition into Nubia Thothmes I., in his second year, caused an inscription of eighteen lines to be cut on a rock on the Island of Tombos, near the head of the Third Cataract, about five hundred and forty miles south of Thebes, '* but it, unfortunately, supplies us with very few facts of a historical character. After an enumeration of the royal names and titles, the text goes on to say that the king has become sovereign of the two lands, that his rule extends as far as the sun's course, the South and the North being the domains of Horus and Set, that he has united the Two Lands and taken his seat on the thrones of Seb, &c. He seated himself on the throne of Horus to enlarge the boundaries of Thebes, and to acquire the cultivable lands, to make to work the Heriu-sha (i.e., the nomad tribes of the desert), and the Hill folk, who are abominable before the gods, and the Aqabet. "The people of the south shall float down the river, and " the people of the north shall sail up it, and all the mountain and " desert lands shall unite in bearing their gifts to the well-doing "god [of] primeval time"—says the king. Thothmes L boasts • See Erman, Aeg. Zett., 1891, p. 16.

- Egypt tinder the Pharaohs, vol. i., p. 329.

For the text, see Lepsius, Denkmdler, Abth. iii., Bl. 5.

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