THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN parts of the kingdom failed to collect the revenues, for the simple reason that the tribes laughed at their demands, and even at their threats, and the treasury of the temple of the great god Amen, which had hitherto supplied the queen with funds, was being depleted. When Thothmes III. became sole king, in the twentysecond year of his age, he saw that he had a gigantic task before him, which was nothing less than the reconquest of every province of the kingdom which he had inherited. With promptitude he set out for Syria, and when he arrived there he learned that all the tribes of Western Asia were in a ferment, and that they had cast off the yoke of Egypt. He attacked Megiddo and captured it, and thus broke up the conspiracy ; the spoil which he carried back to Egypt was enormous, over two thousand mares, nearly one thousand chariots, two thousand goats, twenty thousand sheep, thousands of slaves, gold, silver, metal vases and vessels of all kinds, and over two hundred thousand measures of corn.

It is unnecessary here to describe the Syrian expeditions of Thothmes III. in detail, and it will be sufficient to state that the towns, cities, and districts which he conquered in Western Asia were at least three hundred and fifty-eight in number, and that he conquered the country eastward as far as the Euphrates, near which, at Nl, he set up his memorial stele and the mark of the boundary of his kingdom in Asia. In the thirty-second year of his reign the Kenbetu,' or people of Punt, and the people of Uauat sent tribute to the king. That of the former country consisted of two hundred and thirty bulls, one hundred and thirteen oxen and calves, ten negroes, and boat-loads of ivory, ebony, panther-skins, &c. ; that of the latter, sixty bulls, thirty-one oxen and calves, and boat-loads of Sudan products. We may note in passing that the Sudani folk did not wait for the king to come and fetch their tribute, but that they brought it to Thebes. Two years later the people of Punt sent 1685 measures of incense, a large quantity of gold, negroes, male and female, oxen, calves, bulls, goats, &c. Uauat also sent similar offerings, but in smaller quantities and numbers.

In one place in the tribute-lists the offerings of the "vile country of Kash " are enumerated separately from those of Uauat and 572