* In order to understand the full force of the imagery here
     employed, one must remember that the Egyptian artists
     painted the flesh of women as light yellow.

Hatshopsitu commanded the history of the expedition to be carved on the wall of the colonnades which lay on the west side of the middle platform of her funerary chapel:  we there see the little fleet with sails spread, winging its way to the unknown country, its safe arrival at its destination, the meeting with the natives, the animated palavering, the consent to exchange freely accorded; and thanks to the minuteness with which the smallest details have been portrayed, we can as it were witness, as if on the spot, all the phases of life on board ship, not only on Egyptian vessels, but, as we may infer, those of other Oriental nations generally.  For we may be tolerably sure that when the Phoenicians ventured into the distant parts of the Mediterranean, it was after a similar fashion that they managed and armed their vessels.

[Illustration:  369.jpg SOME OF THE INCENSE TREES BROUGHT FROM PUANIT TO DEIR EL-BAIIAKI]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

Although the natural features of the Asiatic or Greek coast on which they effected a landing differed widely from those of Puanit, the Phoenician navigators were themselves provided with similar objects of exchange, and in their commercial dealings with the natives the methods of procedure of the European traders were doubtless similar to those of the Egyptians with the barbarians of the Red Sea.

Hatshopsitu reigned for at least eight years after this memorable expedition, and traces of her further activity are to be observed in every part of the Nile valley.  She even turned her attention to the Delta, and began the task of reorganising this part of her kingdom, which had been much neglected by her predecessors.  The wars between the Theban princes and the lords of Avaris had lasted over a century, and during that time no one had had either sufficient initiative or leisure to superintend the public works, which were more needed here than in any other part of Egypt.  The canals were silted up with mud, the marshes and the desert had encroached on the cultivated lands, the towns had become impoverished, and there were some provinces whose population consisted solely of shepherds and bandits.  Hatshopsitu desired to remedy these evils, if only for the purpose of providing a practicable road for her armies marching to Zalu en route for Syria.*

* This follows from the great inscription at Stabl-Antar, which is commonly interpreted as proving that the Shepherd- kings still held sway in Egypt in the reign of Thutmosis III., and that they were driven out by him and his aunt.  It seems to me that the queen is simply boasting that she had repaired the monuments which had been injured by the Shepherds during the time they sojourned in Egypt, in the land of Avaris.